Hey guys! Here's a Twitch stream of the handful of story missions and strike that make up the beta campaign. I just go through all of them in order: it's about 3 hours of gameplay.

One thing to note - the missions aren't tied together by... well, anything really. Just a little notification in the upper left of the screen and a waypoint marker. In my opinion this is just a shortcoming of the beta, and the full version will likely have much more in the way of cutscenes, dialog, and story depth than what we're getting in the beta. We are, after all, testing the game and not the cutscenes.

http://www.twitch.tv/psyrixx/b/548554912

First Impressions:

As is usual for a Bungie game, Destiny feels more polished than... well practically every AAA release I've played for the past several years - even as a beta. The weapons feel nice and substantial, I really like the aiming mechanics, and about the only thing I wish I could do would be turn on my flashlight at will - not just because my Ghost feels that it's too dark. There were a couple of spots I went exploring into that would have been nicer to explore with a little bit more light.

The only other concern I have, which I don't think will end up being a concern upon full release (because I know this is but a slice of the actual game), is that the map of earth seems pretty small. What I mean by this is that if the entirety of story content happening on earth takes place in this tiny slice of old Russia (which, admittedly, is a large game space) I feel that missions might start to feel a little stale after several of them in the same area. Again, my opinion on the matter is that much like Guild Wars 2, the map will likely expand once you've beaten all of the missions in a specific area and allow more varied environments after a certain point.

I am aware that we also travel to Venus, the Moon, Mars, etc. and have no doubt that those play spaces will be as gorgeous or even more so than the Old Russia Earth portion of the game (which, by the way, IS absolutely stunning). I also understand that these separate locations will add a good amount of variety to the environments of the missions we undertake throughout the campaign. That being said, it would still be nice if the entirety of stuff-to-do on Earth in a shared world shooter MMORPGish game that touts itself as huge and epic wasn't confined to this smallish portion of Old Russia. I don't expect it will be.

I haven't jumped into the Crucible yet, but I enjoyed the brief time I had with the campaign. If you don't have a beta code, or aren't able to play the game yet, I hope my stream gives you a taste of what to expect from Destiny. I can't wait to see what the finished product brings to the table in terms of actual story. Considering Bungie's long history of delivering top notch experiences - and despite the abysmal advertising of the game up to this point - after getting quality hands on time with the beta I have high hopes.

=)

Except getting nuked completely unawares by grenades from high-level Dregs when venturing too far afield.

~m

Last night I walked through all of the playable spaces in Old Russia. It's actually quite large when you start piecing those areas and the connecting pathways together. Comparing what I saw with the map of Old Russia, I think we're only seeing 1/4 to 1/3 of the map. I also notice there are several doors that are blacked out. Those might be monster closets or they might be areas that are blocked off for the beta.

I also found that the Devil Walker spawns in explore mode. I beat that thing down all by myself. It was fun.

Though it did start ramping up once I got to level 5 or so. Also, that strike was tough, but a lot of fun with the three randoms I was set up with.

And I WAS playing on Normal. I assume higher difficulties are going to be more difficult. I felt Normal was well balanced for the casual gamer.

The only other concern I have, which I don't think will end up being a concern upon full release (because I know this is but a slice of the actual game), is that the map of earth seems pretty small. What I mean by this is that if the entirety of story content happening on earth takes place in this tiny slice of old Russia (which, admittedly, is a large game space) I feel that missions might start to feel a little stale after several of them in the same area.

It doesn't. There are other Earth locations like Old Chicago, etc. Also note this isn't even all of Old Russia.

The only other concern I have, which I don't think will end up being a concern upon full release (because I know this is but a slice of the actual game), is that the map of earth seems pretty small. What I mean by this is that if the entirety of story content happening on earth takes place in this tiny slice of old Russia (which, admittedly, is a large game space) I feel that missions might start to feel a little stale after several of them in the same area.

It doesn't. There are other Earth locations like Old Chicago, etc. Also note this isn't even all of Old Russia.

As I stated, I didn't think it did because this is just a beta and an overall tiny slice of what I expect the game to contain. I hadn't read about there being other earth locations, and I had a feeling that this was only a portion of the Old Russia play space but again hadn't read anything contrary to it, so I just voiced the mild concern.

Good to hear that there are other locations confirmed somewhere.
Do you by chance have a source? :)

I have not seen anything other than old concept art for Chicago. It may have been cut, or pushed to an expansion, or an MP level only. Nobody knows and Bungie never seems to divulge such details as number of locations/missions/gameplay time until some French guy leaks it.

I imagine each expansion will be the size of one zone (given their theming!), maybe larger than the average. (Equivalent of Old Russia, Hell mouth, etc). Based on the level requirement of the moon and unused geometry, there may be more story/strikes in Old Russia as it is.

It's all a guess and I am talking out of my posterior, but I am trying to think about this from a production/planning point of view.

At the minimum, we have seen 1/5th the content in the Beta. That makes for a slightly longer game than any Halo, amd the strikes are close to being as long and decent as a small Halo mission, so hopefully we get lots of them! (I wish those devil walkers had more room to, well, walk. They seem like baby scarabs at the moment).

As it is, I have more hours in this game, thoroughly enjoyed, than most $99AUD games before it's even been released. Looking forward to it and good job Bungie/Activision/Sony for getting it running within a few hours of beta launch!

At the minimum, we have seen 1/5th the content in the Beta. That makes for a slightly longer game than any Halo, amd the strikes are close to being as long and decent as a small Halo mission, so hopefully we get lots of them! (I wish those devil walkers had more room to, well, walk. They seem like baby scarabs at the moment).

I believe Bungie said the Alpha was roughly 3% of the game's content. The Alpha had one story mission, explore, one strike, and two multiplayer maps.

Oh wow, just wow. This will rival WOW for content at launch if that is the case.