Destiny: The Taken King

Destiny: The Taken King isn’t just an expansion, it’s a rebirth. Bungie used The Taken King as a chance to revise their game based on the criticism that launched Destiny from a highly anticipated title to a mediocre shooter. New story missions bring the absent story to life, new varied enemy types keep gameplay dynamic and a new leveling and looting system encourages players to replay missions with new characters. The Taken King is the Destiny game we’ve wanted from the start. 

Forget everything you knew about Destiny, Bungie has refined their flawed formula with new additions and changes that make Destiny’s experience less about luck and more about skill. The revamped Light, loot and experience system makes it much more accessible for players. Light is no longer tied to specific equipment but is now an average of your avatar’s overall gear value. Raising Light minimizes damage and high amounts of Light is required for the hardest missions, as for your rank you can now reach the now level 40 cap through experience alone. Once reaching the maximum level playersare granted Mote of Light for each level afterwards. The loot system has been changed to encourage players to continue playing by offering better loot by dropping Engrams more frequently and scaling gear to your level.

A new infusion system allows players to update their favorite weapons. Finding a new item that has better statistics doesn’t mean you have to upgrade. Instead if they meet the qualifications you can melt down that weapon to upgrade another.

By changing the Light and looting system players can now participate in missions they want to play, instead of specific events with gear worth pursuing. You can grab some friends and tackle strikes on Mars, go on intense raids or venture into the Dreadnaught. You’re truly free to explore Destiny as you wish.

The Dreadnaught, located in the Rings of Saturn, is the main setting for The Taken King. This deadly spaceship is teeming with hidden items, quests, secrets and deadly enemies for those brave enough to enter. Inside lies The Hive King, Oryx.

Taking place after the events of The Dark Below expansion the father of  Oryx, Crota’s father, wants revenge on the person responsible for his son’s death. Unfortunately that’s you and Oryx wants nothing more than the crush your skull in his hand. Each one of these missions offer a chronological set of objectives that has players traveling through theDreadnaught in search of The Hive King. It’s refreshing knowing that Bungie has taken initiative in highlighting the story of Destiny, an attribute that was sorely overlooked in the past.

This is done with clever dialogue and well choreographed cutscenes. Before The Taken King most of the characters were empty faces and I heard speak over my radio, now they have a personality. My Ghost in particular once delivered stoic information with little reason to listen, now my companion is filled with charm. Often lamenting on how he lives in my backpack while other inorganic lifeform has a space weapon.

Surprising these missions are varied, unlike Destiny’s pasted content. Each mission has players taking on diverseobjectives and fighting new sets of enemies, specifically the Taken. These spectral figures consist of Hive and forcibly recruited soldiers from other factions in the game. Now imbued for Oryx’s power they have new powers: Vex Goblins can shield allies; Fallen Captains blind Guardians; Cabal Scions can split into two or three targets. All of these groups hate one another, but as Taken they work together and use their new and old abilities to each other's advantage.

Strike bosses follow suit, each requiring different tactics to defeat. For example the Bond Brothers are a pair of Cabal warriors, one is equipped with a missile launcher and bubble shield and another a jetpack and powerful fist. It’s definitelyan improvement of past boss fights that simply take on the attack patterns of lesser enemies with extra health.

New subclasses have been added, each changing how players can approach certain situations. For example the Warlock can unlock the Stormcaller class, with it I can simultaneously damage enemies with electricity. Titan’s can summon the Hammer of Sol that can be thrown for massive damage and Hunter’s gain access to the Nightstalker bow that can tether targets together. These new classes encourage experimentation in cooperative and competitive modes.

The Crucible, Destiny’s PVP arena, has been updated with new maps. The eight new maps each have varied environments taken from the campaign, offering hectic clash points and firefights. Bungie has already established their ability to create some of the best competitive maps in video games today and The Taken King is no exception. 

However despite everything The Taken King does right remnants of Destiny’s past still exist. Matchmaking remains an issue, especially when it comes to specific strikes or cooperative missions. The absent of an option to play cooperative missions through matchmaking in a game where community is important is absurd. 

While Destiny encourages players to continue playing with the promise of better loot it doesn’t have enough content to support this grind. The raid King’s Fall is an exciting thrill filled of challenging bosses and exciting moments, but nothing lies beyond that accomplishment.

Despite these issues The Taken King is a massive improvement from what Destiny once was. It delivers the game that was promised and more, reinvigorating the franchise from a mediocre shooter to outstanding space odyssey. It’s still a shame that the matchmaking system remains limited, perhaps this will be solved in a coming patch. Despite this once you start The Taken King it’ll be hard to stop playing.

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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