10 things to watch out for in Bungie's new shooter 'Destiny'

While they did not say that Destiny would take place over the course of several retail games, they did allude to the universe being broad enough that smaller stories will take place over the course of a big overarching narrative.  While it is a persistent world in the gaming sense, there is an ending.  Eventually.Regardless of whether you are playing solo, cooperatively or competitively, you will need to be connected online in order to play Destiny.  When you encounter other players in your world, you can choose to join them, watch their story unfold or just go about your own way.Destiny will not be charging a subscription fee unlike what you see in MMOs.  Now whether or not they will charge in-game items or perks was not revealed at the press conference.View the list »
Destiny by Bungie

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On Sunday, Bungie and Activision revealed to the public for the first time Destiny, the latest first-person shooter from the makers of Halo. With a pedigree that is as prestigious as Bungie’s coupled with the publishing weight of Activision, expectations are high for Destiny, whatever it is supposed to be. Prior to the reveal, details were very low for the game other than people expecting the game to be some sort of persistent online shooter.

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This past week, gaming press was invited to Bungie’s studio in the Seattle area to see Destiny for the first time. Along with the tour that showed off all of the awards that Bungie has won over the years and a brief overview of the history of the studio, the purpose of the daylong presentation was to lay the groundwork for the kind of universe that Destiny will be set in.

The world of Destiny is nothing short of awe-inspiring. While the story of building your own personal legend that is unique to everybody else’s is not a totally new concept, having a studio that is as proven as Bungie is rare. Unlike the grit and grime that we have come to expect from Space Marine Shooter X, Destiny’s landscapes are colorful and full of lush landscapes, which was something that made Halo stand out from the crowd before. When part of the presentation is to show jaded gaming journalists how awesome the lighting technology is and it elicits a positive response from the crowd, it’s a beautiful thing.

While most of the presentation was talking about the technical aspects of the game, the biggest takeaway that most of the people found the most interesting was the new way Bungie is working on gaming lobbies. While people will still be able to team up in the traditional sense, co-op play will allow people to meet up with other players while they are playing their own missions. Think of 2012’s Journey and how players were able to live out their own story and then other people at the same point in their game would pop up and either choose to join in or do their own thing.

After the presentation, press was invited back to the theater for a press conference with Bungie’s Pete Parsons and Harold Ryan along with Activision’s Eric Hirshberg. Click on the list above to read some of the key points that fans will surely be talking about until the next big reveal.

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  • Destiny will not be charging a subscription fee unlike what you see in MMOs.  Now whether or not they will charge in-game items or perks was not revealed at the press conference.
  • Regardless of whether you are playing solo, cooperatively or competitively, you will need to be connected online in order to play Destiny.  When you encounter other players in your world, you can choose to join them, watch their story unfold or just go about your own way.
  • While they did not say that Destiny would take place over the course of several retail games, they did allude to the universe being broad enough that smaller stories will take place over the course of a big overarching narrative.  While it is a persistent world in the gaming sense, there is an ending.  Eventually.
  • With Destiny planned to be a story that takes place over ten years, players will have the chance to really customize their character, from their gear to even the ships that they use to travel to missions or planets.
  • Along with being to customize your avatars, allusions were made to Destiny having a mother lode of loot like you see in an MMO.  Whether this means co-op could eventually become just loot fests were instead of helping each other players are “ganking” each other was not clear in the presentation.
  • Emergent gameplay is a funny term to use, but Bungie plans to populate the game world in between their “bookmark” events with instances not unlike MMOs.
  • During the presentation, we saw several instances where players were using their smartphones to get together to play the game.  Parsons says that these will expand beyond just the standard messaging and stat viewing, although nothing was revealed in detail at the Q&A.
  • The framework of the Destiny universe is way more thought out than it ever was in Halo.  Having the deal with Activision has allowed them to think more about the lore of the game and what it means eventually to players.
  • One of the things that Halo was lauded for was the way the games were paced.  Parsons refers to how the team is striking that elegant balance of wanting players to be in the thick of the battle but also giving them moments where they can just take in the scenery.
  • While it’s no surprise that music legend Paul McCartney worked with Bungine’s Marty O’Donnell on some music in the game, it was more of collaboration instead of McCartney taking over the scoring duties. Yes, O’Donnell actually said “no” McCartney at times, but not in those exact words, of course.
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, Classic Game Examiner

A lifelong gamer with a dream of opening a retro game store in Akihabara, Juan Martinez reminisces about the days when Sega and Nintendo were locked in a battle for 16-bit supremacy. Good times. Follow Juan on Twitter and the Video Games Examiners page on Facebook.

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