Destiny is an upcoming action role playing first person shooter, set in a “mythic science fiction” open world setting. It is developed by Bungie and published by Activision as part of a ten-year publishing deal. The game will be released on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One video game consoles on September 9, 2014, with a beta testing phase planned for this upcoming summer. The beta will launch first on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Bungie demoed live gameplay footage of Destiny at Sony’s E3 2013 conference.
Bungie said at E3 of 2013 that the whole world will be alive and teeming with life. Events may happen throughout the game that are not controlled by the developer or the designing team which, to me, sounds a little strange but exciting. These “events” will help create a dynamic experience for the developer and gamers alike which will in turn lead to a more immersive and more playable atmosphere for the player. The game’s style has been described as a first person shooter whilst also partly being described as an MMO. Bungie has actually called this game a “shared world shooter” with elements of an MMO whilst also lacking certain MMO aspects. For instance, rather than players seeing and interacting with any fellow players Destiny will include on-the-fly matchmaking that will allow players to see and interact only with other players with whom they are “matched” by the game.
Destiny will incorporate a new game engine that allows global illuminations and real-time dynamic lighting to occur together. An innovation in Bungie’s “hopper” technology, which has been the backbone for Halo‘s matchmaking system, will allow better player matchmaking in order to create a more natural experience in either cooperative or competitive multiplayer modes.
The story and action of Destiny is set 700 years in the future where everything is in shambles and it appears as if the whole world is in a post-apocalyptic period. Following this period the world then enters the “Golden Age” (as they call it) this is a time of peace and prosperity as the world re-grows after the apparent nuclear fallout. In a universe where Human have spread out and colonized most of the planets in the solar system, an event known as the “collapse” saw the mysterious dissolutions of these colonies and the near extinction of the Human race as we know it. The only known survivors of the “collapse” are the people of Earth, who were saved by the “Traveler”, a white, spherical celestial body whose appearance centuries before had enabled Humans to travel and conquer the stars. The traveler now hovers above the last remaining human city and grants the world’s protectors some strange and otherworldly powers that no one knows about. Upon Mankind’s first attempt to re-populate and re-grow after the “collapse” it is discovered that another Alien race has taken control of the other Human colonies and is Hell-bent on taking control of Earth too. It is your job to control one of the defenders and protect Humanity at all costs.
Destiny will center around the stories and adventures of the Guardians, the last and final protectors of Humanity, set to protect Earth’s last city. Guardians will be broken into three groups, Humans, Awaken, and the Exo, Humans are known to be relatable, tough and reliable whilst also having a good tough fighting spirit. Bungie drew its inspiration for the Human race from the Military, Tireless and extremely strong athletes who never let anything worry or complicate issues.
The Awoken are described as Beautiful, stunning and extremely powerful. These beings were inspired by Elves, Vampires, Ghosts and Angels. Exo are described as being sinister, ruthless, and powerful. Exos were inspired by the Undead, Master chief from the Halo series, and the Terminator.
Players will also be able to choose a “class” to go alongside their race. There are three classes available to players in Destiny: Hunters, Warlocks, and Titans. Hunters are a reconnaissance-based class meant to be reminiscent of the classic “bounty hunter.” Bungie cites as influences Star Wars‘ Han Solo and classic characters from old Western films such as Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name. Warlocks combine weapons with special powers from “the Traveler”, and are meant to be a form of “space wizard”. The Warlock class is influenced by the Star Wars series’ Jedi Knights, The Lord of the Rings series’ Gandalf, and The Matrix series’ Morpheus. Titans, which favor heavy weapons and melee attacks and are intended to be reminiscent of the classic “future soldier”, were inspired by Bungie’s own Halo Master Chief, Stormtroopers from Star Wars, and other “space marines” from science fiction.
Playable characters will be a combination of a Guardian race and class.
The first ever reference to Destiny was in Bungie’s 2009 game Halo 3: ODST, in which a sign on a wall read “Destiny Awaits” and showed a picture of Earth with a mysterious orb floating nearby. Throughout 2010 and 2011 Bungie’s staff and developers made several vague references towards the development of Destiny, the next overt references to Destiny were not shown until Bungie’s August 2011 20th anniversary documentary, O Brave New World, in which appeared several early environment renders, an environment editor named “Grognok”, and a brief shot of actors performing a scene with motion capture equipment. At that time, the game was still known by its original code name Project Tiger, a term used by Bungie co-founder Jason Jones when discussing the game in August 2011. The game later became known by its working title Destiny.
On May 21, 2012, a publishing contract between Bungie and Activision was published by the Los Angeles Times. The contract originally had been entered into evidence under seal in Activision’s lawsuit against former Infinity Ward employees Jason West and Vincent Zampella, but was later unsealed by the judge in that case. The contract outlined an agreement between Bungie and Activision to develop and publish, respectively, four Destiny games, with the first to be released in the second or third quarter of 2014.
The first actual public details of Destiny were leaked in November 2012, revealing concept art and plot details. Bungie supplemented the leak with the release of further details, whilst expressing regret that details of an upcoming video game had once again been revealed before their planned release. In describing Destiny, Bungie’s lead writer Joseph Staten stated that the studio was approaching the game with the intention of “building a universe” that would “take on a life of its own”. Further information became available in February 2013, when Bungie released a video documentary revealing information on Destiny and some of the core ideas behind the game, including the company’s “seven pillars” philosophy, identifying the seven underlying elements of the early development process that they adopted to make the game appeal to as wide an audience as possible, with particular emphasis on making the game accessible to casual, novice gamers and dedicated fans of the genre alike. The game was first confirmed to be released on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 at the PS4 reveal event on February 20, 2013. Bungie also revealed that both the PS3 and PS4 versions will receive exclusive content. They later confirmed that the game would be released on Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
Also revealed were plans to incorporate social media into Destiny, allowing players to remain connected to one another even when offline. With the in-game universe being in a state of perpetual change, Bungie is exploring the potential of using a mobile phone application to update players about new quests and inform them as to what their friends are doing in-game.
On October 1, 2013, Bungie and Activision announced that players who pre-order Destiny on any platform at select retailers will receive an exclusive nine-digit code to gain access to the beta version of the game. Additional beta codes were also sent out randomly on social networking sites Facebook and Twitter during the week starting on October 20.
On December 6, 2013, Bungie confirmed a September 9, 2014 release date for Destiny.
In February 2014, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick stated that he expects the game to be the “best-selling new video game IP” ever.
What do you think of Destiny? Will you be buying this latest and greatest title from Bungie when it hits stores in September of this year?
Let us know in the comments.
