It is without a doubt that Bungie created Destiny with the mindset that gamers would be locked on for quite a few years, and with good reason. Destiny is a sci-fi epic that immerses players in an interstellar online multiplayer universe filled with all sorts of enemies from Dregs to Fallen Walkers and tough bosses, allowing for story-mode, open world patrols, fire-team strikes, and all out Crucible matches.
Released only three weeks ago, Bungie stated it has plans to continuously support the game with additional content. Several gamers got a first glimpse of that after finding a bug that locked them out of the Tower, revealing content not currently available in the game.
According to Ben Kinsella,
who says he's the first to find the glitch, the bug shows several locked areas, including new Story Missions, Strikes, and Raids on already available planets.
Reddit user KilledbyDice compiled
a list of content that was revealed in the glitch, which includes Crota's End, a level 28 Raid on the Moon, and a level 28 Raid on the Reef. It also shows the already planned expansions: The Dark Below, which will be released in December, House of Wolves, which is planned for release sometime next year, and The Iron Banner, which will be available Oct. 7 through the 14, replacing The Queen's Wrath bounties that end Oct. 6.
Since the bug revealed content Bungie didn't intend to be seen, they could easily be changed before they're officially released. Bungie made some new announcements, however, including an upcoming tweak that will be released this week.
Following Bungie's patched Loot Caves and the promise of more engram drops during missions, the 1.0.2 update will bring several changes to the Cryptarch and Engram experience. Decoherent engrams will no longer be decoded to a lesser-valued item, meaning legendary and rare engrams will not give you a useless uncommon item. In a post on the
Destiny blog, the update will also include rare and legendary items in addition to existing rewards in weekly and daily heroic strike missions, giving more incentive to play.
If you have any encrypted engrams in your inventory, now's the time to decode them, as Bungie stated that "Legendary Engram items that exist in your inventory will be demoted to Rare quality when the patch goes live."
Further improvements to the game include social voice communication. Bungie issued a
statement saying, "Our vision for
Destiny is that all players, even match made players in the Crucible, Strikes, the Tower, or public spaces, be able to communicate with one another in a way that promotes positive socialization." The feature is expected to launch later this year in Strikes and the Crucible where players will be able to opt-in to voice communication.
Where Destiny trumps other games:
Whether you love to play alone or multiplayer, Destiny has something for everyone. Reminiscent of Halo, the option of fighting in the Crucible or creating a fire-team to scour the galaxy can easily rival other first-person shooters with its extensive gameplay, stunning graphics, and epic soundtrack. Rated for teens, developers of
Destiny knew what they were doing: creating a fan base that will grow with the game, unlike older players that are more likely to move on to another game faster.
From the beginning, the character customization allows you to pick a Guardian class
—Hunter, Warlock, or Titan
—and alter their features and race. Each Guardian has been resurrected by the Traveler's Light (though never actually explained) and has its own unique abilities, strengths, and armor. Creating more than one character (you're allotted three) gives an interesting change in gaming style.
The Tower is a social hub in the game where you can turn in bounties and purchase weapons and armor. The lack of actual socializing here takes away from the experience, but Bungie's added voice communication will definitely make it what it should've been from the start. In the mean time, you can still find people to join your fire team and have fun dance parties! There's also a soccer ball Easter Egg to play with.
Leveling up unlocks better weapons and armor, and once you reach level 20, everything changes. Getting past level 20 requires "light" which can only be obtained from special armor. Joining factions such as Dead Orbit or Future War Cult allows you to buy armor with +18 light and adds a combination of two from Discipline, Intellect, and Strength to cool down your melee and bombs. Buying armor requires reputation from either the Vanguard or your selected faction using either Vanguard or Crucible marks. This makes doing bounties, patrols, and playing in the Crucible even more important. If you're lucky, you'll find a dropped engram that gives you an Exotic armor, which can also be bought from Agent of the Nine using strange coins
—if you can find him in the Tower as he only appears on weekends in a new place.
Where Destiny is flawed:
While the game is overall addicting
—and I'm not just talking about the short-lived Loot Caves that gave us easy access to dropped engrams
—it lacks major story plot and forces you to do outside research via Grimorie Cards that can only be viewed after you set up a Bungie.net account and link your Xbox gamertag or PSN account. I have no idea why I'm shooting at these various enemies from Earth to Mars and collecting hard to find Dead Ghosts, but it's still fun and Bungie.net allows me to view shaders on my character. I just can't help but question my motives, and really question why Bungie didn't provide this in-game.
Shallow storyline is accompanied by repetitive missions that can get old fast. Changing the level difficulty helps keep it at least somewhat interesting, but I don't know how many times I can defeat Sepiks Prime without getting bored of it, and I'm sometimes not even rewarded anything afterwards. I also wish there were more planets to explore since finishing the story mode left me wanting more, but that could be added in future expansions.
Exotic weapons are the gem in the game, but the great effort put into completing exotic weapon bounties for the Thorn and Bad Juju leave players dispirited with its lack of power and not living up to its name. The design is incredible, but after finally getting my hands on the Thorn, its handling is somewhat disappointing. Killing low-levels with one shot is great, and it gets better when the hand canon is upgraded to cause extra lingering poison damage, but the recoil is ridiculous compared to other weapons until it's fully upgraded. The Bad Juju pulse rifle looks sick, but it's only good for killing simple enemies since the design of it is far too distracting to match up.
Overall: this game is addicting, and I haven't spent this many continuous hours every day on a single game since
Skyrim. I can only wait for future DLC expansions to be released.
What do you think of Destiny? Have you gotten your hands on any Exotic weapons and armor that are worth mentioning? Let us know in the comments below.
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