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Early Reviews of Destiny: Unfulfilled Potential
Destiny is a first-person shooter set in a persistent, online world. It was released on Tuesday by Bungie, the development studio behind Halo, and billed as a blending of console shooters and progression-based MMOs. Reviews for the game are finally trickling out, and most publications say it's merely average. (Though it's worth noting that the social and multiplayer portions of the game are difficult to evaluate in such a short timeframe, and like many MMOs, Destiny will continue to see active development.) Polygon's Arthur Gies reports, "Destiny doesn't look real, but rather, it looks like painted concept art, meticulously assembled and presented to you at all times. Instead, it's the suggestion, through Destiny's concept, its soundtrack and its visual presentation, that Destiny is big. That there's a whole universe out there to explore, a reality worth discovering. There isn't, though."
Jeff Gerstmann at Giant Bomb had a similar reaction: "There are cool little flashes of brilliance in Destiny, but a lot of it feels like a game designed by people who weren't sure what sort of game they were designing. Is it a loot shooter? Sort of, but the loot isn't very good. Is it an MMO? No, but you'll occasionally encounter other players out in the field. A story-driven shooter like the Halo franchise? Sure, if you don't mind digging through the developer's website to find those little bits of lore." The Escapist's Jim Sterling concludes, "Destiny exists in the shadow of multiple games, taking a little from each, and doing nothing truly remarkable with any of it. It's a prime example of how the nebulous concept of 'content' can be used to puff up a game without adding anything to it."
Jeff Gerstmann at Giant Bomb had a similar reaction: "There are cool little flashes of brilliance in Destiny, but a lot of it feels like a game designed by people who weren't sure what sort of game they were designing. Is it a loot shooter? Sort of, but the loot isn't very good. Is it an MMO? No, but you'll occasionally encounter other players out in the field. A story-driven shooter like the Halo franchise? Sure, if you don't mind digging through the developer's website to find those little bits of lore." The Escapist's Jim Sterling concludes, "Destiny exists in the shadow of multiple games, taking a little from each, and doing nothing truly remarkable with any of it. It's a prime example of how the nebulous concept of 'content' can be used to puff up a game without adding anything to it."
Clearly no one at Bungie slept with the reviewers to get such poor reviews.
Now of course some of you out there will have no idea what I'm referring to here, because Slashdot keeps refusing to post stories on this issue. Well, ignoring the one that claimed that calling out a female developer for sleeping around for reviews was "rampant misogyny in gaming" but entirely ignored the ethics issue. Long story short, an indie developer slept around with multiple journalists in order to get her otherwise entirely unremarkable Flash game coverage. (The response that there "were no reviews" is the most pedantic method of responding by redefining the charge to be something it never was. Strictly speaking, it is true: she didn't get any scored reviews out of it. Just undeserved coverage at the expense of actual games.)
Clearly video games journalists are currently falling over themselves to show how fair they are by shitting all over a Destiny to prove that they aren't really corrupt and entirely in-bed with game developers. Sometimes literally.
What the...? Get this offtopic libel chauvinist manchild garbage off my Slashdot. Grow the fuck up.