Destiny Beta Impressions

Well, the Destiny beta has been unlocked for all Xbox Gold members, so I thought I would try it out. 

First of all, Destiny (if you didn't know) is from Bungie, the developer of the first three Halo games.  So, in some ways this seems a little like Halo (with some other games thrown in - Borderlands, etc.).

Let's just use a bad sports metaphor to show my feeling about this game... in my book, this game already had two strikes against it (big online focus, though unlike Titanfall it has a single player mode, and the developers bringing up the specter of Dark Souls - hard game for hard sake).  Let's just say that after playing the demo it was like the would be third strike was barely fouled off (and dropped by the catcher).

The first little bit I found myself saying maybe.  After all, it did seem to have a little RPG in it.  An  FPS RPG could be interesting to me - if they let me level up to demi-god status where nothing could touch me.  This does not appear to be that game (nor does it appear to exist at all).

I was breezing along (only dying 10 or 20 times, probably not that much) until I hit a level (kind of sandboxy) where there were a bunch of "quests".  Well, I got one where I ended up in an area taking on a Devil Walker (a mech 6 legged thing).  That was a little much for one person.  I finally took him down after about 200 deaths (and way more obscenities).  Then I got the last "single player" level and there was one of the things I hate, a wave battle.  Well, this had to be one of the areas where you can't respawn (many areas you can, thankfully).   Wave after wave of annoying enemies followed, compounded by an unnecessarily slow reload.  After the 10 or 20th time I finally got through it.

So what did I think:
* Graphics: ok, I don't think it looks as good as Ryse, but it is not a bad looking game
* Story: from the demo, the story seems completely incomprehensible - dark vs light?
* Gameplay: standard FPS fare.  It is a little more difficult than I like (and I wish you could over-level your character to make things easier - I wish you could.).      
* Multiplayer: don't know, I have no interest in multiplayer.

* Annoyances (well some of them):
- No Pause
- No Skip Cut Scene Button

Would I get this game?  At $60, no way in Old Russia.  Maybe I would go as high as $24.99 if the leveling mechanism let's you grind to superiority and the achievements are not multiplayer heavy.