2014 is coming to an end, and this year we went through a lot, but fate has also released a new version of a year to stay with the people, and bring you happiness. Now this is my summary of the 2014 my idea of destiny.
Remember the loot cave? Of course you do. If you loved Destiny, it was your guilty pleasure. If you hated Destiny, it was your smoking gun. Everyone agreed that it laid bare the way Destiny is underpinned by a mixture of grinding and randomness. The difference is that those of us who loved the game simply enjoyed the novelty of tipping things in our favour, however briefly, before returning to our other satisfying routines.
Hey Xander, what’s new?
It was rote and mechanical, but it was a simple pleasure for a ton of reasons. Just being there was one. Destiny may have had less of a story than “That’s Not My Train”, to pick at random from my son’s reading list, but it had beautifully storied environments that I enjoyed revisiting. I loved the abandoned cargo planes in Old Russia’s Mothyards, cast aside indifferently as mankind scrambled to the heavens using patchwork rockets like the one in Devils’ Lair. And I could really lose myself on the Moon, with its perfect 1969 lighting, whether staring into the green soup of the Hellmouth or up at passing satellites.
I’ll always have a soft spot for the Moon.
Destiny had those other moments too. For a lot of people they come in The Crucible, which was ‘just’ Halo multiplayer with a loot table (never mind “shared world shooter” – that sounds like the elevator pitch), while for people like me it was banding together with friends and putting the fruits of our grind to work in more competitive PVE settings. Heroic and Nightfall Strikes emphasised self-preservation, then the Vault of Glass Raid layered on strict co-operation. All that knowledge and muscle memory we accumulated ticking off bounties, beacons and shards gave us a platform to really compete. The way these hardcore activities would fit into what is otherwise a very casual whole – and in a way most people either didn’t notice or didn’t care – was one of Destiny’s best tricks.
The Dark Below’s Raid, Crota’s End, was also good, but the Vault of Glass will always have a special place in our hearts.