Let me stage with you: I’m such a lapsed Guardian, I forgot what a lot of the buttons do in Bungie’s shooter sequel.
Having not performed the bottom game in months, booting up Destiny 2’s newest growth is akin to being thrown off the deepest of ends… whereas a walrus straddles your shoulders.
Actually, let me backtrack. I /used/ to be such a lapsed Guardian. After spending 20 hours with Forsaken over the previous week, I’m happy to say I’m very a lot again within the Fallen-murdering fold. Not solely does Destiny 2’s newest DLC run rings across the underwhelming Curse of Osiris and Warmind expansions, it’s comfortably the very best add-on Bungie has served up for the reason that authentic game’s wonderful Taken King.
The former Halo studio does its finest to make Forsaken as welcoming as doable for each lapsed gamers and people who’ve by no means spent a second inside Destiny’s MMO-aping universe. Still, that didn’t cease me from having to learn two guides earlier than watching a separate YouTube video to determine the best way to make the automated levelling system work – seems, it’s on the character choice display screen. This booster can be utilized as soon as per Guardian, and it immediately lifts you to the beginning stage 30 rank/interlocking 300 energy stage wanted to begin Forsaken’s marketing campaign.
And what a marketing campaign it’s. The growth’s predominant chunk of story content material is a hell of much more satisfying than the muddled missions its mum or dad game delivered final autumn. Acting as a straight up revenge story, it sees your Guardian monitoring down the pesky Uldren Sov after the intergalactic emo douche murders Cayde-6.
No, Bungie’s pre-launch marketing campaign wasn’t mendacity: your favorite, always quipping robotic dude actually does purchase the farm early doorways in Forsaken. That’s not a lot of a spoiler, both. Cayde meets his maker contained in the growth’s opening half hour. At least the motormouth Hunter bows out in type. The cutscene earlier than he checks out options essentially the most thrillingly directed showdown I’ve seen in both Destiny.
At occasions the search to avenge Cayde feels as a lot Assassin’s Creed because it does (sometimes grindy) sci-fi shooter. Forsaken is obsessive about homicide. And that’s not a criticism. Your Guardian’s want to convey Cayde’s killers to justice throws up Destiny 2’s finest bosses.
Enter the Barons. These hulking nasties act as each the acolytes of Uldren Sov, and generals to the brand new Scorn race – these alien underlings are much more enjoyable to battle than the samey Taken… although be careful for these bug-shaped exploding bastards. Every Baron has an accompanying assassination journey, and each is refreshingly completely different.
A battle in an acid-filled refinery sees you sort out the Rider in a pike-on-pike smackdown (Destiny’s laser-packing house hovercraft). The battle in opposition to the Rifleman makes you are taking out his holographic clones earlier than you may outsnipe the git. And afterward, the Baron’s second-in-command, The Machinist, forces you to always hold transferring as she pelts you with mortar fireplace. Outside of a few Strike bosses from Destiny 1, brutalising the Barons are my favorite end-mission enemies the sequence has produced.
With a plot that’s clear, direct, and simple to observe, Forsaken may simply be Bungie’s most profitable try at coherent storytelling in Destiny. The marketing campaign can be improved by a brand new sci-fi sandbox that’s a hoot to discover. Called the Tangled Shore, this patchwork wasteland hovers round an asteroid belt, and its twisting topography, lava-filled pits, and networks of underground tunnels make it equal components attractive and intimidating.
The Tangled Shore can be run by my new favorite Destiny character: The Spider. A scheming gangster, this big-boned alien is mainly the Fallen’s reply to Jabba the Hutt. Not solely does he problem you to finish weekly bounties that contain looking down escaped inmates from the Prison of Elders, he turns out to be useful all through the story. On event, his associates, who appear like extraterrestrial Sonic cosplayers of their spiky headgear, again up your Guardian on missions.
The new hub introduces a trio of contemporary Strikes to sink your chompers into. One is excellent, the opposite two… not a lot. The decide of the bunch is well ‘Warden of Nothing’. Set on the Prison of Elders, you and two Guardian friends should navigate railways in your pikes whereas dodging oncoming trains, earlier than finishing a sequence of area challenges for a demented Servitor. It’s a belter of a Strike.
‘The Hollowed Lair’, which includes eradicating a Hive infestation for The Spider, is much less memorable. Still, no less than it includes a pleasingly daft part the place you stuff big worm larvae into squishy holes. Don’t ask. Bringing up the rear is the disappointing ‘Broodhold’, a Strike I can barely bear in mind something about. No wait! I bear in mind the boss dragged like hell… so there’s that.
Oh, and the Tangled Shore completely has a semi-secret, subterranean nightclub. You all love Paul McCartney cash-grab bangers, proper?
Away from the principle marketing campaign, the general expertise advantages from some wise adjustments. The 2.zero replace rolled out to coincide with the launch of Destiny 2’s fourth season final week, and the headline tweak comes with weapon slot revisions. Bungie has lastly seen sense and moved shotguns, snipers, and fusion rifles out of the heavy slot, and unfold them throughout the kinetic and particular weapon sections. It’s a a lot wanted change that enlivens Destiny’s arsenal, permitting you to interrupt out shotties and snipers much more usually because of the elevated ammo caches that include the slot swap.
Another large addition is Gambit. What. A. Mode. Bungie describes it as “adding bacon to peanut and jelly”, although the tip result’s fortunately far much less vomit-inducing. A wise mixture of PvE and PvP, it combines the very best of each to supply matches that experience competitors and chaos.
The normal purpose in Gambit is straightforward: bag motes by killing enemies, financial institution these motes in a central terminal, and while you deposit 75 of ‘em, you can summon an end-round Primeval boss. Slay this big bad before the other team, and you win the round. Bungie adds several intriguing layers to this formula to complicate the action. Once you bank a certain amount of motes, a nearby portal opens, letting one player from your team invade the other side’s area. This lone Guardian is then given an elevated well being bar, and has the prospect to down enemy gamers over a 20 second or so interval. If the heroic lonewolf slays any of the opposition, they’ll drop any motes they have been carrying however hadn’t but banked.
Mixing tactical PvP slaughter with cautious co-op coordination, Gambit matches can seesaw on a dime. It’s arguably essentially the most thrilling addition to the Destiny template for the reason that authentic game’s Trials of Osiris.
Honesty time: earlier than I fired up Forsaken, I used to be lower than enthused. With a lot added lore, new modes, and gun tweaks since I final flew my Guardian to Bungie’s galaxy, I feared Destiny 2 had left me behind without end. I used to be improper. Dead improper. ‘Cayde-6 dead’ improper.
While the Last Wish raid doesn’t go reside till Friday, I’d nonetheless advocate Forsaken in its present kind. Even if the raid seems to be a Crota’s End-shaped bust, this growth’s marketing campaign, granite-strong gunplay, wealth of latest bounties, and interesting end-game greater than make it value your time. Getting to the brand new 600 exhausting cap (ooh matron and so on.) ought to hold hardcore gamers busy for weeks, whereas extra time-poor Guardians ought to no less than stick round till they unlock the Dreaming City. This late-game hub might be the prettiest setting Bungie has ever made. It’s every kind of eye-arousing.
If you’ve been on the lookout for an excuse to revisit Destiny 2, the hunt for Cayde’s assassins gives a killer bundle. Don’t disappoint your useless droid chum, eh?
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