Home Gaming Destiny – Bungie’s brave new world finally revealed

Destiny – Bungie’s brave new world finally revealed

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Individuality and technology

You are not welcome here

One aspect of the game that Bungie is stressing the most so far, is that individuality and being unique comes first and foremost. While they only revealed three classes, each one of these warrior categories would have access to clothing and armour which could be custom tailored. As art director Christopher Barret showed us, these included numerous patterns, textures and symbols with which to create our very own Guardian. As Barrett explained, Destiny was also a game where art direction was more important than ever before:

We’ve got more concept art for Destiny, than for every single one of our previous games. Combined.

There’s the old world, reclaimed by nature, the ruins of the Euro Dead Zone, the swamps of old Chicago. The solar system is our new frontier, from the uncharted depths of deep space, back to the Hell mouth on the Moon. It’s a strange new world with Spider Pirates and giant obsidian ships and evil space zombies.

That’s not their official name by the way, Barrett grinned as he showed the next slide. But while Barrett showed off some beautiful, he also explained that to go forward with these lofty ideas, they were going to need some technical support that could keep up with their imaginations. And they had just the guys for the job.  Chris Butcher was one such person, as the Engineering lead took over and spoke about the more technical side of Destiny.

Protect us

Destiny is a game that is looking to capture the market share of the MMO market alongside other genre faithful’s, and to do so, it’s going to need to be an always online game. “It’s our most ambitious challenge, an evolving story with a bold vision”, Butcher explained.

Over the last six years, we’ve completely rebuilt all our game technology. Destiny is a game with a ten year life span. It’s not just technology for technology’s sake. We’re going to create a seamless social world that is not just numbers. A world where choices impact your growth and history, where crossing paths with other players will be done with seamless match-making.

No loading screens, it’s just there for you to experience through secure and robust technology.

One such challenge facing Bungie with this declaration, was the fact that all players would be boasting custom looks and gear. This was a design challenge that took precedence, as Bungie was looking to keep the experience tight and focused in the co-op experience department.   Chen demonstrated this with his turn on the stage, with a complex mathematical equation that made my nose bleed.

But the key aspect here, is that the tech side of Bungie needed to create something that could bring the ideas and designs of the artists at Bungie into a digital space, but with speed and efficiency. And without sacrificing the style of the game in the process. “We’re building a game world, not just assets”, said.

Pod Racing?

Ten hours to light a single scene in Destiny wasn’t exactly an effective method of going forward, as Lao explained how the studio wanted to “give freedom to the artist”. “Looking OK is not good enough”, Lao said. A point that he hammered in with all the new technology being developed, which showed off some absolutely fantastic visuals on the brief demonstration that we saw. It’s some impressive technology being used overall, something that looks like it will set a few new benchmarks on the current generation of consoles. But all of this, was summed up perfectly by Lao, one of the nicest guys at Bungie:

All of this doesn’t mean a fucking thing if we can’t wrap it up and give it to the artists.

Online

Don't worry I'll protect you

So Destiny has the technology, it has the mythology and it has a style that Bungie is comfortable with. But of course, it’s down to the player to use these features and start some social interacting. “Everyone is a community builder” Community Developer Eric Osborne said. “But where does community lead us next?”

Scope and scale only tell us one part of the story, but the best moments don’t happen in a menu. they happen in the game. A sense of heritage and a story profile, that will reach players wherever they are.

Which brings up another aspect of Destiny. In the videos that we were shown, mobile apps for the game were clearly present. While Destiny will launch on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the ten year scope of the game also means that other platforms should be expected to have their own version of the core game. Bungie was tight-lipped on revealing exactly what they meant by that, but the mobile option to add and update missions and events, while joining up with friends and teammates.

Emotional journey

It's emotional

At the core of a good game though, is the music. It’s not always noticeable, but that can be a positive trait though. Bungie is using the ever-reliable Marty O’Donnell for their audio, as he’s been scoring games for them for well over  a decade now. Alongside frequent collaborator  Mike Salvatore, and John T. Barnes, Destiny also features a massive orchestral arrangement, but don’t expect to start the game up to listen to some Gregorian chanting. It’s a mix of heavy brass instruments and sweeping string instruments. “No limits, no picture to score at all”, is what O’Donnell had to say about the audio direction.

We wanted to have a real shot to real music. We needed some production help for that

Which led O’Donnell to jet down to England so that he could get the music flowing at the Abbey Road Studios. Alongside former Beatle Paul McCartney. McCartney had been interested in scoring for a video game in the past, which led O’Donnell to approach him, resulting in the partnership. Armed with over 50 minutes of music for the game, O’Donnell and Salvatore also revealed that more was cut than produced. “Up to three hours of content”, Salvatore said.

And its music which does set the scene perfectly. It gives the game some much needed impact, and makes a world of difference when played next to the visuals.

When is it out?

Don’t expect to meet your Destiny this year.  Activision’s Eric Hirschberg mentioned that as of now, that he wouldn’t speculate for a 2013 release date, as releasing Destiny this year would have “no benefits” whatsoever for the title. It makes sense though. From the looks of things, Activision isn’t sitting on a 100% completed title much like what Ubisoft is doing with Ray-Man Legends. And with a focus on making this the next big franchise, a summer blockbuster game, releasing it during the same window as the inevitable Call of Duty would only hurt sales and the possibilities of future games.

Summary

Big battles

So at the end of the day, what kind of game is Destiny? We only saw brief flashes of actual combat, but what Bungie has created here is not only beautiful to behold, but could be one of the last great franchises of this direction, a series of games that will actually bridge current and next-gen technologies. Activision is clearly throwing a lot of money at getting Destiny published, and the enthusiasm from Bungie to become known as more than just “that Halo” studio is readily apparent. There’s a lot of love and care that has gone into Destiny, an attention to detail to create a mythology that could rival the science fiction greats such as Star Wars, Star Trek and Farscape.

Is it the future of FPS games? Maybe, maybe not. But it could be the future of online interaction in these games, because love or hate the idea of Destiny, it’s hard to deny that it just might be the most ambitious new title that has been seen in recent years.

Last Updated: February 17, 2013

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16 Comments

  1. Mathias

    February 17, 2013 at 20:34

    I haven’t seen any of the videos yet, but it sounds really ambitious. I’m open to large scale online FPSs, sandboxes or not. Planetside 2 taught me that they can be really fun.

    BUT.. It’s none other than Activision, so I don’t know. One might hope that they’ve been learning from Microsoft’s previous work with Bungie, where you don’t need nothing more than a couple of DLCs and good multiplayer to cash in a franchise (I’m leaving Halo Wars out of it, just because).

    Reply

  2. Xelus

    February 17, 2013 at 21:07

    For some reason, I can’t help but have this big question mark over Bungie, will this game actually make it onto a pc platform or will this be yet another console exclusive game?

    Reply

  3. Gavin Mannion

    February 17, 2013 at 21:28

    It’s a massive ask for any studio… the idea is obviously brilliant but is it even possible?

    Reply

    • Valshen

      February 17, 2013 at 23:30

      The scope seems to be mind-boggling. I hope they can pull this off…

      Reply

  4. Gareth Lagesse

    February 17, 2013 at 22:33

    Fantastic report, Darryn! I’m in love with his game already; the scope, the artwork, the passion, the score and the atmosphere are all something that I’ve never really thought that a studio would bother risking for a single title.

    So, I’m guessing that the PC version will be out a year later – well, hoping is more like it. 😛

    Reply

  5. Valshen

    February 17, 2013 at 23:31

    The concept art really makes me think of Star Wars all the time. Count me in as excited! RAWWWR

    Reply

  6. Osiris Fox

    February 18, 2013 at 03:03

    Hmmm… sounds a bit like the Planetside 2 Model. Which, if we’re going to be honest… is the pioneer of the future of FPS gaming.

    Reply

  7. Uberutang

    February 18, 2013 at 07:48

    Looks cool. Nice blend of Planetside and Mass Effect.

    Hopefully they go PC market where this would really shine.

    Reply

  8. Jonah Cash

    February 18, 2013 at 08:08

    If they pull this off……. Count me in!!!

    Well done Darryn!! Great article!!

    Reply

  9. Andre116

    February 18, 2013 at 08:16

    Ok, Bungie, you got my attention. I like the whole Star Wars/Mass Effect/post apocalyptic vibe that I’m getting.

    Reply

  10. OVG

    February 18, 2013 at 08:29

    The concept art is giving me a giant nerd boner.

    Reply

  11. Nicholas Rowan

    February 18, 2013 at 08:55

    Wow. Looks epic, I’m sold.

    Reply

  12. Darth_Clericus_The_Ultimate

    February 18, 2013 at 09:00

    A HERO IS YOU!

    Reply

  13. DarkWave

    February 18, 2013 at 09:16

    Im a kid again 🙂

    Reply

  14. Purple_Dragon

    February 18, 2013 at 14:23

    I stopped getting excited after reading “online FPS”….

    Reply

  15. Bertie Henery

    February 11, 2014 at 17:04

    Mass effect rehash?

    Reply

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