Once you hit level 20, you also unlock the ability to find gear that has a new stat on it: Light. Light allows your character to gain levels beyond the soft cap - for every 20 points of Light your gear has on it, you will gain one extra level. You'll also be able to redo any of the story content with enemies scaling up to a level threshold you set. If you're beyond the level cap a bit, you can even play Heroic versions of the campaign levels, which have unique effects added - similar to activating Skulls in a Halo game.
Basically, level 20 is where the ‘endgame' unlocks and you'll generally have more options of things to do, all of which revolve around either continuing to unlock abilities for your chosen subclass, grinding for Vanguard/Crucible marks to obtain better gear, or farming reputation for the various factions that live around the Tower. Until the first Raids open up (the first one opens on the 16th), you're restricted to redoing an awful lot of content you've already consumed. Personally, that's fine by me because I thought that the Strikes were fun, but it may not be everybody's cup of tea. There are also daily and weekly challenges, and of course you can still take on bounties.
In retrospect, it's kind of sad that the pre-level 20 gear isn't very interesting, since none of it feels essential. However, the endgame gear not only requires you stack Light, but most of it has a mix of several stats in addition, making the decision a little more difficult. Obviously you want as much Light as possible. For a veteran MMO player, this problem is all-too familiar as most games have trouble striking a good balance between leveling gear and endgame gear. Welcome to the party, Destineers.
Destiny is an undeniably well-crafted game, and one I'm enjoying quite a bit, but I can't help but feel like Bungie played it very safe. There's an excellent framework here for future content, and Bungie is already very well-known for post-launch support. Hopefully new content will be added via patches over time, and the "expansion" content will do more to flesh out the story and world.
Jason's Thoughts
I was hooked on Destiny after the alpha and still pretty excited after the beta. When at last the game arrived and I started playing through the same content I had done before, I couldn't wait to see what was next. Then I got it; the result was definitely not what I was expecting. Stagnant loot drop until after level 15, co-op missions (Strikes) that felt overly hard and dull unless you were leveled far beyond the "first available at X" level (with gear to match), and a story that was so fragmented that Terry Gilliam would have a tough time stitching it together. All of this is interspersed with some moments of truly great co-op play and a solid framework for what could be more. As it stands now, if you're still on the fence about buying Destiny, wait a month or two. See what comes from Bungie and additional patches/content. Diablo 3 wasn't quite the game we remembered from Diablo 2, but it got there in the end. If you own Destiny and aren't sure about pushing on, get to the endgame (if you're not there already) - that's the breaking point. You'll either see the potential and slug on through, or wonder what Bungie was thinking and wait for the Halo: Master Chief Collection to come out.
Nick's Thoughts
If you read our review and many other reviews of Destiny, there's a lot of time and effort put into comparing it to other genres of games. Is it an MMOs? RPG? Shooter? Reviewers tend to try to tell you how it fails or succeeds at matching the quality available in each of these genres. The reality is - when a game borrows bits and pieces from other genres to create itself, those pieces will never be identical or be as good as what's available in the respective genre. A recipe should be judged not on the list of ingredients, but on the entire dish created from it. Ingredients serve different purposes in different recipes.
Instead Destiny forges its own path, it's a next-generation game because it's trying to do something different in a different way. It writes its own rules for an online action game. It blends single player, co-op and PvP through various game systems. Does it present its story clearly and concisely? Not exactly; it doesn't feel as Hollywood as we've seen from Bungie in the past, but rather maybe something more akin to their Marathon style of games. Discovering through exploration both in game and out.
Destiny is a perfect example of what games are slowly becoming today. You simply can't judge a game based on it's day one or even day 30 state. Games are increasingly dynamic in both content, structure and polish. As Jason said, look at Diablo 3 for the perfect example of this. You need to examine the potential a game has to see if it's worth your almighty dollar. Destiny is ripe with potential and Bungie has rarely not delivered. The first set of content and changes are already live. But based on what's there now, it might be tough to hold gamers' attentions long enough until it reaches that state.
The Co-Optimus Review for Destiny was written after evaluating the Playstation 4 version of the game.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Players can join fireteams of 3 players for co-op play. Co-Op can exist in larger groups via dynamic world events.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.