 So great, yet so empty. A giant planet-like object called The Traveler comes to Earth and brings a new age of prosperity until The Darkness ruins it all. Now its up to a small group of heroes to fight back the darkness.
1. Gameplay
Destiny is almost 100% going to be the most disappointing game of 2014. The hype around this game was huge. Bungie, the development studio that created the Halo series, was going to release a game that combined the best of space-based first-person shooters with the best of mission-based RPGs. This was going to be the game that defined both genres for a decade.  It could have been a contender. But it all went wrong. The mechanics in Destiny are practically flawless. The game is beautiful to look at. There are plenty of interesting environments and the levels feel huge. Even 20+ hours into the game I am discovering new places. But, while I hate to say this, that’s about what I expect from a development studio as experienced as Bungie. But the story, the characters, the dialogs, and the mission variety are all basically non-existent. They even signed Peter Dinklage to voice the only character that consistently talks in this game, yet they couldn’t get him to act like he has any idea what he’s saying. I know Dinklage is a good actor (using Game of Thrones and others as reference), so how is it that the studio with a decade of experience creating convincing AI characters couldn’t get a voice actor to read his lines properly?  Beautiful scenery, but completely empty. Around E3, I was told that the writers didn’t want to release the story to the public. They wanted to keep some mystery so that people would be surprised and things would feel fresh. They did tell me that the player was the only thing standing in between the last remnants of humanity and a terrifying “darkness” that was about to consume everything. I said that the idea seemed oversimplified, and the fact they were unwilling to give me an idea of what to expect meant that I had the (now justified) concern that there wasn’t any story, and that they were just covering this fact up. The worst part is that there are a few times when the dialog actually gets interesting. The few times when my character talks with Dinklage sometimes shows a great back and forth between the two characters. I wanted more of this, more of the thing that gets me interested in the backstory and in finding out more about the world and the people around me. I want to be able to talk to more than just shopkeepers (whose supplies are seriously lacking), to go on missions that don’t require additional reading in my spare time to understand names and places, to feel a drive to un-mute my TV and listen to the dialog.  Pops up for a cutscene, then goes away never to return. I want desperately to like Destiny. The shooting mechanics are great, the item drops and leveling up systems are fun. But I can’t recommend an experience that feels unrefined and unfinished. While it’s definitely something to pick up eventually, especially if you have friends that want to play, I wouldn’t pay full price for this experience.
While my playthrough lasted around 20 hours, the true length of this game will depend on a number of factors. First, while I played the entire game by myself (with a few exceptions where I was forced to team up with random players), playing this game with friends can make replaying the same missions into an awesome experience. Playing with a core group of friends can, by itself, significantly increase the longevity of this game. Aside from that, the competitive multiplayer can also increase the lifespan of this game. If the player enjoys the multiplayer mechanics, levels, and game modes there’s practically an unlimited number of matches to player. Finally, if the player enjoys grinding to try and reach the highest levels and try the newest missions, redoing old missions and trying to get new armor and weapons can add dozens of hours of gameplay. The designers of this game are working on releasing new content for high-level players, so those individuals who can stick with trying to unlock levels for a time can work with friends and other players at some extremely long missions.
The competitive multiplayer (PvP) was the only thing that left me feeling extremely frustrated in this game. Outside of the PvP, the game’s mechanics were almost flawlessly smooth, the missions were relatively straightforward, and my powers and weapons could always (eventually) outclass my enemies. While there were plenty of times when I felt bored, I almost never felt frustrated in the normal missions. The PvP was a whole different animal. In the first five matches I played my team lost every single time. It didn’t matter if I did extremely well or extremely poorly, I was left frustrated by my opponents. I don’t know if my enemies had better abilities, better weapons and armor, or were simply more skilled at this style of combat. The fact that weapons and abilities transfer over from the normal gameplay into the PvP meant that I could never tell if everything was a level playing field.  I'd recommend avoiding the PvP entirely until you're loaded with blue and purple armor. This was a concern I brought up back when I played the beta. While games like Call of Duty can create an imbalance that heavily favors more experienced players, the reality is that a gamer who plays long enough knows with 100% certainty that they can unlock the same weapons as everyone else. That isn’t the case in games like Destiny, where weapons and armor are randomly dropped.  Dominating, yet still not having fun. Eventually it got to the point where I flat out actively refused to play any more PvP. It was not an enjoyable experience and I wasn’t going to subject myself to it in order to eventually unlock the ability to access weapons in a different store. It simply wasn’t worth the time and frustration I would have to endure. The numerical rating I gave this section is 100% due to the experience I had in PvP. 2. Parental Notices
Violence in this game is about as mild as a first person shooter can get. The player will use a variety of weapons and abilities to damage enemies. All weapons will have similar effects. Hits will result in some sparks, but the player is more likely to focus on the numbers that indicate how much damage is being dealt rather than on the effect the shots are having on the enemy. Any effects these shots have are further masked by the distance to the target (which can sometimes be substantial), the colorful effects of the rounds, and the reaction (or lack thereof) that the target gives from being hit.  Get used to aiming down the sights. The only time when violence becomes more significant is if the player scores a critical hit that kills the enemy. In this case, the critically hit area will explode into a colorful shower of liquid, sparks, energy, or some other visual effect depending on the species and enemy type. While some enemies may be emitting blood, the alleged “blood” is never red like blood (so it could be oil or some other artificial fluid).  What is that? Light? Smoke? Grenades, rockets, and other explosives never cause any gore to appear. Enemies that are killed by explosions can be sent flying into the air, depending on their size and the magnitude of the explosion.  Most explosives are just balls of energy anyway. Certain abilities, especially certain special abilities, can cause a killed enemy to disintegrate on death. In this case, the enemy dissolves into bright pieces and then disappears quickly.  Sparkle sparkle!
Sexuality is not a factor in this game.
Substances are not a factor in this game.
Gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
I would be open to a debate about whether the people, races, locations, and events included in the backstory of this game are religious in nature. However, I was never able to find an instance where the discussions went from a “historically accurate” description to a faith-based one. Almost all of the backstories that the quest-givers relate are purely academic.  Academic, yet he doesn't ever seem to tell me anything. In fact, the only explicitly “religious” thing I could find was a few locations where enemies could be found bowing to extremely powerful boss enemies. These were very rare instances and the enemies always got up to attack the player once combat started.
Anti-law is not a factor in this game.
The online community of this game is one of the most civil I have ever encountered in any multiplayer game I have played. A huge portion of this may have to do with the fact that players cannot openly talk to each other via text or microphone. Only people who are paired together in a party can talk directly to each other via microphone. While this has been cited as a negative by gamers, I can’t help but notice the extremely positive effects this has. The times when I paired up with other random players were rather enjoyable as long as my newfound “friends” worked together to take down enemies. In fact, the only time when I found the other players to be annoying in any way was when one would sit back and let the others do the work in a difficult boss battle. Since these players obtained the same reward regardless of if they helped or not, there was a small incentive to not do anything and hope that the other players could get the job done. Really though, this was a pretty insignificant problem for me, since I usually prefer to get the job done by myself anyway. That being said, there are some extremely good players in the multiplayer of this game. As I mentioned before, even when I won I felt frustrated. I could never quite tell if it was my equipment and armor, my abilities, or some lack of skill / knowledge of the game that was leading to my inability to feel effective. Be prepared to feel dominated in this environment.
Jumping and boosting are a vital part of this game’s movement and combat systems. The character can get a jetpack that allows the player to boost high into the air. Damage from falling is significantly muted from real life. However, there is little risk of mimicking this type of effect in real life.  It's just like flying, but with a bit more gravity. The player can also gain access to a few vehicles. Most of these vehicles include the ability to boost speed for various periods of time. The smaller, more nimble vehicles can take jumps and steep drops, but driving these around the worldspace is less like driving an ATV and more like driving a well-controlled hovercraft.  I want to ride my bicycle...
While almost all of the characters’ abilities and weapons are clearly designed to be technologically based, there are a few abilities that seem to be of a magical nature. These primarily have to do with each character’s special ability. While having a magical punch or throwing grenades with different, unrealistic effects could be explained away as technological, the ability to cause an electric explosion by slamming into the round or fire a huge ball of energy from one’s hand is not sufficiently explained by the technology included within the game.  Lots of flying and energy orbs. And while some gamers may debate the above as superior technology, the ability for the “wizard” enemy type to float around in the air without use of technology and the ability for the robotic enemies to teleport from location to location instantly are both examples of something that I can only explain as magical.  Oh those wizards... The reality is that Destiny is science fantasy. If we remove the guns and metallic sheen from the art style and replace it with fur and bones, this game would be at home with Skyrim and The Witcher.
There are no additional factors in this game.
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