Played about an hour of destiny. You can customize your character and levels a lot. Pretty cool. Graphics are great and the free roam environment is really neat. I just don't fully understand the game yet. Looks like there is a story mission and then free roam co op. In free roam you find beacons to do missions and one of them for me was scouting enemies. I had a hard time getting on top of this container to complete it. I'm not sure if after the mission you just have to walk away or what? Seems like enemies kept coming. Not sure what the other missions would be from other beacons.
Overall I like it but I'm not sure what else there is to do. Seems like most of the objectives are to just find a set of enemies and gather Intel and then fight big bosses. As I said I don't get it yet, I mean the structure of the game but it's neat.
The main game has multiple game modes. You choose one when you are in orbit and choose to go to earth instead of the tower.
1) story missions you can do solo or with up to 3 people. These tie into the campaign.
2) explore - cruise around the world and do tasks for the city. You go to beacons and accept a contract. Complete these to gain experience and gather materials you can sell or use at the tower to upgrade armors and weapons. This is more of the free roam, go anywhere, check out stuff activity for up to 3 people.
3) strikes - 3 person missions with a boss to defeat and loot drops. Basic teamwork is required.
4) raids - high level missions for 6 players. Teamwork is a necessity to survive but the rewards are higher.
5) crucible - this is your PvP mode
As for the story the alpha is dropping you in at a point where the prologue would have already taken place and you would know what is going on already. The player's monologues to himself tell a lot of what is going on as you progress through a story mission.
In the game's lore the fallen are guarding the old moon base in Russia. You have to infiltrate the ray dome and find out why. You discover that the hive is hiding out on earth inside this particular structure. They were locked in the colony on the moon and thought to have been eradicated from earth. That is not the case and they have found a way back to earth.