What We’re Playing is a twice-a-month series from the Center for Games & Impact Innovation Lab highlighting some of the interesting games we have played, whether work-related or not. Please join in and comment with your takes on the games mentioned, or to share what you’ve recently played that has left an impression on you.
Guardians Moon: Image from http://www.destinythegame.com/
This week’s “What We’re Playing” focuses on BungieStudios and Activision’s recently released game Destiny (2014). Maybe you’ve heard of it? Admittedly, I have not played it, though I was excited to hear Paul McCartney’s video game score. Anyway, this week we have three great players with their early takes on Destiny this week – two from our team in the Innovation Lab, and one from a former graduate student fellow. Have you played Destiny? Leave us your thoughts on Destiny in the comments.
You can skip right to Destiny game impressions from:
- Rebecca Hoffman, guest writer for the Center and former graduate student fellow who moved from the Center to Microsoft Research New England earlier this summer.
- Michael Garcia, Innovation Lab Designer for the Center for Games & Impact.
- Jessie McIntosh, Innovation Lab Intern for the Center for Games & Impact.
- Around the Web, a nowhere-near-comprehensive set of links to other write ups of Destiny from around the web.
Pausing in digital space: A moment to take in the skies
Rebecca Hoffman, Research Assistant, Microsoft Research
There is an overwhelming criticism, one perhaps even encroaching on fear, that we have become too attached to our smartphones and technology. This is something most apparent to me in the moments I’m standing on the subway platform, waiting for the train to arrive, and see faces turned downward, illuminated by the screens in their hands. We look up at the sky only through Instagram, see life in filters of Amaro and Walden.
Living in the city means I am almost unable to see the stars anymore, means that I don’t stop to look up as much as I might have used to when I was a child, but this is something realized instead by Destiny, a recent release from Bungie, the studio behind the well-loved Halo franchise. In the heat of battle, just as in the bustle of life, it is sometimes hard to remember to look around and see, with clarity, the beauty that surrounds us. Sometimes we simply can’t, because of where or how we live. But Destiny stops to pause every once in a while and presents the sweeping vistas of a future Earth rendered in gorgeous, lifelike graphics, of a tropical Venus, of the starry sky on the moon. I have watched the northern lights just as I used to in Skyrim, have watched the sun rise over Russia, have watched satellites and space stations float in the darkness of the cosmos. Even in the digital space, I can marvel over the beauty of our solar system, of our galaxy, of our universe. And though I might not be able to see those things from my own window in real life, I am reminded that they are there, hovering where the city lights can’t obscure them.
Perhaps it isn’t that we no longer stop to look up at the sky, but that we can simply do so in different ways.
Bringing the feeling of new back to the ‘ole first person shooter
Michael Garcia, Innovation Lab Designer
The creators of the popular game Halo – Bungie Studios and Activision – released their new game Destiny last week. Destiny, is a Sci-Fi persistent online first person shooter set in a distant future when the Earth has become a wasteland. The game sets the player on a path as a guardian to restore Earth’s savior and protector, the Traveler (a large planet-like celestial being). My thoughts while playing this week were that Destiny does not reinvent the wheel in first person shooter genre, but it does bring a new sense of teamwork, which has been lost to these games in recent years. I like that players can unite for random world events and join fire teams and complete missions together. By far, this is the most interesting aspect of Destiny. Destiny also caters to players with a more competitive side, but still requires team on opposing sides. My first impressions of Destiny are that it brings a new feeling back to the persistent online first person shooter. So far, new is good, and it seems at this point it can only get better. I plan to continue to invest time in playing Destiny and expect the “good” to change to “great”!
Jesse McIntosh, Innovation Lab Intern
Playing Destiny reminds me of many favorite games wrapped up into one neatly polished package. With the core gameplay revolving around the familiar Halo shooting style, I found myself reliving the days when XBox Live first became popular. Unlike Halo, Destiny contains many more elements that allow for personal customization. Instead of being locked in as Master Chief, I get to create my own guardian, choose his race (which only affects appearance), and his class. Meeting up with two of my friends online we stormed through the story missions and collect gear that is dropped by defeated enemies. As I level up and unlock more abilities and gear – like any good MMO – Destiny becomes more and more challenging and it is hard to put the controller down.
Even after completing the initial story missions my team and I group up to fight other players in the PvP arena, the Crucible. Defeating players in matches sometimes gives the reward of rare or legendary loot drops, and this is all the incentive I need to play the competitive multiplayer modes. Bounties can be taken out for both competitive and cooperative missions that give extra experience and other rewards. I find myself constantly going between Crucible matches and cooperative strikes to complete bounties and get my guardian to the highest level. In order to keep things fresh, the developers at Bungie will continue to add more maps, enemies, quests, and gear for some time to come through new raids and expansion packs. Knowing this keeps me committed, I’m ready to get back to playing so that I can continue my personal quest to “Become Legend”.
A few other takes on Destiny from around the web
- Destiny review: No Fate (via Polygon)
- 8 Things Bungie’s Destiny Does Very Well (via Time)
- In Defense of Destiny, What Bungie Got Right (via Forbes)
- ‘Destiny’ is a Beautiful Mess (via The Verge)