With the Destiny beta now officially offline across all platforms following ten days of sci-fi goodness, the WGTC staff has had some time to marinate on the finer details of Bungie’s upcoming space opera.
Without doubt, the company’s ambitious new IP has been billed as one of the biggest titles of 2014, and understandably so. Here is a studio that remoulded the first-person shooter with the Halo franchise thirteen years ago and, in doing so, brought the genre from its once natural habitat on PC to consoles with aplomb.
And now, come September, Bungie is gearing up to redefine a whole new area of the video game industry: the Pandora’s box that is the console MMO. Many titles have tried to perfect the formula in recent years, with ports of Diablo III, Defiance and the once-ailing Final Fantasy XIV among the pack. But each of these games have been plagued with clunky interfaces and combat that was initially designed for the age-old mouse and keyboard.
For Destiny, though, Bungie aims to streamline the experience of an MMO for the console audience, opting for accessible levelling systems and refined controls thanks in large part to the next-gen systems. But with so much hype surrounding the game at this early stage, can it avoid a Watch Dogs-like disappointment and truly deliver on its promises?
Join us, guardian, as we look back with hindsight at the Destiny beta and draw up our preliminary verdict on Bungie’s expedition to a galaxy far, far away.