By Jack McAuslan
THE ROUNDUP

Destiny-Bungie

9 out of 10

I remember my friend showing me concept art for the video game “Destiny” two years ago, followed by a sentence that got me thinking about Bungie’s future.

“Bungie is making a new game.  It isn’t ‘Halo,'” said Michael Rowland ’16.

Since then Bungie, the video game company best known for the popular “Halo” series, has released plenty of trailers.

Rumors about this new game circulated through the gaming community, but it still remained shrouded in mystery for the most part.

Now that “Destiny” has finally arrived I still can’t fully believe it is here.

In the game, the player is a Guardian, a warrior who protects The Last City on Earth along with Ghosts, small, floating AIs created by The Traveler.

The Traveler is a large, white sphere that hovers above The Last City, protecting it from “The Darkness.”

At the beginning of the game, the player has a choice of becoming a titan, a hunter or a warlock.

The titan is “an engine of war,” in Bungie’s words, and is for players who enjoy running into the open battlefield, taking a lot of damage and destroying all of the bad guys in sight.

The warlock relies entirely on powers given to him or her by The Traveler and is designed to give huge amounts of damage over time.

Then there is the hunter, a quick and precise guardian who has accurate yet powerful abilities, my personal favorite.

Gameplay is definitely challenging but it is rewarding at the same time.

Increasing difficulty rewards players with more experience points and better loot.

Visuals are amazing and it is easy to notice that it took a very long time and a lot of effort just to design this game.

It comes as no surprise, however, that the look of the game is far better on the new Xbox One and PS4 compared to the “last-gen” Xbox 360 and PS3.

A huge part of this game is multiplayer, which being developed by Activision, has been flawless for the most part.

The only problem with multiplayer is a lack of game modes and maps.

Expect more maps and game modes to be released with downloadable content.

This game alone proves that Bungie doesn’t need “Halo” to keep itself running.

“Destiny” is only one of a few games in a series that Bungie will release over the next few years, and it shows huge promise for their upcoming efforts.

“Destiny was created by Bungie, has a slight “Halo” feel, has an open world feel similar to “Borderlands” and the multiplayer is done by Activision.

All of this makes for an incredible game that still amazes me every time I turn on my console.

“Destiny” is available on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.