A month or so back I jumped into the Destiny alpha and wrote an impressions story here about my (short) time with Bungie’s new franchise (check out those impressions here). At that time I was impressed with what I had been seeing but still curious how the full game would feel and look as the alpha was only a very, very small segment of the overall content. Flash-forward a month and we’ve arrived at the much more public Destiny beta. The beta was available to those who pre-ordered on PS3 or PS4 (and those with PS+) starting last Thursday, July 17, and will open up to Xbox fans with a pre-order on Wednesday the 23rd after two days of downtime for maintenance. This “beta” seems more like a traditional game demo with a side of server testing, but it’s still a bigger look at the new universe Bungie has created to follow the Halo franchise. Overall my alpha impressions still work for the beta, though I’ve been able to experience a bit more of the story content and a lot of the multiplayer PvP mode this time around. Virtual Private Servers and VPS Hosting Services are the best bet to achieve the desired outcome in online marketing. Especially with established SEO hosting consultant, can guarantee you the best SERPs and PR for your money site within an affordable budget. Although a company dealing with SEO tries to sell all the available products and services to the clients, there are some facilities like VPS hosting those can be recommended to any client, who wants personal recommendation of the SEO experts. Virtual Private Servers are really interesting part of SEO hosting that can withstand the heavy market demand and produce the best results for an online venture. An online business holding can spend hundred dollars to ensure high ranks and web traffic is achieved for the money making site. If the services fail to attain the desired result then all the money is wasted in vain. To prevent this kind of uncertainty VPS hosting services are the best options for all types of online marketing practices. In a Virtual Private server the main server is partitioned with the help of a procedure called software slicing. It ensures that the server is virtually converted into multiple servers that are independent of each other. The VPS can run their own operating systems and applications; install software without bothering the other VPS machines on the same physical server.

I’d say the thing I’ve most enjoyed with the beta build is the competitive multiplayer (called The Crucible in the game). The only mode currently active is what amounts to a Destiny version of Battlefield’s conquest mode (capturing and holding specific map points) but Bungie has included a handful of solid maps to test and enjoy with the mode. The multiplayer still needs some balance tweaking (this is a beta after all) but it plays very well, and I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed it. Part of the enjoyment comes from the map design. Bungie has always held a special place in my heart for their map work on the Halo games, and that design philosophy transfers over well to Destiny. The maps all have multiple routes, inside and outside elements, verticality, and just overall feel great. The gameplay itself in multiplayer feels just like the campaign/co-op modes with the settings tweaked a bit. Certain playlists note that level differences will not matter (to give everyone an equal playing field) while others will let your gear and level determine how good you will be in the match.

The coolest thing about Destiny (and possibly what I’m most interested in) and it’s always-online connectivity is the ability for Bungie to do events. Over the weekend Bungie made what they called “Iron Banner” active. Iron Banner was a special multiplayer playlist that gave players Iron banner points for completing. These points could be redeemed in The Tower (Destiny’s hub world) at a special vendor, only around for that small chunk of time, that had special weapons, armor, and emblems that were all themed in the Iron Banner style. These random events that lead to special and exclusive items are going to be big in the full game, and really get people excited to play. In the campaign mode or co-op you have the big Public Events as well, that give people something cool to do with whoever else is wandering their world. This ability to add random encounters and random events into the game at any point is going to help Destiny in the long run as people begin to finish the main chunk of the game. It allows them to keep the game fresh and new over the next few years.

Overall, as mentioned, my beta impressions match my alpha impressions pretty closely. I enjoyed the deeper look at campaign missions (the opening 30 minutes is fantastic) and I’ve played a ton of the multiplayer with still more time to come in the beta, so I’m certainly not done yet. The game mechanics feel solid, the quests are fun, and the loot is decent overall. If you get a chance and can get a code dive into the beta for a bit and try everything out. Even if you think you know what the game is all about and aren’t really interested you owe it to yourself to give it a shot, it might surprise you. With less than a week left in the beta overall it’s going to be a long month and a half before we get our hands on the full game to see what changes were made based on the alpha and beta, and see if the depth of content really shines like I’m hoping it will. Destiny is a solid little game so far, let’s hope the beta is a good representation of the final product, only in smaller form.