To everyone reading this I would just like to say thank you and a thank you to Bungie for the opportunity to have a go of Destiny in its somewhat early stage of completion. The evidence of an amazing game is there but there is still much to do before release. From what I have played so far destiny looks incredible and I have no doubt that I’ll be getting my hands on it when the game is released. To start, I cannot say I am disappointed. In this first look we as gamers and testers are treated to so much content and yet I cannot wait to see more of this world. The environments I have traversed so far are beautiful, scenic locations and each area feels unique from the other. Old Russia provides an interesting sense of scale in the world, it feels big, buildings break up the vast outdoor environment with their tight indoor spaces and the colours used within these outdoor and indoor environments complement the scale. The Tower is spacious, feels new, colourful and stands out from the decayed Old Russia as a bastion for Humanity and the races that follow, (overlooking The Last City and the Traveller whilst the sun sets is jaw dropping). I can only wonder how the Earths different locations will vary and how other planets may be used to add variety. NOTE: I have noticed that the environment occasionally flickers, especially in the loading screens as the jumpship flies above earth and in the tower looking down at the last city. I like the character classes though I’ll be honest they are all as good as each other and choosing who to play as is hard. I do have a few concerns with the customisation aspect of the game. I know this might be picky but I couldn't rotate the character model to get a better look at the different hair styles, even though that’s the only thing I would probably use the rotate function for. I also just wanted to know if the races would have any distinct attributes that would impact the gameplay or are they purely for aesthetic purposes. I personally think that there are a nice variety of options to personalise your character though I reckon that quite a few people would like more to choose from, for instance beards and possibly a few more colours available. I’m excited to watch my Guardian evolve and look forward to personalising it to my distinct tastes and gameplay style with the amour colour schemes, ships and speeders, emblems, class focuses and weapons available to do so. I think that being able to change your characters facial features like markings and hair styles through a shop in game would be a welcomed idea, however I feel that when you first create a character there shouldn’t be a need to change it or at least the race and gender. NOTE: I experienced some issues when selecting the log out button in the settings menu (I was unable to log out) and after selecting the change character button in the settings menu, I found that some of the character models were missing parts of their body such as the torso, legs or even weapons they carried. I found all the parts of the alpha I played to be of an outstanding quality and really struggled to see it as an unfinished game, though there is clearly more work that needs to be done to which I personally cannot as of yet point out what exactly needs doing. The Tower gameplay is amazing and the 3rd person mode breaks up the 1st person action quite nicely, I didn’t find it too hard to navigate around the Tower and shop venders were easily accessible. I look forward to seeing how the various reputation systems work in full and will be interested as to how they will be introduced in the final game. Also the legendary loot was a lovely tease of what is to come. The story mission although short, was enough to get a basic idea of the story and the lore behind destiny, truth be told it didn’t stop me playing it again and again to get a better understanding of what’s going on, there is a lot that’s going to happen or has happened and as a result I’m looking forward to finding out more. Exploring the Old Russia environment was really fun; the side missions were quite repetitive and could have a bit more variety to them, at times I did feel reluctant to pick up the beacons though when the boredom of questing happened I was able to explore and vice versa (I thoroughly enjoyed exploring and curiosity killed me numerous times but to see new areas was worth it). As soon as a public event came into the picture I spawned my speeder and went to the destination as fast as I could, I found the public events to add to the flavour of exploration, though I did find it upsetting to be the only individual trying to take out the devil walker or stop mining operations. I do hope that more areas of earth can be explored and it’s not limited to just Old Russia, it would be nice to see those wonderful colours and textures used in other places (I am looking forward to exploring the moon, Mars, Venus and Mercury). The Devil’s Lair Strike mission I think is a lovely co-op game mode and adds some real challenge, from reading other topics I think that it would be nice to effortlessly go from exploring to a strike mission (the same way that you go from exploring to a public event) and I feel would be a nice addition to the flow of the gameplay. I found it difficult to remove myself from The Crucible and its control game mode, I enjoyed the moon and the rust lands maps and personally thought the gameplay was fairly balanced, the vehicles and players were both at the same time challenging and quite easy to take down, though I really had to take different approaches to capturing the points (running and gunning really didn’t work out for me) but being able to change your weapons in the fights and make use of your abilities really helped add to the strategy, I like the heavy weapon and secondary weapon penalties (Timed heavy Ammo drops which reset on death to 0/switching second weapon making resetting secondary ammo count to 0 and scavenge for more) both adding to the challenge of capturing the points in vulnerable areas. Before I conclude my feedback I just wanted to summarise what I think is good so far and what I feel could be added to Destiny’s beta experience to improve it, though I have full confidence that Bungie will make a brilliant game whether or not my feedback is considered. Good Things: - Visuals, textures, lighting, environments are amazing - The Tower and use of 3rd person mode, variety of shops, feels relaxing - Menu layouts are clean and easy to navigate - Enjoyable to explore the world - Classes, Personal Vehicles and choice of personalisation - Fire Teams and joining with friends to undertake strikes, story and exploration - Engaging in crucible with other players - Gaining loot and gear as well as finding it in chests Things That Could be Improved or implement: - Public events feel empty and players seem scarce - Side quests in explore mode feel one dimensional (maybe a combination of tasks to do, rather than 1 at a time) - Fire teams of 3-6 on story (not significant at the moment but normally share story experiences within in a 4 man team). - Would be nice to have a split-screen option available if possible - More character customisation options and character rotation when you first create a character (possibly a shop where you can change these features if you so wish) I’d like to finish by saying this has been a worthwhile experience and I hope myself and others have helped to contribute to what will be a solid, finely tuned, innovative game. As I said previously, whether or not my feedback is considered, I have no doubt that Bungie will make this game stand out from others with their use of gameplay, environments and content that will be forever shaping Destiny’s world. I look forward to the Beta and providing more feedback when the time comes. Thank you