Supposedly this ‘playtester’ works at Demonware, a Vancouver-based company who handles online infrastructure for Activision titles. They say it’s ”pretty cool” and ”quite like Halo”.
Destiny is set as an open online shooter, it seems, where players can band together and come across other teams to lend them a hand. It invoked memories of ‘Elite’.
Here’s what the alleged Demonware employee saw: ”A live scene walk through demonstrating lots of atmospherics, huge amounts of trees and foliage (SpeedTree), particle effects, dynamic lighting and dynamic time of day ending in a sun set”. They managed to get a hands-on session though, where they divulge some juicy details.
“This is not a dedicated server game, but there is some simulation and coordination running in their server infrastructure. The game was up and down a lot, playing in a team of 3 we did manage to experience entering a zone to find other players already taking on the bad guys,” they continued, adding it’s co-operative so they helped out ”before both groups went their separate ways. Which is a pretty cool experience, making you feel you are part of a much larger populated world.”
”At the end of the day I was excited about the game, I like the feel of being in a large world with different destinations and the interactions along the way.” They said the exploration side of Destiny reminded them of space sim Elite, ”although there was no opportunity to shoot aliens in the face in Elite. I’m not fully sold on the appeal of being able to change the colour of a weapon, but I guess it works in China, and customization and individual identity is a big theme for the game.”
The general consensus from others: ”It’s still quite like Halo, there is a lot of work still to be done.”
A leaked contract from Activision reports that the budget for Destiny could reach as high as $140 million, which includes the marketing campaign. From a marketing job ad at Activision’s Santa Monica HQ the publisher intends to secure ”the biggest new entertainment property in the history of video games.”
Destiny is scheduled to land some time in fall of 2013. The web cache from Superannuation is below.
