REVIEW – Since the release of Destiny 2 last year, Bungie has not failed to take note of the impressions of the fans; some positive, others negative. With Destiny 2: Forsaken, it’s time to give an account. The result is a careful expansion, fun from start to finish and with an extraordinary atmosphere.

Once I read a text accompanying a letter from Magic: the Gathering that said: “take the good, and do it better”. That same philosophy, which can be applied to many aspects of life, is precisely what Bungie seems to have had in mind when developing Destiny 2 – The Forsaken: a direct, effective and exciting campaign mixes very rightly with the adventures, contracts and secrets that will keep us hooked during the next weeks and months.

Keep the flame alive!

Anyone who has played any of the previous iterations of the Destiny series will know for a fact that in recent years, Halo’s parents are not doing well to keep alive the flame of the main game. Even in such beloved chapters as Destiny – The Taken King there were ups and downs in the rhythm and dynamics of the narrative. So this time around, the idea is a bit different: instead of being guided point by point through the story, Bungie offers us a long and fantastically spun initial mission, and soon after we leave at ease in a large environment, rich and open where our criteria is what says what we do and where we go.

So, once the sleepless prince Uldren Sov ends the life of our talkative mentor Cayde-6, we enter the Tangled Shore, one of the two new locations where the last Destiny 2 DLC takes place, to avenge his death. It is not long before we forge an alliance with the local cacique, a fallen one called La Araña, with a double purpose: at the narrative level, to track the elusive Uldren and his retinue of barons; and at a playable level, to complete contracts that lead us to explore the area and equip ourselves appropriately in the process.

The mission begins

The bulk of the campaign consists of a handful of adventures where we stand up to Children’s lieutenants. Each of them encourages us to thoroughly explore different mechanics before confronting their respective boss, which serves as a final exam. For example, a henchman forces us to use vehicles to intercept his own; another full of traps each room and placed explosives in the engrams found on the floor, while another creates false copies of himself to distract us while shooting his sniper rifle. They are fun, varied missions and full of interesting secrets.

We do not want to reveal unnecessary details of the story in case you have not had to play yet, but the idea is that Destiny 2: The Forsaken does the homework in this regard. The obtaining of resources and equipment is strongly tied to the progression of the campaign, the story is followed with interest, and many important poles of the enormous universe of fantasy and science fiction are played in which it is set. Good job! However, we all know that the real weight of an expansion like the one that concerns us is really in the post-credit content. Moreover, that’s where the other location of the package comes in: the Oniric City.

The last minutes of the campaign connected with the first of the Dreaming City, and once we manage to access it, we can not help but be overwhelmed. I can not emphasize it with enough intensity: it’s a beautiful location. The music, the scale, the lighting, the architecture of each temple and glass make us take captures and clips every few minutes, and not stop until we have made a tourist route in the photo gallery. Moreover, as a crime of exhibitionism, it also drives our curious eyes through huge empty galleries in alternative dimensions, chests protected by stamps that you have never seen before, and strange clues on floors and walls. Reality is what it is: we have only seen a small part of the things that hide this mystical dream field, and the mere fact of knowing that all that is there already generates a certain morbidness.

Yes, our first contact with the Dreaming City is intoxicating. However, we wake up from this dream not with the light singing of little birds on the windowsill, but with a sordid slap in the face: the home of the insomniacs is that demanding regarding level. Surely we all have reached the level 50 and the 500 points of power at the end of the campaign, but climbing from there is getting harder and the game has no problems in receiving you with enemies totally immune to your tiny damage and capable of killing you of a shot if you stick your nose out where it does not touch. That’s not bad at all: it encourages you to keep playing to discover things. But it does entail other things that in our opinion, are wrong.

Do you know that there are three scales of rewards? Some raise your power one by one, others by five by five … and if you want to maximize your power acquisition day after day and week after week, you must get them in a specific order. However, the game does not explain that to you. In fact, it tells you more than just, as if you have to understand that you should search the Internet for the answers to your questions. How to maximize your power level between 500 and 600? What is the “ascending challenge” that this contract asks me to complete? Why are there cats in the Dreaming City that tell me “I’m missing something”? The answers to all these questions and many more you will find them browsing the internet. On Reddit, the Bungie forums or the YouTubers that usually cover the game.

In short, you must be very involved in the community if you want to take advantage of everything the game offers. It will not make things easy for you if you want to play alone, or if you do not want to open the browser while you play. We do not necessarily see this as a bad thing: many people like it more like that. However, it makes it harder for us to recommend it to anyone. It is a more demanding expansion than usual in this sense, and it is almost certain that you will not enjoy it or complete 100% unless you know very well what you are doing at all times. I think there will be players who will not get the best experience of this DLC for that reason.

Based on the fact that you are willing to dedicate the research work that the game deserves, congratulations! You will have entertainment for a while. In addition to the challenges in alternative realities, secret offerings and invocable bosses, you can participate in public events in the same line as seen in the base game and the blind hole, a public activity similar to that seen in the Court of Oryx, the Forge of the Archon or the Escalated Protocol, although we have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, we must recognize that it is very funny, but on the other, it bothers us to know that it has the same dynamic for the first three levels, and the fourth is hidden after a weekly rotation. For the former, the rewards simply and simply are not worth it. We will see to see what happens with the last one.

Wait, did I say “weekly rotation”? Yes, the Oniric City modifies certain areas and activities in a temporal cycle that follows the events that occurred in the Last Wish raid. After the first players managed to complete it, the rest of the community could enjoy a new assault and a map for Gambit, as well as numerous visual and mechanical variations of the ‘endgame’ zone. What’s more, if you’re on PC or Xbox One, you can also finally play the assaults that had been kept exclusive to PS4 during the first year of the game.

All of them are fine -some are full of winks and nostalgia for the veterans of D1-, but if we wanted to rescue something, it would be Gambit: a new PvP and Pvc hybrid mode that had been promoted to hype and cymbal. He faces two groups of four players in a race for invoking and defeating a boss and is named the winner of the best of three rounds. The funny thing is that there is an economic system that encourages us to gather specks to invoke possessed defences that frustrate the advance of the opposing team, and vice versa. The more you carry, the better the monster you call, but the more dangerous it is to travel the map. Especially if we consider that we can invade and be invaded by other players after meeting certain conditions.

Gambit was a “risk” worth to try

Gambit is very fun. Moreover, it hides more possibilities than it seems from a strategic point of view. How and when it is invaded, how the bank of specks is distributed, how to maximize the damage to the bosses, that kind of thing. However, it is not without problems: all maps follow a similar structure, and it is likely to end up becoming repetitive over time unless it is kept up to date with new content and rewards. It is also necessary to adjust some frustrating parameters, such as the almighty Dream Simile; a weapon that can certainly embitter the game to more than one today. Meanwhile, Gambito is an excellent alternative to the Crucible for those who consider it frustrating.

Speaking of Crucible: Destiny 2 Forsaken has premiered with the Tests of the Nine in hiatus, partially limiting the initial offer. Moreover, there are also some things that do not seem to have finished yet and that are strongly related to the medium and long-term enjoyment of the program, as well as a good handful of hidden adventures. Without going any further, the new collection system still does not allow us to acquire pieces again with random skills, something that in our opinion should be solved soon; the merchant XûrNeither is it being very useful in the first few weeks, and the secondary mission tracking system might have given something more if a campaign follow-up similar to that of Destiny – The King of the Possessed had been included. There we had the feeling that there is always work to be done. Now it seems that we simply have more things to collect.

The jewel in the crown is without a doubt the Last Wish raid, that proposes to us to devastate with the most hidden creatures of the Oníric City. You have to be honest, there are very few people who have managed to complete it at the time of writing these lines, and your humble editor has not been able to get to the end yet. As far as we have been able to see, however, everything seems phenomenal: long, arduous, full of secrets and with great artistic and mechanical design. The bosses are very dynamic, there are more action and flexibility than ever and also many improvements at the ‘quality of life’ level, with raid banners to recharge all our resources before starting a match, wells to do ‘wipe’ and even localized enemies strategically to replenish our ammunition and energy if we organize well. It is a very fun, satisfying and fair experience.

Fun all the way

All in all, Destiny 2 – The Renegades is a very complete package, very fun and a declaration of intentions on the part of Bungie: if you want to enjoy this game as a hobby, you can finally do it. It does not propose anything totally revolutionary and also requires a bit more pampering in certain areas, but in general it is not difficult to think that we are facing the best iteration of the Destiny series to date.

-BadSector-

Publisher: Activision

Developer: Bungie Software

Genre: MMO FPS

Release date: September 4, 2018