Destiny is one of the beloved first person shooter games that was released in 2014. Being one of the few Sci-fi games Destiny was becoming the most hyped game before it got released on September 9th, 2014. However, due to a rather dry story players were getting bogged down only after paying first few hours of the game. The initial story was not compelling enough to make the player base, so Bungie decided to support the story with the DLC packs, and the result remained the same only those players were playing the game who had interest in the genre. Failing to generate a good player base to support the online multiplayer, Activision decided to abandon the game for good.
Just when the game was almost dead they released the trailer of the Destiny 2 game; the trailer got so many views that it can be said that the trailer of the destiny 2 had more popularity than the entire Destiny game. On September 6, 2017, the Destiny 2 hit the shelves, and in a few days, more units of Destiny 2 had been sold than the whole Destiny game’s units. Destiny 2 improved on every hated aspect of the Destiny game, it had a story driven gameplay, four different worlds requiring different approaches. More thoughtful multiplayer system and an impressive antagonist who urges the players to go into the game harder.
Story so far
The story of the Destiny starts from the fact that humans discovered an entity called the Traveler which led them into a prosperous state called the “Golden age.” The golden age is an era where humanity’s strength is growing by leaps and bounds, and they are getting in control of galaxies that are far from the Earth. Then strange changes happen in the traveler due to the presence of the “Dark presence,” the whole world wipe out but not before the traveler generates beings called Ghosts. Ghosts then resurrect the fallen warriors called the Guardians. The Guardians wield the Traveler’s mysterious energy called “Light.” The Guardians now defend the planet from the hostile aliens such as The Fallen, The Hive, The VEX and The Cabal. The Guardian that the player control heals the traveler by destroying the Black Heart that was draining the power of the Traveler.
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Destiny’s DLCs
Then the first expansion called “The Dark below” starts and the Hive invades earth under the supervision of the CROTA, the son of the Hive GOD, ORYX. You defeat CROTA. In the “House of Wolves” expansion, your task is to help capture SKOLAS the fallen criminal who betrayed MARA SOV the Queen of the REEF. The “Taken King” is about the revenge of the Son of the HIVE GOD ORYX, where you have to defeat him with the help of the Queen of the REEF. Her forces wipe out of the Battlefield due to mysterious reasons, and she seemingly dies at that time. The event is witnessed by her brother Prince Uldren, at the same time you sneak into ORYX’s ship and defeat him. In the last expansion called the “Rise of the Iron” you fight with the elite alien augmented by the NANO technologies.
Destiny 2
The story in Destiny 2 starts with the attack of the RED LEGION the Elite force of CABAL lead by DOMINOUS GHOUL who seeks the Traveler’s powers, and the last fortress of the humanity is almost destroyed, and the guardians who defend the city have almost lost their light. Your guardian restores their light and reunites with the vanguard led by commander Zavala. You steal a ship and destroy Ghoul’s weapon “Almighty,” and then you obliterate Ghoul who had then fused with the light. In “Curse of Osiris” you destroy PANOPTES. In “Warmind” you go with the elite Vanguard Cayde-6 to control the condition over Mars where the prisoners are mysteriously roaming freely. Lastly, the events untold are of the new DLC called “Forsaken.”
Forsaken
Forsaken is the biggest addition in the Destiny game yet, it is only released a day before yesterday with a $40 price tag. The DLC is flooding with content, and the player will surely have a good time playing this DLC as it has various improvements, in a nutshell, it can be said that Bungie took notes of all the queries of the players and made the DLC according to what the player base, in general, would like. Forsaken is Bungie’s last chance to get back in the sci-fi shooting business.
The main premise of this DLC builds from the ending of the Warmind DLC where you try to handle the prisoner situation. In the trailer, you can see that the Uldren who had disappeared a long time ago has finally shown itself and it looks like he has changed sides, and he is your nemesis. One of the reasons why Forsaken is so hyped is its E3 trailer which showed that Uldren killed Cayde-6. The responsibility of the players is avenging their fellow guardian.
Ditching linearity
The Destiny game in its core is a linear game; you need a special skill set and a level to take on the quest or a mission. Every mission will grant a handsome number of XPs (Experience points) which will help in increasing your chances to go further in the game. This was how the game went until forsaken. The story of the Forsaken revolves around you avenging your fellow’s death and the antagonist Uldren has a set of Barons, and you are required to kill them in order to kill Uldren finally.
Forsaken can be referred to as the only part of the game where all of the quests are not linear. Most of the quests and missions require a level of expertise and a skillset, but when you are hunting the barons, there is no linearity in the game seemingly. You have to kill eight barons, 6 of them will meet you during your way through the map which makes the players choose who is going to be their target first. (one can see the idea of the captains fight in Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War) They have different cutscenes for different orientations of the number of barons you have killed, it is not a huge deal but implementing such a daunting thing is always appreciated. The power cap of light and the maximum number of attainable level are now increased to 600 and 350 respectively.
Maps
One of the basic concerns of the players of Destiny is the size of the maps and quality of loot in the map. Bungie took heed of the suggestions of the players, and 2 of the four maps we have in the game are very big and are replete with loot. The REEF is so huge that it would take months for a player to find all the hidden locations and more essentially the loot. Dreaming city is the other map, and it is the last map of the game, and you would require completing the story and a set of missions to unlock the map. The most compelling part of the game is that the Dreaming city map is dynamic and it will be updated regularly with more content.
Grinding
One of the main reasons why the Destiny could not do well was because of the grinding the players have to bear in order to reach a specific level, players have to take part in repetitive matches, repetitive quests etc. Where the gameplay is essentially the same the one who has bested the game many times would be bogged down easily. This time around they have tried their hard to make it possible for the people to upgrade their level through main missions and raids. The XP they will be getting at the end of every quest is a lot higher making it easier for the players to level up.
Lore
If you have been playing Destiny, then you may know about the Lore system and its vulnerabilities here and there. The main critique in Lore system regard was that the quantity of in-game lore was a lot less than what the website had, the Devs said that they are improving the situation, but no comprehendible improvements were made yet. The forsaken DLC has also made the situation of lore a bit right. If you travel through the vast places of the maps, you can see for yourself that the quantity of Lore is more than what it was before the update. They have made a separate section of Lore in your inventory where you can see your collected Lore.
Supers and abilities
They have increased the number of the abilities and supers for every playable character race, they have specifically added three supers for every race.
Titan
If you play with the Titan, who has the “Code of the devastator” one of the new supers is called “Burning Maul” which will smash down enemies and create flaming tornados. The Titan who has the “Code of the commander has a new super called “Banning shield” which will shield your allies and ban the enemy attacks on you as well as your partners. Lastly, the titan with the “Code of missiles” has a new super move called “Thundercrash” which will let your character fly like a missile and crash like a meteor.
Warlock
If your preferred race is Warlock with the “Attunement of fission” then the new super move is called “Nova Wrap” which will allow your character to transport itself to the enemies and then annihilate them. The super of the warlock with the” Attunement of control” is called “Chaos reach” which will make your character blast the beam of death from a long range. Lastly, the super of the Warlock with “Attunement of grace” is called “Well of radiance” it will greatly enhance your healing abilities along with empowering other abilities.
Hunter
If you are like me and prefer the Hunter race, then the hunter with the “Way of thousand cuts” has a new super called “Blade barrage” which will bring the volley of explosive knives. The Hunter with the “Way of the Wraith” has a new super called “Spectral blades” which will make it invisible and strike the enemy. Lastly, the super of the hunter with the “Way of the current” is called “Whirlwind guard” which will deflect the enemy projectiles in every possible way.
Gambit
Gambit is the Destiny 2 take on the merging PvP and PvE, and it’s more fun and satisfying than any other multiplayer mode in the game. The crux of this mode is there will be two teams of 4 who will have to fight against the enemies controlled by the CPU; enemies will drop special items called “Motes.” The task of the respective teams is to collect these motes in the bank whenever you have a specific count of motes you can send blocker beasts to the arena of the other, a greater number of motes will mean a harder beast to tame. A total of 25 motes will give you a chance to teleport yourself into the arena of the other team to annihilate their presence.
You’ll have to be careful about your teammates as well because if any guardian dies the motes, it has gathered will also die. When you have gathered a total of 75 motes you can summon the Primeval the sole win condition is to defeat that Primeval.
Raid
The most loved feature of the Destiny 2 game was the Raid mode, even though players had a lot concerns about the mode the around 40 to 50% of the player base Destiny 2 got can be attributed to the raid mode. The primary concern of the players was that the raid mode does not have a lot of boss fights and it focuses mostly on the lower ranked enemies which are not very hard to kill considering the level requirement. Additionally, in the Vanilla game, the Raid mode was not connected with the story of the main game, it was just there as a subsidiary feature. Most players wanted this mode to have a rigorous and functional connection with the main storyline so that grinding through this mode would be more satisfactory.
The raid mode of the Forsaken DLC is not out yet, but from the trailer, it can be said that Bungie had listened to every concern of the players while making the mode. There are a lot of boss fights now, and the story in the raid has a deep connection to the main story of the game. Additionally, there is a mysterious surprise for the players who would constantly play this mode.
Drawbacks
At this point, one may argue that the Forsaken DLC will not have any drawback, unfortunately like every other thing in the world Forsaken DLC too have some drawbacks. The main drawback is the story, even though the story is well written and well thought out it feels like some of the events in the game are simply illogical. Mainly the death scene of Cayde-6 the most powerful member of vanguard seems too fragile in front of Uldren. (How can he die so easily? Bungie!!)
The other concern is not directly about the Forsaken, but it’s about the complete game. If we compare the Forsaken DLC and the Vanilla game, we can easily say that the Forsaken is way better than the game itself. The concerns they removed in the Forsaken should have been removed from the game earlier and forsaken should have built on to that. Lastly, the players have to pay $40 for the DLC only.
Verdict
If you are looking for a game that will easily cover 100 hours of playtime while maintaining your interest, then there should be no reason why you are still not playing for the Destiny 2 game. The game has had a lot of ups and downs in the last two years, but it can be safely said that it is more than perfect now. With the newly released DLC replete with a huge number of improvements and features, and the fact that you can get the game free of cost with PS PLUS this month, it is the best time to play Destiny 2 and awe yourself with the complexity, non-linearity, enticingly amazing story, and plethora of multiplayer options.
The $40 price of the DLC should not bog you down as the features and the improvements the DLC put on the table are way more than what you are paying for it. If you have a slight admiration of the first person shooting sci-fi genre, then I would clearly say have a look at the game and get addicted to it.
