The Good, The Bad And The In-Between of Bungie's 'Destiny' Alpha - Forbes

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You may think that it's too soon to write up impressions of Bungie's Destiny Alpha less than 24 hours after it launched, but given the fact that I've spent the majority of those hours playing the game, and I've done everything there is to do in the public test, I think I'm able to effectively share my thoughts at this point.

I have three characters, one of each class. My Hunter is max level (8, where the game starts you at 3), while my Titan and Vanguard aren't far behind. I've explored Old Russia thoroughly, completed the singular, lengthy dungeon raid (or 'strike') of the Alpha, and have spent some time in the competitive 'Crucible' as well. I have more money than I know what to do with, and all the gear that's dropping now is at a level I can't even equip due to the XP cap.

The fact that I've played Destiny nearly non-stop since the Alpha went live should tell you that yes, it's doing a lot of things right. That said, there are other items I'm unsure about, and some aspects of the game that are troubling. And of course, as this is an Alpha, many parts of the game remain a mystery, and there are some things the Alpha doesn't put on display at all.

Here are my thoughts on the Alpha, now that I seem to have done nearly everything I can do during the short test on PS4.

THE GOODThe Entire Concept

What do I mean by this? Well, the fundamental concept of Destiny, as a massive, exploration-based, dungeon raiding, team deathmatch-infused MMOFPS, is exactly as cool as it sounds. I was worried about how all those different pieces would fit together, but so far, the size and scope of Destiny make it feel like it really is going to be a more ambitious game than anything that's come before it. It's obviously MMO-lite in many aspects, perfect for someone like me who has yet to play an MMO for more than a week, but who still loves games with RPG elements like loot drops and skill trees. Even with only limited access to content in the Alpha, I can already tell that I'm probably going to be hopelessly addicted to the retail release when it finally arrives. And kudos to Bungie/Activision for resisting the temptation to charge a monthly fee for the game, while also not making the entire experience about herding players into a cash shop. And even though this is an Alpha, I have not experienced a single bug nor any connection errors.

Dungeon Raiding

Since I'm not an MMO player, I've never really gotten to experience the magic of a good raid. Far and away, the most intense, exciting part of the Alpha was the level 6 'strike' that pairs you with a 'fire team' of two other players. While the difficulty curve of the open world was all over the place, the dungeon was hard. It took a solid 2-3 hours to get through, with each mini-boss encounter convincing me that it was the end because of how insanely difficult it was. It was maddening when we got a hulking armored spider-tank down to a quarter health, then had to start all over again when all three of us died at the same time. Obviously this is best done with friends, but even with strangers you become a band of brothers by the end because of how harrowing the experience is. I've learned it may be good to over-level for these instances, otherwise they may be a bit too exhausting. But regardless, they're a lot of fun, and the best way to get massive money, experience and gear boosts from what I've seen. The only downside is that you can't pause the game, which is kind of a necessity during the course of a 2+ hour event. I realize that's an MMO thing, but it's something I'm not used to and it's a bit uncomfortable to know you're committing to such a huge block of non-stop game time.

Accidental Teamwork

This may be hard to fully comment on due to the relatively low number of players in the Alpha, but Destiny seems to know how to make the world feel alive with other players without them annoying you. For example, I played through the entire first intro quest myself, as there were no other players in my map. I did it again with a second character and found I was actually grateful that there was another player there this time backing me up. And in the 'Old World Russia' exploration map, I was actually praying more players would show up when the game dropped a 'world boss' in the middle of the map, who was impossible for me to kill myself. And again, in Dungeon Raids, you'll have to really work together with your team, be they friends or strangers, and dropping whatever you're doing to sprint and revive a fallen comrade is a must unless you want to do the entire instance over again. So far, the game makes you actually want to play with other players, which is an impressive feat considering how much of a solo player I usually am.

Using Any Gun

As much as I love a game like Borderlands, I was never a fan of being boxed into a certain gun type or two based on my class. In Destiny, any class can become proficient with any type of gun, which removes that restriction. It does make the classes feel a little similar to each other which I'll discuss later, but once you start honing your skills with a particular weapon I imagine that will change. It's nice to have options, and not be forced to be a sniper just because I'm a Hunter or a heavy machine gun expert as a Titan. Gunplay feels pretty good so far, though I have to imagine it will improve and get tighter as better and better guns are unlocked throughout the game. It's a lot of ADS, and between that fact and double jump mobility, can actually feel more like Titanfall than Halo much of the time. But generally, I do like gunplay so far, and the freedom of choice that comes with it.

Though in general mobility during combat is great, I don't understand the rationale behind the use of a jet-pack enhanced double jump as a class skill in the game. Only the Hunter's quick burst feels appropriate in combat, while the Titan's slow jet upward continues on for longer than it should, and the Vanguard's glide move is impossible use as an effective double jump, and will leave you hovering against the side of whatever is you're trying to climb most of the time. I understand that the game needs to look for ways to distinguish the classes, but it's annoying enough where it makes me only want to play Hunter as the others feel too awkward.

Navigation

I may be a complete moron, but after at least a dozen hours of the alpha, I cannot for the life of me figure out to bring up a map in the open world areas (in the central hub, the Tower, there's a map you can view at the start of the area, but only at the start of the area). I can't tell if A) the map is hidden somewhere I simply can't find or B) it's purposefully not part of the game to encourage exploration. I guess that's kind of cool in theory, but when you're dropped into a sprawling map and have to navigate using visual landmarks alone, it can be a bit exhausting. In the 'roam around' segments, it's easy to get lost as you trek across the world for sub-missions, and with no map with landmarks or custom waypoints to get you to a specific place. You simply follow the quest indictors alone. Perhaps once you learn the levels this won't be an issue, but it's strange to have an open world game like this with no map whatsoever. Additionally, I dislike how mission waypoints have to be refreshed by clicking the central touchpad on PS4, which slows down your character and breaks the flow of gameplay. In a perfect world, simply brushing the touchpad should produce the same effect with no loss of momentum. What's the point of it being a touchpad if you have to click the entire damn thing?

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As excited as I was to see that yes, you do get to design your character's actual face which is on display during un-helmeted, non-combat segments, namely those in the Tower, I'm troubled by the fact that your character doesn't speak. I understand that colossal amount of voicework that goes into making MMOs as is, and recording male and female voices for three different races probably would have quadrupled Bungie's workload in that department, but it's just strange to play a game that literally has everything but a talking hero. For a game that is supposed to be story driven in many aspects, a silent hero seems really dated. I'm guessing it's just a technical or budgetary impossibility, but it's disappointing all the same.

The Dinklagetron 3000

Since your character is mute, the voice you'll be hearing more often than any other is that of your AI, Ghost. As many players will recognize immediately, the computer is voiced by none other than Game of Thrones' Peter Dinklage. The actor is indisputably phenomenal on that show, and in his films, but his voicework here is...odd. I suppose as an AI it makes sense to have a relatively flat tone, but Dinklage's Ghost doesn't sound like a droll computer, it just sounds like Peter Dinklage reading lines from a script in a studio. Compared to his video game AI competition in the form of GLaDOS, Wheatley, Cortana and others, the voicework is weirdly off-putting and out of place, which is strange given the actor's obvious talent elsewhere.

THE IN-BETWEENRace/Class Diversity

I'm not talking about skin color or socioeconomic status here, I'm speaking to the fact that even though you can pick from three races, there seems to be no difference between them other than cosmetics, which seems like a missed opportunity. And between the classes, I'm not sure how I feel about the very limited set of special moves. Each class has a different type of grenade and a super melee attack, both on lengthy cooldowns, and much of your skill spec-ing and gear is based on lowering said cooldowns. I don't really understand why this system is better than just finding grenades or throwing knives in the wild to be used at will, and it just feels overly restrictive. Each class also has an uber-move, the Vanguard's being 'kill everything in front of you,' the Titan's being 'kill everything around you,' and only the Hunter's feels remotely skill-based, where you get a 'golden gun' with just three shots of massive damage. This uber-move starts on a huge cooldown, like at least five to ten minutes, and again, skills and gear bonuses help to lower it, and so does killing enemies.

The problem is that because these moves are on such high cooldowns (at least initially), the vast majority of the time you'll just be using your guns, and even though it's fantastic that any class can use any gun, it makes whichever character you happen to be playing feel the same as the others 90% of the time during combat. I can't say this is an unsolvable problem however, as in the Alpha there obviously isn't time to unlock every skill, and there could be other moves or move variants I haven't found yet. But right now, if the game has an entire skill tree just for double jumping enhancement, it seems like they're reaching for ways to make the classes diverse. With all four directions of the D-pad assigned to nothing but character emotes, I feel like they could have inserted more specialty skills if they felt like it.

Loot Diversity

Again, this is too early to tell, but I'm mixed about what I've seen from loot so far. I like how it's not Borderlands or Diablo where crappy weapons and armor rain down from the sky, and when you find a new item you're actually excited. This could continue throughout the game, or it could be just because you're at such a low level during the Alpha. I like the idea of a gun-specific skill tree, but the only upgrade I unlocked was 'more damage' which isn't terribly creative. Perhaps more rare guns have more options, and I do think the concept has the potential to be neat. That said, while I may not be an avid MMO player, I love gear-based games like Borderland and Diablo, and I've learned that nothing makes a game duller than boring gear. So far, the 'perks' I've seen on special gear are pretty mundane like 'grenade hits reduce melee cooldown' or 'melee hits reduce grenade cooldown' or simply carrying more ammo for a certainly gun class, or something like that. Again, it's too early to say if this will be a pervasive issue, because if I was judging the gear of the first eight levels of Diablo or Borderlands, I'd probably be disappointed too.

Customization

As I said, I'm glad you can design your character's face, but I'm a little disappointed in the level of customization. You choose from one of six or seven preset faces and hair styles which are 80% terrible. Only the robot race, the Exo, have cool customization options in my estimation. Granted, this isn't super important given how often you're actually out of your helmet, and the fact that your character doesn't speak. And yet, in a game where you're meant to spend hundreds of hours with your hero, I wish there was a bit more investment in character creation. I do think that the armor/weapon designs are going to prove to be badass as the game unfolds, and I like what I'm seeing so far that regard. You can start dying armor at level 20, which will be a must to make sure your mismatched plating doesn't make you look like a circus clown.

The Crucible

It's too early to be able to properly judge the deathmatch-mode Crucible, and I'm not sure I fully understand it yet. It's multiplayer, but you seem to use your weapons from the MMO mode, which has me worried about possible combat unbalance with higher level, better geared players. However, I do like how XP and money are shared from the open world to the Crucible, and how you can progress in the game using one mode or the other, or both. Gameplay itself was restricted to one game type (holding points A, B and C on the map), but it did feel a lot like Halo. Having your super ability accessible in the game feels a bit like calling in a killstreak as it can insta-nuke clusters of enemies, but I suppose it's available so infrequently it's not all that big of a deal. I had fun with the mode, but so much of it is still locked down that I don't really have a clear vision of its scope and functionality. I was annoyed at how nearly everyone starts with an auto-kill shotgun however, which takes the place of a far less lethal sidearm in most other shooters.

THE MYSTERIESSpeeder/Ships

While I know you can upgrade your landspeeder and the spaceship that shuttles you to and from missions, I left the Alpha unclear as to how much these two vehicles will be used outside of simple transportation. If there is a ship combat section, I didn't find it, nor did I see any cool ideas like speeder races. I have to believe that stuff like this is either just not in the Alpha, or is content that will possibly be added in later in the 'ever-expanding universe of Destiny.' It would be really awesome if they created engaging ship combat as another facet of the game, and it seems like the potential is there.

The Story

The Alpha more or less gave zero hint at the game's story, other than generic sci-fi mission briefings about investigating a power source or clearing out enemies. So I can't really comment at all on the larger plot of Destiny, and I'm curious to see how the campaign mode will unfold. That said, what few story elements I have experienced, Peter Dinklage's voicework and the fact that my hero is mute, have been two of the most disappointing aspects of the game so far, so I'm a bit concerned.

In short, I really have enjoyed my time with the game, and my biggest frustration was that I couldn't level further. I am worried about the eventual story and the lack of depth regarding classes and gear, but perhaps those issues will resolve themselves as more and more content for the game is revealed.

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