Next to the iPhone 6 launch, Activision and Bungie’s “Destiny” was the most anticipated release of 2014. Announced back in 2012, Bungie’s dream and promise for “Destiny” was to create an open world First-Person Shooter MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) that players would group up to tackle missions and raids, similar to World of Warcraft. Since Bungie had already revolutionized console shooters back in 2001 with “Halo: Combat Evolved,” they had the trust of the masses to deliver another masterpiece. And while “Destiny” is no lemon, it is missing several touches that hold it back from greatness.

Activision had the means to invest heavily into the production, leading “Destiny” to be the most expensive video game to date. The production values are apparent in the game’s expansive open worlds, detailed graphics, and most importantly, a functional online world which might be the most successful massively multiplayer game release, while most MMO games deal with terrible lag and connectivity issues during their fist few weeks, “Destiny” received minimal complaints.

The best part of “Destiny” stem directly from the gameplay; “Destiny” combines the floaty low gravity combat of “Halo” with the controls of “Call of Duty”, which while fun doesn’t necessarily add anything new to the genre. Only a few of the weapons that you use truly feel powerful, something the Halo franchise was known to have issues with, unlike “Battlefield” or “Titanfall.” This isn’t necessary for a shooter to be fun, but if Destiny was going to separate itself from other shooter RPGs that could have defined the game.

“Borderlands” is the game most similar to “Destiny,” and while that game was critically acclaimed for cooperative multiplayer FPS combined with weapon and item “looting”. Gamers wanted that experience with more mature and realistic graphics (“Borderlands” featured cartoon inspired cel-shaded graphics.) Ironically, “Borderlands” received an Mature rating while “Destiny” has a Teen rating, something that is very rare to find with a shooter. Video Games are like movies or TV shows where mature themes are sometimes necessary in order to tell a richer story, and listening to the lifeless voice acting and reading the dull story of “Destiny” is a brutal experience.

Most cutscenes cannot be skipped, so while you can ignore the story once you are playing with your buddies online, there is still going to be those dull moments where you yawn your way through hours of cutscenes. The game feels like Activision took out the adult themes and blood in order to earn a Teen Rating so they could sell the game to a younger audience.

“Destiny” is unfortuantely overhyped, but if you have friends which you can play with this can be a very addictive RPG. If you can handle the droll dialogue and aren’t looking for the most realistic shooter, “Destiny” will provide you with hours of grinding and looting.