I participated in the Destiny Alpha and Beta events on PS4 and thought the game was highly polished and fun. But I’m not going to pre-order it, nor will I likely buy it anytime soon.
First, as I commented earlier, there are some real problems in Destiny, including the emphasis on multiplayer teams that hinder exploration, as well as the sameness of the gameplay on the Moon (and presumably Mars), which have lower gravity and should have very different game mechanics. These could possibly be forgiven, because the action was indeed really great and the game looked and felt very good.
The next issue of concern is the amount of content in the game. It sounds like the only battleground on Earth is the one we’ve already played. Then the Moon will likely have a fair bit of content, probably. And Mars. There will be something on Mars. Venus is the multiplayer arena called the Crucible, but it doesn’t seem there will be any story missions there. So this doesn’t seem like a lot of content for a $60 game, and, of course, Bungie would like us to buy expansion packs for $35 (or a bit less if you buy one of the bundles). So seemingly not a lot of content, and we must pay for more. Sounds like a bad deal to me. Hey, but it has replay value! Maybe, but not as much as Diablo III that I’m playing now.
Finally, the game reviewing press won’t get access until the day before release day, so we probably won’t know anything about the length of the game or if the more advanced areas are expansive and good. It is possible that the folks at Bungie are feverishly working on server code right now and it won’t be ready until the day before release, but it is also possible that they don’t want reviewers crapping all over their launch and are withholding access until it is too late. That seems more likely, given how well the Alpha and Beta went. So that’s not a vote of confidence.
In short, Destiny seems like it may not be a good value, uses lousy physics and gameplay mechanics on other planets, and you’ll be stuck racing though areas to catch up with people you may or may not know, rather than exploring at your own pace. So I can’t see spending $60 or even $90 or $100 on it with all these doubts.