So I finally got my hands on it last week and with XBox joining the fray now, I can talk about it. The last season or two of this year I've grown steadily more and more dark, seeing the headlines but ignoring the details, watching the trailers but skipping the streams. For a while I thought I might have even been helping with a fan site for a game that might not even interest me ultimately!

So I went in with mixed expectations. My girlfriend watched me start the game. She likes to have some idea of what I'll be babbling about for the coming days/months/years.

Here's her review first. "I HATE IT." This is because during the course of an hour, she bit off all of her nails and continually screamed EVERY time a Fallen jumped me. Like chalkboard-scratching screams. I will say though, it's very helpful for the immersion!

She soon abandoned me. Later that night before going to bed I told her, "So remember the bad guys you were so scared of? Those weren't the 'Flood' of Destiny. No, those are called the HIVE."

She said, "Nope."

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And now my impressions. One of the first things I said once I got out into the open steppes of Old Russia was "This reminds me of Tsavo Highway." Which, if you know me, is a great sign.

This interconnected zone on Earth is sort of like a New Mombassa from ODST with many more things to explore and many more activities to do within it. It's sort of like Bungie recorded me a year after ODST's release, firstly wondering why I was still playing it, and secondly, what they could do to make that experience dynamic and re-energizing.

The fact that there are going to be multiple New Mombassas in the full game is staggering to me.

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This game is great. It took me a while to get into it, to absorb it, define it, and to see where Halo ends and Destiny begins. None of the trailers do it justice. You have to see all of the details and niches that really define its universe to get it. One moment I'm playing this new shooter, thinking "Okay, so it definitely has great gunplay and the melees ares fantastically visceral, but is this really worth all the hoopla?" and the next I'm watching a sunset on the Tower realizing "I could play this game for a long damn time. Shit."

Thanks to art direction, especially the vivid colors, as well as of course the sound and music, the ambiance of Destiny is palpable. Especially in the Tower. It reminded me not only of Fable and Mass Effect, but also Knights of the Old Republic. Which are all great memories to hearken to, especially the last. More importantly and despite those memories, I still felt like I was in a new world, and a new universe, and I wanted to catalog every inch of it.

Day/night cycles, random public events, spontaneous dropships, dead Ghosts, loot chests - all of this adds to the replayability so greatly, and that's before you even add in other people! The Sparrow is a beautiful little sounding Pod Racer and having just recently gotten a Crucible match actually working, I was ecstatic to see more vehicles (Halo vehicles are half the reason I got into those games). The Brute Choppe-- I mean the Pike is great, but the Interceptor is a master of death. Can't wait to see those in the campaign.

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The UI threw me off at first. The 'cursor' style reminded me of Wii games and I got scarred. But I grew accustomed and am now really appreciating. Combined with the immersive orbiting menus and planetary transitions between missions and Crucible matches, I think this might be my favorite UI Bungie has ever attempted. If a menu can get you and keep you excited, with changing background planets and customizable ships, that's a good sign for a UI. I was always a bit bored with Reach's menu. They're beautiful, but they're static. In Destiny, when ships roll in behind me and the drums kick in, and I'm sitting up and getting excited for the next chance to play.

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The hit points and bosses are reminding me a lot of classic Final Fantasy games I grew up. Even the music of Marty sounds a bit like Nobuo Uematsu at times. Combined with the other games I mentioned, and of course a lot of Halo mixed in, Destiny has become this strange amalgamation of many games and genres I love, while still carving out its own spot. I look forward to seeing it fully-realize itself in the full game.

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The actual story is fairly basic so far, but Bungie has always been about open stories. They ask questions and let the player answer, instead of the other way around, and that's one of the reasons I could daydream about the Forerunners or other Halo mysteries for a decade, because it was so open and simple yet fascinating. Hopefully they retain that openness while layering in new complexities to it. OR just have a creepy Russian voice talk in the background the whole time - that gets me excited too.

The one major thing I want in the final game is a GOD DAMN FLASHLIGHT. Or control of it, I should say. I could turn the brightness up but I like my darks dark! If we're out of buttons, perhaps an option in the Back/Ghost menu for turning it on or something?

And if you could add in space combat, kay, thanks.

See you starside!