To the surprise of no one, Destiny is breaking a lot of records. The game had a sizable gigantic budget in the realm of $500 million, and already had $500 million worth of product purchased by first parties and retail. In addition, Activision has announced that Destiny has sold more than $325 million worldwide in its first five days of release. Without question, the game is an impressive financial success. However, one burning question still comes up. Was the game over-hyped? The short answer is yes. That said, even though the game was over-hyped, that does not make it a bad game. The main problem is that more time could have been spent refining and polishing the story.
One of the bigger issues with the Destiny Beta was the weak story. Unfortunately, the final game has done little to alter my feelings about the story. The scenario for Destiny is just not there. I get that the game is really an MMO. So the idea is to get your character leveled up and continue playing to do that. However, as good as the game looks, I just wish the story had some more substance.
The game has some elements and makings for a great story, but those elements do not come together for a cohesive whole. Throughout the game, many questions are raised and weird things happen but never explained. For starters, why does the main Guardian player have no memories and just goes along with everything? If the Guardian was a Guardian before the Collapse, he/she should have questions about what has been going on for the last few hundred years? I have done some reading on Destinypedia to fill in certain blanks, but the game does not do a good job of setting the stage for the world of Destiny. All the game narrative really shares is that an alien entity called the Traveler was discovered on Mars and ushered in a new Golden Age of humanity. The Traveler’s seeming polar opposite, an entity known only as the Darkness, followed the Traveler and unleashed an attack on the solar system. It nearly caused humanity to go extinct before the Traveler was able to intervene and save the last remnants of humanity.
Little AI robots that have very human personalities, named Ghost, revive Guardians to rejoin the fight to battle back the Darkness. Thus far, the Darkness seems to be more like an amorphous force than an actual villain. It is almost like the Idea of Evil from Berserk. There are alien races lurking about causing problems. The Hive seems to worship and draw power from the Darkness.
Famed director John Carpenter said it best on his Twitter that the game has “strangely cold characters.” That is pretty accurate in regards to this game. There are a lot of talented thespians who appear as various characters in the game. However, their characters are very stiff and lifeless. Nathan Fillion voices the Hunter Vanguard, Cayde-6, and really has nothing to do but some brief monologues. It constitutes a misuse and undervaluation of his talents for a game of this size. None of the vocal performances or characters in Destiny really stand out. Peter Dinklage as Ghost is alright, but having to deal with him scanning a computer while the Guardians fight off hordes of enemies over and over gets repetitive and tiresome.
Do I enjoy playing the game? Yes, I certainly do. I find the game to be a lot of fun, and addictive, to play. However, for all the time and effort that went into the game, I wish the story was more fleshed out. I realize with expansions and the apparent 10-year plan for the game, this could still happen later on. Still, what Destiny has offered so far is rather weak.
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