Destiny: The Taken King is out now, following its early morning debut on PSN and Xbox Live, and I’ve already spent quite a bit of time with the new Destiny expansion. I’ve completed the primary quest chain from this week’s Destiny DLC and plan to hop back in for a tour of the game’s newest Strike mission after this story is published. And, as always, I’ve got some opinions.
This is by no means a final review of Destiny: The Taken King. For starters, I haven’t ventured into the Crucible yet. I’m also planning to create at least one new character, to see how the changes to Destiny’s leveling system have affected the early portions of the game. There’s also that small matter of the King’s Fall raid, the game’s newest six-player raid, isn’t available to the Destiny community yet. But there’s still quite a bit of new content to dig through in The Taken King and I suspect I won’t be the only Destiny player to reach some of these conclusions after spending a few hours with the expansion on launch day.
1. Shooting Still Feels Great
For all the complaints I’ve had about Destiny over the past twelve months, from disappointing Xur appearances to a lack of meaningful content, I’m not sure I’ve ever had anything bad to say about the shooting mechanics at its core. And that remains the case in this new, post-The Taken King world where Destiny is actually shaping up to be a pretty decent game.
Those who haven’t played Destiny in a few months (or longer) might be pleasantly surprised by some of the changes Bungie has made to certain weapon classes, particularly the Scout and Auto Rifles. And there’s plenty of great looking weaponry to find/fire in The Taken King.
2. Storytelling Is Vastly Improved
After twelve long months, we finally get to see what Destiny could be like with a little personality breathed into its formerly lifeless world/story/characters. Turns out, an RPG-inspired shooter that sits somewhere between Halo and Guardians of the Galaxy – in its tone and presentation – is actually a pretty good idea. Not that you would’ve have known it before the release of The Taken King.
Much of the credit goes to whoever wrote for Nathan Fillion and Lance Reddick, the voice actors who play Cayde-6 and Commander Zavala. The NPC leaders both feature prominently in The Taken King’s story missions and I’m pleased to report they actually feel like memorable characters this time around. Obviously, Fillion and Reddick deserve some applause for bringing the characters to life. But it’s clear the Destiny writing team took all of the storytelling criticism to heart over the last twelve months.
3. There’s Finally Enough Loot
For the first time since Bungie shut down the Loot Cave, and its many successors, it finally feels like Destiny is handing out enough engrams enough to compete with loot-driven titles like Borderlands or Diablo. I’ve dismantled dozens of green items, during my first six to eight hours with Destiny: The Taken King, and it’s amazing what a few extra rewards will do to make the grind bearable.
So say whatever goodbyes you need to the gear you were wearing. If you’ve still got a character or two who still isn’t high enough for The Taken King content, go ahead and throw some of your hard-earned exotic and/or legendary gear into your vault. But get ready to break whatever gear you aren’t currently using. And/or don’t have an immediate plan for, because all of Destiny itself is a Loot Cave now.
4. The Taken Are Kind Of Boring
For all the great changes introduced in The Taken King, and Destiny Update 2.0, can we acknowledge how much of a cop-out it was for Bungie to recycle all its existing enemy types for this expansion?
As if it re-skinning the Vex, Hive and Cabal weren’t bad enough, there are still plenty of regular ass Vex, Hive and Cabal along for the ride, too. There is one semi-new unit and the Taken versions of each race do behave slightly differently than their non-Taken counterparts. But it doesn’t change the fact that it would’ve been nice to see some new enemies among all the familiar faces.
5. Dinklage Was Better
I know I’m in the minority this one but I don’t care. Nolan North does a respectable job as Ghost. His take on the character is unique and I’m sure the new Ghost will grow on me in time. But there was something about Peter Dinklage’s take on the character that added extra weight to what little story content Destiny had up to this point. I’m not really going to hold this one against The Taken King. I just wanted it to be said somewhere.
6. “Quality Of Life” Improvements Really Help
While the tweaks to character progression will likely draw the most attention, at least during the first few days after the arrival of The Taken King, it would be a real shame to overlook the many changes that make Destiny less of a headache for players. Gone are many of the faction-based currencies, replaced by new Legendary Marks that can be traded to vendors for powerful gear. The reputation system has also been modified, allowing fans to increase their rep with the Vanguards alongside another faction (of the player's choosing). A real Quest system has been introduced, to complement bounties, and players can now track mission progress via the HUD. Even the players' vaults have been expanded.
It all makes Destiny feel a bit more manageable and should reduce the amount of time players are forced to navigate menus during the average play session.
7. Still Not Enough Content
So here's the thing. I'm well aware that Bungie and Activision are doing their damnedest to convince players that 3-4 story missions and a Strike are worth $20. At least, that was my biggest take away from the Dark Below and House of Wolves expansions. With that in mind, I probably shouldn't be shocked by the fact The Taken King (which retails for$40) includes about twice as much content as its predecessors.
But here I am, wondering who in their right mind at Activision/Bungie thinks they are actually delivering expansions that justify their price tags. Say what you will about the original Destiny release. It may not have been as plot-focused as we all wanted or as loot-filled as we'd hoped. But Bungie at least had the decency to hand over 20 brand new environments in exchange for $60. These days, $40 bucks only gets you around a dozen missions, including subclass quests; many of which return to the very same locales we've seen used in vanilla Destiny, The Dark Below and House of Wolves.
Enough is enough, Bungie. Stop cutting corners. Stop re-skinning your enemies and telling us they're new creations. Stop recycling the same damn environments in every Destiny expansion. Instead, try shipping something Destiny-related that doesn't feel like the devs put in the absolute bare minimum amount of work before shipping. Who knows, you just might like it.
Yes, I'm enjoying many of the changes introduced in (or shortly before) The Taken King. But the studio's continued reliance on existing Destiny assets is a major disappointment.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more Destiny coverage throughout the rest of 2015 and for as long as Bungie continues to support Destiny in the months ahead.
What are your initial impressions of the new Destiny expansion? Do you share any of our thoughts or concerns about The Taken King? Want to praise (or criticize) another aspect of the new Destiny DLC?
