1. Destiny; I am not a fan of the modern first person shooter. I was there when the genre gained popularity with games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D and Duke Nukem and I have played and loved all of the classics like Quake, Exhumed, Unreal , Medal of Honor etc. My favorites of all time are Goldeneye and Turok. I remember those two games fondly, because they had those magical guns that felt wonderful, and shooting those guns felt very empowering. In essence that is what a shooter is all about, the gunplay. Those games are timeless. Even after all this time, the gameplay is still enjoyable, 4 man Goldeneye is still fun to play and I have yet to feel the same level of awe when I first encountered the endboss like the one in Turok Dinosaur Hunter where you get to use all your acquired guns to kill him. I played tons of fps back then and how can it go wrong? During those days gunplay was what a first person shooter was designed around and they had not much else to worry about. It was primitive; a gun, ammo, a grenade, maybe some special move, but did it hit the spot.
Then as I grew older I became bored of it. I felt it became stale; the genre didn't show any evolution in gunplay and shifted into a more story driven and cinematic experience, ushered in by Halflife. Progression or expansion in gunplay has been pushed aside for a 'wider experience'; the core shooting stayed either dormant or has been sacrificed for 'higher goals' in storytelling exhibited in modern games like Bioshock. While there were some highlights like Timesplitters and interesting offbeats like Metroid Prime and Portal, Halflife was sadly the last shooter I enjoyed for its shooting, and that is mostly by virtue of its MOD Counter-Strike. With every iteration of the new consoles and the more powerful PC, I kept thinking and hoping something would come along that would break my disinterest.
I always felt the shooter genre could grow into more than just a (storydriven) campaign and a multiplayer component. When Borderlands was announced I was mildly interested, but I was later put off by the aesthetics and gameplay. Left 4 dead somehow left me uninterested. When Destiny was announced I was drawn in by the MMO aspects and cooperative play. Both aspects are proven to be very synergic: cooperative play and the 'social aspect' can contribute to better performance in obtaining grinding achievements, make it less of a 'burden' and MMO influenced game design like dungeons and raids can set up wildly entertaining cooperative gunplay. Plus loot systems are there to keep you interested. Why is it that the first person shooter genre has so little to offer in terms of weapon loot; while weapon loot in games like Diablo and WoW is mostly about stat progression, weapon collecting in a first person shooter can offer depth in gameplay variety; guns and their traits like fire rate, recoil, range, spread, hit detection, even sound are intrinsic in how a first person shooter 'plays'. To me a modern first person shooter game should have two aspects I loved about Goldeneye and Turok: Gameplay and Guns plus one aspect that really should be less distinguished in this age of 'connectivity': Cooperative Multiplayer.
So what is Destiny? Destiny is the purest most concise executed cooperative multiplayer first person shooter game ever made. There are a few flaws, many flaws actually: primarily, the game lacks content in multiple ways (Activision DLC and Crucible), it's not without glitches and there were server issues. In the end though it's the first game that really shows the potential of where the shooter genre can go. The story is poorly conceived, but I am a realist and I don't want Bungie to invest in voice actors, high costing cut scenes or some 'unequivocal story' that seems to be the status quo. Based on their portfolio and range I don't even think they can offer something memorable in writing even if they wanted to.
There is enough to do and improve in Destiny. I want them to expand on their foundation and surprise with new content, fix emerging glitches and server drops, even if 3.5 million players are active at that moment. I want them to expand on their lore and offer Mercury, maybe Saturn and Jupiter to explore. I want a handgun only playlist, where a Last Word, Hawkmoon, Thorn, or even Sir Isaac can determine who is king. This might be just a fun peg in Killzone or Halo, but it makes more sense in Destiny. With new DLC and weapons coming out, 'choices' like this make it encouraging to play more Destiny. Weapon collecting, weapon upgrading, skill tree unlocking AND pvp have symbiosis. I want an even playground without the supers, where aiming, foresight and fast reflects are what determines your k/d ratio. I want more Iron banner. I want level 28, 30 and 32 strikelists with matchmaking. I want bigger and harder public events, with worthwhile rewards. I want 'ínfamous' mobs in patrol that can be only taken down with a highly coordinated team. I want pvp areas within patrol. The UI is visually awesome, but there should be better functionality: I want the ability to split materials, I want to see my rankings without the need to go to the tower, I want to use ammo synthesis without pausing. I want exotic gear with elemental properties, which makes every of helm or chest desirable beyond the perk. The music is good, but it's not their best. The Vex are great and I think the Hive raid was a notch down from it. Make that next DLC count. Really, I can go on and on and on. I am not saying they should keep doing what they doing in the story department, I am saying they should stop that practise altogether and focus on doing what they are good at. There is less of an outcry, if you quit trying to please everyone.
Last year I got my multiplayer fix mostly from Dota 2, I named it the best multiplayer experience I ever had and it became my goty for 2013. Destiny has pushed away Dota for the moment. I am not going to elaborate how tight the gameplay and controls are or how seamless the camera switches from first to third person; these things we can expect from Bungie. To me, Destiny is most of all a great marriage of competitive shooting and basic MMO influences. These MMO aspects are the perfect staging for Destiny. It's a platform where you can level your character, collect unique weapons, upgrade and tweak them and roam interesting worlds, either alone or within a fireteam. I would dare say that Vault of Glass is probably the most fun raid I have ever played in a MMO or MMO influenced game. Destiny has cooperative teamwork, where communication is key and while it is 'just' a shooter, speaking about strategy and how to tackle a nightfall or raid beforehand is crucial for success. Destiny is a game where in certain situations thinking and tactics could outperform fast reflections. I see a lot of people doing great in Crucible, because they are skilled in fps gunplay, but fail miserably in raids because they think they can outgun the odds mindlessly. That to me is a facet of amazing design in any game; breaking the mold of how a game or certain genre should or can be played.
Destiny is the first of its kind that does what it does so very well. I wanted a game that goes beyond the conventions of a first person shooter, I am also swain to subscription based RPG gaming. Destiny is not entirely an MMO, it's also not a loot game perse or a single player first person shooter. It's a hybrid, and for me it all comes together. There is grinding, but you can't grind to level 30 or 32, just to keep the bragging rights a right. There is RNG, but there is also Xur for those unlucky people. There are a vast plethora of guns and gun classes, while some less or more, all of them are desirable. Based on the fact that the game has no subscription fee, the balance had to be there on the get go. Yea off course, there is a ton of room for improvements, but how can that not be the case? I am surprised that they managed to achieve a sense of balance for a great part. There are many more elements in Destiny then in Turok, but the execution of each and every element is primitive and sound.
I love the gunplay in Destiny. It is in my eyes the benchmark in the genre. Shooting the trigger every time, you feel the attention to detail. Unloading the Shadow Price with the ranged lens RLS3 and armor piercing rounds you can feel every 25 bullet in its magazine pulsating through your hands. On screen the enemies twitch with the same harmonious interruption: they stagger and the bullets shreds their twitching bodies, until their heads explode. Sometimes they keep coming, two swords in hand and they keep moving towards you with speed. Only by their heads jolting, you know the bullets are hitting on impact. I was lucky to get the Last word as my first exotic gun, but with every new exotic or even legendary gun I just can't help myself; I immediately need to test it out in a patrol mission. Sometimes some guns perform better or worse then exepcted, instead of making huge alterations to 'balance' it out, Bungie always keep balance patches modest, because they wanted to retain how the gun was designed. It says a lot about the designers and builders at Bungie and their love for guns and shooting.
The AI is magnificent. I love how they scurry away after you first shot from high ground. They don't always go in the same direction, sometimes they go opposite, just to find a place to hide behind: a rock, some debris or a hill slope. As the sniper you have to take them down fast, they won't come out until you come out. I love how the Cabal uses their shield to protect themselves, even if you team up to take them down. Keep the heat on or they will turn accordingly in a 360 degrees battelfield, with high and low ground. The only complaint I have is that aggressive melee mobs like the Thralls are tethered in a room. The sounds is I think one of the greater achievements of Destiny. Every grenade and exotic gun has its own sound. The arcbolt grenade rotates and the sound it produces is just how you'd imagine it would sound. Every sound I hear doesn't feel 'off' from a dying shank to an opened helium filament stash. You know just by sound what's happening: a dropship incoming, a grenade thrown, murmurings when you've been detected. There is a lot to appreciate and you really want to crank up the volume.
In addition to the gunplay, sound design and cooperative merit, Destiny has surprisingly a surplus of emotions. For starters it is about the awe when dawn hits and the first sunrays lit the Cosmodrome. Destiny is strikingly beautiful. Other games like Second Son, Shadowfall or Ryse might push more geometry and are seemingly more advanced games in terms of tech, but the art never clicked with me as it did with Destiny. Bungie has matured, not only in tech, but they have grown in art as well. There is still a tad of that 'sterile feel and look' that envelops their latest game, but it's not overwhelming and goes well with the epic sci-fi atmosphere. I would now rank them in terms of visuals right up there with my favorites Valve and Naughty Dog. A bit unfair perhaps as those two haven't got their games out yet and they should blow away Destiny, Destiny thus far remains the game to beat. Destiny has emotions and it's the simple things. It's that twitching feeling in your belly when you jump off a cliff. It's the comic relief when someone misses a jump in the Vault of Glass, an otherwise tense area for traversing when doing it for the first time. It's the smirk when you unload an upgraded Thunderlord or hear the Hawkmoons exquisite sound for the first time. It's the fist in the air when beating the boss and getting that cool reward. And if you don't get it, get it the next week, because when you are having fun, you're not in a hurry.
I want to tell you about the brilliance of the leveling system, the progress and most of all the balance. Balance when you first start doing the hard stuff, you are going to need the gear and weapons you have acquired, preferably fully upgraded with a diverse mixture of flavors. Raids and strikes are balanced in terms of challenge for a specific level. That level is directly linked to your chances of beating the mission and if you want to try and beat a mission two levels above you, while it comes with a warning, it is still possible. Destiny has incredible depth for a first person shooter: have you ever tried tweaking your subclass built to a weapon that is tweaked a certain way to maximize your potential in combat? Tweaking subclass and weapon can lead to synergy fitting your play style either in pve or pvp or even adapted to a certain encounter in a Nightfall or Raid. In Destiny it is possible and it makes sense. Additionally, there are synergies between different weapons or/and skills. A Hawkmoon for example when tweaked is an effective weapon for midrange combat. So you might want to pair it with a shotgun for those charging you in pvp, or if you don't want to use a shotgun, tweak your subclass to have your melee ability up as fast as possible. Destiny for being a 'wannabee' MMO destroys 90% of MMO and RPG games out there in this regard. There is balance in gear, skill and effort and after beating the odds with your accumulated gear and experience, it's that satisfaction that is the reward. As it should be in these kinds of games. This is not possible without some grinding and RNG, you have to intensify your efforts it if you want to try out more of what the game offers; this is no instant gratification type of game, but it is a flake compared to the grinding in World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy 14 or Eve Online. Bungie in my opinion has balanced this perfectly.
I want to see where they are heading with the franchise in the next ten years. In my opinion they have nailed the core mechanics. Gameplay? Destiny is one of the best. The gunplay is exciting, yet elemental, where every bullet counts, killed or get killed. It's pure, but varied and deep. Guns? Destiny is one of the best. There can be gunslinger wild west esque shootouts, or silent (or not so silent) sniper takedowns. You can be the fusion rifle Lord, or fly off the handle with a machine gun, you name it. Throw up the Ward of Dawn in the middle of the room, whoop out your Comedian and stare them down. In what other fps game can you play a psychological game and scare people to ultimately just walk away. That is almost as fun as people walking in. Go full ninja mode while blinking and ducking while the radar stays active with the right gun perks. Want to throw grenades? The Warlock knows how to throw them, incorporate grenade perks for extra heat. The only thing I miss is the ability to go double Berretta/revolver with a Last Word in one hand and a Hawkmoon in the other. There would be only a balance issue if you design it that way. There is crowd control, you can play it safe by using cover and stay out of their line of sight, enemy AI might use that against you as well if you play it too safe. You can outgun them in the open; your tools to dominate are powerful, with high agility you can even strafe and dodgejump oldschool style. The tempo is just right; there is weight, even more so if you put weight on your gun or your subclass and go for power or defense. You can be swift and agile if you feel playing that way. I feel I will have a hard time playing any other first person shooter post Destiny. Cooperative multiplayer? Surely Destiny has the best cooperative multiplayer ever made in the shooter genre. You know the multiplayer is good when every time you play alone and start thinking of ways to progress, you ask yourself if only I had my buddy here to flank, snipe or charge them. The only flaw I have with Destiny coop is that there is just too little of it.
So is Destiny just some nostalgic hint, an 'effect' from a schism by an 'oldschool gamer' or something more? Thinking outside the box while maintaining their trademark qualities, Bungie have made a strong foundation. I believe it is a great starting point for future iterations of the franchise to be built on. Destiny has proven that the fps approach can be enticing and effective for multiplayer, beyond the dead match. It has sold really well thus far and is easily the first first person shooter into this generation with an enduring multiplayer community. I am very positive about the future of Destiny. Yes there are a lot of naysayers, it's normal. I have said nay against the fps genre for more than 15 years and the fact that these naysayers are extremely passionate about Destiny more I have been for ages for the genre. You can guess and argue why that is but in the end remember this: there is a game, also in the Activision stable that is every bit divisive, revolutionary and long-lasting, especially in its first year.
ghosting through a level to get your art collection back and nothing else, controlled by just a mouse. The story is predictable but the characters make for a nice family atmosphere among good-intentioned thieves. 
