REVIEW – I would have never thought that I would write about Bungie’s science fiction MMO-FPS again, but it seems I was wrong. A year ago Destiny got good and bad, but the sales were great, and the player base was gigantic. The expansions were also successful. It seems that after The Dark Below, and House of Wolves, our Guardian is starting to shape up to its original promise.

First of I should mention that since the existence of the PlayStation Store, the Taken King has written history as one of the most downloaded games ever. A good start, at least for Activision. I would not like to waste time on such parts of the game whether Peter, or Nolan is a better Ghost. Let’s look at the facts that highlight the crucial parts of the games. Is it worth plunging into the dark realms of the Hive with our trusty weapons? You’ll soon find out.

 
Pull up your pants. Daddy’s angry!

After the death of Crota reaches farthest reaches of the galaxy, his father Orxy gather his fleet and decides to avenge the death of Crota. His goal is to annihilate the universe and kill everyone that opposes him. There is one problem, Oryx is really a god, and one of the most vicious ones. So grab your weapons, and show him who wears the pants in the galaxy.

A change of seasons

With the 2.0 update the developers added the quest system and streamlined the leveling system. Finally we can reach the maximum level cap (which is level 40 here) without having to mess around with gear and light levels. The light levels are still in the game, they just do not influence the leveling of your character, and rather it influences the attack and defensive values of your character. They switched out the voice of the Ghost, and we only had to wait for The Taken King’s release. Which really does breathe new life into the game. As a boss, Oryx is really a brutal beast, who had me in shivers. While the story is not that spectacular it is one of the best within the franchise.

The missions are great, there are now cinematics between missions. Characters are more developed, and the Taken faction can replicate quickly so you’ll need lots of bullets. The new location this time around is not a planet but a ship called the Dreadnought, which is giant Hive ship full of enemies. You can do patrol missions, but you’ll encounter heavier enemies along the way.

There are also treasure chests, and calcified fragments. There are four new strikes, that are really great dungeons, plus they are really hard. In one of them you’ll have to fight the last boss in total darkness. In another you’ll have to move through laser walls while carrying a ball of light to move towards the boss. Also three older strikes have been updated where the Taken also attack us and provide us with some new narrative to the strikes.

“The Taken King really does breathe new life into the game.”

The cherry ont he top is Oryx’s lair. All in all the locations are great and exciting, so you’ll have to be on your feet. We also have three new subclasses. The Warlock’s Stormcaller, can use lightning as a sith, the Titan’s Sunbreaker which is like Thor with a flaming hammer, and the Hunter’s Nightstalker which has a void arrow that pulls enemies together.

Those who want to play PVP a bit more will get eight more maps, and two new game modes that require more tactics. The first one is Rift which is like capture the flag. Instead of stealing a flag however, here you’ll have to get a flaming ball, and slam dunk it into the enemy base. Mayhem is a mode where the supers recharge incredibly fast. I cannot even tell you how much chaos was on the battlefield. Everywhere there were explosions, flying hammers, lightning on the screen.

The King is dead, long live the King! Or maybe not?

I don’t know what your opinion is, but if I spend some time outside of killing things in an MMO I expect social functions. There is no chat window, which is the basis of the MMO genre since the beginning. The character generation is really bad. I do not expect Dragon Age Inquisition levels, but we’re in 2015 for Christ SAKE! The graphics are good, and still top tier. The main problem is that even though Destiny has frequent updates the grind is still very much there. Sooner or later it hits the player, and it does not seem to end. Which is a huge problem since you’ll get bored of it quickly. Bungie seems to be enthusiastic about the Taken King, and they are open to the wishes of the fans. They fixed a lot of things, but there are parts that are fundamentally missing from the game or need instant patching.

-Parzifal-

Publisher: Activision
Developer: Bungie
Genres: FPS, MMO
Publication: September 15th, 2015