Earlier today Bungie and Activision released the first scant details from Destiny, an ambitious new multi-platform project that aims to redefine the first-person shooter (FPS) genre in the same way Halo did two console generations below. It’s a collaboration that began with a 10-year publishing agreement between Bungie and Activision in 2010, and is expected to deliver Destiny games into the year 2020.
Remembering that Halo was released with the tagline “Combat Evolved,” it seems approprite to dub Destiny as “Halo Evolved.” From the early looks of things, Bungie has taken their experience of working through a decade’s worth of Halo games and built upon it by stepping into their vision for the next generation of FPS games.
That vision starts with a persistent world that’s always online and active, and includes elements of a sandbox game. It will still look and function like a FPS title when engaging enemies, but within the world will be other players from around our world – even while playing the campaign. Don’t confuse it as an MMO. The term being thrown around to describe this new “genre” of sorts is a “shared-world shooter.” You can be playing a mission and someone else drops in to give you a hand and join your party. There are even supposed to be missions within Destiny that require more than one player to complete.
The world of Destiny is said to play out in real-time. There is a day-night cycle, wind and weather, and other variables that can alter how easily a mission is accomplished. This world will be accessible via mobile and other devices in ways that Bungie.net has never offered before.
Destiny is being built as an epic space opera that spans an entire solar system rather than a single world. At some point in time, earth was attacked and something called the Traveler saved the last city. As an inhabitant of that city, you set out to save the solar system from this threat or threats by traveling to different planets, moons, space stations and other destinations. The lore behind Destiny is said to be more complex than all the Halo games combined.
Right now Destiny is only confirmed for release on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 sometime in 2014. There’s no mention of Wii U, which must make Nintendo nervous, and also no mention of the next Playstation and Xbox. Given both of those consoles are due out before year’s end and Destiny is being designed to stretch many years into the future, those new consoles are almost a foregone conclusion.
With Call of Duty and Skylanders already making Activision tons of cash, Destiny is poised to give the publisher and one-two-three punch of home entertainment media that will be second to none.
Update: High resolution concept art and the game’s official synopsis have been added below.
Set in the distant future, Destiny casts players as Guardians of the last city on Earth, who will traverse the ancient ruins of our solar system from the red dunes of Mars to the lush jungles of Venus. Able to wield incredible power, players must battle humanity’s enemies and reclaim all that was lost during the collapse of mankind’s Golden Age. In a story-driven universe, Destiny’s saga unfolds through grand talesand sweeping adventures by immersinggamers in a bold new world filled with cooperative, competitive, public, and social activities, all seamlessly connected. Bungie’s new next-generation game engine will allowDestiny to come to life on both the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, as well as other future console platforms.
