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Destiny

Discuss all things Destiny.
8/27/2016 3:51:23 AM
1

Year 2 in review (spoilers)

Before we begin, this is not purely about hating the game or Bungie, this is just stating my opinion on everything about year 2, both the good and bad. Try to be civil. Systems: The Taken King added a LOT of new system and system changes. I for one really appreciated the vendor stalls that allow you to re-obtain exotics you either deleted by accident or did no hold on to because they weren't all that great at the time. It frees up a bit of vault space for those purely trying to collect as well. However, it doesn't make a lot of sense that I have every ship, shader, sparrow, and emblem that I have ever deleted and there are no records to keep track of them, but my exotics, which are recorded in the grimoire upon obtaining them, are excluded from this rule. I also really liked the fact that you could use motes to level up your gear, but I was a little sad that it did not apply to sub-classes as well. I really wanted to try out the new sub-classes as soon as I got them, but was extremely limited for a couple of weeks. The light system change was nice as well, as it was less demanding than before (sadly this did not deter any elitists from posting outrageous requirements on LFG). Sadly, it was terribly marred when it began due to not having 1 for 1 transfer rate. It really and honestly led me to get frustrated and quit for while, when for the seventh time in a week, even though I got higher light gear than what I had, I did not progress a single light level. Story: The story of The Taken King is that the father of Crota, Oryx, (or mother depending on who you talk to and read the lore) has come to take revenge on the guardians for killing his (or her) son. It begins with new cutscenes that truly add character to....well some of the characters. Honestly, before this DLC I didn't even know or care that it was Cayde-6 that was the slightly robotic voice that introduced us to many missions and strikes (specifically Dust Palace and Winter's run). Sadly, however, these cutscenes are very short lived, as once you complete the main story, I really wish there had been more to it, but the story is a least better told than previous DLC's. Hopefully, in the future, Bungie will strive to make even more strides with better story telling (especially with the upcoming Rise of Iron). Missions: There is a slew of new story missions that take you all throughout the system. The most interesting of these is the New patrol Area, The Dreadnaught, even further into the warmind's Bunkerm and Cayde's stash in one of the Cosmodrome ships Sadly, however, the three new areas get played to death very quickly as you trek your way, several times, through the same areas in the two locations and not too soon after they are introduced. Worse is most of the new missions take place in areas that already existed and had been thoroughly visited before, or were in the previous DLC with nothing changed in the least sense other than what enemies appeared. The most that can be said is you might take a new route, but the Destination is still the same. Strikes: As with the story missions, sadly two of the new strikes just lead you down the same path's that you have probably traveled by now. However it is nice that they are making bosses less Bullet spongy and more based around movement and strategy, which is nice. It was somewhat interesting as well to see old strikes (and even sometimes in the new strikes) to see different enemies pop up from time to time. Again, this gets a bit old as the combinations are limited as well as the number of strikes in a playlist, but boss legendaries make it somewhat work the tedium you endure. Raid: The new raid is actually quite fun and actually was kinda shocking when I first saw what the Final Boss actually was. It requires you to know exactly what you are doing, and to me that is what a raid is about. The sadness here comes from the loot itself... Without the unique rolls and elements that previous raid weapons have had there is practically no point to get them other than infusion fodder unless they had a really good roll (some of them needed the good roll just to be decent). The design of them however fit the raid perfectly, though I do wish that the harrowed versions would have been taken themed. The taken ghost shell looks nice, even if it just a re-skinned, ordinary ghost shell. Even worse, was the fact that, when it first started, you were not guaranteed to get anything above your light level, and even if you did there was still not the 1 to 1 transfer rates. There were many people complaining, even though they ran the raid multiple times before the change, that they could not get that one piece that would put them at max. Quests and Exotics: Along with everything else, one of the new features was the quest feature. This tales the story a little bit better than before and gives you a more thorough explanation as to why you were going where you were. This also applies to Vanilla and previous DLC missions.This actually made me somewhat regret that I bought Destiny a year sooner, as everything was a bit more comprehensive than before, it didn't seem like I was just randomly being tossed about or doing my own thing. As for what is new with the old, you get missions on the moon from Eris at a certain point, which explains why we were going to the Shrine of Oryx and well as why we went after the Fake Sword of Crota. You also get missions on Venus from Petra after to finish the quests that was related to the gatelord, which explains why you went to the Academy and why you went to finish off the house of Winter. What really kicks it off here is almost every new exotic weapons is given out through quests....this includes the raid exotic, Touch of Malice. For old players this left little to nothing new for them to obtain. Even if they had missed an old exotic as well, they could legacy engrams (excluding Necrochasm, Vex Mythoclast, Lord of Wolves, Dreg's Promise, and Queenbreaker's Bow). For new players, this would mean months of hitting the grind like everyone else did. Exotics, on the whole however, were not all that great in Year 2. Most of them are sub-par or required some kind of circumstance just to be useful. Most people even turned back to their year 1 exotics whenever they possibly could. While there are some exceptions, overall, the loot haul was not that great. Weapons and Perks: On the subject of overall weapons and their perks we did get something interesting and new in the Taken King with foundry weapons. These weapons have unique perk trees and also have their own unique looks and sounds. This is where the fun stops with these weapons as there is nothing too special about most of them. The most interesting is the 4 round pulse rifle from Hakke, but the rest act and behave the same ways as any other weapon. I also did enjoy that Iron Banner got it's own armor sets instead of being re-skinned vendor gear. Another sad note is they added EVEN MORE useless/overly situational perks to all the weapons, which, in conjunction with removing re-rolling, has made it even harder to get that one roll you are dreaming for. I hate to say this, but I feel the excuse for removing re-rolling was poor at best. Most weapons it would take you a good while to obtain (unless of course we are talking vendor weapons) and even then, you were not guaranteed that almighty god roll that you wanted. Bungie has made claims that this mechanic made crucible and the game over all stale, but what made it stale was the meta at the time, which was when people were using Thorn/TLW/Hawkmoon, Some RL with Grenade and Horseshoes, and Felwinter's Lie/Her Benevolence/Veil of Shadows. The April Update: The April Update brought about some changes that REALLY improved upon some complaints I had. Namely progression. Not only could you now get items that were AT or HIGHER than your current light level, you also had 1 to 1 transfer rates. It also increased the light level by 15 and all the changes were applied to raid. They also added a new bit of customization as well with Chroma, but sadly it was and still is EXTREMELY limited it. On top of this, they are already moving away from it with ornaments that are coming soon. I do so wish they color palette had been a bit less lacking. The update to Prison of Elders was....unexpected....it was nice they made it more rewarding, but at Challenge of Elder's is a bit too easy. The first time I ever did it was when I was 310, and the only thing that did me in a few time in that run. I appreciate the rewards are good, and that you get some good stuff from Variks, but I do wish that I was working a bit harder for you. ((I like things in Moderation)) There is a bit more story to this, but honestly, it wasn't much. It should only take you about 20-45 minutes to get through all the content that is offered. It includes a new strike as well where you fight a Taken that is trying to take Oryx's place that goes by the name of Malok. Completing it gets you a free 320 sword which you can keep or infuse. You also get the return of the Omnigul strike and The Winter's run strike (which can have a taken surprise at the end). Events: Just going to say the events overall were boring and offered very little new to the game. SRL would have been amazing, but sadly, it only had 2 maps and it got very old, very quickly. Micro-transactions: Honestly, just going to say I absolutely appall these. They have shown to make games worse over time rather than improve them. So far they have been aesthetics only and I hope that it remains that way... Overall I would say that The Taken King was good, but it could have been much better if they had more new exotics to obtain and had included some of the changes in the April Update.

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