Destiny: The Taken King added a plethora of improvements to the base game, but at the end of the day, it’s still Destiny.
Destiny: The Taken King is the biggest expansion to come out for Destiny yet, and heralds the coming of year two of the controversial game.
Unlike previous expansions, Crota’s End and The House of Wolves, TTK adds almost as much as vanilla destiny added at launch. On top of the new story missions, TTK adds four new strikes, two new multiplayer modes, and the biggest raid so far.
Destiny: The Taken King looks just as impressive as always; even after a year, the graphics hold up well. The biggest problem with the visuals are some recycled assets and flat textures, but nothing noteworthy.
The gameplay is as good as ever. At the end of the day, Destiny is about shooting aliens and you won’t find many games that do that as well as Destiny does.
Now to the meat and potatoes of this review, the new stuff and the changes made in the wake of the second year of Destiny.
If you read my review for Destiny, then you know that I really like this game in all of its mediocrity. This time around, developer Bungie added features to Destiny that not only should have been present at the launch of year one, but are expected in games of modern design.
First, the story. Instead of sending you out on missions with no context to why you’re fighting aliens, this time it is clearly explained. Better yet, there are characters with which the player can connect and interact.
The story takes place after the events of year one. Oryx the God and King of the Hive enters the Sol system to take vengeance on you for killing his son, Crota, who you kill in the first expansion, Crota’s End. Along the way the player is introduced to characters that were there through all the events of Destiny year one, but were never explored, including a character voiced by Hollywood superstar Nathan Fillion.
Because the story now has context and characters, playing through was a much more enjoyable experience.
When you play Destiny: TTK, you won’t find that you lack for things to do. From playing through the lengthy story missions to exploring the Dreadnaught (the new patrol zone), it always feels like there is something to do.
Instead of mission design being a recycled “go here, shoot them, press that button,” the mission structure tends to have more variety. Some missions discourage killing at all, or force you to run away from overwhelming odds.
Once you finish exploring and doing missions and reach the recommended level, the new raid becomes available to play.
Kings Fall is the new raid that requires precise timing, teamwork and skill to pull off and is not only one of the most challenging gaming experiences I’ve ever had but after the six- to eight-hour adventure was done, it was one of the most rewarding.
Speaking of rewards, Bungie promised that the loot algorithms have been changed, giving you a chance to find better loot and things that you don’t already own.
My experience begs to differ. The amount of trash loot and doubles (even triples and more) has been astonishing, to the point where sometimes after playing for hours or even days, I felt like I was making no progress.
That’s not all, in order to play the best part of the game, the raid, you have to be at least light level 290.
This means the average rating of all your gear must be that or higher in order to be successful. There is also a lack of match making, so after you put in the dozens of hours required to become raid ready, if you don’t have six friends available and ready to give up a whole night (or two) playing the raid, Bungie offers no solution for you. Instead you have to rely on third party sources like my favorite, DestinyLFG.net.
Destiny: The Taken King looks and feels as good as ever, and the many improvements to the storytelling mechanics of the game make the play-through experience a much more enjoyable journey.
However, innaccesability and walls locking out content still seem to be a huge problem standing in the way of Destiny becoming a great game. I will, hoever, upgrade the game from mediocre to good.
If you’re a new Destiny player or a returning one, Destiny: The Taken King, is well worth your time.
Destiny: The Taken King was reviewed on the PlayStation 4 and is also available on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
November may look light compared to October, but don’t be fooled by the size of this list because the games represent a huge percent of total games sold all year.
Every week this month consumers are going to be treated to another triple A blockbuster game.
The games to watch out for this month are Call of Duty Black Ops III, Fallout 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Star Craft II: Legacy of the Void, and Star Wars Battlefront.
November 3 – Anno 2205 (PC)
November 3 – Need for Speed (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
November 3 – Peanuts: Snoopy’s Grand Adventure (Xbox One, 360, PS4, Wii U, 3DS)
November 6 – Call of Duty: Blacks Ops III (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
November 6 – Yo-Kai Watch (3DS)
November 10 – Alekhine’s Gun (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
November 10 – Fallout 4 (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
November 10 – Rise of the Tomb Raider (Xbox One, Xbox 360)
November 10 – Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void (PC, Mac)
November 10 – Rodea The Sky Soldier (Wii U, 3DS)
November 17 – The Crew: Wild Run (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
November 17 – Stazr Wars Battlefront (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
November 17 – Stella Glow (3DS) – November 17 – Sword Art Online: Lost Song (PS4, Vita) November 20 – Mayan Death Robots (PC)
November 20 – Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash (Wii U)
November 20 – Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon (3DS)
November 24 – Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires (Vita)
November 26 – One Final Breath (PC, Linux) – November 28, (Mac) – November 30, (Xbox One, PS4, PS3, Vita)
*release dates are subject to change.
