CREDIT: BUNGIE
One of the biggest game releases this year, Destiny, may not be perfect, but has great promise.

A lot of video games release with hype: A new edition of Grand Theft Auto is a guaranteed best-seller, console flagship series’ like Halo or Uncharted usually ship millions of copie, and the yearly Call of Duty still manages to break into the yearly top-10 with every title. But that’s reserved for established series’ in the industry, one where new games are usually met with fear.

Just the other week, however, a game launched among the level of hype that is generally reserved for such long running AAA titles, as Halo developer Bungie unveiled its ambitious new project, the massively multiplayer online style shooter Destiny.

One of the largest-scale, most expensive productions in video game history, Bungie has promised a massive world to be explored alongside your friends and fellow gamers. Its tight, well-designed gameplay is for all to enjoy and a fascinating story to sink your teeth into.

I’ve been able to spend a week with the game. I’ve explored planets, fought aliens and had my ass kicked by fellow players in competitive modes. So, how does it hold up to the promises made?

Such a massive undertaking was always going to be looked at through a close critical lens, and the early reviews coming out of major publications have been decidedly mixed, some with admittedly valid criticisms, the first being the story.

Now on one hand, I get what Bungie is trying to do here, they are building a game universe and lore that is supposed to last a long time, spanning both expansions and sequels and this is laying the groundwork for something much bigger. That aside, coming from the people who created the original Halo trilogy’s excellent single-player story, the in-game efforts that have been made in the initial release is sorely lacking, to the point where I finished the story mode and was still a little unclear as to what exactly I had just accomplished (short of saving the universe). Supplementary information regarding all aspects of the story races, planets, etc. is available, but it must be unlocked in game and then viewed on the game’s website. It’s not difficult if you want to find out, but more complicated than it needs to be.

Destiny is more than just a typical first person shooter, setting itself aside from its peers through its constant connectivity with other players. When you set out on a mission with your friends, it’s not just you populating the game world but everyone else that’s playing as well. I was out patrolling a martian desert with my friend in Orangeville and my cousin in England, when we received a message of an incoming target. We changed direction and were quickly joined by a trio from Boston, who we teamed up with briefly, met our joint objective and went our separate ways after an obligatory victory dance party.

It’s the little moments like this that is helping to make this one of the most memorable gaming experiences of the year, despite the narrative shortcomings.

The one aspect of Destiny that nobody is in any contention about, however, is the quality of the gameplay. Considering that Bungie helped sculpt the FPS genre as we know it today, the genre had become stagnant, and every released game just felt the same. While Destiny does not do anything revolutionary, everything feels so damn good to play that even when the story is going at a snail’s pace, what you’re actually doing is a blast. Anyone who dabbled in Halo in its heyday will feel instantly at home with the pacing of the game, deliberately locked at 30 frames per second in an attempt to keep a deliberate feel to the gunplay, a welcome change to the far-too-hectic style that sometimes goes hand in hand with the genre.

Honestly, it’s not perfect, a lot needs to change and grow before the game is anything close to what Bungie promised, but the foundations for something truly great may have been laid down here. A constant stream of new content and updates will keep the game fresh for the players that decide to stick out the grind, and so far I’m behind the crazy scheme 100 per cent.