It’s hard to believe that it has already been a year since Bungie’s Halo follow-up, Destiny, launched and landed on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. It seems like yesterday that the Destiny Alpha, and Beta versions were being downloaded and scoured for the newest looks at what Bungie had developed after selling Halo to Microsoft and teaming up with Activision on an ambitious 10 year plan. The game, when it launched, was met with mixed reviews overall. The core gameplay was fantastic. Excellent shooting and movement mechancis made everything fun to do, the problem ended up being that “everything” wasn’t really all that much in terms of content. On top of that, the game feature a myriad of confusing systems for currency and leveling (light). Based on these factors the popularity of the game dipped a bit and only the hardcore fans remained exploring the Cosmodrome and other Destiny locations. Fast forward to today, Destiny has two major DLC packages out and a brand new patch that completely reinvents the way the game handles those confusing systems noted earlier. The Taken King has debuted to continue the game’s story and bring new content to every section of the game. So, with all that work done, is it enough to redeem Destiny? The answer is a resounding “yes.”
Destiny The Taken King, and subsequently the 2.0 update for the game, change the basic fundamentals of how much of Destiny works. Gone is the confusing leveling system that made you calculate light to reach the true “top” levels. In it’s place, a basic XP leveling system like most games have. You can reach the new top level of 40 merely by playing the game and gaining XP. Light does remain, but serves as a point value displayed under your rank. As you get better gear, the attack and defense stats make up your light level. The better the gear, the higher your light level climbs. This is independent of your actual level. At the time of writing this, my hunter is at level 40, with a light level of 241. The light level works as a difficulty level as well. Raids and more difficult mission options will become available at higher light numbers. The whole system is much, much better, and easier to understand than the previous system. Along with light changes, questing has been updated. You now have distinct quest markers on NPCs, as well as the ability to actively track quests in your HUD. A new page has also been added to the menu screen that shows all active quests, and even lets you turn in completed bounties from anywhere.
The actual questline and story of The Taken King is better as well. More actual storytelling, more cutscenes, and more in-mission set piece moments make the campaign feel more like it has some hints of old Bungie Halo flair in it. You actually get a lot of voice acting this time around, and a lot of input from the new voice of the ghost, Nolan North. Being a hunter, I got my fair share of Nathan Fillion chatting me up about the story of the mission I was about to undertake. If the story of the initial release would have been to this level, people may have enjoyed it more a year ago. The story missions, well, main Taken King story, only last about 5-6 hours but after you complete them there are many more quests that kick into action and have you going to every planet, including the new zone, The Dreadnaught. Taken King offers plenty to do, even if you never get into the raiding. Speaking of, the new raid went live a few days ago and seems pretty hard overall. It took the first team somewhere in the neighborhood of six hours to finally beat. So if you’re into raiding, get your team to 290 light and get going.
Overall Destiny has new life with The Taken King. A myriad of new quality of life changes have made the game into something it should have been a year ago. On top of that a bunch of new content, new enemies, new zone, new raid, and a ton of loot makes this expansion pack well worth getting into. If you never played Destiny before, go grab the $60 package with Destiny, House of Wolves, The Dark Below, and The Taken King and you’ll have hours upon hours of new, good content to work through. If you were like me, and stopped playing Destiny because of some frustrations back in 2014, now is the time to come back. The game is better than ever, and has enough new content to make even the most hardcore Destiny players happy for some time.