Erstellt am: 20. 9. 2014 - 10:26 Uhr
Today's Webtip: Destiny
The ninth of september was a massive day for console gamers. It was the release date for what may have been not only the most expensive game ever produced, but also the most hyped, most divisive and most successful game launch ever.
That game was Destiny, the latest title from Bungie, a mix between first person shooters and massively multiplayer online role playing games. Think of it as a cross between Halo and World of Warcraft.
Bungie doesn't just have majestic soundscapes and epic space vistas. It looks great and plays well, something you would expect from the creators of Halo. The first couple of levels play like a standard first person shooter, with a nice interconnection between story, cooperative and competitve player versus player elements. You basically run around shooting stuff and looking good while doing it. But its those same graphics that had a lot of people feeling let down. Many complained that it was just a thin veneer of shiny over a very shallow story line.
That was your ghost AKA Peter Dinklage, the Game of Thrones actor and voice of your primary in-game counterpart. With one of the silliest lines I have ever heard in a game. It's since been cut but that phrase became a best-selling t-shirt months ago.
Peter is your Ghost. It's your companion, informant, and even creator. It was the ghost that found you among the millions of dead and brought you back to life in order to fight the darkness.
Yes, you basically play a zombie warrior in space. Most everything you learn in game is being told to you by the ghost. Something many players and reviewers found very annoying. You come into the game world as a person with no past and only one future. Fighting the Darkness. Ignorance is your primary characteristic, and while the other characters in game might actually know what's going on, they aren't about to sit down and tell you the story.
Just like real life.
That's actually what makes this game so interesting. Background information is made available in the form of grimoire cards, bits of information that can only be accessed on the Bungie website or in it's companion app. And just like in real life, the curious find those cards, read the information, piece a story together and begin to speculate. Conspiracy theories already abound, many of which inadvertently mirror the factions vaguely outlined by characters in game.
And that's what is special about Destiny. Many games look good these days, there are countless first person shooters, and online role playing has been a huge business for years. Combing these things makes Destiny playable, or for some, addictive, but it's the very ambiguity of the story line that allows for everyone playing to find their place in the world.
Sci-Fi fans will find all sorts of tasty references in the lore, and it's hard to avoid thinking that the people involved might be fond of Iain Banks' work. Bungie fans who are familiar with Marathon should be suffering with some serious Déjà Vu.
But it means the player actually has to work to make sense out of what is happening. Bungie really wants you to use their website as a resource and integral part of the game. They have basically commited to the idea of second screen media consumption, providing apps for mobile devices that provide a lot of background information, secondary services and communications management.
You need to use it, because the biggest complaint I have about the game is its communication tools. There basically aren't any. Bungie has limited voice chat to strike teams, and in order to organize them you really need to be active in some kind of online forum. Bungie's own forums provide the tools for this, and it's the only way you can do things like join in-game clans.
The community has shaped up nicely though, and there are a few very useful resources available for those who want to dig in.
Reddit has a great community building up
And one user put together a tool to help you find support for those raids and crucible matches where voice chat is key www.destinylfg.com
As much as l like having the screamers and jerks taken out of voice chat, I HATE the hoops you have to jump through to actually find people. That said, if you are looking for someone to grind or strike with, hit me up. I'm on PS3. Just send me a message for my nick.