Things we loved about the leaked Destiny footage
Somebody posted a great wad of unedited Destiny footage today. We'll shake our heads in approbation once we're done gleefully digesting it for all possible facts.
Publishers get a bit narcy when you put up great swathes of B-roll, because they think it doesn't look professional enough for public consumption; you're supposed to edit it into interviews and that, with lots of context to explain what's going on.
We'd never intentionally go against their wishes, but since somebody else has, let's all gibber excitedly over what we learned from this three and a half minutes of glorious, glorious Destiny. The footage is so beautiful I rose from my sickbed to press my face against it, and contains plenty of content not featured in the recent alpha. Let's get right to it.
The Vex look like robot triceratops
The Vex, according to the Destiny website, are a type of mass produced machine. Unlike the Fallen, which seem to be or have been some sort of organic creature under their techno-armour, they're entirely robotic - think of them as the equivalent of Mass Effect's geth. Although apparently without the charm.
In the B-roll, we see at least three kinds of Vex unit - the Harpy, Goblin and Hobgoblin. Judging by their size and the ease by which they're taken down, I'd say the latter two are the basic grunt units, roughly equivalent to the Fallen Dreg and Vandal, or Hive Thrall and Acolyte.
The large Strike boss we see may well be a Vex unit also. They seem to come in all shapes and sizes - not just the Elder Scrolls Clannfear shape seen most often in the demo. I wonder how the Exo feel about this?
There are some beautiful environments yet to be seen
This is a bit of a no brainer, but if, like me, you've scoured every inch of Cosmo not guarded by ridiculously high level enemies, seeing new places and finding out they're just as beautiful is wonderful. A fair bit of the action in the B-roll takes place on Cosmo, which you may not notice if you didn't hang around to watch a day-night cycle, or stop to admire the view, but there are other sights on offer.
Outside of PvP - more on that later - we see a gorgeous space environment illuminated in purple. It's likely this is a cutscene, unfortunately, as we haven't heard anything about a space exploration mode. (That said, there is a mysterious unrevealed mode on the Destiny website - but I bet my second-best boots it's just an explore map with PvP thrown in, or duelling.) Pretty, though.
We see several non-Earth environments. Some of them are clearly the moon, but I think we also get out first real look at Venus - it seems too lush for Mars, but Earth is undeniably hanging in the sky (probably in defiance of astronomy but shh, it looks so cool).
We also visit some sort of non-human structure, presumably built by the Vex, since they seem to be all over it. You can tell humans didn't make it because it's full of convenient pieces of cover. Level designers must love non-human architecture because it means they can scatter choke points and flanking positions everywhere and if anybody asks them to justify it they can just shrug and say "aliens, innit". And more power to them.
In addition to the very clinical, hexagonal, pillared buildings we see some organic caves, apparently joining onto this Vex base. Do the Vex live underground? Interesting.
We also visit a new environment populated by the Hive - probably the moon.
One of the most intriguing environmental shots shows a dilapidated set of buildings. I think this is Earth; despite the merrily burbling river, you can see snow on the ground and I think the shuttle looms in the background. I expect this area is continuous with the Cosmo map, as it shares a few assets.
It looks like there's a crashed alien ship of some kind amidst the human structures - probably a Hive vessel. If you explored the far reaches of Cosmo during the Alpha you may have come across a couple of Hive nests or ships, where you would have been instantly slaughtered for your pains.
Next: High-level skills, enemies and PvP.
Higher level powers rock
During the B-roll we get to see a lot of supers performed. Hopefully if you played the alpha you're familiar with all three class supers. In the B-roll, we see the Titan's super - a leaping ground-pound that does area-of-effect-damage - multiple times.
One skill shown a couple of times looks different, though. It's a sort of dash attack, similar to the vanguard's biotic charge in Mass Effect but with splash damage. It's performed with the knee - a deadly weapon, as anyone who's ever physically brawled can attest. It seems to be a Titan skill, because you can see the class armour - a piece of cloth worn at the hip. This might be the second tier super, or perhaps just a higher level melee. I've never seen the Titan melee from the outside, actually, soooo.
The Hunter also seems to be showing off a skill or melee not seen in the alpha - a melee with a broad area of effect. It doesn't have a leap like the Titan's super. I believe this is the Bladedancer skill.
There's one skill that pops up that is quite mysterious - "chain of woe". It has a ten second timer, and seems to be triggered by headshots. It may be a passive ability that lends various bonuses. Hopefully it can be chained together.
There are much more powerful enemies out there
This was a given, of course, but it's tantalising to see the foes we may face when we reach the dizzying heights of level 20. From what we've seen so far, it seems like the first enemies we face in Destiny are the Fallen, with the Hive being introduced a few levels later. The number of Vex in the B-roll footage suggest they're the third tier enemy class, and the brief glimpse of the Cabal makes me think they're the biggest and baddest faction.
The Cabal seems to favour big shields and heavy armour, so expect them to be hard to take down. The classical unit names - Legionary and Phalanx - suggest they'll be a highly disciplined, organised military force - not like the scrappy Fallen or insect-like Hive. Could be trouble.
We see a unique or mini-boss spawn in action, the Archon Priest. I think this is a Fallen unit; the lore available so far suggests the Fallen have a grand hierarchical past, and I'm pretty sure the Disciple units you can (unwisely) face in the alpha were Fallen of some kind. The armour looks Fallen, too. I look forward to smacking this fellow as we smacked his colleague in the Devil's Lair Strike during the alpha.
PvP is a major focus
I am not a big PvP fan, and I was very much caught up in exploring Destiny's Earth maps, so I didn't spend as much time in the Crucible as I should have, perhaps. But for those of you who are into competitive shooters, it really looks like Destiny will provide. Bungie is, after all, one of the developers that made competitive shooters a viable genre for consoles. PvP is not an add-on to Destiny; it's at least half the game. (Although you can absolutely ignore it if you don't want your full money's worth, and that's fine; I intend to. It looks like you'll miss out on a lot of cool customisation gear as a result, though.)
In the B-roll we see a group of three Guardians go down to a Titan's super, which is very gratifying for whoever pulled it off. We also see a classic arena shooter technique - firing a heavy weapon - in this case, a rocket launcher - in the middle of one of those huge floaty jumps. Perfection.
You get a bit of a glimpse of the medal and XP system in action, although it seems like pretty standard fare judging from my own experience and from this footage.
The footage shows off how various weapons and techniques can be used effectively in PvP. Melee is the fastest skill, despite the nail-biting moment of inaction as the animation finishes, and it's alamingly effective. On the total other end of the spectrum, we also see a player using a heavy weapon effectively. That's the big red one; you can see the player has their primary and secondary weapon in the bank.
Other weapons shown off include the powerful hand cannon - long time Bungie fans will no doubt be hoping for some decent performance from their handguns - and the good old autorifle. However, it looks like Bungie hasn't been shy about putting in favourable sniper nests. I'll leave you to despair or rejoice about that at your discretion.
One high level skill shown in the lengthy PvP showcase is called "Radiance", and allows a character to self resurrect and take instant revenge on their rivals. Very cool.
Destiny arrives on PlayStation 3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One in September. A beta kicks off on July 17. What else did you notice in the B-roll?