What is it? Halo developer Bungie breaks away from Master Chief to deliver a hugely ambitious, massively-multiplayer, online space shooter - and it’s brilliant fun.

When’s it out? 9 September 2014 (Beta version available now with PS4 pre-orders of the game and on 23/07 for Xbox One pre-orders of the game).

Oh, hi there! Have you managed to play the Destiny beta yet? No? Well, that can only mean one of three things: you’re an Xbox One fan waiting for the beta to launch this Wednesday (PS4 owners, meanwhile, have had access since last week), you haven’t had chance to sign up yet or you simply don’t care about video games (tsk).

Assuming you’re not in that last camp, of course, Destiny is an incredibly exciting prospect. It is, after all, the ludicrously ambitious new first-person shooter from Bungie, the developer responsible for the beloved Halo series. It’s part FPS, part massively multiplayer online game and - as the beta has proven - a hell of a lot of fun. We’ve put a good few hours into the game now - so, if you haven’t been lucky enough to hop onboard the beta train yet, read on for our early impressions...



Perhaps the first thing to note is just how amazingly the generous the Destiny beta is. Sure, it’s generosity that serves a practical purposes - you’re here to help test Bungie’s servers, after all - but that doesn’t mean the developer hasn’t gone out of its way to ensure that you’re having a damn good time while you do so.

Fire up the Destiny beta and you have instant access to Earth, (just one of the many vast, explorable planets in the final game) and its five story missions, a single raid-style Strike mission, plus one on-going exploration-based quest. Then there’s a host of classic competitive multiplayer mayhem to be had at the Crucible, and all the shopping, equipment boosting and hip gyrating you could possibly ever want back at the social-focussed hub area known as the Tower.



Before you can get stuck into the real meat of the Destiny beta, however, you’ve a scene-setting tutorial mission to wade through. Not only does this introduce you to the basics of gunplay (none of which will be even remotely surprising to FPS aficionados), you also get a first look at the game’s frankly astonishing art style; the desolate wasteland of Old Russia, your starting location, is certainly bleak, but also hugely atmospheric, offering some breathtaking vistas.

It’s here that you meet your new, constant companion Ghost. As the game begins, this strange floating square (a creation of the uber-intelligent - and plot critical - space-sphere known as The Traveler) brings you back from the dead in order to join the Guardians - an Earth-based group tasked with holding back the wave of darkness threatening to extinguish the remnants of humanity.



Ghost, incidentally, is voiced by Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones’ Tyrion Lannister), who doesn’t so much phone in his performance as scrawl it on the back of a postcard and post it in. Admittedly, he’s working from an often abysmal script but, even with newly-added voice modulation to mask Dinklage’s bored tones, Ghost is still a tough character to warm to.

Thankfully, he’s one of the few missteps Bungie seems to have made when crafting its deep-space spectacular. Indeed, everything else about the game - from its astonishing new-gen visuals to its remarkably tactile interface - absolutely screams quality, and that applies to its first-class shooting action too. As you’d expect from Bungie, Destiny’s gunplay is sublime - every weapon feels convincingly weighty, every encounter is tense and breathlessly paced and playing is a pure joy.


For starters, even at this beta stage, Destiny offers a dizzying array of weapons. There are auto rifles, scout rifles, sniper rifles, hand cannons, machine guns, shotguns, heavy weapons and more - each distinct enough to bring strategic nuance to the frantic gunplay.

That wouldn’t amount to much, of course, if tackling enemies was devoid of challenge; in Destiny, however, your opponents are smart, able to deploy a range of sophisticated tactical manoeuvres - as defined by their class - on the battlefield. Dregs, for instance, offer the least resistance and prefer to fight up close, while Vanguards hang back and unleash swirling energy bolts from afar. What’s more, these guys - known as The Fallen - are just one of the diverse, distinct enemy races you’ll encounter on your intergalactic adventures during the final game.


On the shooting side, then, Destiny feels great. However, the game’s core action is elevated further still by the fact that all three available character classes (Titan, Hunter and Warlock) feel great in different ways. You select your preferred class up front, then (once you’ve tinkered with the game’s cosmetic options to ensure that you’re the toughest and sexiest Guardian in the universe) you’re good to go.

In truth, the beta only offers a tiny taste of each class’s level-based abilities, but there’s just enough to see where Bungie is heading. In a nutshell, then, Titans are the up-close-and-personal, commando style-units, Hunters are better suited to sniping and Warlocks are the magic-inspired class. Don’t misunderstand: you’ll still mostly be shooting things up, but the differences between classes are substantial enough to enable complementary, tactical play.


Early on, for instance, Titans learn a devastating (and hilarious) belly-flop style move that allows them to charge into a throng and, basically, explode. Warlocks, meanwhile, can take care of stragglers by launching their own area-of-effect abilities from afar. These super abilities aren’t always available, however - they must be charged by performing kills, completing quests or collecting Orbs of Light on your travels.

Classes, incidentally, also have distinct melee moves: get up close to an opponent while playing as a Titan and you can deliver a powerful, bone-crunching electrical punch to the noggin. Hunters, meanwhile, can hang back and sling throwing knives. Truthfully, there are far too many class distinctions to cover here, but half the fun is discovery through experimentation, and you’re free to create new characters whenever you please.


That said, if you’re the kind of player that thrives on experimentation and discovery, then Destiny’s beta already offers plenty to keep you amused. For starters, you can explore the bustling social hub known as the Tower.

This vast, sort-of-intergalactic-shopping-mall contains weapons and armour merchants, engineers that can upgrade your ship or hover bike (yes!), a cryptographer capable of turning encrypted loot into rare rewards, a bounty hunter that metes out daily Achievement-style challenges and even a postmaster for… reasons. You can happily spend hours milling around here - chatting to people, admiring the gorgeous views and delighting at the secret trampoline; unsurprisingly, however, the meat of Destiny’s action is further afield.



With a tap of the button, you’re able to fly into orbit and from here (in the beta, at least) you’re given two options: either visit Earth via your star map to partake in a handful of story missions or tear on over to the Crucible for some multiplayer mayhem. Either way, you’re guaranteed a good time - but it’s story mode that arguably shows Destiny at its finest and most ambitious.

For starters, once you return to Old Russia (having worked through the game’s opening tutorial mission), you immediately get a sense of just how vast Destiny’s maps are. Old Russia is huge, stretching across rocky outcrops, arid plains, empty river beds, gaping canyons, abandoned factories (including dingy, labyrinthine interiors) and strange alien structures - there’s even a derelict shipyard, strewn with rusted tankers, that lies on the edge of an endless golden sea.


Indeed, Old Russia is so vast that even aimless exploration has its own rewards, particularly once you unlock the distinctly Star Wars-esque Shrike - a hover bike capable of taking corners and bounding up hills at gleefully breathtaking speeds. Then there’s your double-jump-activated jetpack which, when coupled with your run-and-drop ground slide, adds some wonderfully liberating, parkour-style movement to the game.

Imagine all this exhilarating traversal action melding with Bungie’s first-rate gunplay - as random enemies appear on the map or you embark on one of the game’s impeccably designed set-pieces (all of which can be played with a few friends in tow) - and you should have a fair idea of what makes Destiny shine. In theory, at least.


You see, Destiny’s always-online nature means that it can constantly deliver new surprises. You might, for instance, stumble across a random public event while exploring the environment. These challenges enable you to join forces with other players on your map (more often than not complete strangers) and indulge in special tests of skill - provided that you can reach the starting location in time.

One such event tasks your makeshift team with protecting a transmitter while waves of hellish opponents rush in. It’s nail-biting stuff - and the sense of impromptu companionship is oddly heart warming, given how toxic most online shooters can be. Best of all, exemplary teamwork is rewarded with a three-star ranking, enabling you to collect some juicy rewards back at the Tower.


Incidentally, if rewards and loot are your thing, you’ll love Destiny. Even in beta form, it offers countless weapons and armour pieces to find - alongside a wealth of class-specific abilities to unlock as you level up. Oh, and did we mention that individual weapons and armour pieces gain new skills as they level up too?

If you’re wondering what to do with all this newfound power, then look no further than the Destiny beta’s Strike mission. This mini-raid-style stage (just one of many in the final game) pits a small Fireteam against overwhelming odds - setting you and your friends loose in a dungeon-like complex full of deadly opponents and incredibly challenging bosses. It’s frantic, knuckle-whitening stuff, but there’s a real satisfaction to be had when victory (in this case, against a weird purple robot thing) is finally yours.


If there’s one area of Destiny that we’ve not managed to explore as much as we’d like yet, it’s the competitive-multiplayer-based Crucible. Fly here and you’re able to take on fellow Guardians across a variety of different game maps and modes.

As most of our playtime was focussed on investigating Destiny’s single-player delights, however, we’ve only experienced the Crucible’s Dead Sector - a team-based competition focussed on capturing and holding specific locations for as long as possible. Two radically different maps were available for play - the gorgeous Shores of Time (offering a tightly packed tangle of alien architecture, luscious foliage and the occasional cave for some extremely intense action), and the desolate First Light - an open, moon-based map that demands far more caution if you plan to slip between sectors while remaining unseen.


It seems that Bungie is bringing more maps and modes into rotation as the beta draws on, and we suspect that there will be a few more surprises too. Even without those additions, however, the Destiny beta is a hugely impressive thing, offering dozens of hours of play time and a dazzling first proper look at one of the year’s most ambitious games.

Incidentally, Bungie has promised that any progress made during the beta will be carried over to the final game - so don’t be afraid to get stuck in. If it isn’t already obvious, then, we’ve been mightily impressed by the Destiny beta - and we’re incredibly excited to play more of what’s shaping up to be 2014’s most exhilarating game.

Destiny is available on PlayStation 4, PS3, Xbox One and Xbox 360 from 9 September 2014.