In spite of all that Bungie promised for Destiny power leveling before launch, of how much the game encourages grinding, and of how the story is presented, I personally maintain that it’s a great game. Sure, there are plenty of things to improve on, but Bungie sure got a lot right – case in point, Destiny looks gorgeous. As a result, it spawned some pretty impressive player-captured screenshots; none, however, come close to this one.

In spite of all that Bungie promised for Destiny before launch, of how much the game encourages grinding, and of how the story is presented, I personally maintain that it’s a great game. Sure, there are plenty of things to improve on, but Bungie sure got a lot right – case in point, Destiny looks gorgeous. As a result, it spawned some pretty impressive player-captured screenshots; none, however, come close to this one.

Taken by one Reddit user, with all the HUD elements photoshopped out by another, the screenshot features a Warlock punching an enemy Thrall in the Cosmodrome. What started as a meaningless encounter ended up as this (make sure you click to enlarge):

Stopping at that particular point in time – in the middle of a melee – showcases just how beautiful Destiny really is, and how much effort went into crafting the game. The vibrant colours, the particles dancing across the screen, the electricity shimmering down the player’s arm, the focus distortion, the shadows, the individual rocks and pebbles, and even a glimpse of the green night sky above – all these elements combine to form one ordinary moment of gameplay captured in one gorgeous screenshot.

I discussed in another piece how the Xbox One‘s upcoming screenshot feature encourages users to observe the world around them – as has the PlayStation 4 since launch – whether they mean to or not. Video games have made incredibly leaps and bounds over the last decade alone, especially in terms of visual fidelity. A game considered ‘beautiful’ 5 years ago wouldn’t look nearly as good as some games we have today that are labelled as ‘mediocre’.

As video games progress further and further in their capabilities of world-building – not just in graphics and resolution, but in the finer details and aesthetic design – we have to stop to smell the roses more often. Images as gorgeous as this happen so often that we don’t even think to capture them.

It’s time to stop taking video games for granted, and start snapping more of those screenshots.