So I thought I would go ahead and post about my experience with the Alpha, as well as show as much about the Alpha as I can. I only gathered these screenshots today so bear with me that they don't have everything you want, but I tried to do my best.

I love Destiny. It has some rough edges, mostly on the borders between FPS and RPG, but overall it is exactly what Bungie has been saying: their next great shooter. Let's dive in.

Warlock

My least favorite class, but not by a large margin. Major thing that drives me crazy in the Warlock's Glide ability. It's way to slow, and doesn't go nearly high enough, also make sure you learn to cancel out of it or you'll hit door frames and ceilings a LOT. Aside from that the Warlock is a force to be reckoned with. Nova bomb is by far the easiest super to get kills with as it gives you a second to even track enemies as you're winding up. Their starting grenade (Vortex) is also devastating and can be used as for area denial, especially because enemies don't look for it a lot of times and it will bring them from almost full health to dead in the time it takes them to walk through it. Warlock's health regen's faster than the others which is really nice.

Titan

Feels good bashing baddies with your bare fists. Titans have a little more health than everyone else and their second jump, lift gets you ridiculously high, though it's still pretty slow to pull off. Their first grenade (Flashbang), while not incredibly powerful, will blind people within it's radius, which can earn you a few seconds to finish people off with your fists or shotgun. The second grenade (Pulse) is pretty similar to the Vortex grenade, except it doesn't do constant damage, it does it in waves.

Hunter

Easily my favorite. I have to say after playing the three the Hunter gives the biggest rewards for good aiming and will hurt you if you don't aim well. Golden gun relies on at least a decent amount of aim, and you lose your throwing knife whether you miss or not, unlike the other Guardian's special melee attacks. Not to mention to make sure you do maximum damage with your throwing knife you better get a critical hit. I also very much enjoy their first grenade (Incendiary) as it does a decent amount of damage immediately and does damage over time after that. Also, double jump is AMAZING. Fast and high, it lets you get out of situations fast. I have saved my own skin so many times just running and double jumping out of a situation. Overall Hunter is all about agility. They run faster and jump higher than any of the other classes.

PvE

I really enjoyed the PvE in Destiny. Like Halo their is a lot to find and explore outside of the missions, except now there is A LOT to find. Even though you choose missions before you leave orbit, you are in the same world as you are when you enter explore mode. Before you reach the mission proper you will encounter public events, see other players, and find loot outside the mission. The only thing that will be missing will be the little side missions you can start while in explore mode, obviously since you are have a mission selected. The PvE combat is really satisfying when you are playing at or below your level. Headshots are well worth it and enemies react relatively intelligently to the situations. When you are playing against enemies above your level though it gets pretty frustrating as enemies soak up bullets.

PvP
I am still surprised how much I enjoyed Destiny's PvP. The weapon balancing is pretty ingenious and the one mode they let you play in the alpha, Control, is a great mix of objective and slayer game modes. The more zones you hold the more points your kills are worth, and no points are added for just controlling zones. Vehicles probably need some balancing, but if you have a Super charged it's not TOO bad. They also have an interesting mechanic where you earn Crucible Marks with each match. Crucible Marks are a currency that you can spend with specific vendors for gear (for example I bought a Level 1 Shader from New Monarchy for 75 Crucible Marks). With a loss you gain I believe 1 mark and with a win you gain 2 marks. There are ways to earn Crucible Marks through PvE (collect Spinmetal!), but by far the fastest way I've seen is to play Crucible.

Weapons and balancing
Each weapon does fit into a different category (pulse rifle, fusion rifle, rocket launcher, etc) but so far most guns feel very different from each other. For example this is my Sahara Auto Rifle:

And this is my Cydonia Auto Rifle:

Notice they are have very different stats, while the Sahara has very little impact and range, it has decent stability and fires 900 rounds per minute and has a pretty big 48 round clip. On the other hand my Cydonia has half the rate of fire and magazine, but it's impact and range are significantly higher. These guns act very very different. This is how guns are differentiated in Destiny.

In addition those stats you see (not counting the attack number at the top) are how guns are balanced in multiplayer. No attack power is taken into account only impact, range, stability, rate of fire, and magazine size. Even on the upgrade trees you can see that the last option is "Increase this weapon's Attack" but that did not affect it's impact so it is no more powerful in multiplayer.

The other thing that's nice is you can change the scope on uncommon guns or higher, which also will slightly affect its stats. So for example on the Cydonia I use the Ranged Lens, which gives me great view at mid range, and also increases it's range and stability for the a sacrifice of reload speed.

The thing I especially like about this system is that if you find a gun you like in multiplayer, you can keep it, forever. It doesn't matter how far behind it's Attack stat is, it will hold it's own when you are in the Crucible.

Other thoughts

Bungie really thought a lot of this through. Challenges in Reach were great, but it was always frustrating when they would do something in a mode I wasn't in the mood to play. In Destiny they replaced it with Bounties:

In the Alpha there are two types of Bounties, Crucible Bounties, and Vanguard Bounties. As you can imagine you can only earn Crucible Bounties in the Crucible, and Vanguard Bounties are focused on PvE activities. Instead of them assigning Bounties to you, you go to the Bounty master and choose the Bounties you want to run, and you can hold 5 at a time so if one is taking you awhile you can hold onto it or discard it. Vanguard Bounties give you Vanguard Honor and Crucible Bounties give you Crucible Reputation, both of which are required to buy certain gear. And both types of Bounties earn you experience.

Also the game is gorgeous. I know I didn't need to say, but no, I really needed to say it.

Gallery

Curious.

Button/Stick Layouts

Consumables

Login Screen:

Roster:

Mission beacon from explore:

My Crucible Stats:

Game Over (Got this in middle of multiplayer match at around 7 PM MDT today):

List of Crucible Medals and explanations if available/needed

Best around - You won with the best score (Pretty sure you lose the medal if you don’t sing the song)
[Can't remember name] - You lost with the best score
Enforcer - Killed your nemesis (not sure if it’s called that)
Heating Up - I believe it is for getting a certain number of points during one life
Stick Around - Critical knife kill?
Skewered - Splatter with a pike
Bullseye - Headshot spree
Way of the Gun - Get 3 kills with the Golden Gun
Hat Trick - Capture three zones in one life (you don’t have to hold all 3, and they don’t have to be 3 different zones)
Domination - I believe this means getting a kill while having all 3 zones, could be controlling all 3
Objectively Correct - Awarded at end of game for playing the objective. Not sure the exact criteria.
Guardian Angel - Save someone’s life
I Hunger - Get a kill with Energy Drain (Warlock)
Unsung Hero - Assist spree
Legend - Not sure, I think it may be the same as a perfection medal in Halo
Postmortem - Kill from the grave
Uprising - ?
Back in Action - Kill after dying without a kill 3(?) times in a row
Double Kill
Triple Kill
Victory
Merciless - Possibly dominating an opponent?
Strength of the Pack - Working as a team somehow
Chariot of Fire - Interceptor Spree
Nail in the Coffin - Winning kill

(List not complete, it was mostly from memory)

If you guys have any questions let me know!

Here's a medal I didn't see listed there: Space Magic - I think it's for wiping out all enemies with the super, but I'm not 100% on that. I've only seen it the once after placing a Nova Bomb into a capture zone.

It's great reading your takes on the classes. I for one didn't give the Titan and the Hunter enough of a chance. I feel I could have gotten along well with the Hunter too, but I felt very at home with the Warlock.

I found their glide a bit of a nuisance at first, so I definitely see where you're coming from there, but it became a great tool once used to it - especially when you get to upgrade its maneuverability. There were some great instances when enemies and their shotguns would pop around a corner having just spotted me dash past and I'd be waiting, gliding gently in the air above them to get the drop as they pop out.

I found their glide a bit of a nuisance at first, so I definitely see where you're coming from there, but it became a great tool once used to it - especially when you get to upgrade its maneuverability. There were some great instances when enemies and their shotguns would pop around a corner having just spotted me dash past and I'd be waiting, gliding gently in the air above them to get the drop as they pop out.

Yeah I found some cool uses for it eventually, but having started with the Hunter it was frustrating to know I could make a jump if I was playing a Hunter.

Thanks for putting this up! Lots of great info. I have my heart set on an Exo Warlock for my primary guardian, but after seeing all the Alpha information this past week, I am really looking forward to test driving all 3 classes.

Nice writeup!

My favorite medal:

Never Speak of This Again - Splatter someone with a Sparrow

Man, I tried to run over people with the Sparrow so many times. You must have to aim super carefully.

Man, I tried to run over people with the Sparrow so many times. You must have to aim super carefully.

Yeah, I never managed it. Seems to be pretty hard to splatter enemies in explore mode too.

*OT Rant* After many many uses, the jump/glide sound effect noise has started to annoy me. I sort of wish there was a way to mute it. If it has to be "on" in the beginning of the game to help new users OR so other players/enemies can hear it, that is ok with me. But after a while I feel like I don't really need to hear it every single time...

The thing I especially like about this system is that if you find a gun you like in multiplayer, you can keep it, forever. It doesn't matter how far behind it's Attack stat is, it will hold it's own when you are in the Crucible.

Thats golden right there. An excellent and well considered write-up. Thanks for sharing.

The thing I especially like about this system is that if you find a gun you like in multiplayer, you can keep it, forever. It doesn't matter how far behind it's Attack stat is, it will hold it's own when you are in the Crucible.

Thats golden right there. An excellent and well considered write-up. Thanks for sharing.

I realized this particular nugget way too late. Was getting torn up and was thinking "I love this gun in PvE, but it's terrible in the Crucible".

Definitely need to keep a healthy stash of guns so you can mix it up in the Crucible, get your shotgun/sniper out for certain maps. Not sure a Fusion Rifle EVER makes sense in the Crucible, at least 1v1.

Definitely need to keep a healthy stash of guns

You can count on that.

- No text -

and playing with you of course. I still can't remember what the medal was called when I got a ridiculous 16.0 k/d in the interceptor all game, but it was black with a gold bobcat/cougar on it.

MLG pro over here.

Excellent write up! Two questions:

What's the default button layout?
Does the announcer put a voice to any of the medals?

-CC

Thanks for all the words. Some good info in there.

Does the announcer put a voice to any of the medals?

Nah, they just appear towards the top of your screen. They're fairly big, though I never found them distracting or obscuring.

Sig already answered the other question, and sorry I didn't have the default button layout, the Alpha was closed when I was putting the finishing touches together and I realized I forgot it! Here is an image I found on Google:

and playing with you of course. I still can't remember what the medal was called when I got a ridiculous 16.0 k/d in the interceptor all game, but it was black with a gold bobcat/cougar on it.

MLG pro over here.

Yeah I had that problem a lot. I jumped into the Crucible to figure out a few, and still couldn't figure out some (like best score but you lose).

It was awesome playing with you and other DBOers. Man, do we really have to wait a month from today to play again? And then more than month from then to get the final game? This starting and stopping is already giving me withdrawals.

Sig already answered the other question, and sorry I didn't have the default button layout, the Alpha was closed when I was putting the finishing touches together and I realized I forgot it! Here is an image I found on Google:

Thanks to both of you for the answers! One more question. What does the player highlight button do? I assume it's similar to the highlight function in Battlefield.

-CC

Thanks to both of you for the answers! One more question. What does the player highlight button do? I assume it's similar to the highlight function in Battlefield.

It is basically so you can look at the player's gear or invite them to your fireteam or join their fireteam, or view their Playstation profile. After you highlight a player I believe you hit option to bring up a contextual menu with those options (and probably more I am forgetting).

Thanks to both of you for the answers! One more question. What does the player highlight button do? I assume it's similar to the highlight function in Battlefield.

It is basically so you can look at the player's gear or invite them to your fireteam or join their fireteam, or view their Playstation profile. After you highlight a player I believe you hit option to bring up a contextual menu with those options (and probably more I am forgetting).

Ah, very cool. Thanks!

-CC