Truly an Epic Experience
Few gamers have never heard of Bungie, but if they haven’t, they certainly have heard of the Halo series. So it makes perfect sense that many students at Jesuit may be “sick” on September 9th, since Bungie’s new game, Destiny, will be released on the next gen and last gen systems. The hype behind this game has been growing ever since its announcement and hints that its founding and early development can be seen all the way back into easter eggs previously seen in Halo 3: ODST, released in 2009. The time spent on making this game, along with the 500 million dollars spent on its development and marketing by Activision, are signs that this game will be huge, a true juggernaut in the video game industry. [1]
Having played in the Alpha and Beta on the PS4, not to mention being handpicked to play it center stage at RTX ’14 against the developers from Bungie, I have to say that this game plays very smoothly and is absolutely beautiful to look at. [2] The new universe that Bungie has created is simply spectacular. For all of you who haven’t the slightest clue about the game, have no fear, I will inform you.
The game, set 700 years into the future in a post-apocalyptic setting, takes place in our solar system. Before our solar system as we know it simply collapsed, humanity was experiencing a golden age of scientific advancement; but this changed when The Darkness came, and humanity’s colonies, spread throughout the 8 planets, disintegrated. Little is known about “The Darkness,” but Bungie has stated that it is the sworn enemy to The Traveler, a spherical, white, celestial body that is now guarding humanity’s final city on Earth (for all of those looking for what The Traveler looks like, simply Google it). The players are given the role of Guardians, the last defenders of humanity who are able to use the mysterious power referred to as The Light, which The Traveler has given as a gift to humanity. So now, humanity looks to its defenders to fight off the various alien species that have taken over their colonies after the golden age ended and to hopefully restore humanity to what it once was in its prosperous golden age.
Gameplay wise, the game feels like a mixture of 2K’s Borderlands Series and Bungie’s past franchise, Halo. So, in other words, the game is a first person shooter/RPG that drops the player into an open world where he or she can join in with other players to complete missions in order to defend humanity. However, the game will also have modes that allow the player to engage in team and solo fights against other players, so if PVP is something that you like, there will be plenty of it. Going into further detail, there are 3 classes of Guardians that the player can choose from. They are: the Hunter, a renegade who specializes in range combat and reconnaissance; the Warlock, who combines weapons and powers from The Traveler to form a lethal support class that is a must have in team fights; and, finally, my personal favorite, the Titan, a player that specializes in heavy weapons and explosives and can survive a ton of damage before going down. Having played all of the classes at least once, I have to say they are all balanced for the most part, as all of them have their own perks and drawbacks.[3]
So will you join in with your friends (hopefully after you have done your school work) and embark on your own destiny come September? Will you take part in the biggest game of the year, or will you wait for the yearly generic shooter made by Sledgehammer Games? I, for one, cannot wait to enter this incredible universe Bungie has spent years creating, and I hope that I will have the time to play it during my challenging junior year at Jesuit. Are you ready? Because your destiny awaits.
