Destiny The Taken King (PS4) Review

Avid Destiny fans, year one players united, The Taken King is the biggest expansion made for the game so far. New weapons, armour, story, enemies, even a new storage system and levelling up system. Makes you wonder if this is the same Destiny players have come to love. Well Gamers, do not fret, the game play is pretty much untouched. There are a few nerfs here and there of course, but Destiny TTK is basically a giant DLC!

New enemies the Taken are the minions of Oryx, the father of Crota, who was the first DLC’s big baddie. Oryx is seeking revenge and taking down anyone who might try and get in his way. There are several story missions, and new ‘planetary play pen’ The Dreadnought, where you can fight these vile creatures to your hearts content, not only with patrol, but also a new public event system called Court of Oryx.

In the Court, you use runes to summon bosses of three differing levels to win engram’s and materials galore. Along with this the new collectable ‘Calcified fragments’ may only be found here along with hadium flakes and worm spore.

Other DLC are not obsolete as there are many new strikes taking place on previously visited planets, and new areas as of yet unexplored. New weapons have made it possible for players who didn’t begin with destiny one to still level up and match the elite player alike. It does take a bit of getting used to though, as now you’re getting uncommon weapons with higher stats than your year one exotics…

The light levelling system is a second way of determining level. The original EXP level still stands, with a cap of 40, but Light level defines your armour, weapons and other items you have equipped, such as ghost shell, class item, and artifact. The three previous things of course didn’t have much impact the past year for players, but with year 2, that’s all changing, each item equipped will have perks and stats and light, and it’s down to each guardian to equip what works for them best and best fits the mission they are attempting.

As for the story of the game itself, that was an area highly lacking in the original game, a lot of fans were unhappy with the unanswered questions and the lack of depth to the plot line. However, TTK completely turned that around with is fascinating opening cinematic, intense musical score, and even the witty comebacks and musings of Cayde-6 and the all new Ghost a’la actor Nolan North.

One thing that everyone was very excited about too, was the new added subclasses for each class of guardian. The Hunter has a Void defence sub class called Nightstalker, the new special move available is Shadow shot, where your enemies are tethered using your bow and arrow, Warlocks were given an Arc sub class called Stormcaller, with the ability to shoot lightening through their finger tips. Finally leaving us the Titan, in my opinion saving the best till last, we have the brand new Solar Sunbreaker class, with the Hammer of Sol as the special ability, throwing flaming hammers at your opponents and insta-killing them.

Final Thoughts

All in all, Destiny is a pretty astounding game and this expansion definitely lives up to the hype. However, fans are still getting bored and finding things to pick at or be dissatisfied with. I know it has once been said that Destiny has a ten year plan, and hopefully they can keep things fresh for that long. Heading into year two, the game is altering the way you play, and is changing the way you will enjoy it. Some things fans will love, and others not so much.

The game is amazing graphically, and the story telling has definitely improved, but have they made too many changes to the basic process? I think that is a matter of preference. In my case, it has gotten harder to find people to play with, and it is not as fun as it once was with all these different tasks at hand. But at the same time, the new patrol area does add something fresh, and the new year two weapons and armour definitely give you something to aspire to again.