Guardians rejoice — the beta is over!
The word Destiny can now be used less frequently as a replacement for various curse words. “The Taken King” DLC makes Destiny the game we all thought we were getting since its initial reveal oh so long ago.
The rich but vague universe within Destiny was mostly hidden within Grimoire cards and essentially removed from the actual game for its first turbulent year. The lore from the Grimoire has now been significantly bolstered but, more importantly, both character development and a narrative have been added to Destiny. This is the first of many examples of what should have been in the vanilla game but for whatever reason wasn’t.
Characters are now strong, interesting and a joy to interact with. It feels like this has all been there from the beginning, just hidden away. We could kind of make it out if we tried; we could see there was a silhouette of something bigger. Now, the curtain has dropped and the personalities are on show and it make a tremendous difference. Destiny‘s new narrative feels like it will constantly expand; the new story constantly references things from previous content.
The story and missions are all presented in a Quest format now and work perfectly. Everything flows a little better and makes more sense. Bungie has decided to treat Destiny much more like an MMO and it’s a huge improvement. The levelling system is much more streamlined even if it’s still complicated. You will still need gear to improve your character but it’s much easier to come by and will be rewarded for progression.
The new location in the rings of Saturn is amazing. There are secrets and surprises hidden around ever corner or across each chasm. It’s somehow gorgeous and disgusting at the same time while still being so full of new things to do you wont know weather to explore of scrutinise a particular spot. The Dreadnaught is big, but thankfully dense; it is filled to the brim with puzzles and treasures.
Bosses now have interesting mechanics rather than just being huge bullet sponges. Bosses in each of the game’s new Strikes are different and interesting; old content has benefited from the DLC too. New Taken enemies are littered throughout the old destinations, calling for new tactics. There is a lot of grinding to be done in Destiny — as my callused thumbs will attest to — but the grind is a little less severe now.
Enemy spawns are a little more random and multiple variations of dialogue are found in the Strikes. It helps to relieve the repetition a bit as does the seemingly more direct way to get the things your searching for. Quests will tell you what kind of reward you get for completion and the drops in general appear to be more frequent. I turned the audio up on Destiny for the first time in a long time and the first thing I noticed was the music. It’s haunting and sets the tone perfectly.
The King’s Fall Raid takes everything from previous content and mixes the best of it together. It’s staggeringly hard and beautiful at the same time. I couldn’t stop myself from taking screenshots while exploring during moments of sheer wonder, like a tourist in hell/Saturn. Then I’d be destroyed by something vile and terrible, figure out a new interesting mechanic to kill it and explore again. The sense of achievement when taking down a boss is incredible. Everything takes so much teamwork and communication building a camaraderie. This may suffer through the initial stages while you figure out a plan of attack but once it all comes together, it’s invigorating.
The only problem is with the cost of this DLC. It’s almost the same as a full price game for a DLC and no mater how Bungie has tried to spin it, people were very skeptical before the launch. Now that the DLC has been released I have to admit the amount of content added with “The Taken King” is significant but I still don’t know if it’s worth $70 AUD. I know I personally will get my money’s worth but that doesn’t apply to everyone that buys it.
So much of the player base is only interested in certain parts of the game and won’t benefit from things like the Raid or all the new PVP maps. Most of the improvements that have to game play that will be synonymous with “The Taken King” were actually part of the free 2.0 update a week before launch. Features like Quests, weapon balancing and the improved Light level are all new mechanics that make up the new and improved Destiny and didn’t cost us anything. That’s fine but it starts to take away from the big list content we paid $70 AUD for, making the price tag look excessive.
Ultimately the price tag is still too high but the quality of the new content takes the sting out of it a little. Get used to this kind of thing though because the record-breaking download figures have set a precedent. We’ve shown Activision and Bungie we will pay what they want and that’s exactly what we will have to do from now on.
“The Taken King” has saved Destiny. It was never really in jeopardy, but now fans will have an easier time explaining to people why they devote so much time to it. The quality of the new content shows what Bungie can do with some time and plenty of feedback from the dedicated masses. If you tried Destiny and didn’t like it it worth another go. If you’ve never played it, now is the time. I look forward to seeing what Bungie has up its sleeve for the rest of Destiny.
Destiny‘s “Taken King” DLC was reviewed using a retail code on PS4, as purchased by the reviewer.
Review: Destiny update 2.0 and “The Taken King”
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