As of this afternoon Bungie had opened the doors too the highly anticipated Destiny on the PS4, as this gamer was lucky enough to get access to Destiny Alpha all I can say is the wait is well worth it. The alpha opens with a message from Bungie thanking the gamer for participating in this crucial stage of the game and that they look forward to the feedback. After that message the games opens to the character creator which has a choice of three different races; The Awoken which resemble dark elves from World of Warcraft, The Exo which are humanoid robots that come in all colors and finally The Humans which are pretty self explanatory, these races don’t affect game play in anyway are purely for looks. Speaking of looks the customization is quiet impressive, its not as deep as Skyrim but it offers enough options that you wont see an exact copy as your character walking around in the world.
Then comes the class selection there is The Titan which your solider that can take the most abuse and use all weapons, but and has incredibly strong attack that pounds the ground with electricity. Then come your Hunter which is the assassin of the three great at long range, the Hunter is also quiet deadly when enemies get up close and personal, also they can summon a flaming pistol that disintegrates your enemies which is pretty cool . The third and final class is the Warlock which is the mage of the game and comes in handy for the team missions and can clear a room with a single power.
The Three Classes Of Destiny
Once your character is created the game instantly drops you into a solo mission taking place in a post apocalyptic Russia to investigate an old world factory. The alpha doesn’t really give you any back story on whats going on or what happened to the planet but you can connect the dots pretty quick by playing the game. It also incorporates some light RPG elements with a skill tree that evolves as you use your powers.
The combat of the game is easily the highlight of the alpha, its extremely smooth and very fast paced. The action reminds me much of a Halo game which is no surprise since its coming from Bungie. There isn’t a huge selection of guns, there is your typical choices sniper, assault rifle, shot gun, pistol, and light machine gun. But thats not really a problem as they are all fun to use and all feel incredibly powerful. Weapons aren’t the only way to fight in Destiny you also have melee and special moves. Each class has a form of grenade; The Warlock’s is a black hole that sucks enemies into it and explodes. Also each class’ has an interesting melee move the Titan’s uses the butt of his gun, the Hunter uses it’s knife and the Warlock uses a almost force push on it’s enemies.
And finally it wouldn’t be a Bungie game without mulitplayer, there two options as of right in alpha for gamers to choose from, one is the crucible which is the competitive multiplayer mode which is just as fun and chaotic as Halo’s and a Co-Op mission that lets you and two other people play a very lengthy level. The crucible only offers one mode which is control which is a domination like game mode of where teams must capture and defend posts from the enemy team. Even thought the mode only allows to play one mode it shows six different modes that could be played. It also features some beautufully crafted maps that are perfect for all out war.
All in all this alpha of the game is quite enjoyable and gets me even more exited for September 9th when the game releases so I can fully explore this amazing game.