What a year it's been for the most expensive game ever made. After an extremely rocky start Destiny kind of pulled itself together despite not having a whole lot to do beyond finishing the game with expansions The Dark Below and House of Wolves which packed in another whole games worth of content. Systems were slightly refined, people finally worked out how the light system worked, Crucible was a shamble of players spamming snipers & rockets...everything was at it should have been, but then Bungie went and announced The Taken King and everything we knew about Destiny changed.
Yes, The Taken King marks the beginning of Destiny's 'Year 2' phase and boy oh boy does it have some big changes. Lets kick things off a little different to usual and talk about the gameplay which has been labelled by Bungie as 'Destiny 2.0'.
XP levelling has returned and the light system has been shifted back to be a representation of your strength, rather than a factor to progress your rank. All your gear contributes to your overall light level, from your guns to armour and even the newly introduced ghost shells & artefacts. The higher your light level the more damage you are dealing and the tougher your guardian will become, but it will no longer hold you back if you can't get regular legendary or exotic loot drops.
Speaking of exotics, you can now only have two exotic items equipped at any one time, due to the slightly more impressive nature of exotics (mostly thanks to the light system being changed), you can now no longer overpower your guardian with exotic gear and instead will be using a mix of exotic and legendary. Rare loot drops are also more frequent in the higher tiered events, as well as the system being tweaked to recognise what gear you already own so to decrease the chances of getting gear you already have.
The complex currency system has been completely overhauled, ditching Crucible & Vanguard marks in favour of a unified currency, Legendary marks. Legendary marks can be earned through high level quests, strikes and crucible matches as well as by increasing your Vanguard or Crucible reputation. You have no limit as to how many marks you can earn in a week (in comparison to the 100 for each type this previous year) and they can be spent in the Vanguard armoury, the Crucible armoury, or on faction armour as well as various other places. Motes of Light and Strange Coins also have more uses than just the Speaker and Xur, allowing you to purchase legendary and exotic gear from regular vendors, assuming you can front up the cash for it.
Factions are now long term commitments, meaning you cannot switch between factions on the fly and instead you must remain loyal to one faction for a whole week before you can change. Any reputation you would earn in a mission is split between the faction and the Vanguard/Crucible instead of all going into one faction.
The way missions play out is also a little different to before, with a new quests menu that allows you to have multiple quests active at a time and track them simultaneously, these also introduce new challenges and more rewards so it may be worth starting up a new character and experiencing Destiny from the beginning again just to reap these rewards. You also have an increased number of Bounty slots, allowing for more bounty's to be taken simultaneously.
Yes, The Taken King marks the beginning of Destiny's 'Year 2' phase and boy oh boy does it have some big changes. Lets kick things off a little different to usual and talk about the gameplay which has been labelled by Bungie as 'Destiny 2.0'.
XP levelling has returned and the light system has been shifted back to be a representation of your strength, rather than a factor to progress your rank. All your gear contributes to your overall light level, from your guns to armour and even the newly introduced ghost shells & artefacts. The higher your light level the more damage you are dealing and the tougher your guardian will become, but it will no longer hold you back if you can't get regular legendary or exotic loot drops.
Speaking of exotics, you can now only have two exotic items equipped at any one time, due to the slightly more impressive nature of exotics (mostly thanks to the light system being changed), you can now no longer overpower your guardian with exotic gear and instead will be using a mix of exotic and legendary. Rare loot drops are also more frequent in the higher tiered events, as well as the system being tweaked to recognise what gear you already own so to decrease the chances of getting gear you already have.
The complex currency system has been completely overhauled, ditching Crucible & Vanguard marks in favour of a unified currency, Legendary marks. Legendary marks can be earned through high level quests, strikes and crucible matches as well as by increasing your Vanguard or Crucible reputation. You have no limit as to how many marks you can earn in a week (in comparison to the 100 for each type this previous year) and they can be spent in the Vanguard armoury, the Crucible armoury, or on faction armour as well as various other places. Motes of Light and Strange Coins also have more uses than just the Speaker and Xur, allowing you to purchase legendary and exotic gear from regular vendors, assuming you can front up the cash for it.
Factions are now long term commitments, meaning you cannot switch between factions on the fly and instead you must remain loyal to one faction for a whole week before you can change. Any reputation you would earn in a mission is split between the faction and the Vanguard/Crucible instead of all going into one faction.
The way missions play out is also a little different to before, with a new quests menu that allows you to have multiple quests active at a time and track them simultaneously, these also introduce new challenges and more rewards so it may be worth starting up a new character and experiencing Destiny from the beginning again just to reap these rewards. You also have an increased number of Bounty slots, allowing for more bounty's to be taken simultaneously.
One thing that Destiny 2.0 has been criticised for is it's supposed alienation of people who do not upgrade to The Taken King. Notice the word supposed because these accusations are false, in terms of typical MMO mechanics anyway. Yes you can no longer access the Daily & Nightfall strike playlists if you do not upgrade to TTK, however people are quick to forget that the Daily & Nightfall playlists were designed for players who had attained the highest rank and wanted the best gear. The highest rank and best gear can now only be attained with TTK of course so therefore people who do not upgrade can no longer access these playlists, which in terms of how an MMO works is completely standard.
People also claim you cannot play Crucible if you don't upgrade, again a false statement as you are able to access 'Legacy Crucible' playlists which only have Year 1 maps. There is a flaw to the Legacy Crucible playlists however as each playlist has two gametypes on rotation with no option to choose the next game mode. So if you're only wanting to play control you'll have to back out and search for a new match until you get it, or live with a rotation of control & skirmish. However for those who do upgrade to TTK you have access to all Year 1 & Year 2 maps as well as each gametype in an individual playlist like normal.
The biggest problem Destiny had in it's first year was it's terrible storytelling. Though the game did have a deep and interesting lore, it was never delivered to you in game, you would have to use the Grimoire system on the games website. The Taken King does a big job at trying to correct this and on the whole it succeeds and produces a story that not only surpasses expectations, but leaves you on the edge of your seat waiting to see where it all goes next at the end of every mission.
Bungie have put a lot of work into rewriting some sections of the base game, The Dark Below and House of Wolves to improve the storytelling in them, though it's not until you start The Taken King's missions that you actually see the benefit. Cutscenes galore, at times even having two or three per mission, in comparison to perhaps five over the course of the entire base game. This not only conveys the story much better, but it gives us more of that glitzy cinematic style that Destiny's cutscenes do so well.
So The Taken King is a direct sequel to The Dark Below, following on from the Crota's End raid wherein you kill a Hive god called Crota. The Taken King centres on Oryx, father of Crota who is understandably a teeny bit angry that you killed his son and so has travelled across dimensions with a fleet of Hive. In order to fully overwhelm you though he has also started 'taking' the other alien species (Cabal, Fallen and Vex) to create an army of Taken, dark shadowy creatures that look similar to the normal versions of themselves but have seriously irritating affects on combat. Of course as the Guardian that killed Crota, it's your job to knock off his dad too. But don't worry, you're not alone. Aided by the Vanguard (but mostly Nathan Fillion's Cayde-6) and Eris Morn of Crota's Bane, you will be able to accomplish your mission.
People also claim you cannot play Crucible if you don't upgrade, again a false statement as you are able to access 'Legacy Crucible' playlists which only have Year 1 maps. There is a flaw to the Legacy Crucible playlists however as each playlist has two gametypes on rotation with no option to choose the next game mode. So if you're only wanting to play control you'll have to back out and search for a new match until you get it, or live with a rotation of control & skirmish. However for those who do upgrade to TTK you have access to all Year 1 & Year 2 maps as well as each gametype in an individual playlist like normal.
The biggest problem Destiny had in it's first year was it's terrible storytelling. Though the game did have a deep and interesting lore, it was never delivered to you in game, you would have to use the Grimoire system on the games website. The Taken King does a big job at trying to correct this and on the whole it succeeds and produces a story that not only surpasses expectations, but leaves you on the edge of your seat waiting to see where it all goes next at the end of every mission.
Bungie have put a lot of work into rewriting some sections of the base game, The Dark Below and House of Wolves to improve the storytelling in them, though it's not until you start The Taken King's missions that you actually see the benefit. Cutscenes galore, at times even having two or three per mission, in comparison to perhaps five over the course of the entire base game. This not only conveys the story much better, but it gives us more of that glitzy cinematic style that Destiny's cutscenes do so well.
So The Taken King is a direct sequel to The Dark Below, following on from the Crota's End raid wherein you kill a Hive god called Crota. The Taken King centres on Oryx, father of Crota who is understandably a teeny bit angry that you killed his son and so has travelled across dimensions with a fleet of Hive. In order to fully overwhelm you though he has also started 'taking' the other alien species (Cabal, Fallen and Vex) to create an army of Taken, dark shadowy creatures that look similar to the normal versions of themselves but have seriously irritating affects on combat. Of course as the Guardian that killed Crota, it's your job to knock off his dad too. But don't worry, you're not alone. Aided by the Vanguard (but mostly Nathan Fillion's Cayde-6) and Eris Morn of Crota's Bane, you will be able to accomplish your mission.
The story is pretty engaging thanks to how it relates back to stuff you have already done, such as killing Crota and various strikes from Year 1. It's also helped by the fantastic cast of characters who actually have quite a lot of well written, interesting and (wait for it) humorous dialogue to spout out at you. The banter (yes, banter) between Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6, Eris Morn and Titan Vanguard Zavala is genuinely rib tickling at times and there is quite a lot of it. It actually brings the humour of Destiny's live action trailers into the game world, something that was completely absent in Year 1. Nolan North is also a much better Ghost than Peter Dinklage was, with a slightly less robotic delivery and more thought into how the lines should be delivered makes the dialogue much more interesting to listen to. This is a great start to a new era in the Destiny storyline and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.
Graphically The Taken King is no different from last years Destiny. However that doesn't mean it's not a good looking game. It's still one of the best looking games on current gen systems and runs at an almost flawless 30FPS at 1080p on Playstation 4. The new environment, the Dreadnought looks similar to the Hive caves on Earth's Moon but it's a much bigger, less claustrophobic space, allowing us to see more of the Hive architecture in a much grander scale.
The audio work on Destiny is again brilliant, though we no longer have the stellar Marty O'Donnell soundtrack, we still have an orchestral soundtrack that matches the mood of The Taken King. Put this next to the much improved and more frequent voice work and The Taken King really shows off where that $500 Million budget went.
So should you buy The Taken King? Yes, without a doubt. Whether you are a newcomer to Destiny, returning after many months off, or simply picking up from a few days ago, The Taken King revolutionises Destiny so much that there is simply no point in playing the game without it now. You get a brilliant new chapter in the Destiny story that outshines everything prior to it, you get some amazing new gear, missions and strikes as well as a new raid to work towards, Kings Fall.
Yes Destiny 2.0 is for every Destiny player, but without The Taken King you don't get the full advantage the update brings.
Yes it means splashing out on The Dark Below and House of Wolves if you haven't already which can make it a costly upgrade, but the hours you'll sink into The Taken King as well as the quality of the content will be more than worth the price you are paying.
Graphically The Taken King is no different from last years Destiny. However that doesn't mean it's not a good looking game. It's still one of the best looking games on current gen systems and runs at an almost flawless 30FPS at 1080p on Playstation 4. The new environment, the Dreadnought looks similar to the Hive caves on Earth's Moon but it's a much bigger, less claustrophobic space, allowing us to see more of the Hive architecture in a much grander scale.
The audio work on Destiny is again brilliant, though we no longer have the stellar Marty O'Donnell soundtrack, we still have an orchestral soundtrack that matches the mood of The Taken King. Put this next to the much improved and more frequent voice work and The Taken King really shows off where that $500 Million budget went.
So should you buy The Taken King? Yes, without a doubt. Whether you are a newcomer to Destiny, returning after many months off, or simply picking up from a few days ago, The Taken King revolutionises Destiny so much that there is simply no point in playing the game without it now. You get a brilliant new chapter in the Destiny story that outshines everything prior to it, you get some amazing new gear, missions and strikes as well as a new raid to work towards, Kings Fall.
Yes Destiny 2.0 is for every Destiny player, but without The Taken King you don't get the full advantage the update brings.
Yes it means splashing out on The Dark Below and House of Wolves if you haven't already which can make it a costly upgrade, but the hours you'll sink into The Taken King as well as the quality of the content will be more than worth the price you are paying.
STORY: 7/10
GAMEPLAY: 8/10
PRESENTATION: 8/10
LIFESPAN: 8/10
SCORE: 8/10
MMO's are costly investments, but Destiny: The Taken King is proving that it's worth investing in, this is the game Destiny should have been when it released last year and I cannot wait to spend another great year with it.