Happy 6th birthday, Destiny: A look back at Destiny's 2014 beta

Destiny is the penultimate service game shooter, and it's come a long, long way since 2014. The game is now six years old, and to celebrate we decided to take a quick look back at the old beta from 2014.

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While scouring my PlayStation 4 captures I dug up a few Destiny beta screenshots from the very beginning of Bungie's dream game. I've seen Destiny evolve before my eyes from the scrappy ambitious FPS-RPG startup to the mega-engaging, cross-platform behemoth it is today. Before Shadowkeep and Beyond Light there was just vanilla Destiny. The story was weird, there wasn't a whole lot to do, and our floating ghost spoke of wizards from the moon. But it was a campy, memorable, and simpler time; a time where you roamed across Old Russia in search of spinmetal and secrets. Sometimes you found cool things, like a level ?? Celebrant of Oryx, or a loot cave that just kept spilling goodies.

Other times you found friends. I'll still never forget my first trip to the moon with a friend, or the first Vault of Glass raid I ever did. There was nothing like--and still is nothing like--Destiny on the market. Bungie has made good on its promise to connect players in an evolving world, and there's been lots of hiccups along the way, but ultimately the game is something special.

These screenshots from the 2014 beta are just skybox shots, but they speak volumes about Bungie's skill, about the world they were trying to create, about the ambition and scope of their dreams.

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I also found some random videos captured from the First Look Alpha test on PS4:

Today, Destiny still has the best art direction in gaming and I can't wait to see the frozen wastes of Europa in Beyond Light on November 10, 2020.

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