Destiny 2.0 has been live since September 8, with the full Taken King expansion dropping a week later. Huge changes abound: overhauled leveling and currency systems, new subclasses, enemies, weapon types, quest management; 3-person strikes, a 6-person raid, a new planet, doubled vault space, way better voice acting, and most importantly, new dance moves. Even with two DLC packs in front of it, The Taken King is the first time that Destiny has felt new since, well, since it was new. Bungie has done a pretty good job of addressing some of fans’ bigger criticisms, and have even managed to bring back a few people that haven’t played since reaching vanilla Destiny‘s grindtastic level 20.
The biggest change overall is a general increase in difficulty. Somewhat polarizing, a lot of the community thinks it’s too much. I get it, the new taken enemies can be a real pain in the taint, rage quits have skyrocketed, and few people are willing or able to complete the new strikes and raid. Over the past two weeks my raid group has gone from taking four hours on one boss to completing the entire mission (four bosses + jumping puzzles) in less than two hours. And it feels damn good.
Newcomers and prodigal sons alike are generally most excited about the new leveling system. Previously, XP was earned by killing things and completing missions up to a soft level cap (20). After that, guardians could only pray to the gods atop Mt. Bungie for random armor drops with higher light levels so they could reach the maximum level (34) and use all the equipment and finish all the quests. Now everyone can get from level 1 to 40 with straight XP, allowing them to use any weapon or armor piece in the game. There’s still a giant asterisk, though, as higher light levels are still required for daily and weekly missions, strike playlists, and of course, the raid. The struggle is still (even if slightly less) real.
Now let’s take a moment to mourn the loss of our beloved Dinklebot…may he rest in the Traveler’s light. All of your ghost’s dialogue, old and new, has been replaced with the voice of Nolan North, probably best known for voicing Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series. It’s a weird trade-off, especially after hearing Peter Dinklage’s flat, disinterested voice almost every day for the past year. North definitely brings some much needed inflection and emotionality, but he’s also lacking a certain badassitude the rest of the game attempts to portray. Now it just feels like I’m being followed around by a tiny, floating, even more effeminate C-3PO, and if I wanted that I would have moved to Denver with Trevor.
The Taken King‘s storyline is another big improvement to the game. It still pales in comparison to something like Halo, but at least it’s straightforward and isn’t hidden behind secret unlocks only accessible on Bungie’s website or companion app. Nathan Fillion (at his Nathan Fillion-iest) steals the show as Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6. Bungie seems to have loosened his leash a bit, letting him play a more natural and more boisterous mix of Halo: Reach‘s Sergeant Buck and Firefly‘s Mal Reynolds.
The last bits I’ll touch on are the new weapons and subclasses. There were some pretty major changes to weapon mechanics, most notably to damage drop-off at range. Hand cannons are no longer the god-slayers they used to be, and it’s nice to see auto-rifles in the Crucible again. A lot of the new gun designs are pretty underwhelming, with a good portion being really boxy and/or lime green for some reason. There are definitely some sexy exceptions, like the exotic fusion rifle Sleeper Simulant and the MOTHERFUCKIN’ SWORDS, Y’ALL! Seriously, we’ve wanted swords since the single-mission use ones from the first DLC, and Bungie delivered in a big way. A sincere thank you from all the digital vikings/samurais/Ned Starks at heart.
The three new subclasses are all fun as hell, and play a major role in making things feel fresh again. There’s something kinda cool about having to unlock them through class-specific quests, and very cool about getting to spam the hell out of your new super-attacks at the end of the mission. Hunters create an ethereal bow that tethers and weakens groups of enemies; Titans throw flaming Thor hammers that deal massive damage to a few targets; and by far my favorite, the Warlocks levitate and shoot Force lightning from their fingertips that chain to nearby enemies for devastating area attacks. I sometimes feel bad for the unfortunate souls on the other side of my headset that have to listen to me yell “UNLIMITED POWAAAH!” every time it’s charged.
But even with all the improvements, The Taken King is still far from perfect. Repetition, persistence, and dumb luck are the still the core of this MMOFPS. Graphics have noticeably improved, but that was never really Destiny‘s problem. The serious lack of content will likely send a lot of new and returning players right back where they came from, with an even smaller chance of coming back later. Bugs and glitches have become way too common, with some bad enough to make previous raid bosses unbeatable at times. Veteran players still complain that vault space is too small, currency caps are too low, and loot drops are nowhere near commensurate with player performance. The addition of microtransactions (thanks, Activision) is another community concern, with fears of a “pay to win” model slowly creeping in.
The Destiny universe is definitely evolving, but it’s hard to say if it’s all moving in the right direction. True to form, Bungie has listened and responded to their fans and made a lot of people happy. But at the same time, a lot of issues remain unresolved, with some getting even worse.
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