Destiny Beta Diary
Destiny Beta Diary
Over the next ten days, I’m going to be taking an in-depth look at Destiny, the beta and everything else to do with the build of the game that’s currently being loved on the PlayStation 3 and 4. I’ll be updating this page on a daily basis with new information, based on what I’ve come across, enjoyed and hated in the game. I intend to look at the different game modes and mission types as well as other features like Grimoire and the Destiny Companion App.
Quick Links: Day 1 (Character Creation, Exploring Old Russia) | Day 2 (More exploration, Level Cap) | Day 3 (The Iron Banner event, Mars Map) | Day 4 (Companion App) | Day 5 (Beta Offline) | Day 6 (Changes following maintenance) | Day 7 (Strikes) | Day 8 (Crucible) | Day 9 (TBD) | Day 10 (TBD) | Final Thoughts
Day 1
Character Creation, Exploring Old Russia, What’s new in the Beta?
Somewhat surprisingly I was able to redeem my Destiny Beta code on the PSN store and download the game client. I had to re-try a couple of times, but it took me less than 5 minutes in total and the client was booted; then the 12gb download began. Kudos to Bungie though – having the client as a relatively small download then downloading the bulk from their own dedicated servers was a great way to manage demand and access. So many times games complain about botched launches and access but I have to hand it to Bungie for controlling the situation in such a controlled manner.
After the agonizing wait for the content to download, I was in. Destiny Beta time began. The character creation interface is the first thing you see when you load into the Beta – it’s almost exactly the same as the Alpha, if not exactly the same. There are still three character classes to choose between; I went for hunter as my first character class for no particular reason, customized the handsome beast and then dropped in.
The first difference from the Alpha is the introduction to the game. Whether this is the final, complete opening cinematic for Destiny, we don’t know, but it shows spacemen landing on Mars and setting foot onto the planet. It looks pretty as hell, describing it cannot do the opening sequence justice – it’s something you need to see for yourself.
So the gameplay starts with your character being woken up by a Ghost. Conversely, the now-infamous Ghost voice now sounds much more processed and robotic, but sounds infinitely better than the Alpha build. The first mission, set in Old Russia, acts as a tutorial style mission; the Ghost guides you along the way, teaching you the basics and providing you with your first weapon. Little details are more refined than the Alpha build; for example, stopping to admire your surroundings results in the Ghost informing you that he didn’t wake you up for you to die again. It’s a small detail but does wonders in adding to the atmosphere.
The mission proceeds as you plough through a building, taking out your first enemies until you find an aircraft. The mission ends as you fly into orbit in your new found transport, with a mysterious figure watching you as you leave.
There’s an ‘advancement’ screen at the end of each mission now informing you of progress, including upgrades earned, current level, kill count and more. It feels like the screens in Call of Duty and similar games after each multiplayer game, before you revert to the lobby.
You’re then set free into the Tower, the most obviously MMO focused part of Destiny and the hub of operations. Mission markers direct you to key figures in order to upgrade, buy new materials and take on bounties and other activities.
There are more story missions in the Beta than the Alpha, although disappointingly, they’re all based in the same Old Russia area. There’s not much in the way of substance towards the story to really draw any conclusions – the missions drop you into different areas across Old Russia with a goal to either collect, salvage or kill. The Alpha mission, starring the now infamous wizard, is in the Beta build as the third of the four story missions.
Exploration mode allows you to enter the Old Russia map and explore or seek out missions by finding beacons. It works pretty much exactly how the Alpha did although there appears to be more beacons around now. The map feels more lived in and open as well; enemies respawn by dropping from ships above and areas that were restricted in the Alpha have been opened up to reward exploration.
I’ve enjoyed my first time spent with the Destiny Beta so far, and I’ll keep this diary updated over the next few days. I’m hoping to look into bounties and a little more exploration tomorrow.It’s difficult to explain the joys of Destiny; it’s a game that rewards exploration, there are events and enemies to stumble across too and part of that joy will be doing the stumbling yourself, or with friends, rather than being told what happens and where. One thing’s for sure though, I’m really looking forward to day 2.
Day 2
More exploration, Beta level cap
Today I didn’t have the opportunity to spend too much time with the Destiny beta, but I did get to play a little. It was very much more of the same for me today, exploring Old Russia and taking on a variety of quests found at beacons. The beacon quests seem like the radiant quests in Skyrim in that they are essentially kill x or collect y amount of z and appear to be infinite, but that’s fine – if I never feel the need to level up, I can do so in this way rather than replaying story missions over and over again.
I spent a little more time with my equipment, levelling and upgrading it. I like the way the upgrades work; it’s like challenges in Call of Duty, you get rewarded for doing something to a certain level or amount. It means that the armour you currently posses will always have the opportunity to improve without specifically upgrading or finding new armour.
The bounties are pretty cool too – essentially more challenges that you can take on while doing any of the games other missions. For example, I had a bounty to earn 9000 XP without dying. I haven’t actually done it yet, I get to about 7000 XP, get cocky and end up dying but I’ll get there. I particularly like how easy it all moulds together; from the Tower I take on three bounties, fly into orbit, land in Old Russia in exploration mode and go about whatever business I fancy with these bounties in mind. It adds an extra layer to gameplay; another bounty I had was to kill 20 enemies without taking any damage and one battle or damage-less kill applies to both bounties.
Depending on the variety of the worlds, locations, missions and bounties I could see Destiny getting repetitive in the future, but it’s currently impossible to say given the small amount of the game that’s on show.
I hit the Level 8 cap in the beta with my hunter character. It might have been nice if the cap was a little higher, maybe 10 or 11 to give a little more progression but Bungie is keeping a lot of its cards close to its chest, so I can’t complain. I plan on making two more characters anyway in each of the other character classes so I can see how they differentiate.
Tonight Bungie are promising to open a new map, based on Mars, in the Crucible Player vs Player arena so I’m looking forward to that. The Crucible hasn’t had much attention so far but I’ll be spending specific time with it in the coming days. I also had a quick peek at the Destiny companion app and I’m very pleased to say it’s awesome! Again, I’ll cover that in more detail over the next few days.
Day 3
The Iron Banner event, Mars map
So, due to my inability to convert PDT to BST, I only just caught the tail end of the Iron Banner event. I managed to get one round in on the Mars map, however, so I didn’t miss out completely. Essentially the Iron Banner event opened up the Mars map for Crucible battle; the game was the same Control (Hardpoint Domination) mode already featured in the Destiny beta so it felt a little underwhelming to have a new map only to play the same game mode without an opportunity for exploration.
Playing through the match, I felt firsthand how Destiny’s multiplayer differentiates itself from Call of Duty or Titanfall; some of the experience was positive, but not without some concerns. The biggest concern for me is the gulf between players in terms of levelling up, equipment and experience. There were clearly players who had levelled up their equipment, unlocked better gear and felt massively over-powered compared to other players, myself included, who hadn’t invested as much time into play or stumbled across a super weapon.
My most powerful gun took about half of most opponents’ health bars and shields, for example, while their guns seemed to wipe me out in about half the time it took me to get to that stage. It felt extremely unbalanced. Maybe it’s an issue with matchmaking, or maybe it’s Bungie experimenting, but I can’t see myself entering into Crucible modes if I’m going to be fighting an uphill battle.
Sure, Titanfall offers burn cards, Call of Duty has Killstreak rewards, but each of those are time limited – for a good chunk of the game, each player is relatively equal in terms of power, but Destiny just didn’t feel like that. It’s probably worth noting that I’m really not a Call of Duty or Battlefield guy and only buy those games for the campaigns. I intend to spend a night purely inside the Crucible once I’ve levelled up my abilities and gear a little more to see how it feels then.
Otherwise, it was more of the same exploration and bounties. The bounties are a great way to earn XP, and stackable, so I tend to carry as many bounties as I know I can handle and successfully complete.
With regards to the Mars map, it’s difficult to say how it was different to Old Russia. Experiencing the terrain and environment in single player, exploration for example, may feel wildly different but in the Crucible it didn’t feel particularly different from any other map; it just felt like the map was tinged with a touch of red. The structures didn’t seem wildly different from what we’ve seen already in the beta either.
Bungie is promising big changes on the 26th following the scheduled maintenance, so hopefully we’ll be able to access new areas to explore in more detail then.
Day 4
Destiny Companion App
Having had the opportunity to play around in the Destiny beta world, I’m going to start looking more in depth at individual aspect of the Destiny experience starting with this look at the Companion App. It’s very easy to discount a games’ Companion App owing to the number of useless, boring apps that we’ve become used to in the past. I’m happy to report that the Destiny Companion App is actually really good.
You’ve probably figured out already that I am heavily invested in Destiny, I love it – I’ve finally found an MMO (using the term loosely) that I can spend time in, having struggled to understand the draw factor for WoW or Final Fantasy XIV. Being able to take some of that experience on the go allows me to be involved in the affairs of my Guardian, even when the PS4 isn’t on or I’m away from home. It’s going to be different for everyone, but for me being able to take something like this on the go is a huge bonus.
As for the app itself, it runs perfectly on my HTC One as well as my Nexus 7. I wish the app could be viewed landscape on the Nexus, but that’s a minor issue and could be a possible inclusion in a future patch. Loading times are surprisingly quick, both on WiFi and mobile data, allowing you in to access your information. If the network you’re on is slow, the app allows you to work without the images as they download, which was a nice touch for those rare times.
Without doubt, the best part of the app is the ability to check your Guardian. You get to see a 3D model of your hero, or heroes as the app allows you to switch between characters, and can access detailed information on each part of their equipment and gear including rarity, item information and the individual upgrade trees. This includes weapons your Guardian is carrying, even if not equipped.
There’s also a well considered statistics area allowing you to view kills, games played and play time as a whole or broken down into each individual game type; Story, strikes and the crucible, for example. While there isn’t a lot you can do other than admire your own abilities, it helps to keep you involved in the Destiny world. There are also a lot of people who like to check their K/D Ration, which the app also lets you do.
There’s a map of the hub area, the Tower, which lets you see where and what each store is. The Tower can feel a little like a confusing labyrinth until you’ve become used to how it’s laid out. At present, there aren’t any other maps in the app but hopefully maps of the exploration areas, even if not in huge amounts of detail, would make a welcome addition.
You can also check in to see what’s in your Guardians inventory on the go including Glimmer (Destiny’s currency), materials obtained and any bounties you have already picked up. As well as showing you the progress made with any bounties already taken out, the app allows you to see what other bounties are currently on offer if you’re interested in taking more on. It was slightly disappointing to see I couldn’t actually take the bounties on via the app, although I can understand why; it draws you back into Destiny and it’s unlikely you’ll only be logging in to pick up a bounty for a later date!
Finally, the app allows you to read through the lore and information on any discovered location, item or life-form via the Grimoire. The information unlocks as you interact with anything related in game, although at the moment a lot of it is ‘redacted’, probably to avoid any spoilers for the finished game.
Like I said, the app is great – it functions efficiently, does a detailed job and lets you take Destiny on the go to some degree. It would be nice if Bungie could add in the ability to take bounties on via the app. Likewise, it would also be great to see the current stock in the Tower’s many stores via the app; it would certainly be an efficient way of managing items and purchases without going into orbit, then back to the Tower to check.
Bungie hasn’t said either way whether this is the complete app, suggesting it could well be changed or improved upon in the coming weeks as we get closer to the games full launch, but even if it launches in its current state, this is by far one of the best game companion apps available.
Day 5
Beta Offline
The Destiny beta is offline for maintenance today, so I’ve taken a break and played other games – sssh, don’t tell Bungie!
Day 6
Changes following maintenance
Coming over the next ten days – check back daily for updates.
Day 7
Strikes
Coming over the next ten days – check back daily for updates.
Day 8
Crucible
Coming over the next ten days – check back daily for updates.
Day 9
To Be Decided
Coming over the next ten days – check back daily for updates.
Day 10
To Be Decided
Coming over the next ten days – check back daily for updates.
Final Thoughts
Was is Beta than the Alpha?
Coming over the next ten days – check back daily for updates.