Destiny E3 2014 Gameplay Trailer: Push Back the Darkness

Activision has released a new Gameplay Experience trailer for their $500 million sci-fi shooter, Destiny. Where the teaser shown at the Sony press event was only a minute long, detailing the overarching plot of the game, this new trailer is far more meaty, delving into combat, exploration, customization and multi-player.

After a Peter Dinklage-less version of the trailer, Bungie co-founder Jason Jones appeared to guide us through the video. He described a world where Humanity has lost, leaving ruins of long-dead civilizations. The humans’ final remaining city serves as their home base, and the last beacon of hope in a war-torn world. Players will take control of Guardians, the last line of defense for our species, who defend the city and explore the game world, completing assignments, fighting massive enemies and finding valuable loot along the way. After their missions, Guardians return to The Tower, the game’s hub area, where they can receive mission rewards, buy and sell equipment, and talk with friends.

Jones gave us a brief look at the game’s robust customization suite, showing a small percentage of the myriad accessories, weapons and equipment that will be available in the game. After building a unique Guardian, players will take them out into the world to earn new armaments, armor and combat abilities that will define how they fight. A quick look at a Guardians’ upgrade menu shows us that each class will feature many powerful abilities as well as sub-classes, letting players fine-tune their Guardian into the exact soldier they want to play with.

The video briefly mentioned The Director, an in-game system that tells players where interesting events are taking place, and what rewards will be gained from taking part in them. Guardians working together will get the most out of Destiny, since the game is built for co-op play. Teams of friends or strangers who get together through a matchmaking system can complete story missions together, fight giant enemies in on-the-fly public events, or partake in Strikes; three-player missions where the team attempts to bring down a boss enemy in a dedicated area. The Crucible, a venue for head-to-head multi-player matches, will also be included, offering Guardians a chance to gain bragging rights as well as valuable loot.

The very end of the trailer added a new wrinkle to the proceedings, introducing the Awoken. This sinister group appears to be a third faction in the game, and promises to add more depth to the game and its story.

Plenty of gameplay footage is shown in the trailer and it all lives up to what we’ve seen before from Destiny: bright, vibrant environments featuring furious, exciting shooting action and intense vehicular sequences, all presented with Bungie’s inimitable level of polish.