Throughout the past year, many Destiny players have made sure that Bungie heard their pleas and cries of anger regarding several key aspects of the game. When Destiny was first launched, people were expecting an exciting narrative and a great co-op experience, but while Bungie has supplied us with an incredibly fun and addictive gameplay, they came up short in terms of story. Destiny: The Taken King, the game’s first major expansion, hopes to fix that by adding an new layer of incredibly deep story, as well as some very necessary content.
The Taken King, also known as Oryx, is back to get revenge on those who have killed his son Crota, whom you may remember from The Dark Below DLC. For that purpose, Oryx begins pulling creatures from all over the universe into his universe, changing them and sending them back as what we came to know as “The Taken”. He then plans on unleashing his newborn Taken army on all of humanity. We, the Guardians, have to fight back and defeat Oryx before he exacts his revenge.
In order to do so, we are sent to acquire unique sets of skills that has been long forgotten. These skills are basically new sub classes for each of the three already existing classes. Titans are being sent to find an old tribe of the sun worshipers the known as Sunbreakers. Those Titans posses the abilities to summon a flaming hammer from the forge of Sol, and burn their enemies to ash. Warlocks learn to control the arc and the storm, becoming Stormcallers, and Hunters embrace the void to become predators of shadow, also known as Nightstalkers.
The Taken King has enriched Destiny with a lot more story, and gave old familiar characters new characteristics and even new voices, for example Nolan North as Ghost. Bungie has also added more cutscenes and much more in-game dialog that turn the game into a more fluent and fun experience. Throughout most of the storyline we are being accompanied by the Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6, dubbed by none other than Nathan Fillion, and Eris Morn who sends us on crazy missions abroad the Dreadnought, the Taken King’s massive spaceship. The dialog between Cayde-6 and your ghost is humorous and fun to listen to, which makes going through most missions even more enjoyable.
After you finish the first few missions in the main story, the real game begins. The main NPCs in the tower will give you plenty to do, since the universe is not saved just yet. Bungie added a new quest system to the game, in which you still have the regular bounties you can take from the Bounty Lead NPC, but now you will get quest lines that you will have to finish in order to continue further in the game. After you unlock more of the story, you’ll finally be ready for the new raid – King’s Fall.
You’ll have to work together with a fireteam of 6 players, like in all the other raids, but in King’s Fall, team work really is key. You will have to go through different puzzles and challenge that make this raid one of the most complicated, yet extremely fun. Of course, lets not forget the jumping puzzles; how can we have a raid with out some jumping puzzles? Those entail jumping on spaceships to catch a ride to the other side, or avoiding gigantic pillars that try and often succeed in pushing you into a deadly abyss. Once you overcome all the puzzles and obstacles, you still have to fight Oryx, The Taken King, himself.
Bungie has certainly invested time and effort into making this expansion unique. The soundtrack is really good, and I found myself listening to the background music more often than in the original title. They even improved the graphics, which were already stunning to begin with, and the new UI makes all the menus clearer and easier to access.
Destiny: The Taken King is a great way to begin year 2 of Destiny. Bungie and Activision really listened to their audience and created an even richer, deeper and more fun version of Destiny, and it almost feels like we have been playing a beta version all this time. Bottom line is that The Taken King has managed to make a great game even better, and that’s exactly what an expansion should do.
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