Year 2: Destiny

Why, yes, I am a legend. #Destiny #Year1

A photo posted by Matthew TW Huang (@matthewtwhuang) on Sep 10, 2015 at 5:46pm PDT

At the beginning, Destiny was very repetitive and became dull pretty quickly as I was playing mostly solo. It was a decent game but as with most games, it gets boring with time. I completely understand why players stopped playing after beating the main storyline. Then, the additional parts of the game came out and it became more and more obvious that this game was meant to be a group/community based game.

While it's frustrating that some modes don't have matchmaking, I completely understand why. These modes are challenging to most players and is suppose to be an activity a group of people can take on for an extended time period. And if you don't have people you know to play with, the community has been so active; you can easily find fireteam members online on forums and/or Reddit. Though, I admit there can be people who quit if you aren't perfect teammates and you just have to realize that those individuals are actually the minority.

There are raids that are filled with puzzles and team-required strategy. As a result, communication is crucial. And most of the time, one person cannot pull the entire team through unlike many other games where one dominant player can sherpa an entire team. It is really enjoyable to play the game with friends as I use it as a vehicle to catch up with their lives as well. I have even met great people playing the game as well.

Back to the Destiny community, it's completely ridiculous. Members are so active and it's remarkable to see. Bungie developers have added intrinsic puzzles/obstacles to get certain items in the game and the Destiny community has somehow solved them. (I suspect that a Bungie developer has to have given slight hint to a member of the community and it spreads like wildfire) The weekly surprises that come out of the game almost create anxiety that you'll miss some (major) part of the game. This feeling can be very comparable to Animal Crossing or even maybe Farmville.

And the PVP? I think it's the most underrated aspect of the game and incredibly fun. I guess it doesn't hurt to be sort of good at it as well. But I think it is as good as Halo for PVP (though, I haven't played Halo in a very long time).

Destiny isn't for all gamers but can be very entertaining for those who want a challenging first person shooter game RPG MMO (and have the time). It does take time to level up to play the most thrilling aspects of the game. It's like board games where more serious gamers can enjoy because they are willing to take time to learn the rules and strategies.