Destiny (2014 Video Game) User Reviews

There's Halo. There's Mass Effect. And then, there's Destiny

[Z21708 · 8/10 · 3 April 2018]

Destiny is a pretty fun game. It's got very challenging missions and cool maps. The only thing that stops it from being higher than an 8/10 is the "story."

At the start of the game, we get this cutscene where some astronauts are wandering around Mars. And then, they stumble upon the Traveller, a giant mystical ball which holds a power called Light.

Then, your character is brought back from the dead by a little robot called a Ghost. He tells you to run through the walls of an area known as the Cosmodrome. Then, you steal a ship and escape the Cosmodrome, where a mysterious hooded character is standing around and watching you flee the area. Then, you are taken to the Tower, where a character known as the Speaker says some very vague things, and tells you to go on a mission to fight the Darkness. Then, we embark on a galaxy-wide mission to fight the Darkness with our Light, or whatever. So we jump from planet to planet to fight off the Fallen, the Hive, the Cabal and the Vex until we reach the Black Garden where the Darkness resides, and we have to fight three Vex robots with our Light and guns. Once we kill the robots, the Speaker has this dumb speech about how everything is good again. Then, the hooded character that's been stalking us throughout the game gives us her gun and teleports to her home, or something.

The gameplay of Destiny is solid. I like the open world aspect to it, it really makes the game feel more wide open. I also really like the various factions you have to fight, and my favorite would have to be the Vex. I don't exactly know why they're my favorite, they just are. I also really enjoy the patrol missions, because it really gives you something else to do while not playing through the story. I haven't played any of the raids, because I'd rather continue on with the story rather than play the raids. I have played one of the strikes, but I couldn't get past one area where I had to take down one of the tanks. After awhile, I just quit because it was becoming quite tedious.

And the music of Destiny is amazing, one of the best soundtracks of any video game I've ever played. I even own the digital albums for vanilla Destiny and it's DLC, Rise of Iron. Needless to say, both albums sound great.

So that's my review on Destiny. I really like the game, but if it weren't for the garbage story, I would like it even more.

One of my Personal Favorites

[BadgerStorm4345 · 7/10 · 21 April 2020]

I played Destiny in a time when most of my friends were playing Destiny, and although that makes me biased towards the game, I still feel strongly about the fact that it has many glaring issues. Destiny's story is infamous for leaving much to be desired, and although addressed with the DLC, I have to criticize the fact that you needed paid DLC to play this game, base game content was blocked off from you if you didn't have the DLC. On the plus side, this game offers a very extensive lore on top of incredible shooting mechanics. Raids are some of the most creative and fun things in any game and I will always look back on those fondly. Although by no means a perfect game, Destiny will always be a game I remember.

Addicting game, time consuming... but missions get repetitive

[robbinsm2138 · 8/10 · 16 September 2014]

I will give Destiny an 7.5/10... Here's why:

As far as 500 million dollars is concerned, idk what Bungie even did with all of it. The only thing I can see is putting money into making it available across all major consoles. Other than that, this is a complete waste of money. The soundtrack is amazing; which is something I always have to give Bungie credit for. Halo's soundtrack was unbelievable and this is still quite impressive. But other than making the game look nice on the newer consoles and the soundtrack, things will get old after playing Destiny for awhile. Peter Dinklage voices your little robot buddy, Ghost, and I have gotta say his voice-overs are cringe-worthy sometimes. His lack of emotion and monotone delivery makes me wanna mute the game sometimes. I have heard that Bungie wanted him to sound that way on purpose... but regardless it takes away from the game.

Basically Destiny incorporates every game imaginable. It touches on Borderlands, Halo, Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Star Wars, Mass Effect, and pretty much any game you can think of. This is what I love about the game. As far as a storyline goes, there really isn't one except the fact that our galaxy becomes taken over by enemies known as The Fallen, The Hive, Vex, and a few others that are spread across Earth, the Moon, Venus, Mars (and dlc rumors to have Jupiter or Mercury as of typing this). Your job is to go around wrecking your way through enemies to destroy gigantic evil beasts and shrines and other things. So you basically go through the storyline to rank up til you're level 20. Once you are level 20 you must find, earn, and equip armor that has 'light' in it to get to higher levels; the more light you acquire the higher level you get. There are 5 different types of armor for your head, arms, and feet: common (white), uncommon (green), rare (blue), legendary (purple), and Exotic (yellow/gold). Exotic is the hardest to get (I somehow managed to get my hands on some exotic gauntlets but I was extremely lucky). You also can acquire what is known as Class Armor which is basically a band you wear around your arm indicating you are a part of 1 of 4 clans: Vanguard (default), New Monarchy, Dead Orbit, and one other I can't remember. You pick which you want and xp, and crucible marks are banked there so you can purchase better weapons and armor (such as legendary).

There is multiplayer known as The Crucible. You get a deathmatch, FFA, deathmatch with possible revival and a gametype similar to headquarters on COD but with flags. There is a 5th gametype known as salvage that only is around on particular days. There are three types of character you can be: Titan (bulky and strength oriented), Hunter (fast, knife-wielding), and Warlock (back support and energy). I will say that Crucible is absolutely awful in my opinion. It is extremely Titan-friendly. What is also unfortunate is you need to play multiplayer if you want to rank up at some point. I find this to be, easily, the worst part of Destiny; I won't complain about this too much because you can easily find blogs and comments b****in about this already. I have a feeling Bungie will fix this eventually but as of now expect to get your ass kicked up and down the board. They say it is not level-oriented meaning you have the same chances to kill someone who is level 25 even if you are a 5. This is technically true except as a higher level you have access to better weapons which therefore makes it unfair again.

If you want to rank up from 20 you have to play Vanguard strike missions which is basically 1 of 5 missions: Nexus on Venus Summoning Pits on Moon, Valus Ta'aurc on Mars, beating the Archon Priest on Venus, and Devil's Lair on Earth. Archon Priest is the hardest imo followed by Valus Ta'aurc and then Phogon, The Untamed in Summoning Pits. Now these strike missions are required to rank up and earn good weapons. They are usually quite eventful and very hard to do; HOWEVER, they get EXTREMELY old because you have to grind these 5 missions constantly after level 20. This is why I say it is insanely repetitive.

There are also collectibles: Gold chests and Reviving Dead Ghosts. There are 60 ghosts to find and 5 gold chests on each planet. These keep you busy if you are an achievement person.

You can also join in with other players around the world and you can even be on one mission and cross paths with other people who are on completely separate misses; I find this very cool. You can meet a lot of people doing this. The Tower is basically your 'home' where you go and accept and turn in bounties (side missions you can do), encrypt hidden items, buy weapons, etc.. This is where you can meet a whole lot of people running around which is another way you can meet new people to play with. Overall Destiny is a very fun game to play and I'm still quite addicted to it; but be aware that if you hate repetition and grinding this isn't the game for you.

EDITED REVIEW: As of now, Bungie has patched multiple things that make it harder to rank up once you reach level 20. This is, in my opinion, completely ruining the game for me. I don't take back what I have said prior to this but I will say that Bungie's continued patches are going to make this game much less fun to play if they continue to hinder the grinding process (which is what the game is supposed to be in the first place).

Anyway, hope this helps a little. Keep Gaming!

Bad base game, but it got better with DLC

[ctclowe · 10/10 · 4 August 2019]

The game upon release hardly had a story for the most part, but when the first DLC (crota) it actually became really good with really good weapons, the rest of the dlc made it even better. I would only recommend if your getting into destiny (but if you want to understand the whole story you gotta get the DLC)

Destiny is only the beginning

[CurtisWood10 · 8/10 · 15 September 2014]

Destiny is an incredibly different game and perhaps a hard one to put a finger on, but it's so much fun. Labeled as an OWFPS(Open World First Person Shooter), it has elements of an FPS, MMO, and RPG. Set in a world that combines futuristic themes and fantasy aspects, such as magic throwing Warlocks, chivalrous Titans, and swift Hunters, anyone has the ability to find their place in this world. The game mechanics are incredibly solid. You can feel the weight of your weapon and the power you unleash with the super ability as you reign down on enemies. Destiny has multiple game modes including Story, Patrol, Crucible, Raids, Strikes and more. So anyone should what suits their fancy.

Warning: take caution when reading reviews about Destiny. You must understand that this is only the beginning.

Fun, addictive game play with a shoddy story and uninteresting missions

[johnmilligan117 · 8/10 · 16 September 2014]

Destiny is a game that I have been excited about since I first heard about it. I am a long time Bungie fan and I absolutely love Halo. That being said, Destiny takes several amazing aspects from several games including; Halo, Borderlands, Mass Effect, and almost every RPG in existence. The gun-play is on par with most shooters, it feels and looks very similar to Halo which is to be expected. The problem comes in when you play through the story, the voice acting is one of the most hit on subjects as far as Destiny reviews go, the problem is not the actors, in fact I feel that the actors are all great at what they do, the issue is that the story is so bland and vague that the actors are all bored with the concept entirely. With the story aside, particularly since it is only a tiny sliver of the rest of the game.

The real game begins after you finish the story, which won't take long if you take out the fact that you have to spend a large part of your time level grinding in order to maintain the pace required for the story. Once you reach level 20 you begin leveling through your equipment, stronger gear has a light stat, this allows you to level up beyond 20. This is where you begin entering into high level missions, such as Strikes, which are best done with 1-2 other players, friends or strangers can join in on these. Another major aspect of loot grinding are the Raids, which are being released as weekly updates in game. These missions are similar to strikes in that they are harder and require a few other players, the primary difference is that they must be friends and they can take MUCH longer to finish. Most of them are released as a week long quest because it very well may take that long to finish them, and unlike strikes they start off at the level that you chose and increase in difficulty as you progress.

The game is not all bad though, the missions are typically boring rinse and repeat ordeals that can take quite a while, the 3 planets and the moon that you visit during your play are reduced to tiny slivers of the vastness that is promised, yet never delivered, however, teaming up on the fly with random players and joining in on a public event to show off your skills...or lack thereof is insanely enjoyable. Personally I love the idea of grinding through waves of enemies with a friend or two in order to find a new exotic weapon, and being able to jump in or out of the fight at any time(given that you aren't on a story mission) is great, as is waving, dancing or sitting with another random player. If destiny had a proximity chat, then I could easily see this game expand anyone's friends list. Playing online in the crucible is enjoyable given that there are only 4 game types and a 5th game type that is added or taken away at the whim of Bungie. It is a good game with it's own set of flaws, though to be fair many of the issues will be fixed as Bungie has teams working to release new content daily. As for the story, hopefully that can be solved with the upcoming DLC.

Ultimately it is fun to play with friends and strangers alike, and if you enjoy looting and grinding for new gear, and if you can get passed the poorly written and extremely vague story, then you will find yourself playing for hours on end.

It's okay but it could've been so much more

[hectoragonzalez · 6/10 · 27 July 2017]

Destiny could've been so much more, it was going to be this groundbreaking game with massive open worlds and revolutionary gameplay as it was advertised, but once it came out, it was a shell of what it could've been, The story, there is none, who is The Fallen, who are The Awoken, who are the Hive?, what is a Guardian, what are the origins of the Traveller, none of this is explained in the actual game, it's all in the Grimoire, why Bungie could've better explained the story?, who knows. The gunplay is pretty good, it feels smooth and fast-paced, the strikes are really good as well, bosses are fun as well, with that being said, the loot system is absolutely broken, giving you jacks**t while your friends or teammates get awesome loot, and once you find engrams after many hours of grinding that you're hopeful will be good, they end up being crappy, the loot system screws you over, missions are extremely repetitive, kill a bunch of aliens, scan something, then kill more aliens, rinse and repeat, the open worlds feel shallow, empty, and lifeless, , colorful and full of detail, there aren't much enemy variety, PVP is fun, it's complete BS that you have to grind so much to progress after lvl 20, all in all this game isn't bad, in fact it's an enjoyable game, but it could've been so much more

Addicting fun

[giticomi · 9/10 · 4 October 2021]

This game really has you putting in hours. It started with a bumpy release but Bungie really put everything into it. Its beautiful art and amazing RPG mechanics make Destiny one of the best FPS out there.

Major Video Game Review: Destiny (PS4)

[anthonymora2 · 7/10 · 4 February 2015]

What do you get when you mix the makers of the HALO series with the guys responsible for making CALL OF DUTY the cash printing blockbuster it is today? You get DESTINY, a frankensteins monster of the gaming world literally. It's a mouthful describing just what genre of game this is, but is it any good?

DESTINY takes place in the very distant and post apocalyptic future which sees Earth and it's human population in quite the pickle. With the help of a mysterious planet like rock called The Traveler, mankind survives an event called the Collapse, which saw the destruction of human space-colonies across the galaxy and near human extinction! Well that strange new moon gives Earth's protectors, the Guardians, special abilities called the Light and with that power they keep Earth and it's regrowing population safe from hostile alien invaders that are looking for space domination.

Like with my movie reviews, I'm gonna use a similar rating system as I did with my September Game Preview. "MIDNIGHT RELEASER" "FOR A GOOD PRICE" "IT'S PLAYABLE" "EH, TRADE IT TO GAMESTOP" "DON'T EVEN BOTHER" are the ratings and in that order. Let me know what you guys think!

Please check out my full review for DESTINY on my Tumblr, link to that is in my InstaBio and let me know what you think. Have you guys played DESTINY? What do you think? What's your favorite genre mixing game? Drop a comment and LET'S PLAY VIDEOGAMES!

Lazy at Best with a $500 Million Dollar Budget.

[pmn923 · 5/10 · 21 September 2014]

Destiny, it's a first person shooter developed by Bungie the company that made the Critically Acclaimed Series Halo, and Published by Activision the company that pushes games out too early. Well Destiny has a lot of great elements to the Background (which is beyond stunning) and Combat, that feels to the Halo fans. Well With all that said in those, I CANNOT BELIEVE HOW MANY CRITICS ARE GIVING THIS ANYTHING ABOVE A 6/10!!! Sorry caught up in the moment, but seriously this game is the most Over-hyped game I've seen in a while, yeah Watch_Dogs, and Titanfall, were over-hyped, but not as much as this, millions were hoping this game would be good, but nope, this game is as bad as (Oh I'm going to get a lot of hate for this) Aliens: Colonial Marines, not because of the AI, or how disappointing the game actually was, but the fact that the Ending, that Ending is a Bullet in the Face to everyone, the fact that this game will continue with BS DLC which will probably cost $20.00 Each if multiples, and everyone gives it slack, but this game draws the line.

So The game is short, the Character Creator is limited, and the Loot SUCKS, this game is Lazy.

But on the Plus side, the Soundtrack was Beautiful, the best part of the Whole Entire Game was the Soundtrack alone.

So.

++ Good Soundtrack

+ Good Combat

+ Good Level Designs

+ Decent Enemies (if they did not Repeat themselves through the entire Game)

-- Repetitive Missions

• Terrible Story

• Loot SUCKS

• DLC Bait

Final Score is...

5/10!!! Average!!!, very Disappointing, and way over-Hyped.

And one more thing, this was $500 Million WTF!!!, where did it go??

Updated review of all DLC and general rating of destiny.

[chaseslay · 9/10 · 29 May 2017]

Now, I've seen very bad reviews of this game and I have to admit, the original game was a huge fail. It had little content, a terrible voice actor for the lovable character Ghost and the level system was tedious. But with the DLC came raids, 6 man missions requiring skill and communication, new content, new weapons and new enemies. Yes there is little story in this game even today when the game is complete. I want to know more about the time shifting enemies The Vex, or learn who created the Technological plague SIVA and who was Aksis? But when your sitting there attempting to destroy a god in raid, there is a feeling of many feelings that may overcome many players. To finally beat a boss you couldn't before brings a sense of triumph, a feeling of power cause when you beat them you get loot to destroy others in the crucible with. Without the loot destiny wouldn't be as great as it was today. I overplay this game constantly for a weapon I've been chasing for a while. Maybe people that couldn't live with the original game can learn to give it a chance because now glitches, leveling and the soundtrack were improved. By the way listen to the soundtrack it's the best out of a lot of the games I play. Now go, Chase your destiny Guardians!

Stupendous combat, but not enough around it

[jamesalmos · 7/10 · 17 June 2016]

Destiny has come a long way since the early days of completely inexplicable story snippets and horrid Dinklebot voicing. The loot system is improved, the character loadout options no longer require a single - often very difficult to obtain - weapon to be in hand for certain activities. The social spaces are not as frustratingly sparse.

What makes Destiny is the combat system. No matter the class or subclass, fighting just flows. The character becomes an extension of the player rather than something one merely manipulates. Using a nova bomb animation to slide around a corner and instantly strike, a long-range death-from-above fist of panic - er, sorry, "havoc" - or whatever it is those hunters do: it feels like crafting your own highlight reel in real time.

Now that we've taken down Oryx and Son, there's a respectable bit of story to be told. But therein lies the problem. With a game this size that requires this much time, there should have been 10 times the story content by now. By the end of the supposed 10-year run, we might end up with one game's worth.

tl;dr Incredibly fun to play. Just don't expect to care about why anything is happening - what little they do say is easily forgotten.

Such a disappointment!

[MrChr15 · 4/10 · 18 September 2014]

Having been a Halo fan for many years, I was expecting a world filled to the brim with story. A very dark look at the fate of Humanity just managing to cling to life against hordes of aliens. I was expecting my Ghost to guide me through the darkness with witty banter and interesting tales.

What we got was a bland run of near identical missions (granted, they do go through some very pretty scenery) with a boring final "boss" mission and a storyline that leaves you wondering what the hell just happened. You never once get the sense of a desperate Humanity fighting tooth and nail for survival, just a boring 10 minute stroll through mission after mission, killing lots of mostly easy enemies which rarely serve up any decent loot from the random drops.

At no point was a story developed. The only two cut-scenes that have any kind of story to them in the Reef area cannot be accessed twice, while the other (much less story driven) cut-scenes can be rewatched, but only by going through one of the bland levels again. What could have been an amazing piece of lore was swept under the rug when the Speaker is talking about the Traveler. He should have explained how it saved humanity, but instead he merely recounts about how he COULD tell you about it without explaining anything at all. That kind of frustrating story point is found in every part of the game where the story could be progressed.

Peter Dinklage's performance as the Ghost is almost cringe-worthy at times, with the dull monotone that he was apparently instructed to use making the only character companion you have very boring to listen to. This apparent "guide" is purely used as a device to hold you up in an area while having to kill multiple waves of enemies, before moving on slightly to be held up again and kill multiple waves of enemies. The game mechanics never really vary from that pattern.

The saving graces of this game are it's gameplay and sound design. If you have played Halo, the guns handle very similarly, while the powers of each of the three classes make you feel amazing as you launch them straight at a group of enemies, disintegrating them all in one go.

The music of Destiny is yet another master-piece by (now ex-Bungie) composer Martin O'Donnell and is easily the best feature of the whole game, adding more of an emotional sense to the game than anything in the storyline itself.

Overall, Destiny is fun to play with a group of friends when you don't think too much about the story, but if you are looking for the next big sci-fi story in games, look elsewhere.

Boring

[ksketchley · 6/10 · 1 January 2019]

Without a gripping plot and not a lot to do than just keep killing aliens this game gets boring pretty quick. You might find some fun while playing with friends while teaming up to take down a boss but there are better games to play and enjoy than this one. Overall 6/10.

Not a title worth playing in the long run

[Kryptonite-Dragon · 5/10 · 18 January 2015]

Initially the story and graphics of this game are very appealing. The quality of the fighting and the experience using weapons with visuals are indeed fantastic. The basis for a fantastic game is here with strong roots in great gameplay.

This being said, it will quickly fall short as a title you'll want to keep playing. The hype that came with this game was so above and beyond what actually is there in story and content that it is a smack in the face for strong regular gamers that play many hours on their games.

You see there is no real end goal except collecting guns and armor. The armor has a light (armor) rating that will have you chasing after the best stuff anywhere and everywhere you can find it. In order to do this you'll need to play some of the harder missions. Regardless of your level though you'll find the game will alter enemies to be just a bit stronger than you rendering your actual armor level nearly worthless. You can play a mission over and over again at any level you like and it is pretty much the same challenges with only slight differences in enemies.

The mission rewards...terrible. The grind of doing the same missions over and over to upgrade armor and weapons makes this game boring fast. Couple this with the weapon and armor drops being random (regardless of how many times you do it or how well you perform) and you often find you are doing these same missions many many many more times only to get not much of anything.

Each DLC released is destined to have you virtually reset to an equal level as others due to the availability of high level armor and weapons released with the new content. You could grind daily for months and when the next DLC releases you might as well be starting over.

PVP. Well it can be fun if you are into using a few select weapons that get the job done. Again rewards are virtually none existent, random, and nearly always all but worthless.

The plot of the game...not there. You just show up in the game and nowhere do you get any real in game information that amounts to anything understandable or cohesive. It is simply a bunch of aliens attacking various planets...go fight them! Matchmaking with others is not available in many important areas of the game. You have to have friends ready and willing to play the hardest challenges with you and then rely on them all to be on during the same large block of hours, have good weapons, a good connection to even hope to get a majority capable of chatting, and be of sufficient level to hopefully participate. The discussion of strategy is usually pointless because bugs and game glitches will repeatedly sink your "team" progress more than anything else. The "raid" (the hardest and supposedly most rewarding part of the game) is often a nightmare for most players in that people leave out of frustration. The "average" player is simply not likely to have fun here and you must expect all participants to be well armed, ranked up, and highly skilled to get close to having any success.

To sum it up...it's pretty, shooting is done well and smooth. The graphics are great. The races and back end thought in setup of planets is fantastic. But ultimately a little kid could just mindlessly get on and blast stuff and have fun for a few hours a week and this is the best use for the game right now. It seems to me to be a beta waiting for the story and vast interactive gaming (with true teams of friends) still needing to be developed. As I've heard said many times "style over substance".

Released half a game

[reasean-cavana · 5/10 · 21 October 2014]

Now if you have not played a first person shooter in the last ten years then you will disagree with my rating.

The game its self is a solid well balanced shooter, with the type of convoluted leveling system reminiscent of some MMORPGs. The visuals are stunning, the music is great in the sense that you have to concentrate to notice its there otherwise its setting the mood and doing it well. For me that's where the greatness ends, because this is where it gets dull.

Its the future, you can be revived from death after an annoyingly unknown amount of time, teleportation seems to be easier than sneezing for Ghosts yet some how there are only 8 types of weapon. Space ships have liquid fuel. Hover bikes don't come with miniguns mounted on the front as standard. Level by luck. No shields. No armored robotic suit. Yet its the future after a technological golden age.

These thing might be considered as pet peeves but having played older and better games I would expect contextual realism. This seems to have none. Its still a good shooter.

My main concern is the story. Borderlands had little story and explained more than destiny. Fallout was a good story with good side quests. Destiny cheats by outsourcing there story to the Bungie website. No gaining knowledge by meeting NPCs and finding snippets of audio and video logs, NOOOOOOOOO. Why bother when you the paying gamer have to goon line and study the, what could have been, rich lore of destiny. Still a good shooter.

So they give you an RPG with the RPG elements left in a jar of formaldehyde to view separately from your gaming experience. S suspect that the call of duty games have more lines of dialog then destiny. A good shooter.

All tar cast, that apparently did very little. I've heard Claudia Black in the dragon age games and mass effect games and think she's great. Now she's a shop keeper. Peter D. ha got the worst rap out of everything. He did as he was asked. What was asked was what he delivered. Good shooter.

At the end of it all Bungie created an addictive game with great elements that keep you wanting to shoot the 40 or so different enemies for hours, but I have played better games made by less prestigious companies with smaller budgets and not felt like I was been taken for a ride. The Zelda games had more story than this. Shooter.

Hated it.

[Analog_Devotee · 1/10 · 4 August 2021]

Being a big fan of Halo and Borderlands, something told me this game would be right up my alley. Plus, all my friends were buying it day one so I felt I better do the same. I ended up hating this game. It felt repetitive within just a few hours of playtime. The resolution is sharp but the graphics are so boring, everything basically looks the same. Same with the character and/or armor models -- there's zero incentive to go after different gear based on looks, only its armor rating so you can progress into more of the same repetitive quests.

Wasn't for me.

It could have been better.

[corvinjanet · 5/10 · 9 November 2015]

This game had a very dull, and almost non-existent, story. It was very bland, you hardly know what the heck is going on, and why is anything happening, and guess what? If you want to know why anything is happening, or have better detail about who somebody or something is, if you want anything involving who, what, when, where, why and how, then you have to go on the Bungie website, and open these things called 'Grimoire Cards', which I.M.O. is so pathetic, because they could have just told you about all of that then and there. It makes you stop yourself from immersing into the game anymore, just to know what in the heck is going on.

Okay, so the 'story' starts out with a very bland and dull opening, where humans have finally landed on the planet Mars in the year 2024, where they meet a big object, called the Traveler, which has been running from an entity called the Darkness for many years. After the humans find the Traveler, humans have longer lifespans (about 300 to be precise), and the Traveler helps the humans terraform planets like Venus, Mercury, and Saturn (last 2 aren't seen on the initial title). Eventually, the Darkness finds the Traveler, civilizations are lost, and it is up to you to push back against the Darkness, and reclaim the galaxy. After that little opening, the game then jumps hundreds of years forward into the future, among the ruins of Old Russia, Earth. A few Fallen soldiers are seen, and then an almost downed Cosmodrome, and then your Ghost, who then comes to bring you back from the dead, and hardly anything at all is explained, and your character has no initial reaction to being resurrected; it's just like "Oh, okay."

After that, you have to fight through the Fallen, steal the Cosmodrome, and escape the area to a place called the Tower, where you meet the Speaker, and it is honestly one of the laziest attempts at explaining anything to you. It's just "I could tell you", which he never does! You have to see the Grimoire cards on the Bungie website, which is absolutely pathetic. After that, it's mostly "Kill aliens, scan a thing, move on. Kill aliens, scan a thing, move on." Did I forget to mention "Kill aliens, scan a thing, and move on."?

The gameplay, for the most part, is a huge improvement from Halo 4. You can now use all sorts of different guns (most of them look identical) AND you can use your scope and aim down your sights more realistically!

There is this multi-player mode called the Crucible. It's basically just your generic 3v3, 6v6 PvP, but it's still pretty fun. The strikes are probably the best part of the entire game, where you take on these hour-long missions with friends or random players, and just go through a grind fest of hard-to-defeat bosses and dozens of enemies. I'm sure you will have a blast there.

The RNG loot system is tedious. All of the loot is random, no matter how many kills you get, no matter how good you are at the game. IT"S ALL RANDOM! This, however, has been fixed ever since The Taken King update. More loot is dropped from enemies and bosses, and is now definitely more rewarding than the year one launch.

I'm just saying it could have been better. Think about how big it would have been, if Activision, yes you heard me right, ACTIVISION, didn't take away their creative freedom, and the founder of the story didn't leave the studio. Just think about how big, immersing, and awesome it would have been back then. And because of all of this, I give this game a 5 out of 10. If it wasn't for the Crucible and the Strike missions, if it was just for the storytelling, the game would come down to a verdict of a 3-4 out of 10, but yeah. 5/10; it could have been better.

Brings nothing new to the table

[Random_as_Pie · 4/10 · 19 October 2014]

This game looks really good, and some of the fighting is pretty fun, but other than that, this game is all style and no substance.

Sure, we got Peter Dinklage in this, but he is completely wasted here. All he is there for is for exposition and to occasionally advance the plot, if it can even be called that.

The "humanity is doomed" plot is only interesting if the reason for its doom is interesting. And if the resolution is interesting as well. "Space thugs are threatening humanity! Let's shoot them with our guns!" is neither an interesting scenario nor resolution. Okay, there are fetch quests, too. But that certainly does not help.

Don't even get me started on the "always on" thing. This is the first "always on" game I've ever played and I must say I get why there was such backlash against it in the past. Being kicked off in the middle of a mission or raid due to server issues is annoying as hell.

But hey, if you enjoy mindless, pretty shooters where you can turn off your brain and just blast things in the face until they fall over or explode, you'll probably have a blast with this. And enjoy it you should. I don't think any less of people that do enjoy this type of experience. It's just not for me. Those of you wanting a deeper, more meaningful experience should look elsewhere.

Do not buy

[theshadow_10 · 1/10 · 13 December 2016]

listen when I purchased this game I was very excited to see what the this game had to offer I was extremely disappointed, the characters look the same, the guns look the same, levels look the same and play the same, the enemies also look the same the game was good for around 10 minutes until you realised the tutorial was the best mission in the game. Why do you also have to pay over £170 for all the DLCs?! That add like a few levels that could be bought for around £5. The DLC missions last a least 2 hours. I was really disappointed buy these add ons and I really expected more from this company. So in conclusion don't buy the game