A year ago, Bungie released their next big game, “Destiny.” With expectations galore, “Destiny” had a lot to live up to. Sadly, during its first year, it was lackluster. From a lack of release content, no story and some repetitive gameplay, “Destiny” fell shy of what was promised.
The first thing that was done to correct these issues was the big 2.0 patch that overhauled much of the game mechanics from year one to get ready for the Taken King. Although a lot of it was number and damage changes, it brought the reward level up much higher. “Destiny” was no longer a mindless grind fest. There was now light at the end of the tunnel.
Since the release of “Taken King,” “Destiny’s” one year anniversary expansion, Bungie has sought to fix those mistakes. The most obvious one is that it not only has a story, but characters with actual personality. The snarky dialogue of Cayde-6 to objects that can be scanned for additional information helps to flesh out this world.
The story is also much improved. Your custom-made guardian must go toe-to-toe with the Taken King, a god among mortals. He brings with him a legion of corrupted versions of foes fought before. Don’t let that fool you, though; the “Taken” fight like brand new opponents.
The enemies aren’t the only thing that gained a power boost. Each class of guardians was granted a new subclass. Each subclass adds a unique level of power to everyone’s guardian, and before there were only two per class.
The addition of a third class, improves the strategic planning that goes into creating a team and, above all, just looks really cool. Warlocks can actually shoot lightning from their fingertips. As with every major DLC (downloadable content) release for “Destiny,” it brought about new weapons, strikes and gear.
These new weapons have quickly outclassed everything from the year one catalogue. Some of the old exotic weapons were grandfathered in so the people who grinded it out don’t feel cheated out of their time.
The main event of the DLC, though, is the raid. Requiring a level of teamwork that can only be done with six players, though the raid is totally optional, you’ll definitely want to give it a crack.
“Destiny: The Taken King” was released Sept. 15 on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. It has arguably made up for a lot of the faults that came when “Destiny” was launched for the first time. This is a big step in the right direction and gives me hope for the future of this space shooter.
