Bungie’s original Halo revolutionized console FPS’s when it was released more than a decade ago, so expectations are high for Bungie’s latest original IP, Destiny. Bungie finally gave IGN the first game play details about their upcoming sci-fi epic early this morning, and it’s starting to sound like Destiny might end up being just as revolutionary as Halo was.
Destiny is set hundreds of years in the future, where the last human city is protected by The Traveler, a mysterious giant orb that hovers in the sky above Earth. Destiny players are warriors who have been granted special, magic-like abilities by the Traveler and are tasked with defending the last remaining humans against a multitude of alien races who are seeking their extinction.
The game is reportedly “MMO-ish,” and will require players to always be connected to a central server, but it will not require a monthly subscription fee. Bungie revealed three character classes that players can choose from: the Titan, which is a heavily armed and armored tank-class, the Warlock, who uses magical abilities to attack and provide support skills, and the Hunter, who specializes in long range sniper combat and stealth. Customization will be a central theme of Destiny, and players will reportedly be able to change their characters’ look and skills based on their preferences. The last human city will serve as a central, online hub area where players can link up to form groups and accept missions.
Activision reps say that the game isn’t simply a multiplayer FPS, but a “shared world shooter,” that combines elements of FPS’s, open-world action games, and persistent online MMO’s. Bungie says they plan to spend the next 10 years working on games set within the Destiny franchise, and they say that all of your character’s data — his gear, his experience, the vehicles and the weapons he acquires — will be persistent across Destiny’s planned 10 year series of games.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m pretty hyped for Destiny already — Borderlands 2 already showed how fun it can be when you mix an RPG with an FPS, and it sounds like Destiny will feature a similar blend of genres. The concept art for the game makes it look like a blend of PSO and Halo (two games which I love,) so I can’t wait to find out more. Of course, we haven’t seen any actual gameplay from Destiny yet, so it might be wise to keep expectations realistic before Bungie and Activision’s hype machine really ramps up, but then again, this game is being made by the team who created Halo, so it’s hard to not get excited.
Bungie hasn’t committed to a firm launch date for Destiny yet, but rumors suggest that Destiny will reportedly ship sometime this Fall for the Xbox 360 and PS3, and will get ported to “future generation platforms” sometime thereafter.
Source: IGN via NeoGAF
