Destiny and other games today are breaking the traditional review structure

As you’re probably aware — and judging by record-breaking pre-order numbers, you are — Destiny released this week. With review copies sent out just before the game’s release, we’ve only recently begun to see the influx of “official” scores. It currently sits at a pedestrian 74/100 on Metacritic.

I’m not here to complain about the scores it’s getting, though you already know how I feel about assigning games a score. I happen to really enjoy the game, but even my colleague Mike Splechta gave it a 7.5 out of 10. For some, maybe most, it’s not a “great” game; it’s not all it was cracked up to be — yet.

You see, Destiny, according to Bungie, has been developed with at least a 10-year vision in mind. It’s not your traditional MMO, but it has been built with MMO elements in mind, for example, the ability to expand upon it with future content updates. Destiny may not be a 10/10 right now. It may not have all of the features promised to us. It may even take years for Bungie to deliver on their promises. And therein lies the problem. Destiny isn’t a great game… yet. But through free content add-ons and, unfortunately, some paid DLC, it could get there.

Which brings me to the current problem facing the gaming industry; well, at least the media side of things. That is, the traditional review format for video games is outdated. It’s dying, if not already dead. The standard review structure most sites adopt today revolves around playing the game all the way through (ha, if that), maybe toying around with some of the other modes/difficulties offered, and then giving it a score. Assuming the reviewer actually did their due diligence and didn’t rush a score for the sake of being first to the party, that score should reflect the state of the game shipped. And in most cases, that score is final — never to be changed again.

Are you seeing the problem with that in today’s gaming age?

Destiny, like many other of today’s games, aren’t designed to be “final” at launch. I know, that may sound weird, but it’s true. With just about every game offering some sort of DLC and developers quickly able to push out updates, the game you see at launch isn’t necessarily reflective of the game you’ll be playing in a year, or even a month. In some cases, it can be a totally different experience. Warframe on the PS4 is the perfect example of that as it has since added a tutorial mode, revamped the UI, and added a new mission hub. And those are just a few examples of what has changed since it was first released back in November 2013.

Destiny, of course, is another example of a game that’s sure to change over the next few months. Some of the complaints I’ve heard so far are a low level cap, not enough planets, and just a lack of general content. Here’s the thing, though, all of these complaints can — and probably will — be addressed in future updates. Bungie has even outlined some of their plans for the next few weeks. Upcoming events include a new objective mode (available this weekend), a level 26 raid, and three other events spanning September and October that haven’t been detailed yet. The game just released and already we’re getting free content that will add to the overall experience. Destiny may be a “74” now, but give it time.

Unfortunately, many sites only write that original review and then forget about it. Sure, sites may revisit a game months, years, later to see how it’s faring — typically this is done for MMOs — but it’s rare.

Polygon, to their credit, has attempted to address the problem by implementing a flexible scoring system that adjusts a game's score as it's updated; it’s far from perfect, though. My biggest critique of their system is that they don’t do it consistently enough; they cherry pick which games they want to update their score for. SimCity went through the ringer on that site, first getting a 9.5/10, dropping to and 8, then a 4, and ultimately landing at a 6.5 (as of April 3, 2013). The biggest problem with this? That they haven’t updated their score since the implementation of a single-player offline mode. Considering one of the biggest complaints about the game was forcing people online, you’d think this would warrant another look. And there’s certainly been other updates since 2013.

Again, Polygon may have the right idea when it comes to updating reviews, but, like Destiny and others games released these days, it’s not perfect… yet.