This is it, this is your last chance to try Destiny before the Beta ends this Saturday night! Even if you tried the Alpha build a month ago, additional story cut-scenes and voice overs have given much needed presentation and production values to the Beta. Bungie occasionally allows players the chance to try “Gold Banner” matches that weren’t available during the Alpha, and they have promised that everyone that logs in and plays on Saturday will unlock a special emblem to use in the full version.
These additions help answer a few questions I had with the story, and remove some concerns I had with multi-player. The story parts are very interesting, and I can’t wait to learn more about the Traveler, the Darkness, and the rest of Destiny’s lore. As for multi-player, I’ve grown very fond of it. The mechanics Bungie has crafted for both PvE (Player versus Environment or “story” content) and PvP (Player versus Player) and how they work together is quite genius. Players can level up their characters, gain loot from enemy “drops” or for completing quests, and buy weapons, armor, and equipment from vendors. But, when competing in PvP matches, all the player levels and equipment levels are reduced to the same “base” level. Individual qualities of equipment, such as fire rates and accuracy still apply, but an assault rifle does the same damage as any other assault rifle, all the sniper rifles do the same damage, and so on.
That is, unless players dare to compete in “Gold Banner” matches, where all the player levels and varied stats of weapons and armor are actually kept at their PvE value!
What I really appreciate about PvP, however, is how the ammo, special ammo, grenades, and special ability “cooldowns” work to keep everything very balanced. It’s such a clever system, I’m surprised nobody has thought of it before. Bring all the gear you want into a PvP match, choose to equip your shotgun or your sniper rifle whenever you want, but keep in mind that they are in the “special” weapon category, and you’ll only spawn and respawn with a small amount of ammo – and then you’ll have to loot special ammo crates throughout the match to replenish that ammo. The “heavy” weapon category – light machine guns and rocket launchers – will have ZERO ammo available until special “heavy” ammo crates appear on the map, several minutes after the matches start! Even if you’ve found some heavy ammo and reloaded your rocket launcher, don’t die, because you’ll respawn with no heavy ammo again!
There are a lot more details to discuss about Destiny, but the best thing to do is find your closest eBash Video Game Center and try it for yourself!
Destiny is rated ‘T’ for Teen for Animated Blood and Violence. Destiny launches September 9th for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360.
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