Destiny Beta – will this be the MMO of 2014?

I spent many hours playing the Destiny Alpha, so when I launched the beta and found the settings were basically the same, I was somewhat disappointed.

Once I had overcome that, which took all of 2 minutes, I set out to explore and conquer once again.

The major difference between the alpha and the beta is the ability to play through some story missions. All these missions take place in Old Russia, on Earth, and shed some light on how the game will play out.

Story Missions

In the beta, there were four main story missions to play through: one ending off with a boss battle, and the others only ending with the annihilation of every swarming enemy.

Old Russia – a cemetery of old tanks, planes, rocket ships, and gargantuan buildings – played host to the missions, which saw you searching for and finding your space ship, battling the Fallen for control of the hilly map, and discovering a hive nest.

Aiding on this little journey was Ghost – voiced by Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones fame. Although its tone is rather serious, there’s a warmth to the floating device, which makes it a welcome companion.

Public Events

The game also featured a few events which appeared while exploring Old Russia.

These types of events are random, public, and timed – with an ultimate objective of defeating all the enemies before said timer runs out.

The objectives for these kinds of events are always the same, just sugar-coated with different terminology, like “defeat the mining excavators”.

While not impossible to finish alone, help is always welcome from other players on the map, and you’ll find yourself rewarded with XP and loot.

Devil’s Lair: Strike Mission

There was nothing new in terms of the Strike Missions in the beta, all taking place in the Devil’s Lair.

Two other players and I battled through waves of enemies while protecting our Ghost – as is required when you first set out.

Once this was done, we faced a Spider Tank – a huge mechanical beast that deals major damage – while waves of enemies kept spawning and attacking us.

After the Spider Tank was destroyed we were introduced to Sepkis Prime, a round ball-like machine that mumbles strange words.

This, of course, also had to die.

The Strike Missions were a great way to spend time during the beta – lengthy battles which tested both teamwork and individual ability.

(Ed note: I tried to do the Strike Mission – one of the players went into orbit after three minutes, while the other ran around doing his own thing. Needless to say, I died multiple times trying to do it solo.)

The Crucible

The PvP arena has also not changed much, with only the playable maps having been swapped around with new ones.

The game modes are still the same – capture and hold an area, and stop the other team from taking it.

Hold the areas for the longest to get the most points, while killing the other team of 6 to win the round, and you are good to go.

I am not much of a multiplayer gamer, but I enjoyed the PvP.

How well you do in the other game modes (in terms of levelling up and upgrading your weapons and armour) gives you an advantage in the arena.

After a while, I was able to join public events and unlocked The Iron Banner maps, which give access to special special loot at certain times of the day.

Overall, my time with Destiny was great, and it kept drawing me back. I’m definitely looking forward to the full game release.

Destiny will be released for PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on 9 September 2014.

Footnote by Kevin Lancaster

Megarom Interactive, the local distributors of Destiny, where kind enough to provide me with a key for the Beta. After downloading the game on Friday, I set to work sussing out a title I was on the fence about.

From the moment I heard the slow, powerful orchestral music at the home screen, I felt absorbed by the game. The Beta, as you have read, let’s you play Story, Explore, and Strike missions in Old Russia on Earth; take part in some intense, Halo-esque 6v6 capture the flag battles in the Crucible; and teases you with the option to view a Moon mission – which you cannot access.

The transfer of your skills, abilities, weapons, and armour across these various modes requires you to balance out searching the story and explore maps and battling hard for experience points in the Crucible, in order to have a powerful Guardian.

The game’s servers seemed to work fine during the first weekend, although on Sunday evening I did have connectivity problems for about 20 minutes. If the Beta is anything to go by, there should be enough real-world players to keep the Strike and Crucible missions interesting.

In conclusion, I think I will be picking up a copy of Destiny come 9 September.