Since breaking away from Microsoft and signing up with Activision, Bungie, the original "Halo" developer, has been hard at work on "Destiny," a multiplatform and next-generation release unveiled this past February. Since then, however, Bungie has kept the information flow tight. Until Thursday's GDC panel.that is. New screenshots, footage and details flowed free, and we've got the goods to prove it. Skip down to the bottom to get a glimpse of some footage, showing off character and enemy models in action.
"Destiny" is a first person "shared-world" shooter, according to Bungie, which pits players in the role of a customizable "Guardian" to defend the last safe city on Earth, hidden beneath the mysterious Traveler, an alien spacecraft hovering above the surface of the earth. Bungie intends the game to be highly co-operative within a constant online world, similar to an MMO, yet the famed developer shied away from the term. The game will feature competitive play as well. Bungie art director Christopher Barrett and writer Joe Staten sat down for about an hour, talking about building the "Destiny" universe, enemies and player characters.
The pair originally intended their "Halo" follow-up to be set in a fantasy world, but couldn't stay away from the allure of science fiction, with all its derelict spacecrafts and aliens to shoot. Instead they found a middle ground with mythic science fiction, a place where guns are replaced with swords but spacefaring to the Moon might lead you to an alien "hellmouth." "Destiny" doesn't reach beyond the limits of our Solar System, but everything within is fair ground. Dead forests on Mars, the Black Garden on Venus, it's all been appropriated as a fantasy world for players to explore and uncover.
Bungie created "Postcards," concept art meant to portray tone, mood, character and any other pertinent element to a character or setting their designers needed to understand. They created more concept art for "Destiny" than any other Bungie game combined. But it wasn't just new worlds they spoke of. They detailed the early stages of character creation every player was going to go through when they started the game. That means classes and races.
"Destiny" lets players choose from three races and three classes when building their characters. Races are the uncomplicated, determined Human, the exotic Awoken, inspired by paranormal and mythical creatures like vampires and ghosts, and the powerful Exo, an isolated, terminator-like warrior.
The three classes are Titan, playing off of the Master Chief super-soldier trope, the Hunter, a bounty hunter with a western edge and the Warlock, a space wizard. Yup, a space wizard. That's the fella' pictured above. Below is the Hunter.
Catch some action of the Titan in the video at the bottom.
Players are going to be collecting gear and weapons as they go, from capes to helmets to sniper rifles and rocket launchers, much of "Destiny" is about exploring and discovering. Exotic gear like glowing cloaks and exotic weapons named "Pocket Infinity" are out their for the taking.
Players will fight against an array of enemy races as well, each built to fill out a different theme or kind of community. The bronze and timeless Vex stare you down with a singular red eye, the four-armed and four-eyed Fallen wield as many swords as a thing like that could carry and the brutish XCOM-like Cabal stomp around like minituarized elephants. Plenty of other races are shown off in the video.
Bungie promised more in the coming months, especially at this year's E3. "Destiny" is confirmed for a simultaneous Xbox 360, PS3 and PS4 release, and is expected to be announced for Microsoft's next console as well.