gamescom 2014: Shooting the Moon with Destiny

While millions of folks participated in Destiny‘s beta last month, only a small percentage of players took their Guardian to the moon, which was only open for a very short window.

Fortunately, Bungie gave gamescom attendees a chance to revisit our orbiting neighbor to track down its most famous resident. A trio of us saddled up at the Activision booth and jumped into a Story mission.

Arriving on the moon’s surface, we hopped on our Sparrows and sped over the lunar landscape, taking in the stark, yet attractive, scenery. We rode into a ruin, deployed a Ghost companion, and shortly thereafter, the Fallen arrived to remind us that unwelcome here. We dispatched a few Dregs, then a shielded Captain. An enemy ship dropped off more Dregs and Vandals. And another Captain. And an eyeball-shaped Servitor. We pressed on.

Soon we took on mounted enemies, whose Pike speeders clearly outgunned our unarmed Sparrows. After dismounting one with a Vortex grenade, I boosted its ride and turned the powerful cannon on its former owner. Once we all upgraded our rides, we quickly chewed our way through groups of enemies until we reached a spot too steep to cruise over. 

We continued on foot over the rubble, and proceeded through a narrow ravine, which opened to a huge lunar crater. There were no enemies in sight, just the corpse of another guardian, lying before a huge, chained door. The Ghost unlocked the door as a shadowy figure viewed us from the rim of the crater. The door opened and…

Out burst a Knight flanked by a number of Thralls and Acolytes. Then more Knights. The kitchen sink, really. Dozens of enemies were thrown at us, and we threw everything we had back at it – supers, rockets, grenades. It was the most thrilling encounter I’ve yet experienced in Destiny thus far.

Emerging relatively unscathed, we proceeded inside and found ourselves face to face with Vurok, Eir Spawn, a powerful wizard (the moon of the future is lousy with ’em, apparently). My cohorts charged forward while I hung back and let fly long rage shots from my powerful sniper rifle. Within a minute, Vurok was no more. We collected our spoils, and returned to our ships, eager to see what other secrets remain undiscovered on the moon.

Today, Bungie revealed the first look at Mars, so be sure to check out the video above to see for yourself. Destiny arrives on Xbox One and Xbox 360 beginning September 9th.