What is Destiny?
Destiny is a long-awaited sci-fi fantasy game. It is an online first-person shooter that blends the story-led campaigns and lore of a game like Halo with the co-operative gameplay, open world and personalised character-building of a game like World of Warcraft.
In the story of Destiny, a huge and mysterious alien orb protecting the last city on Earth is putting together a force of heroes, called guardians, to battle an intergalactic threat. Each player takes the role of a single guardian, who explores the ruins of Earth and beyond, fighting or interacting with various alien races, solving the mystery of the story and working to improve their Guardian's capabilities..
Character customisation plays a big role in the game, as everything from the player's armour and weapons to their vehicles and combat abilities can be upgraded and tweaked during play.
While each player is the hero of their own story, the game is a "living" world filled with other players and spontaneous events (like a huge alien enemy falling from the sky, attracting all nearby players to its location), and a certain amount of teamwork or co-operation is required to overcome some of the game's bigger challenges.
So players are working together, not against each other?
In the main game, yes. Players can go it alone, helping or avoiding other players they see along the way, or they can team up in groups of two or three with friends or strangers. However, they can also travel to an area called the Crucible to take part in team-based competitive battles against other players.
All aspects of the game are woven together by the storyline, and the player takes their own guardian, weapons, items and upgrades with them throughout the various gameplay modes. There is even an app for smartphones (one for iOS and one for Android) that lets you keep track of your guardian and other players on the go.
Who makes Destiny?
Destiny is developed by Bungie, which also created Halo. Many of the cornerstones of the Halo series — huge battles, quick gameplay, an epic sci-fi story with a hero who "becomes legend" — are also present in Destiny, albeit with the customisation and social features from Halo's multiplayer now applied to the story-based campaign as well.
The game is published (i.e. funded) by Activision, publisher of the Call of Duty series. Activision has reportedly pumped $US500 million into Destiny's development and marketing, a figure that reflects the fact that this is a series, like Halo, expected to unfold over 10 years or so in various forms. For context, the budget of last year's Grand Theft Auto V was an estimated $US260 million.
The super high-profile nature of the development is also seen in some of the Hollywood-like presentation, including a main character voiced by Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage and music composed by Sir Paul McCartney.
How many people are going to be playing?
When Bungie held a free beta test of the game in July, 4.6 million people played it. About 1 million people were playing concurrently at the beta's busiest point. Bungie has estimated 10 million people will enter the game world next week.
There is no need to worry that the plains of Old Russia will get too crowded though. What separates Destiny from a game like World of Warcraft is that it is designed to match small numbers of players together in "instances" of a world on the fly. So even if a million people are playing the same part of the game at the same time, each player may only be able to see and interact with a few of them. When a player or group enters a section of the game that is important to the story, they are seamlessly cut off into their own private instance. This is what allows the game to feel wide open and social while still feeling like a directed, personal story.
How can I play Destiny?
Destiny will be launched on Tuesday on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One and Xbox 360. It is classified 15+. You can buy it at retail stores or download it from your console's store, and it costs about $100. Given the nature of the game, you are required to be online to play. As with all online games, Xbox gamers are required to have an active Xbox Gold membership, and PS4 players are required to be signed up to PlayStation Plus.
