So, I’ve been a slacker and it’s been nearly a month since my last post. What can I say, things happened. I’ve been busy at work, and have been spending a good portion of my lunch breaks drawing which doesn’t leave me time at work to post. I could still post after work, but I’ve been doing kickboxing almost every day after work which tends to leave me a bit drained.
Moving on though, this past weekend saw two beta tests come up. The Destiny beta for those that had pre-ordered the game, or knew someone who had an extra code (like I did). The other beta was the first closed beta weekend for ArcheAge, a game I’ve talked about a few times. Today I’ll be talking about the Destiny beta a bit.
First off, I think Destiny has the potential to be a great game, maybe even a system seller. The graphics are amazing, and the soundtrack and voice over work was excellent. I did have a few issues with the game, and they are things I’m not sure are just due to the fact that this was a beta, or if this is how the game is.
I guess if you haven’t heard of Destiny you might not give two cents about what I’m saying so I’ll explain what I know. The game was produced by Bungie (of Halo fame) and is being marketed as an FPS MMORPG. I’m not super sure about the RPG part, as the beta doesn’t let you get very far, but the elements are there. Class selection, talent trees, gear and questing. Most of the questing only occurs when you opt to go to the open world exploration of the map, not the story missions. Non story missions are found by exploring the map looking for green lit beacons. These are your typical MMO style quests that give you some minor objective like retrieving some data or killing enemies. The story missions usually set you on a set path and ends in a boss fight.
There is a social hub called “The Tower” where you can go between missions to do social stuff and talk to faction vendors and upgrade your ship. The main difference between the two is that in the social area you are in third person perspective versus the first person you use 95% of the time when exploring.
The game offers three main classes. The Titan, which is your tank class and is there to absorb damage. The Hunter, which is your ranged dps with some melee dps. The final class is the Warlock which has some form of energy based “magic” attacks. These all have subclasses, and talent trees, but from playing the beta I didn’t get that far as the beta doesn’t let you progress past the level 5 story mission.
I have two big complaints about the game.
The first is a lack of extensive character customization. At least in the beta all you can customize appearance wise is your characters race, sex, and some facial features. You have your standard humans, elvish looking people and androids. You can’t name your character either. It is based on your PSN name, so whatever that is is what you will be displaying to people. Which makes me want to have a secondary PSN named YouKnowNothingJonSnow. I’m a private person so I don’t want my PSN being displayed publicly if I’m streaming.
The second complaint is essentially requiring the Playstation Plus subscription to do certain content. Playing in the beta this wasn’t really an issue, other than the one mission I couldn’t access because I don’t have a Playstation Plus membership. If I’m going to pay you $60 for your game don’t lock out dungeons until I pay a subscription.
While I haven’t decided if I want to pick the game up yet, the Playstation Plus semi-requirement is a big put off for me. I’ve been shying away from subscription based games lately and that is a big issue to hold off content that comes with the game. I don’t think they are required missions, and I may never do them, but that isn’t the point.
So I’m not entirely sold on the game, but it was fun to play. The controls were good, and I enjoyed the story. I might still pick it up, but I’m not sure yet.
From the desk of Doctor Hannah 
On the PS+ thing: Unfortunately, it’s Sony moving to a model with the PS4 like Microsoft was using for Xbox Live Gold, where you need the service to access online features in games. It’s slightly less restrictive as it doesn’t lock out apps, or every online game ever, but it’s still there.
That said, PS+ was already such a ridiculous value proposition (for me) that I’ve been subscribed for a long time already, before they started forcing it for online play. Getting access to “free” games each month is well worth the price of admission.
I think part of my problem is the memories of xbox live leaving a bad taste in my mouth (hassle to unsubscribe). If I were to get PS+ it would be by buying the pre-paid cards at the store. I do like the concept of the free games, and yeah it doesn’t lock out apps like netflix, it’s more the locking out of game content that I’ve already paid for when I buy the full game. It reminds me of the issues people had with games that had the DLC on the game disc but you had to pay extra to unlock it.
I second what Ash said, cause I’ve been a PS+ subscriber for over two years now. At $50 a year, the free games alone are worth probably triple that price. Having it a requirement for online multiplayer was a put off for me too, but since I plan to keep the subscription anyway, it really is a non-issue.