Destiny (computer game)

Destiny
Destiny logo
Studio	Bungie
Publisher	Activision
Senior Developer	Jeffery Higgins (Director)
Erstveröffent- lichung	September 9, 2014
platform	PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , Xbox 360 , Xbox One
Game engine	Tiger engine
genre	MMOFPS
Subject	Science fiction
Game mode	Single player , multiplayer
medium	Blu-ray Disc , DVD , Download
Age rating	USK PEGI

Destiny ( English for: fate or determination) is a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS) for consoles developed by Bungie . According to the publisher Activision , it is the "first shared world shooter" which, as an action-oriented open world game, deviates significantly from conventional MMOs despite MMO elements .

action

The science fantasy story takes place in the post-apocalyptic future about 1000 years after our time. At the beginning of the story, the "traveler", a huge living spherical machine, reaches the solar system . He is followed by an evil extraterrestrial power, the so-called "darkness" and its brood, the crowd. Several other alien races followed with her. After the arrival of the traveler on earth, the "Golden Age" begins. People are living longer, breakthrough technologies are being developed and, in general, humanity is at the peak of its civilization. Humans also colonize surrounding heavenly bodies, Venus , Mars and the moon . The hostile aliens completely wipe out these colonies and destroy all human life there. After a great battle on earth, humanity can only settle in the “last city on earth” with a fraction of its former progress. However, the traveler is injured and with the last of his strength creates the spirits of "light" before he "falls asleep".

The ghosts are a kind of flying drones that can speak and think humanly, but also have a high-performance computer. They choose long-dead people who are apparently particularly powerful and have the “light” to reanimate them and bring them to the tower, a kind of command center in the city, as guardians. There they stay and are equipped. The guardians are on their way to recover powerful artifacts scattered around our solar system, especially on Venus and Mars, whose abilities are supposed to help mankind in war. Weapons and ammunition can be captured by the aliens themselves, which also consist of several classes: Fallen, Hive, Vex, Cabal and possessed. Single game is possible, but you have to be connected to the internet to play the game; Cooperative group play is therefore suggested.

Guardian classes

In addition to the races already mentioned, Destiny also has three playable, playfully different guardian classes:

• the heavily armored "Titan", which has hand-to-hand combat capabilities

Subclasses: Striker, Defender, Sunbreaker

• the more agile hunter, who is more suitable for ambush attacks

Subclasses: Gunslinger, Blade Dancer, Night Stalker

• the "Warlock", who comes up with various magical abilities in his repertoire

Subclasses: Idlers, Sun Singers, Storm Summoners

Playable races

• human
• Awakened / Awakened
• Exo

These “races” can then choose any guardian class and thereby better prepare for the fight. The races do not change the skills, only the guardian classes influence them.

Hostile races

The dead soldiers

The Fallen occur mainly on Earth, the Moon and Venus and, since the House of Wolves expansion, occasionally on Mars. They are divided into outlaws (foot soldiers and hand-to-hand fighters), hoverers (flying small reconnaissance troops), vandals (appear as assassins, snipers and foot soldiers), captains (they are the local commanders), servitors (electronic, somewhat higher-ranking soldiers), archons and the Kells (commander in chief of the armed forces. Examples include Skolas, the boss in the House of Wolves expansion, and Draksis, the kell of the House of Winter). All except Archons and Kells are also available in other variations e.g. B. Looters, Elders ...

The fallen are divided into different houses, similar to the noble houses of the people. These houses are active on different planets in order to gain dominion over them. Only the House of Judgment of the Fallen is an ally of the Last City and the Reef. Well-known enemy houses are the house of exile, kings, devils, winter and wolves. The latter is particularly addressed in the second extension, House of Wolves .

The crowd

The company is the brood of darkness. It occurs mainly on the moon and has recently returned to Earth after centuries. In the third expansion, the grave ship in the rings of Saturn is added as a share ship . There are many different soldiers among the crowd. The lowest classes are the serfs (melee fighters and suicide bombers) and the acolytes (foot soldiers). Other units are the knights (sword bearers and foot soldiers), witches (so to speak, snipers only as volleys) and ogres (large ranged and close-range fighters). All except ogres are also available in other variations e.g. B. Chosen, Divine ...

Your goal is to completely destroy the traveler's light. To prevent them from doing so, Guardians are sent to study the knowledge and weaknesses of the company. Furthermore, their commanders are attacked and rendered harmless. As with the fallen, there is a classification, e.g. B. the Hidden Swarm, Blood of the Oryx ...

Cunt gods

Crota

Crota is Oryx's son. He is initially only mentioned in the basic game and his past deeds are described. He is the destroyer of the moon and the murderer of thousands of guardians. In the first expansion, Darkness lurks , he and his entourage are illuminated more closely. This is how you start the hunt for him and his followers, which finally comes to an end with his death in the Raid Crotas . In the third expansion, King of the Taken , his life and death and the resulting consequences are illuminated again.

Oryx

Oryx is a god of the crowd, the king of the possessed and the father of Crota and his daughters Ir Halak and Ir Anûk. He made his first appearance in isolated snippets of speech in the basic game, as well as personally in the third expansion, König der Bessesenen . The reason for its appearance is the death of his son Crota, who was hunted down by the Guardians in the first expansion, Darkness Lurks . Oryx's battleship is the grave ship that resides in the rings of Saturn. His motivation is unbroken, so that he has scattered so-called "echoes", i.e. images of himself, throughout the solar system. Your task is to enslave the other races of the enemy in order to turn them into possessed ones and to kill the player. As a result, in the course of the story there are always arguments between the said guardians and his echo, in order to kill him or to take his will. This fight comes to a head in the final mission of the expansion, so that you face Oryx in person. He seals his death and that of his daughters in the raid king case.

The possessed

The possessed consist of fighters of all four races (except of course the exos, humans and awakened) represented in the solar system. They occur on every planet and the tomb ship. There are also special events on each planet where they corrupt territories and Guardians who happen to be patrolling them have to repel them. The Fallen, Vex and Cabal were forcibly recruited and forcibly stripped of their will. It is different with the crowd. For example, resistance people who rebel against oryx or those injured in combat are recruited. So an ogre is forcibly recruited by oryx after a fight that should have killed him. The obsessed are special in many ways. Their bodies glow white and some are contorted with torture. All possessed have different abilities than their originals. Having no will of their own, they fight against each of their former species as well as against the other races, with the exception of the band by which they are subjugated and now aided in the fight.

The Vex

The Vex are robots and fighting machines that have been lost in time. They are all guided by one mind, their collective. The Vex travel through space and time, which is why they continue to exist despite the destruction of the heart of their birthplace, the black garden, carried out by the player in the base game. All Vex except the Minotaur and the Hydra have a very large, round plate head. The critical hitbox of the goblins and hobgoblins is not on the head, but in their white-colored torso. The Minotaur has no critical weak point and the Hydra is quite vulnerable in the eye. All Vex have only one eye. The Vex are also divided into five classes. The goblins (foot soldiers), the hobgoblins (snipers, who, if they are not hit at their critical point, envelop themselves in a solar stasis for a short time and are invulnerable during this time), the harpies (floating combat drones), the minotaurs (large , heavy foot soldiers) and the hydras (floating, large combat drones with shields; fire explosive projectiles). The stationary cyclopes, which behave like hydras, but are immobile and without a shield, count not as foot soldiers, but as artillery.

The Vex are the only race that does not spawn through ships, but is teleported to battle. Hydras are also available in other variations, e.g. B. Student, Axis ... The Vex is divided into Heze-Corrective, Heze.Protective, Virgo-Prohibition and Sol-Spalter.

The Cabal

The Cabal is a humanoid, very tall and massive species. Due to their enormous mass and their heavy armor (which keeps them alive and is under pressure as there is a much higher force of gravity on their home planet), they can only move very sluggishly. Therefore, most units are equipped with jetpacks to make them more agile. The Cabal are all subordinate to the Emperor on their distant homeworld and are strategic warlords. Their units consist of the Psions (small foot soldiers with "psionic", telepathic powers, possibly a completely different species from the Cabal, also appear as particularly powerful Psion operants and Psion flayers), the Legionaries (the lowest class of the Cabal Foot soldiers), the phalanges (in the singular phalanx, foot soldiers like the legionaries, but equipped with a portable shield), the centurions (leaders of smaller units equipped with solar shields and rocket launchers) and the colossi (heavy foot soldiers, due to their even larger ones Mass without jetpacks, but equipped with a heavy machine gun, similar to a minigun, and rocket launchers). In addition, most units apart from the colossus have so-called ball throwers (large rifles). All are also available in other variations, e.g. B. imperials, operants ...

The Cabal units are led by their commanders-in-chief. The lowest form is the Bracus, followed by the Val and the Valus and the highest known leadership position in the game is the Primus. They are all subordinate to the emperor.

The cabal only appears on Mars (in the base game) and, since King of the Taken, also on the grave ship (mainly in and in front of their forcibly crashed ship there). They are transported in harvest ships. Other transport vehicles include the floating Goliath tank powered by four buoyancy nozzles and the interceptors (small combat ships), which can also be driven by the player.

Like the Fallen, the Vex, and the Company, the Cabal is also divided. These include the dust giants, sand eaters, occupation dancers and the Blind Legion, which are only found on Mars. The sky burners are only represented on their command base on the asteroid Phobos and on the grave ship, which was overrun by the possessed in expansion 3 ( King of the Taken).

Game modes

As with many other MMO games, the main activities are in the high-level area. At the beginning of the game, only the story mode is open to you, whereby each individual mission can be completed in three selectable levels of difficulty. With each completed activity, the player experience increases, whereby level increases are achieved. In addition to the story, there is also the opportunity to compete against other players in the melting pot. This is the PvP mode in the world of Destiny that is available shortly after it starts. Destiny offers a wide variety of different modes and game worlds, e.g. B. 6 against 6 with and without zone occupation, 3 against 3, everyone against everyone and much more. In addition to PvP and story missions, you can visit all planets that have been unlocked so far in the patrol and explore the world without explicit specifications. Small orders are always acceptable.

Destiny only really starts when a player has reached level 20 (or from year 2 level 40). From this point on, the level can no longer be increased by completing certain activities, but instead requires special equipment. The crucial property is called "light level" and must be included on the equipment. In the base game of Destiny, the light level could be increased to 30, DLC 1 and 2 enabled levels 32 and 34 respectively. The Destiny expansion pack King of the Taken , released in September 2015, which ushered in year 2 of Destiny, led to some changes in the game system, e.g. B. the maximum achievable level has been increased from 20 to 40 and the entire light level system has been overhauled. From the maximum level, most activities are open to the keepers. There are strike playlists that are always completed in teams of three. If you don't have your own teammates, the matchmaking process leads to a suitable team of three. A strike is a kind of special mission with increased difficulty that comes up with a boss at the end. The playlists come in different levels of difficulty, and the higher the level, the better the rewards. In addition to these strike playlists, there are two special weekly variants called “Twilight Strikes” and “Weekly Strikes”. These are particularly heavy strikes that change weekly and always present a challenge with different modifiers. While the weekly strike leads to a team of three with the automatic player search, you have to bring your own team with you for the twilight strike. Accordingly, and due to the significantly higher requirements, the reward is generally much better.

The main activities and strengths of Destiny are definitely the raids, which offer three challenges with The Glass Chamber , Crota's End and the King's Fall Raid , the latter two coming from expansions. In addition to a high level, teamwork and perseverance are required here. In addition to the raids, there has also been The Prison of the Elderly since the release of the second expansion ( House of Wolves ) . While the raids (especially at the beginning) require a strong team of six and tactics, the prison of the old can only be completed in groups of three (or fewer). There are two raids each, the old prison has four levels of difficulty.

Extensions

Expansions are planned for the main game twice a year. This should always be followed by a major expansion, which the developers themselves do not see as a simple expansion, but as a completely new section in the Destiny universe.

Darkness lurks

In the first expansion lurking darkness "Eris Morn" instructed the guardians, the outgoing from the moon threat to take through the crowd and eventually in a new raid Crotas end to defeat the son of Oryx and its henchmen, Crota.

House of wolves

The second extension, House of Wolves , leads the keepers into what is known as the reef. There the Queen of the Awakened asks the Guardians for support in the fight against the newly created "House of Wolves" of the Fallen, under her deceitful leader "Skolas" the Kell of the Kells. The Guardians should track him down and hunt him down so that the Queen can hold him accountable for his horrific crimes against the Awakened People and imprison him in the "prison of the ancients".

This expansion does not add a raid to the game content, but an arena mode ( prison of the ancients ) in which the guardians have to assert themselves against waves of opponents from all enemy races. The player can complete this at different levels of difficulty, which also differ from the enemy types and modifiers of the five rounds. At the highest level of difficulty you always face Skolas in the final round.

Another endgame activity has also been added for PvP, the so-called “Trials of Osiris”, to which the Guardians can only access with a “Trial Ticket”. The aim is to achieve nine victories in a row without a defeat; If a task force consisting of three guardians creates this, they get to the tower on Mercury, where the prey awaits the players. A crucible mode was specially designed for the tests: Elimination . In this mode, the player and two other Guardians compete against another team of three in several rounds.

Destiny: King of the Taken

Destiny: The Taken King is the first major expansion, which has also been available separately in stores since September 15, 2015.

After Crota's death, his father Oryx vowed to take revenge on the Guardians who killed his son. That is why he and his entourage are now heading for the Earth's solar system and summoning the “possessed” who are to defeat the Guardians. Together with Eris and the vanguard, the guardian begins the hunt for the king and receives a new repertoire of skills and weapons.

The extension includes:

• a completely new patrol map (Oryx ship in the rings of Saturn)
• eight new story missions
• four strikes as well as revised “possessed” versions of some old strikes
• a new raid (against oryx)
• loads of exotic quests that will give you new powerful weapons
• eight new PVP cards
• two new PVP modes
• three new sub-classes, one per class
• Countless new weapons and armor, over 20 new exotic items
• a new type of weapon: swords, three legendary ones, which become exotic after a long quest
• as well as many expansions and changes that improve and change the gameplay

The awakening of the Iron Lords

On June 9, 2016, Bungie announced the next expansion, The Awakening of the Iron Lords or Rise of Iron , which was released on September 20, 2016 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. In a new story campaign, the player travels to the Infested Lands, which is a new place on earth. As part of gamescom 2016, the expansion won a Gamescom Award in the Best Add-On / DLC category.

The extension includes:

• new story campaign & search
• new armor and equipment
• new weapons
• new raid
• increased light level limit
• new strike
• new zone "Contaminated Lands" & new meeting point
• new Crucible mode & new maps
• new enemy group and bosses

development

The Destiny brand was registered by Podophobia Entertainment on July 20, 2009 , which turned out to be a Bungie subsidiary. From this point in time at the latest, it was developed under the internal name “Project Tiger”.

It was presented to the public at E3 2013. In contrast to Bungie's game series Halo , which was still marketed with Microsoft as a partner, offline mode is no longer being considered. An adaptation for PC was not excluded, but not realized.

The online magazine 4Players speculates whether the late autumn date of publication was chosen in order not to have to compete too soon with the multiplayer first-person shooter Titanfall , which was published in March 2014 (only for Xbox and PC). The beta version of Destiny was available to PlayStation and Xbox users in the summer of 2014, with the PlayStation beta being available for nine days and the Xbox only for five days.

The soundtrack was composed by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori . Beatles bassist Paul McCartney contributed to the theme music . Development costs are estimated at around $ 500 million.

Destiny is not only the most frequently pre-ordered computer game at the time of publication, but was able to recoup the development costs on the first day of sale. According to official figures, Destiny raised more than $ 500 million on its first day of sale.

In July 2016, the developers announced that active support for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will be discontinued on August 16, 2016 . From now on, these versions will no longer receive any major updates or content.

reception

Despite the great success of the game, there are also critical comments from the community and the media. The poor server connections are particularly criticized, especially in connection with PvP. Furthermore, the players repeatedly complain about too little content and poor storytelling.

In addition, there are YouTube videos that show the contents of the planned DLC darkness lurking shortly after the game's release and show House of Wolves , which could be achieved with the help of errors in the game (“glitches”). Therefore, criticisms from the ranks of the players are getting louder and louder that all of the game content, for which they should pay extra again, has been included in the game since its release and that the content of the upcoming DLCs has already been purchased, even if only partially.

In a report, the game journalist Jason Schreier from Kotaku researched that the development of the game was associated with numerous problems. Among other things, the entire story and the mission design were rebooted in the middle of development and numerous elements of the original concept were removed from the game, which in turn were later incorporated as DLCs. Last but not least, the plot of the game suffered as a result, as it appeared confused and contradicting at times. Accordingly, the finished game was only remotely similar to the ambitious original concept.

Awards

• The Game Awards 2014
  • Best online game
  • Best soundtrack
• DICE Awards 2015
  • Action Game of the Year
  • Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay
  • Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition
  • Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design
• Game Developers Choice Awards
  • Best technology
• British Academy Video Games Awards 2015
  • game of the year
• SXSW Gaming Awards
  • Excellence in Technical Achievement

continuation

On September 6, 2017, Destiny 2 was the official successor for PS4 and Xbox One . The PC implementation followed on October 24th. Destiny 2 , however, is not a sequel in the conventional sense, but is more to be understood as a restart: Only the appearance of characters can be taken from the predecessor - equipment and skills gained are lost. All players start all over again.

Web links

• Official website
• Information from Bungie
• German Destiny Wiki
• 12 minute video about gameplay

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eurogamer, June 2013
2. ↑ Gamestar April 2013
3. ↑ Schuhmann: Destiny Alleged leak reveals secret plans: DLC House of Wolves in March, Comet expansion in September, brings 2 new types of weapons. In: mein-mmo.de. January 2, 2015, accessed June 4, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Expansion I Darkness Lurks
5. ↑ Extension II House of Wolves
6. ↑ Destiny The Taken King ( Memento of the original from September 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ gamescom 2016 - The winners of the Gamescom Awards. Retrieved August 21, 2016 . 
8. ↑ Destiny - Rise of Iron shows up in the trailer. In: ps4info. Retrieved June 9, 2016 . 
9. ↑ 4Players, December 2013
10. ↑ Matthias Huber: The most expensive computer game in the world. sueddeutsche.de, September 5, 2014, accessed on September 5, 2014
11. ↑ Playstation Choice, September 2014
12. ↑ Destiny - Active support of the Last Gen consoles ends in August. In: ps4info. Retrieved July 18, 2016 . 
13. ↑ Criticism of the players on bad server connections
14. ↑ Wishes and criticism of the players
15. ↑ Destiny player shows upcoming DLC ​​strikes due to game errors
16. ↑ Jason Schreier: The Messy, True Story Behind The Making Of Destiny , in: Kotaku , October 20, 2015
17. ↑ The Game Awards 2014 - Dragon Age Game of the Year, Sierra Industry Icon
18. ↑ Dragon Age: Inquisition, Shadow of Mordor win big at 2015 DICE Awards
19. ↑ Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor takes Game of the Year at GDC Awards 2015
20. ^ Destiny surprises at the Bafta video game awards
21. ↑ Dragon Age Inquisition Wins Another Game of the Year Award
22. ↑ David Bergmann: Destiny 2: Release, Test, Editions - all information about the shooter. In: PC Games. Retrieved November 10, 2017 .