Destiny Cover Art Sticks With the Formula

[Andy Chalk]

Destiny Cover Art Sticks With the Formula

You will be shocked - shocked! - to learn that the official Destiny box art is dudes with guns.

True story: It took me a lot longer than you might think to figure out why two out of the three characters on the front of the Destiny box have their heads on backwards. Start at the top and slowly work your way down and he looks like Master Chief in a grotty blanket, until you get to his arm, which appears to be attached... backwards. The legs are pointing the wrong way too. Unless he's facing away from the viewer, of course, but then why's his head snapped all the way around like that? Or is that the back of it? It must be, but it sure looks like a visor and breather to me.

The guy to his right seems to have the same kind of owl-necked thing going on, albeit to a somewhat lesser extent. The dude on the left, meanwhile, is rocking a far more standard action pose, with a gun in one hand and some glowy nano-magic business going on in the other.

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Bottom line? This is a terrible cover. It's simultaneously dull and conventional - guys with guns - and very awkwardly composed. And I know, I know, nobody cares about boxes anymore and thus box art is irrelevant, so what does it matter? But the box is relevant to a far wider range of consumers than the core gamer demographic who's going to preorder Destiny as soon as it becomes available. And this just isn't very good - certainly not as impressive as the placeholder art [http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81Ip3Bl5wPL._SL1500_.jpg] that initially appeared on Amazon. I guess it's tough to fight tradition, even for Bungie.


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[Fappy]

It's not terrible but the placeholder art is waaaaaaay cooler. Why didn't they just go with that?

 

[The White Hunter]

And yet still no PC version ): which means at some point I shall still have to grab a next gen console -_-

 

[Yopaz]

The place holder art is actually quite good, it's actually beautiful! Who decided that going with the generic idea except that the main character is standing the opposite way with his head twisted 180 degrees holding a gun was a good idea?

It's not just the way his feet are facing, his thumbs are also facing the opposite way of his face so most likely he's supposed to stand facing the other way... I wonder if the guy who designed the head on that cover art wasn't on good terms with the guy who made the rest of his body and decided to make him face us out of spite...

 

[luvd1]

Gods. Those are dull. Talk about generic. Of all the concept art they must of seen for the box, that is what they went with? I doubt it, this has all the smell of moronic gibbons in suits who call themselves executives. Probably the same guys that thought they were hot movie types and "fixed" the green lantern film.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

Don't know what all y'all are bitching about, the box art tells me everything I need to know about the game: it is a shooter (guns), set in the future (space armor), it's post apocalyptic (old and worn shawl meant to evoke nomadic imagery) possibly takes place in third person (you'll be looking at his back the entire time), and there's magic involved (glowing hand).

In other words, everything a box cover should be. It's generic because everyone uses it, and everyone uses it because it works.

 

[Erttheking]

Not terribly innovative, but it looks damn pretty and I'll take it. Though I will admit I would've preferred the placeholder.

 

[Morti]

Aww, the guy on the left is trying to be the token female anyway...

Silly space dude, you need to remove your spine before you try to do boobs and butt

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Don't know what all y'all are bitching about, the box art tells me everything I need to know about the game: it is a shooter (guns), set in the future (space armor), it's post apocalyptic (old and worn shawl meant to evoke nomadic imagery) possibly takes place in third person (you'll be looking at his back the entire time), and there's magic involved (glowing hand).

In other words, everything a box cover should be. It's generic because everyone uses it, and everyone uses it because it works.

This. Also, I remember an awesome talk that Ken Levine gave for Gamespot. And he made a really good point too. Basically, he was saying A LOT of time went into his game. A lot of heart, design, money, etc. These games are freaking expensive to make and if one of the ways he can get it to sell and get it out to people so he can keep making these amazing games is to have a little generic box art, so be it. He wasn't going to lose any sleep over it.

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

Umm... if you take a closer look at the helm that the front guy is wearing, you can tell that's not a visor.

 

[KaZuYa]

Free from the grip of Microsoft claws and they still won't make a PC version, then again as shooters go the Halo series was pretty damn awful.

 

[Andy Chalk]

This. Also, I remember an awesome talk that Ken Levine gave for Gamespot. And he made a really good point too. Basically, he was saying A LOT of time went into his game. A lot of heart, design, money, etc. These games are freaking expensive to make and if one of the ways he can get it to sell and get it out to people so he can keep making these amazing games is to have a little generic box art, so be it. He wasn't going to lose any sleep over it.

Sure, and that's a fair position. But it belies the "bold new vision" nonsense that so many developers and publishers like to peddle. Maybe Destiny will be a Groundbreaking New Thing (although the whole "armored knights as Earth's last line of defense against a nigh-unstoppable alien force" kind of rings a bell) but generic space-shooter art fixes assumptions and expectations very much in the usual place. For those who believe that presentation is a meaningful part of the overall experience, it's a letdown.

(And as Jeffers pointed out, it's really just bad art, too.)

 

[xyrafhoan]

Umm... if you take a closer look at the helm that the front guy is wearing, you can tell that's not a visor.

If you look really, really hard, maybe. But at first glance it definitely looks like they drew a visor and then forgot what way they were going to draw the body and just did the rest of it completely ass backwards. That's a failure in art no matter how you slice it. Not to mention the guy on the right side's head looks like it's popping off because it's so high off of his shoulders. The posture's alright, it's a standard pose you see a lot with the over-the-shoulder look, but the fluffy hood really messes things up and makes everything else look wonky. The guy on the left is the only one who looks like he came out okay and not out of the anatomy fail factory, even if technically speaking the other two check out. Optical illusion is just destroying what probably looked cool in a mock up sketch. Hopefully this isn't final and someone at least makes corrections to make things look less awkward.

 

[Rad Party God]

For anyone already interested on this game, it won't certainly be a big deal, they already know they want the game and the boxart will be irrelevant, BUT... it certainly looks incredibly generic and awkward.

The placeholder is definitely more attractive and even beautiful, but I wonder if anyone outside of the gaming world would be interested on that cover art alone.