Destiny was barely on my radar. With kids and a backlog of games waiting to be played, I don’t rush out to buy games at full price these days. On top of that, my latest console is a Wii U. My next purchase was most likely Mario Kart 8 or Super Smash Bros.
I loved (and still love) the original Halo. It’s a beautiful game, with a strong sense of place and just enough plot to suggest the sequel to Aliens we never got, but secretly wanted. Somehow the later Halos drifted away from what I most enjoyed about the original – namely, being alone, almost out of ammo, exploring a strange new environment. With diminishing returns, I called it quits around Halo 3 and moved on to other games for my sci-fi fix.
That said, I was still curious. Maybe I would check out this fancy new Halo in all but name eventually, if the reviews were good. But opening the Beta up to any punk with a PlayStation Plus account piqued my interest and I wanted to try it out now. The service had already trained me to slowly download large files, so – after waiting for hours – I played Destiny, and liked what little I saw. Then I tried it again the next day, and after progressing to the meat of the demo, I started to love it. I love that the map of the solar system reminds me of Time Bandits. I love that the large “Knight” enemies remind me of the Minotaur from Greek mythology. And then Sunday night, the Beta was over, and I began to miss it.
You can visit proper game review sites if you want the full skinny, but for me, Destiny reminds me of what I liked in the original Halo, while also feeling new, modern and just different enough that I’m not quite sure where they are going with it. I cannot wait to play more. Well played Bungie. Well played.