Xbox One

Destiny: The Taken King - Legendary Edition

Destiny: The Taken King - Legendary Edition is perfect for new and existing Guardians that are ready to jump into the Destiny universe or continue to carve their legend in the stars. The Legendary Edition features the complete Destiny experience including The Taken King, the next evolution in the Destiny universe, Destiny, Expansion I: The Dark Below and Expansion II: House of Wolves.

ShooterAdventure

Time to beat: about 8.9 hours
Plays offline: Yes

Overview

Destiny is an online first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie. It was released worldwide on September 9, 2014, for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One consoles. Destiny marked Bungie's first new console franchise since the Halo series, and it was the first game in a 10-year agreement between Bungie and Activision. Set in a "mythological science fiction" world, the game features a multiplayer "shared-world" environment with elements of role-playing games. Activities in Destiny are divided among player versus environment (PvE) and player versus player (PvP) game types.

Players take on the role of a Guardian, protectors of Earth's last safe city as they wield a power called Light to protect the city from different alien races. Guardians are tasked with reviving a celestial being called the Traveler, while journeying to different planets to investigate and destroy the alien threats before humanity is completely wiped out. Bungie released four expansion packs, furthering the story, and adding new content, missions, and new PvP modes. Year One of Destiny featured two small expansions, The Dark Below in December 2014 and House of Wolves in May 2015. A third, larger expansion, The Taken King, was released in September 2015 and marked the beginning of Year Two, changing much of the core gameplay.

Destiny's style has been described as a first-person shooter that incorporates role-playing and MMO elements, but Bungie has avoided describing Destiny as a traditional MMO game. Instead, the game has been referred to as a "shared-world shooter", as it lacks many of the characteristics of a traditional MMO game. For instance, rather than players being able to communicate with all other players in the game or on a particular server, as is the case in many conventional MMO games, Destiny includes on-the-fly matchmaking that allows players to communicate only with other players with whom they are "matched" by the game. To communicate with other players in the game world, players must use their respective console's messaging system. Time-limited events and modes are also occasionally added or featured in-game.

Bungie described the setting of Destiny as a "mythic science-fiction" world. The setting, about 700 years in the future, follows a prosperous period of exploration, peace, and technological advancement known as the Golden Age. In a universe where humans have spread out and colonized planets in the Solar System, an event known as "the Collapse" saw the mysterious dissolution of these colonies, the end of the Golden Age, and mankind teetering on the brink of extinction. The only known survivors of the Collapse are those living on Earth, who were saved by "the Traveler", a white, spherical celestial body whose appearance centuries before had enabled humans to reach the stars.

Bungie had announced in 2007 it was becoming an independent studio and separating from Microsoft Game Studios, though contractually remained committed to completing Halo: Reach. As Bungie tied up development of Reach in 2010, it began developing its next new intellectual property (IP) Destiny under the code name "Project Tiger". The company recognized it would need a major publisher to support their project. As reported by Martin O'Donnell, they had considered going back to Microsoft and also had approached Sony Interactive Entertainment as a publishing partner, but both companies would have required Bungie to turn over control of the IP, which Bungie considered was "non-negotiable". Activision Blizzard, on the other hand, would allow Bungie to retain control on the IP with expectations of financial performance over the years.

Destiny received a generally positive critical reception upon release. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Xbox One version 75/100 based on 11 reviews, and the PlayStation 4 version 76/100 based on 95 reviews. Bungie halted pre-release reviews stating that they felt the game should be graded only when its social aspects were operative and populated with "thousands of gamers" in order to give a proper assessment.