Bungie Halo Tactics Wont Work Destiny

Over the next few months, gamers will likely be hearing a lot about Destiny, the latest game from former Halo developer Bungie, and for good reason. With Destiny, Bungie is trying to craft an MMO-like experience that caters to a wide variety of gamers and is not easily summarized in a few sentences, screenshots, or trailers...although there have been plenty of those.

Early previews of the game have shown us that Destiny is an ambitious undertaking - one that, if done well, could influence the future of game development in the next-gen. Even so, many gamers will flock to the game just to see what the first non-Halo game from Bungie looks like, and how it differs from that iconic Microsoft franchise.

However, although Bungie is likely borrowing heavily from lessons learned on the Halo franchise, they are not making another Halo. As the development team explains in a recent Bungie podcast, even competitive multiplayer will differ quite significantly from Halo.

Of course, the end-goal is still to eliminate the opposition, but doing so will take a little more thought than it did in Halo. That isn't meant as a knock to Halo, mind you; Destiny is simply a different type of game with its 3 different classes, special abilities, and unique loadouts.

"Skill is very important. [But] it's not just your thumb skill, it's understanding how you are outfitting yourself, what weapons you are taking, what choices you have made in your build and then understanding how to use them properly."

Since Destiny is class-based, players will need to think about what weapons and abilities they take into battle. Moreover, they will have to use their given tool set correctly in order to survive.

Beyond using their own tool set, though, players will also need to mindful of the various different movement options in Destiny. For example, players might have a double jump or a teleport ability, which could render overt offensive attacks practically useless. If there are players who typically favor rushing in with a shotgun, they might want to consider their options before doing so.

"The thing that was really hard for us at first, was trying to make movement modes make sense and not feel too powerful. And not make it so that we couldn't control where the players were going and how they interact with each other...What used to work in Halo, doesn't work as well in Destiny,"

That isn't to say all Halo tactics won't work in Destiny's competitive multiplayer, but Bungie clearly wants to get fans in a different mindset before jumping into this new universe. There's going to be a lot to explore in Destiny on both the single player and multiplayer side of things, so going in with any bit of knowledge ahead of time could be a big advantage. Getting in on the forthcoming beta test couldn't hurt either.

How would you like to see Destiny's multiplayer differentiate itself from Halo? Where do you think there should be some similarities?

Destiny releases September 9, 2014 for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

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Source: OXM

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