Games

Make no mistake about it, Destiny is a beautiful-looking game – Halo creator Bungie has clearly worked hard to dazzle gamers with the graphical prowess of this ambitious 'persistent' online first-person shooter. But how does it actually play?

As you'd expect from Bungie, Destiny's shooting mechanics are flawless; the perfect combination of fluid controls and impeccable collision detection. Enemies, meanwhile, provide a reasonable challenge, favouring the use of cover to blindly charging into the range of your weaponry. All of which makes the first few hours of play an absolute delight – particularly when you have a group of friends along for the ride.

The major problem right now stems from the story itself. Unlike your traditional online multiplayer shooter, Destiny is very much a story-driven experience, and the bland, repetitive missions and portentous storytelling are plain annoying. The Borderlands games could get away with this by masking it all with humour, but Bungie's first-person-shooter-cum-massively-multiplayer-roleplaying-game is far too serious to ever crack a joke or two. However, as Bungie has already announced plans for additional story content, there's a chance that Destiny could still reach its full potential.

Destiny, Activision, Xbox360/XboxOne/PS4/PS3, £55 Approx
HCC VERDICT: 3.5/5