Destiny: Reinvention or Iteration?

Reinvention is a strong word to use when it comes to first person shooters. The rise of the FPS and the online shooter in recent years has been remarkable. Ever since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, developers have been scrambling to find new ways to approach the genre while also making sure they don’t alienate the players that have come to expect a certain way of playing. Titanfall was the first glimpse at the potential new direction the genre could be heading going into the new generation of consoles. The next big hope is Destiny.
In case you don’t know, Destiny is the brand new IP from Bungie. Bungie are the creators of one of the biggest FPS franchises ever, Halo. They were previously exclusive to Microsoft’s consoles but are now lead developing for the Playstation 4, however PS3, Xbox One and Xbox 360 versions are coming. Destiny has been in development for at least five years and is launching worldwide on September 9, 2014. So why should you care?

Other than the obvious reasons, there does seem to be a lot about Destiny to be excited for. When we first got a glimpse of the game, Bungie were promising more than the standard FPS. A dynamic and connected world to explore, players entering and leaving each other's games seamlessly and heavy MMO elements. Featuring an incredible amount of customization options ranging from armor, guns and helmets, the game wants each player to have their own individual character rather than different colored Master Chiefs.
One of the newest modes that has been shown off is Strike missions. Strike missions consist of a three player team (yourself and two others online) who must battle a wave of enemies before then fighting a boss battle that, once defeated, heaps you and your team mates with massive rewards. It sounds very similar to a Horde type mode or even Firefight, which Bungie debuted on Halo: ODST, where you are fighting AI as opposed to other human players and seems like a nice, basic way of showing off the game and how it controls.

Special abilities is something that looks to add something new to the party, with each different class having their own to play with. The Hunter’s ability sees the camera change to third person and summon an Arc Blade that plays out similar to Halo’s Energy Sword. With this equipped you can run around and make light work of tougher enemies for a short period before going back to first person and feeling somewhat normal once again.
These special abilities that each Guardian have add a cool and exciting aspect to the gameplay that are slightly similar to that or calling your own Titan to the playing field. However, with many different options to chose from, they may not have the same level of spectacle but hopefully are more varied and game changing in the long term.

One of the main draws of Destiny is it’s dynamic world where players are thrown in competitive matches on the fly, but these Strike missions involve none of this. It’s nice to learn that there isn't just competitive multiplayer but co-operative modes also. As someone who enjoys tackling Halo’s campaign on legendary with friends over competitive modes, this sounds like a mode I will very much enjoy playing.
Destiny’s competitive multiplayer will be playable for the first time to people outside Bungie at this year’s E3. However, the general public will get a taste of the action when the beta launches in the summer ahead of the full game’s release in September. You can guarantee your place in the beta by pre-ordering your copy of the game on any platform.

We have still only seen an incredibly small slice of what Destiny has to offer, but it does look very much the part so far. It looks absolutely stunning and hopefully plays as good as it is easy on the eye. Reinventing the genre may be too big of a task for just one game to achieve, but hopefully it adds enough new elements to entice players who have become tired of the current somewhat saturation of the genre.
While Titanfall does add some interesting dynamics, it does play very familiar to fans of Call of Duty. Perhaps Destiny will be the same for Halo fans but fingers crossed it does enough to segregate itself from its developer's mammoth predecessor.