Bungie's Destiny Review: XBOX 360 Version

Destiny, a game that's been hyped up for over a year now. We were promised a powerful story, an expansive, open world that players couldn't wait to explore, and groundbreaking mechanics that would change the industry. Has Destiny lived up to its hype? Well, let's take a look.

Destiny's visuals are AMAZING! It has a perfect blend of cartoon-y, imaginative flair and gritty, realistic models. Player models are highly detailed and it's obvious a lot of love and care went into the style of the game. The monster designs immediately remind of Halo and they feel right at home in Destiny's world. Terrain is extremely varied world to world and never disappoint. Ship designs are creative and rarely disappoint in design. It's impressive to see the 360 run this game as well as it did. However, it is very plain to see that the 360's hardware is holding the game back. Destiny was meant to be played on the XB1 and PS4 and that shows very plainly on the 360 version. However, there is a strong lack in variety. Many of the weapons, armor, and ships share a design but have a different color scheme. It is a letdown to get a new gun and it only turn out to be a color swap of a gun that you already own, or to purchase a brand new ship that took you hours upon hours of grinding and work to get enough cash (called “Glimmer”) to purchase and it turns out to only be a different color of another, cheaper ship. The main hub world is also very bland, small, and easily forgotten. On the whole, I love the art style that Bungie went with Destiny and it deserves praise. However, there is a lack of diversity in just about everything.

Destiny feels and controls very well. If you're a Halo vet, Destiny's control scheme will feel right at home. Bungie took what was good in Halo's control scheme and blended it with CoD's/BF4's control scheme. In my personal opinion, a control scheme can't get much better than Destiny's. My only real gripe is a lack of real customization in the button scheme. The presets work well for the majority, but some would like to see custom button mapping. Overall, Bungie did well with the controls and the feel of the game.

What happened, Bungie? Seriously. What happened? This is the most bland and shallow story I've ever played in a video game. The campaign (or what's of it) is absolutely awful. There is no substance here. Where's the lore? Destiny's story is literally this: “You're alive! You're in the future! We could tell you more, but nope! Go shoot some aliens.” I felt absolutely no connection with any of the NPCs or even my character himself. The enemies are simply called “The Darkness” and serve no purpose but to be your targets in a shooting gallery. This alone nearly killed the entire experience for me. Having no connection with the characters or with even the world makes the game as a whole seem shallow and bland. This is a complete and utter failure on Bungie's doing – a company known for being incredible story tellers. Here's the real kicker, whenever the game begins to pick up on its story, it turns right around and sets up DLC. You know what that means? You're going to have to PAY for the story! You have to PAY to know what's going on! That's just salt in the wound. The story is complete garbage. It's so bad that it nearly ruins the entire game as it gives no emotional substance to anything. Who's the Ghost? What in the world is the Traveler? Why should I care? As of now, Destiny's story has completely failed and so has Bungie in this aspect. I expected more from you, Bungie. We all did.

Here's where things get sketchy. In this portion, I'm going to encompass the stability of the netcode, PvP, communication, character creation, classes and races, loot gathering, and the maps themselves.

So, first off, the netcode is great. Very rarely did I experience real lag between me and other players. However, I must say this: it is REQUIRED that you have a near perfect communication for optimal performance. Otherwise, lag is plentiful. I was only disconnected once in my entire time of playing and was immediately reconnected right after a small hiccup. Other than the expected lagging players, the netcode is solid and gets the job done with flying colors. However that's about the only truly great part of the entire multiplayer experience. PvP is a mixed bag. Very rarely did I ever face players around my level. There were times where I fought against players who had just reached level 5 and other times where I fought players were level 29. The matchmaking is overall a failure. However, the game modes and maps themselves are fun and can be addicting. When it works, it's the strongest and funnest part in the game, but when it doesn't work, it's complete and utter garbage. Communication is near nonexistent. You cannot communicate with other players. They have to be in your “strike team” for you to mic chat with them. No shoutouts, no text-only communication, nothing. In a game like Destiny, communication with other players that aren't in your strike team is REQUIRED. It's a very disappointing aspect in this game where it has failed as well. The failures don't stop there, character creation is a complete letdown. There are next to no options or true customization. Just a few preset face structures with preset colors and that's it. Even then, 99% of the time, you won't even be able to see your character's face as the game is first-person and you will always have a helmet on – except for the very short amount of time that you'll be in the hub world. Another fairly big disappointment are the number of classes. There's only three; Titan, Hunter, and Warlock. With so few, you would think that they would each have a very diverse play style, right? Not exactly. They can all use the exact same guns and generally behave the same. The only real differences that you will notice are their “Super Charged” skills and slightly different armor (even then, the majority of armor can be worn by any class). The number of races are also disappointing; only three again: Human, Awoken, and Exo. This has absolutely no purpose in my experiences as each race does not have any sort of unique perks than the other. It's merely a style choice... Even though your character will be wearing the same armor that the other races can also wear.
And now... Loot gathering. On the whole, it's an absolute travesty. What were they thinking? It's complete RNG with no guarantees. For example, you do the hardest mission in the game, it takes you a couple of hours to complete it. You would expect to get some bad ass weapon or armor piece, right? Wrong! Most likely, you'll get nothing or something completely useless. Bosses do not drop loot. So, dare I ask, what's the point of these tougher missions if they don't give better loot and the bosses don't drop loot? It's way easier and much more profitable to grind loot from weaker enemies in the free-roam missions. If Bungie had actually worked on Destiny and created a drop percentage rate that's unique to bosses and missions, loot gathering would be fun and save this game. As it stands, it's a complete and utter flop. Bungie has failed in the core concept of what Destiny was supposed to be.
To add even more salt into the gaping wound, the maps themselves do grow stale really quickly. At first glance they are absolutely gorgeous looking, but once you have done missions on them they get boring and leave more to be desired. They are not open world, but rather an average sized map with a plethora of invisible walls. And to add more into the insult, you spawn in the exact same location in every mission. It would've given the illusion of having a more open world if you didn't spawn in the same place every time. Another very large disappointment.

If there is one thing that Bungie got right with Destiny is the music. Destiny's soundtrack is phenomenal. It's so good that at times it outshines everything else in the game. I found myself listening to the music rather than paying attention to the game. If only the game was as good as the soundtrack...
I seriously cannot praise the music. It's very good – beating out any track in the Halo franchise. It is Bungie's crowning achievement in music.

Destiny has so much potential. I haven't seen this much potential in a franchise in a very long time. It's a shame that Destiny has failed in every promise that it wanted to achieve. The story is complete garbage, the missions become so repetitive that you literally do the same thing in every single one, character creation is a flop, classes are not as varied as they need to be, and it's lacking in so much content. Destiny got the basic premise of what makes a “grinding game” fun wrong: loot drop rates. However, its aesthetics, music, production, netcode, and it's untapped potential are its saving graces. I am scared that this is what the gaming industry is heading towards. Destiny feels incomplete. A hollow shell of what it should have been. It's a given that the rest of the game is going to be DLC – paid or otherwise. This is a sad trend that is becoming more and more prominent in the industry. As gamers, we have to make sure that companies are in check. The games they produce shouldn't be “their” games, but our games. Vote with your wallets.

Pros:
-Addictive gun play
-Production value is out of this world (music, graphics, etc)
-PvP can be fun when matchmaking works properly

Cons:
-Frustrating RNG loot
-Lack of diversity
-Lack of overall content
-Required DLC eventually

In the end, you just want to know if it's worth your hard earned money. Well, is it? As of right now, in its current state, no. This game is not worth its price tag. Give this game a few years and maybe it will be worth the money. There's sure to be more content coming and fixes to the shoe-horned in RNG. This game was not the game we were expecting and is so undercooked that I'm shocked that Bungie even released it in its current state. It's sad that the story is mostly likely going to be DLC. So, as it stands, do not buy Destiny in its current state. Now, when they release a special edition with DLC included, I would say go for it if the DLC content is good. Spend your money on other games that you'll be able to have a much better time with.




Activision and Bungie pumped 500 million dollars in this game! What!? Where did all of the money go!? It certainly didn't do anything for the game! I would bet a ton of the cash went into advertising. I will also be getting a PS4 and Destiny for it soon and will make a separate review for it in the Sony section as well.
By the way, do you guys want more of my reviews and of what games? Would love any and all feedback!