14 DAY TRIAL // Following the leak of some alpha gameplay footage from the upcoming shooter with role-playing game elements, Destiny, developer Bungie has decided to come forward and offer some more details on the game's modes.
Bungie is best known for the Halo franchise, which has amazed millions upon millions of gamers since its debut in 2001, and for some time it's been working on a very ambitious project that they hope will revolutionize the playing field the same way the Halo games did.
Recently, some alpha footage of the upcoming game was leaked on NeoGAF, and Destiny's Lead Game Designer, Luke Smith, has taken the time to clarify some of the issues that the community started to discuss, in order to avoid misconceptions.
"First, Destiny is structured into Activities. We've attempted to build a suite of activities that can suit a variety of moods (I want something challenging! I want to chill out with my friends! I want to see where the story goes next! I want to shoot other players!, I want the game to be a cruel dominatrix! et cetera)," Smith explains.
Story missions are soloable activities that often have tie-ins to the game's main story arc, which will appear at various levels, and players choosing a relatively higher level will translates into a more challenging experience. Gamers will be able to do story missions either alone or with up to two friends.
Strikes are highly replayable activities designed for 3 players to go through, with bosses and loot at the end, which will be the first high-level step into the loot game.
The Explore activity will see players roam the surface of the planet in Fireteams of up to 3, looking for stuff to do, picking up odd jobs and tasks for the city, harvesting minerals and resources from within the world. Exploration is designed as a low-intensity activity for players who just want to unwind.
Raids are a highly challenging activity designed for groups of 6 players, that require a high degree of coordination, and that the team will go into detail about later on.
Finally, the Multiplayer activity is for those who want to shoot other players in the face.
After presenting an outline of the activities that players will be embarking on in Destiny, Smith has explained how the team designed Destiny's world in order to better accommodate the varied quests types and game modes.
"We've structured Destiny's world to have places where you will probably intersect with other players, and places where you won't. We're not going to have players drop into the climax of a mission, but the common landing zones for a given planet? That seems like a great place to see other players running amok in the world," Smith says.
He has pointed out that, whatever the activity that you're playing is, you'll see players on other activities in the world around you, and when Public Events start, everyone might drop whatever it is they're doing and band together to take down a key Cabal target, for a chance at powerful gear and materials.
Destiny will be demoed later tonight, at Sony's E3 2014 press conference, and different versions of the game will also be presented at the large trade show, for players to get a feel of the upcoming game.
Bungie intends to release the shooter worldwide on September 9, for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox 360 platforms.