Destiny Alpha Impressions

[[mXm] BalzOnYer4Head]

After spending enough time to cap the level of my character (for the Alpha its been set to level 8) I wanted to throw down some impressions. 

 

First off, for an Alpha, it is really polished. Graphics were next gen, frame rate was rock solid, servers were 100% stable. 

 

There are three areas that you can explore in the Alpha. There is the Tower, Earth, and Crucible.

 

The Tower is a no weapon area where you can visit different NPC "vendors" that will allow you to buy new weapons, armor,  personal vehicles, and "outfits" (as Bold calls them), "drop ship", and customize/upgrade them all. You can also pick up messages left at the Postmaster, pick up challenges (known as a Bounty), and visit a vendor that decrypts special drops that you pick up in game. It also serves as a nice place to meet up with your squad, get organized, and then launch into whatever game type you wanna get your frag on in.

 

The Fire-team leader controls the action. If he launches into Crucible, all players in the Fire-team will follow suit with a countdown timer letting you know that shit is about to get real. 

 

For the Alpha there is a Co-op/story-mode, which consists of Co-op/single player (although much easier and enjoyable with a buddy or four) where you can pick up missions in game via these Beacons that are spread throughout the map, follow a story-line, and join live events.

 

The one time I joined a Live Event I did it and I think I was the only one. I had this huge lumbering tank thing following me around blasting the bejesus out of me.

 

The other thing you can do is Crucible, aka multiplayer, aka PVP. The only game type available was Control, which is the classic control points game type. The more points you hold, the more points your team scores. Time limit is what settles the winner. 

 

Favor falls upon those that execute teamwork. Since it is Bungie, you do have a personal shield and then health bar. You carry a primary, special, and heavy weapon. Ammo drops occur regularly off of fragged enemies for your primary weapon, and while in match the game randomly drops special and heavy equipment ammo. You also have a grenade and knife. Upgrades for all of the above are earned via progression, which is done of course by playing. 

 

There are three classes that are available to choose from and you can play whatever class you like based on the game mode with a simple trip back to the Title Screen. I so far have only played with the Hunter class so I will only comment on its abilities.

 

The Hunter class starts you off with a full auto assault rifle as your primary, a shotgun as your special. I was unable to utilize a Heavy until I picked one up from a enemy drop in the co-op. It was a Rocket Launcher. The special and heavy weapons have VERY limited ammo, adding another variable to the strategy of the game. This is great because I believe it really stymies sniper camping. Mobility wise I had the ability of a double jump which can be upgraded to a triple jump. I noticed other classes having a jetpack.

 

Speaking of sniping, while playing alone I fooled around with this to see how difficult it was. K/D wise I had some of my best matches. Sniping is straight forward, no matter the distance or direction of movement, put the reticle on the target and pull the trigger. No leading necessary. There are definitely enough weapons in the game to where a player can have a load-out that suits their play-style. I also messed around with a heavy damage dealing revolver, and a semi-auto assault rifle. I also noticed just from playing that there are burst weapons, plasma weapons, smg type weapons, and some others. 

 

You can definitely tell it is a Bungie game. However I want to be clear in stating that it isn't a rebadged Halo. The game has so may character class upgrades  as well as the above mentioned upgrades that you can spend 30 minutes just tending to your avatar and loadout after a couple of hours of game play.

 

Overall I was pleased. The game played well. Although not my preferred shooter style (fantasy FPS), it was so polished, with intuitive control layout, and enough of a focus on teamwork (indicated by the amount of bonus points awarded for kills around your Fireteam and objective) that I was impressed. 

 

I could see us all picking this up just to have something to get us all back together gaming again, and hold us over until our style of games hit the market.

 

I didn't really have any complaints about it. I give it 4 teabags out of five. (not perfect because you know, fantasy FPS)

 

[[mXm] BOLD Edition]

I second everything Balz has highlighted here. One thing I should mention is that the knife throwing is a Hunter class skill. I have been playing the Warlock guardian the melee for that class is a focused concussion blast from your outstretched hand. Warlocks and Titans have solid super charged specials that have pretty decent AOE and a good bit of damage (I routinely got double kills with mine as a Warlock). Gearing doesn't seem to be tiered (yet) although some gear does require you to reach a certain level first. Finding certain crytpo elements in the game can be traded in for crafted gear which seemed unique. The game play is faster than HALO; but again as Balz said this is not HALO-lite or retconned, etc. It is a great experience with a new property from Bungie. The Alpha ends tonight so I am sure Balz and I will be trying to get it all in before they lock the servers down until the Beta in July. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[[mXm] andy19]

Sounds like this game has been very thoroughly thought out, in intricate detail.

I very much look forward to playing it with everyone.  If a lot of other clanmates get the full version, it's a guaranteed buy for me (even with the fantasy FPS style).