Hands on Impressions - Destiny (Alpha)

by Gary Alexander Stott
Developers; Bungie
Publisher; Activision
In games development, the 'alpha' build is the first complete build of the game. It's rough, it's unpolished, it's full of glitches, and it has a very long way to go - but for the first time, it's a game. The Destiny Alpha is clearly not based on the alpha build. It's detailed, it's gorgeous, and it stands as one of the finest testing experiences I've ever had the pleasure of playing.

What exactly is the Destiny Alpha, then? To put it simply, it's the first of two stress tests for the game's dedicated servers. The Beta next month will be a considerably larger experience than the one that has just concluded, with players from multiple platforms engaging in Destiny's universe at the same time. The Alpha, on the other hand, dealt only with a handful of Playstation 4 gamers. How did it go? It went like this...

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Prior to the Alpha, I wasn't sure what to think of Destiny. Bungie seemed to have spent a ludicrous amount of money building a rich, deep universe which could only be explored through (what looked like) uninspired gameplay. It could go either way, I thought.

Then I played the Alpha.

It began with class choice. Of the three, I opted to play as the Warlock (a sort of warrior-scholar/space-wizard). My other choices were the Hunter (a precision-based, assassin-like character) and the Titan (a heavily armoured grunt, essentially). Before my time with the Alpha was done, I ended up playing as all three, as the test had room for three separate character slots - but for now we'll stick with my experience as a Warlock.

Then it was onto the character creator. This was a fairly simple system based on presets and colour options, but the only time you ever see your character's face is in the third-person social hub, the Tower, so it didn't really matter. I did, however, note the absence of facial hair options, which seemed a strange absence. There were a total of three races offered – Human, Awoken (a blue-skinned race), and Exo (sentient machines), as well as gender choice. Race doesn't seem to affect gameplay in any way, though class plays a big part. After my character was ready, it was straight into the game.

I found myself in a large area known as Old Russia, with a simple mission to complete (it mostly involved shooting things). My character started at level three, and already had a basic armour set. The gameplay might be considered generic if Destiny were a first-person shooter, but that's what's most interesting – Destiny isn't an FPS. It's an MMO with polished FPS combat, and the distinction is important. In many MMOs, combat feels like a chore – a grind necessary to earn XP. In Destiny, however, the combat is consistently fun. Would you expect anything less from the makers of Halo?
Class choice affects combat in a variety of ways. Every class has a unique melee move (such as the Hunter's knife attack), as well as a unique grenade attack (such as the Warlock's damage-over-time grenade – useful for blocking off narrow spaces in the heat of battle). Furthermore, all of the classes have a special attack that needs to be charged up over time. These attacks do huge amounts of damage, and are particularly useful against tougher enemies.

The three classes also jump in slightly different ways. While they all share the same initial hop into the air, each has a distinct secondary jump. The Hunter has a basic double-jump, the Titan has a lift that raises him into the air, and the Warlock has a lengthy glide that can be used in a variety of directions. While these differences sound small, they do have slightly different feels and can make a difference in combat. The Warlock's glide, for instance, can be used to cover long distances, but it leaves him exposed to attack for a period of time.
I actually found this gliding technique particularly useful in the Crucible - the game's competitive multiplayer mode. I don't normally enjoy multiplayer games, but there's an element of role-playing present in Destiny that separates it from something like Call of Duty and makes it more compelling. Rather than feeling like I was following a pointless shoot-kill-die-repeat cycle over and over again, I felt like my character was taking part in a large-scale battle that would have an impact on his reputation. And indeed – combat in the Crucible has a literal effect on character reputation. The player can level up Crucible points as well as Vanguard rank, both of which are done through challenges in the PvP and PvE environments respectively. Certain lush items – far beyond the level eight cap in the Alpha – are actually locked until a certain level is reached in one or more of these ranks. Therefore, there is actually much more to Destiny's character development than just experience.
As for the game's story and lore, things were kept minimal during the Alpha. There were no cut-scenes to give us context, only voice-overs which revealed little to nothing about the game's world. I have to mention Peter Dinklage's voice as the player's 'Ghost' companion. While Dinklage is a fantastic actor, and there is nothing inherently wrong with his performance in the role, he doesn't sound like an AI. This is due to the fact that his voice hasn't been given any kind of audio distortion. Indeed, he just sounds like Peter Dinklage. This is strange seeing as some of the game's promotional videos have featured a more digitized version of Dinklage's voice, though perhaps this is just a problem specific to the Alpha test.

Though the story may have been limited in the Alpha, the environments told a story on their own merits. Bungie has created a world players will want to explore, and the presentation of this universe is fantastic. Whether you're speeding around ruins on a 'Sparrow' bike, gazing at the Traveller from the Tower, or orbiting the moon in your own personal spaceship, the universe feels coherent, full, and interesting.
Aside from the basic story mission, the Alpha also featured an 'Explore' mission which allowed players to roam around Old Russia and take on plenty of small missions (which tended to involve shooting things, scanning things, or scouting things) as well as a 'Strike' mission. The latter was the highlight of the test, being a big, long, difficult raid in which the player is teamed up with at least two others in an effort to defeat a horde of enemies and bosses.

I should also discuss the gear available in the demo. While I discovered a few loot crates over my time with the Alpha, they weren't nearly as abundant as those found in titles such as Borderlands, and most of the loot I discovered actually came from fallen enemies, or as mission rewards. The difference between my starter gear and the gear I had as a level eight player makes me excited to see what will be on offer in the full game. With just a few levels up, my Warlock looked considerably cooler.
Ultimately, I enjoyed my time with the Destiny Alpha, and I'm sad to see it go. I am, however, very much looking forward to next month's big Beta test, and so should you.  Believe the hype – Destiny is coming.
Game downloaded from PSN
Images - from Publisher