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Game Developer Gets Ambitious With 'Destiny'

Normally, gamers who are excited for an upcoming blockbuster title have to wait until the game’s release date to get a good taste of it. However, with the upcoming game Destiny, gamers had a whole week to play, even though it’s not released until September.

Destiny is a first-person shooter, developed by Bungie, which is best known for the Halo series. In the Destiny beta test, you get to play the first bit of the game, exploring a part of Russia that is under enemy control.

Not surprisingly, the game is very reminiscent of Halo. This is by no means a bad thing, nor is it likely an accident. More than 50 million copies of Halo games have been sold.

The controls are nearly identical, which is a big help when first jumping in. The art styles are similar, and the music, written by Halo composer Marty O’Donnell, gives Destiny the same grand sense of scale without copying his prior work.

Where it primarily differs from Halo, though, is that no matter where in the game you are playing, other players may be on a mission along with you in the same area. The game spontaneously and transparently becomes cooperative and adjusts the difficulty to compensate. It’s a lot of fun to randomly encounter another player and help each other finish the mission, often without sharing a word in between.

Bungie has big plans for Destiny. They plan for this to be a trilogy that unfolds with three main story arcs and additional story episodes over 10 years. I think they can do it-- they told the Halo story for nine years-- but it is maybe the most ambitious project I’ve ever seen a game developer undertake.

Sam McConnell's Destiny Live Stream

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Samuel McConnell is a games enthusiast who has been playing games in one form or another since 1991. He was born in northern Maine but quickly transplanted to Wichita.