Destiny: PS4 Beta Hands-on

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Destiny: PS4 Beta Hands-on

Today, PS4 and PS3 owners will get a chance to experience Bungie‘s galaxy-spanning epic Destiny for the first time. Assuming the role of a newly revived Human, Awoken, or Exo, players will explore the ruins of a Russian Cosmodrome and battle hordes of formidable Fallen and feral Hive, all while earning new skills and collecting increasingly effective weapons and armor.

Destiny on PS4 and PS3

I had an early opportunity to play the Beta, and I’ve collected my initial notes below. While this post is by no means comprehensive, I hope it’ll help get you up to speed before you hop in yourself. And if you’re in the Beta, please share your tips, observations, and feedback in the comments below.

If you played or read about Destiny’s Alpha last month, you might be wondering what’s changed for the Beta. The answer: plenty! Perhaps most notably, the Beta fills in many narrative gaps with pre-rendered and in-engine cinematics, fleshing out more of the backstory and making this feel much more like a world I want to explore. These scenes are fully voice-acted; your character even chimes in with his or her own voice from time to time! Your Ghost companion’s dialogue has been refined as well, and generally fits better into the overall story, complete with computerized filters and other cool audio effects that lend a bit more personality and color.

Destiny on PS4 and PS3Destiny on PS4 and PS3

A few more enhancements I noticed in the Beta:

  • Music is more prevalent during the Beta’s more intense action sequences.
  • Screen-filling visual effects that punctuate important in-game events look to have been punched up, like a display-wide violet tinge and screen-shake when a massive ship drops a platoon of enemies onto the field.
  • Certain areas are now dubbed “Darkness Zones.” Respawning is disabled in these sections, meaning you and your Fireteam need to stay on point to make it through.
  • On the main overworld map, the Tower displays small, green icons to indicate when rewards or messages are waiting for you there.
  • The character customization system can still yield some pretty awesome looking Guardians.

Destiny on PS4 and PS3

For those with a more competitive nature, the Crucible — Destiny’s PvP multiplayer mode — awaits. This pits players against one another in glorious combat, and keeps things extra-interesting by tossing vehicles into the mix on larger maps (such as the moon-based level I played here). Players can commandeer large, armed conveyances or deploy their handy Sparrow whenever needed — or they can stick to an on-foot approach to ensure an instant offensive is always an option. The mode I played saw my team capturing and holding three control points, while taking special care to eliminate those who would take over our post.

Destiny on PS4 and PS3Destiny on PS4 and PS3

These are but a few observations I made in my short time with the Beta ahead of its official launch today. Once you’re in, let’s compare notes in the comments! Destiny launches on PS4 and PS3 on September 9th this year, but you can play the Beta starting today by pre-ordering the game, either at retail or on PlayStation Store. See you in the Tower.

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377 Comments

  • Finally got my 3 codes from Bungie. Now for the PS Store to get it’s act together!

  • One thing I hate is playstations maintenince checks. This is why xbox live is better.

  • @18 Just_Killer117
    If PS4, I believe so.

  • guys i know maybe im asking too much but can anyone give a code totry the beta? i know any customer had 3 codes… send me a friend request if u can! thnks..

  • If you have a bungie account you should be able to go on your profile page click on codes at the top bar of your page and their you will select all the stuff :D

  • I got my codes and i’m ready, and “playstation store is undergoing maitence right now. Seriously playstation? You kept maitenence on a day you knew everyone wanted to play the destiny beta.

  • I downloaded it, but now I get the message that only users who hold a license to this content can use it. So I guess the PSN digital preorders are not yet registering as licensed to run it.

  • Im still confused…. I preorderd Destiny from the PlayStation store a couple of weeks ago and im trying to figure out how do i get access to download the beta. Theres nothing on how to do anything. There was a count down Bungies website but really nothing eles.

  • If the network can’t stay up what are we paying for on Playstation plus. I understand it’s infrastructure for the PSN and the PS4 but c’mon y’all really fix this. I want to redeem my code and y’all are playing. I’m really getting fed up with the lacking service.

  • the thing is the maintenance was probably intended to help with set things up for the beta. well, things pop up sometimes to throw a wrench in things. hopefully it will be fixed soon

  • If anyone has a spare access code, I would be very pleased if you would consider me as well :)
    Thought it was worth a shot.

  • It is 1:36PM EST. Got my code and redeemed it. But guess what! PSN is down. Who would have guess that. If you are going to brag about having something first on your Console, then you better damn sure have your **** together. And this is on Sony’s end. Bungie’s website is working fine.

  • fatal> when the store is working properly, go to games/new and it should be there

  • This is SONY… Never learns until their sales get hurt and they are at the bottom after MS and BigN…
    I’m really fed up… and all your fanboys out there: This is what you get by always siding with SONY…

  • I had to get my code from Bungie’s code page today around 11:05 for those of you waiting on an email. I knew the site would be faster. I had to be a little patient with PS Store, but after a bout 5 minutes got through and could download the beta with my code. I sent the other 2 codes to friends. Once in the game it took a little to get to the next screen due to PSN issues, but it is making slow but steady install progress now unrelated to PSN. For those of you complaining, realize PlayStation is the only place to play Destiny on today and for a while. Also, think about any other beta that has been this cool and jammed full of awesome gameplay. This alpha and beta are unique in the gaming world. Just go watch videos on PS Blog and IGN to get yourself ready for the game. Oh, and download the companion app.

  • Hey Sony, if you want to charge for online play you need to either plan a better roll out (like preload support across all regions) or get the server infrastructure to compete with your competition! This is absurd!

  • Ugh now i got through to psn but cant download beta

  • Whats all the complaining about? It too a bit but I’m downloading Destiny Beta fine…

  • Finally got it a lot of pressing x as fast as possible lol

  • Seriously what brilliant person at Sony decided to do maintenance on the same day as the Destiny beta roll out. and as a bonus since its PSN thats down I cant even go play Final Fantasy while I wait cause I cant connect to that either.

    Is there a post somewhere about when this maintenance started and when its expected to end?

  • @65 Lucky for you. Many others still have many problems to get into the store or download the beta…

  • @67 It’s just a message. Ignore it. There is no maintenance. Sony is just not capable to handle things like this. This has always been the case. And now that they are in lead and fanboys kissing their a** why should they upgrade their servers to handle this. We are just dumb gamers who should keep their mouth shut and pay for PS+

  • Hey Sony, how about you guys get your **** together and stop performing maintenance on the day a Beta is supposed to start?

    Also how does pre-ordering Destiny on PSN work exactly? I pre-ordered a few days ago and haven’t received any sort of code but read that i’d automatically be able to download the beta (via library?) anyway, can’t do that due to your oh-so-convenient maintenance.

  • Over here in Canada. No beta key, No PSN and i pre-order via PSN

  • Why am I not surprised that the PSN would have the usual issues when a major title is about to be released!! Come on Sony, I’m sure you guys have smart enough people who can figure this BS out!!

  • Come on guys really, maintenance the day of the beta for destiny. Please fix this. We have all been waiting a long time.

  • It’s not maintenance…PSN is itermittent due to the high volumes of people trying to download Destiny….this is the norm for PSN and sadly has been this way for some time now when a big title is available…you would think Sony would’ve figured this out by now. Clearly Sony needs to figure something out!

  • To all those saying we should not be complaining you are wrong.

    I was promised a product or service in exchange for my hard earned money and when the confirmed time and date for delivery arrived I did not get what I was promised but I’m still out my $59.99

  • This is the same garbage carry over from the PS3 days. Sony has no idea how to build a network infrastructure and no idea how to grow one.

    PSN is always brought down by events that it should be prepared for. It appears that Sony has the same sorry people running their network as they always have.
    I had hoped for the PS4 they would at least build a new network and piggyback the old PSN on it, but it appears it is the other way around.

    Sony if you can’t handle online or don’t want to pay people talented enough to build it right then please stop charging for online play.

  • @72 no they don’t need because they now sell more than MS.

  • what is going on psn if you want to be the place to play it first you have to be ready.

  • Can’t wait to play it

  • aijfa;ojd;lfkanmf;lml;kmgs;lmal;kml;kmglkmgl lmdlflsamal;kaljgalk mlkm this is so BS to the highest level no code no download no email been preordered sucks sucks sucks

  • You will all be able to use PSN again when destiny beta is over… no worries…

  • we all should consider playing this game on PC or X1 to teach Sony a big lesson!

  • Mine opened already and it’s 1.25GB our of the huge 10.97GB for the full download that happens after the game opens.

  • Not starting off good Sony and Bungie

  • you can get your code on the bungie website just sign in then click profile then codes.

  • The least they could do is say there sorry and ask bungie to extend the Beta.

  • you just cant redeem it yet

  • @Everyone If you have problems with destiny beta you should send tweets to yosp and playstation and anything related to playstation.

  • When you hype and advertise an event exclusive for PS4 users, and how this is one of the reasons Sony does it better, it really is imperative that extra care is taken to make sure it you know works! Please learn from this so that its a good learning experience and not a sign of things to come!!!

  • I have a PS3 without PS+. Do I have input my keys to download the beta demo from the store? Anyone?

  • “Greatness Awaits”

    Well I think not this is a crying shame no one was prepared for this and no statement has been made about the screw up

  • So I manage to redeem the code and started to download the beta, but it’s slow. It’s such a runabout process, you have to get the key to get beta code, redeem that code to download start up file so you can download the game. Why?

  • @95 be glad you can even freaking download the game, I redeemed my code awhile ago and now I can’t even access the Playstation Store!

  • This is absolutely unacceptable! I knew this was going to be a disaster, launching this beta at mid-day without any pre-loading option. How can you hype up an event like this and not be ready for it. I’m having more trouble logging on to PSN than the night the PS4 launch.

  • Same here

  • Too bad PSN is down. Lmao, that’s why I stick to single player games with Sony.

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