I wanted to wait until the alpha ended to do a writeup, just in case they surprise-added anything else as they've done in the past (like the Reach beta's playlist rollout). Turns out it was fairly static but that's to be expected from such a short-run test. It is pretty obvious to me why they have had trouble explaining what this game is, now that I've put some time into it. It's so many things wrapped up into one and sort of defies explanation until you play it.
I ended up playing a little over 20 hours of the alpha, and for the limited amount of content there was, it's impressive that I didn't ever really feel like I was reaching to find new things to do. I had all three classes up to level 8, though only my Titan was really properly geared with full greens in the end. For whatever reason, that was the class that ended up fitting both my playstyle and aesthetic preferences the most, so it was definitely where I wanted to spend the most time - the lift ability in particular I think outclasses both of the others, especially once you start down the upgrade path. More height than the double jump (and likely the triple jump), and it can act as a slightly truncated hover if you use your lateral momentum properly.
Speaking of gear, I really appreciate how Bungie has handled their itemization. It's apparent that there is some level of randomization when they generate stats, but it's also obvious that they have a very structured system for tiering that gear. A green Chroma Vow at this level is always going to be in this range of stats for armor and the attached Discipline/Intellect/Strength modifier is going to be in this range. It makes it easy just from the name and color to tell whether or not something is likely to be an upgrade to what you have equipped. The same philosophy sort of applies to weapons, though they have their own separate tiers of damage that don't appear to be procedural (i.e., a top tier rifle is always going to be 96 base damage for the alpha). With weapons, this essentially ends up meaning that you don't wind up with a lot of marginal upgrades. When something is better, it usually clearly outclasses what you've got since it'll be in a higher damage tier. That's something that I always hated about Borderlands - there was so much gear that was just slightly better than the thing I just found that I never really developed an attachment to anything I had until the end of the game. With Destiny, it's obvious that they're trying to combat that with the gear skill trees, which is something that seems pretty cool, though I'm curious how many affixes high-tier gear will end up having.
I spent most of my time in the PvE environments - exploring the sections of Old Russia that were available and repeating the Strike (more on the latter to follow). It was actually pretty surprising how compact the zones were once you explored everything. Perhaps some of that is due to racing through some of them trying to avoid level 20 enemy fire (which prevented me from seeing the nooks and crannies), but the area map from orbit makes it look much larger than it actually is. I don't think this is a bad thing, necessarily - I would rather have several smaller, more smartly designed areas than a giant mediocre wasteland, and I could tell from the sightlines in the environment design that the old Bungie mission designers had put their mark on this world just as they would have a traditional campaign level in the past. The interconnected nature of the world, where you enter a building in one zone not knowing where it will lead, and end up arriving at a very familiar place, led to some very Dark Souls-esque "oh shit, I'm back here" moments - I distinctly remember letting out an audible "Oh, wow..." when I realized the Forgotten Coast/The Grottos Hive tunnel lead back into the Refinery from the Devil's Lair strike. Moments like that add a lot to the experience, and make the world feel just a little bit more like a place that could exist.
If you look at them as encouragement to explore, the beacon missions work reasonably well at pushing players into new areas. However, standing on their own, they're fairly unimaginative. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like they're "smart" in that they don't recognize that you just came from say, the Mothyards and probably don't want a mission leading you directly back through the Skywatch towards it as you're just retreading ground over and over. Having said that, I'm not really sure how you could create mini-objectives like that that stay fresh over time. I think the objective markers for the beacons telling you what kind of mission they are (via a smart little piece of graphic design) is a good first step, though - I was able to tell by the end which missions were going to take me somewhere I wasn't interested in going if they had the Ghost icon or the compass, and ended up just doing the "Kill X number of enemies" or "Gather X amount of materials" missions once I figured that out since it meant I could go anywhere I like and still make progress.
I do wonder how they determine public event timing in Explore mode on the back end. Often, it would generate an event when I was the only person around, making it tough to complete it when I wasn't on my well-geared characters - while my Titan can and did solo the Noble Devil Walker event (with a whopping 3 seconds to go until it expired), my Warlock never would have been able to do that just by virtue of not having proper gear. I sort of wish there was a way to force the events if you're in a group, so you don't have to wait around to complete the bounties that require event completion. I guess that would probably take away from the magic of it, though.
The Strike was easily my favorite portion of the alpha. While Bungie's campaigns have always been really strong, they were often (by virtue of needing to fit linearly into a larger game in terms of story and pacing) padded out with sections that weren't built to suit gameplay, and were necessary for atmosphere or walk-and-talk story exposition (something like the opening section of Reach's Winter Contingency that had no combat, or the Cortana bits in Halo 3). Distilling those missions down to a string of well-built encounters topped with a boss ends up making for a much more replayable experience (and I say that having replayed the Halo campaigns dozens of times) - none of the cruft remains. You still get down time in between encounters, as you wind your way through the complex, but you're taking everything at your own pace. If you want to blaze through it as fast as possible, nothing's going to stop you from doing so. By the end, it was taking what felt like less than 20 minutes to go through on Brave, start to end.
Encounters feel like classic Bungie style, where an enemy is holed up somewhere and you come into assault them. These kinds of encounters end up working really well, but the bits where you stay in an area end up falling a little flatter. In some ways that's always been the case - the defense segments in Halo were never really as great as the missions in enemy territory, and part of that is because it takes away from the active, puzzly nature of combat and makes it a little more passive and pot-shot-y. One of the sticking points is the way enemies spawn into the interior environments. I understand the need to obscure the spawn points, and to have a good, reliable way to get new fodder into the encounter, but the smoke doors are not a wonderful solution. They're often located in really strategically important locations (like the side room in the Sepiks Prime fight), where a player is going to be holed up for safety...and then a big group of enemies pops out of that smoke door with no warning and wipes you out immediately. It's not really a satisfying death, just sort of annoying. Adding a visual indicator to the door (like a klaxon light over the door that lights up when a spawn is incoming) would go a very long way to make those sections feel "fair." Otherwise, I had a really great time with the encounters. The AI feels reactive and predictable in just the right way (much like the Covenant was), and the gunplay is far more satisfying than I was expecting out of a loot-driven shooter.
I saw a lot of talk about bullet sponge bosses, but in the end, I think they're tuned well for replayability and coordinated groups. I think part of it is that the strike is so early in the game that you haven't really gotten comfortable with your gear, so you're taking on bosses with something that might not be right for you, but by the end the devil walkers and Sepiks were going down in a flash (and like I mentioned, I soloed the Devil Walker public event in just under 5 minutes - with 2 other people taking care of adds and adding damage, it would have melted). It's a tough balance to strike - do you tune it for a new player going in with randoms or for the group of 3 in a party with good gear? I can't say I envy Bungie's position with that one.
So, PvP. I...well, it needs work. I don't think the global character philosophy is really working. Part of what made Halo maps strong were the conscious choices of weapons-on-map that the designer made. Not every map should have a shotgun. Not every map should have a sniper. As it turns out, not every map should have 12 shotguns or 12 snipers, because it turns into a total disaster. Special ammo is not scarce enough to make that mechanic matter. I think the heavy ammo spawns work reasonably well, though I would prefer they were full weapon drops as well just to give the designers more flow control. You could allow carryover of primary, armor, and skills, and end up with the same "feel" of having your character matter without the negative effects of people starting with fully loaded shotguns, or someone not having a rocket launcher just because the game hasn't dropped one for them and being at a disadvantage. I think I had a whole two games with a negative K/D spread, but it's not really satisfying. Having a global character was a neat idea, but it ends up feeling like a string of deaths isn't the player's fault, but a result of the game's rules being busted - it's not really working. Unfortunately, neither are the vehicles. The Interceptor is absurdly powerful - a sort-of-rapid fire, faster, smaller Wraith? Why? It's fun to use, but certainly not fun to fight against. With the Wraith, you could dodge the first shot and have enough time to get away. Not so much here - and without having set heavy weapons spawn on the map, you might just not be equipped to ever take one out on foot. I just don't know what purpose it serves that merits its existence. On a lighter note, I really like the gametype design. Mixing 3 Plots with Slayer results in a really nice balance of objective play and murdering, where both are rewarded really well. Excited to see the other gametypes.
This is longer than I intended it to be. I'll just end with saying that I'm very impressed with the PvE in the game. It's smart and fun in all the ways a Bungie shooter should be, with a few rough bits. I think the PvP has a lot of potential, but it's just not there yet. If they level things out a bit and try to strike more of a balance between character progression and arena gameplay, it could be a really cool thing. I'm really looking forward to the beta.