OK, last night I finally beat Destiny, and I've logged a good amount of time on Patrol and the Crucible, so I feel like I'm qualified to write an early review of the game. BEFORE ANYONE GIVES ME SHIT - I have not linked my B.net account to my Guardian, so that's why it says I've never played Destiny on my profile. I'll get around to it. Just chill. OK. I'm playing the Xbox 360 version of the game, as a male Exo Hunter. The campaign was a blast. I've read a lot of negative opinions about how repetitive it is, and I agree with those opinions if you're only playing the missions solo. With friends, it's a totally different story. Destiny is built for cooperative play, and you're simply not getting the full experience if you play by yourself. Unfortunately, the story is very bare-bones and hard to follow. Destiny is a game for gamers first and foremost, which means the story is not as prominent as it was in Halo, but I was still expecting something more than what we got. I've heard that the Grimoire cards have a lot of back story that fleshes out the universe, but not being able to read them in-game is a huge pain in the ass, and I haven't linked my Guardian to my B.net profile yet. I give the campaign a solid 8/10, it's not as amazing as Halo 3: ODST (Bungie's best campaign to date) but it's damn good and highly replayable. The only major negative point for me is the story. Patrol mode is the meat and potatoes of this game. It might as well be called "grind mode" because it's the best way to level up, complete bounties, and upgrade your gear. It's the most fun mode of the game, IMO, with endless side quests and wide-open worlds for exploration, and while it holds up the best of all the modes for solo players, it's still way more fun to play with a Fireteam. 10/10, kudos to Bungie for crafting this perfect mode! I haven't gotten into the Strikes very much yet. I played the Devils' Lair strike a couple of times, which was awesome, and I got halfway into the Moon strike before getting kicked out of the servers last night, and it seemed pretty fun too. Strikes are surprisingly long and very challenging. You have to play them on Hard for the maximum experience, though. It's still early to rank this mode, but from what I've played so far, I give it a 10/10. Crucible is amazing, although there are not as many game modes as I thought there would be. Still, it's fast-paced, strategic, and a lot of fun. The maps are (mostly) incredible as well. I think my favorite so far is Shores of Time. 9/10 for now, but I know Bungie is introducing some new playlists soon with new game modes, so that is NOT A FINAL SCORE. The four planet environments are incredible. My favorite is Mars, but I like the rest of them just about equally. The Cabal are my favorite enemy class, which might be why I like Mars so much. The Vex are a massive challenge, as their strength comes from their raw numbers. More than once, I've found myself backed into a corner by the Vex, wondering how the hell I got there. They move so slowly and methodically, but they just keep coming at you relentlessly, so it's hard to hold them off for long. The Hive are a lot like the Flood, which wasn't necessarily a good thing at first, but as I got to know them better and interacted with the different varied troops (especially the Wizards), I saw that they were not as Floodian as I initially thought. Hive can get annoying after a while, especially when they poison you, but I think I like them. Only the Fallen are disappointing. They just aren't much of a threat. Maybe that's because they are most common on the early Earth levels, which are pretty easy, but I still didn't like them very much in later levels. The Tower is awesome and I love shopping for gear, but it would be nice if the NPCs were more talkative. Most of them don't have much of a personality. Particularly, I wish the Vanguards for the different classes were more talkative. I want Nathan Fillion to tell me stories of battles from long ago! All of the RPG elements are a lot of fun. I'm not much of an RPG player, so I don't have a lot to compare to, but it's a lot of fun to upgrade my skills and weapon traits. Everyone bitching about how there "isn't enough content" probably needs to dive deeper into what this game has to offer. This game has more content than anything else I've ever played. Campaign mode is a little short, but if you play with a Fireteam on the higher difficulties, it has a lot of replayability. Strikes, Patrol, and Crucible are endlessly replayable, and that's not even accounting for the weekly challenges and Nightfall strikes. There's always more gear to obtain as well, and the grind for that gear should fill a lot of your play time. Additionally, there are bounties, Public Events, and time-limited events like Iron Banner. And the Raid hasn't even opened yet! So don't tell me there "isn't enough content" because there's enough here to sustain at least five years. Plus, once the expansions come out there will be even MORE stuff to do! (I know some people don't like paying extra for expansions, but even without them, there is TONS OF STUFF!) All of that said, Destiny is not a perfect game. As I said before, the story is very disappointing, and the inability to read Grimoire cards in-game is ridiculous. The lack of public voice chat is also a massive disappointment because it ruins a lot of the game's social potential. Some people have complained about not wanting to listen to player voice chat 24/7, especially in quiet areas like the Tower... So the simple soluton there is to make voice chat OPT-IN ONLY! I am also disappointed that PlayStation users get exclusive content that I can't play until fall 2015. I know it's just one strike, one Crucible map, and some gear, but ANY console-exclusive content is ridiculous. Destiny is supposed to be console-neutral! I was disappointed when I first heard about it and I'm still disappointed. There don't seem to be enough Guardians in Patrol mode either. I think it would be much more interesting if the number of Guardians for this mode was doubled. As it is, the mode feels slightly barren. It's not as social as it could (and should) be as a result. The persistent server issues need to be fixed ASAP. I thought they would be mostly gone after launch day, but I'm still being disconnected from the servers periodically. Bungie, please get your shit together! Lastly, probably my biggest disappointment with the game is the lack of cross-platform play. I understand why Xbox players can't interact with PlayStation players... That's just corporate politics. But WHY can't 360 players interact with Xbone players?! (Or on the Sony side of things, PS3 players with PS4 players.) It's so disappointing! My friend has Destiny on his Xbone and I cannot play with him just because I still haven't given up on last-gen! Ugh. These faults are minor. Destiny is a great game and potentially could be better than Halo! Bungie has ten years to explore this universe and refine this new subgenre of FPS gaming. I look forward to what the future holds. In the meantime, Destiny calls. I'm going to see if I can finish that Moon strike without getting booted off the server again. See you starside. (TM)