Destiny: Bungie discusses co-op involvement, player choices

Destiny developer Bungie has stressed that when playing co-op, your team-mates won't be pushed to the side during cinematic scenes like in Halo. You'll all be given star billing. There will also be an emphasis on choices as you play.

Speaking with IGN, design director Joe Staten said of Destiny's co-op, "In the same way we're making your heroic story, your legend, that carries over into the cinematics. You're the star of the cinematics as much as you're the star of your own heroic tale.

"So if you're playing in a co-op way, we're not going to do that crappy thing that happened in the old Halo games where, if you're playing co-op, you don't show up...you're not the primary role."

Destiny will surpass Bungie's Halo games in a co-op regard, but also in making players feel more involved thanks to pivotal decisions about who your character is and what they do. "Putting a history into the world was extremely important," Staten continued, "something you felt you were fighting for, the civilization that was once yours that's fallen, that's trying to recover.

"But it also goes to player choice, too, and not just choices you'd get in a Halo game, the moment to moment of how I'm going to take apart this encounter, what's my combat toolset? What kind of character do I want to be in the world? Do I want to be a man or do I want to be a woman? That's a choice we never gave someone in the Halo games."

Destiny sounds like an increasingly ambitious and engaging experience at its core - even if you disapprove with the presentation or plot. What do you think about the difference between playing as a written hero with a defined voice, versus playing a blank-slate character you make for yourself?

Can it work in a game like Destiny? Let us know below.