Editor's note: this is a revision in progress. Check back later to see additional updates as we work on the content of Destiny 2: Forsaken.
Bungie & # 39; s space-faring adventure Destiny 2 is a strange game. One of its biggest problems, however, is that the developer seems unwilling to fully embrace that rarity. The result is Destiny 2: Forsaken a great new expansion with many great ideas that are never fully covered.
There is a great new piece to explore on The Tangled Shore, a series of asteroids tied together to make a shattered landscape. Of course, it's covered in bad guys to shoot creatively.
Forsaken also brings a new story to Destiny 2 one that begins with the death of one of the main characters of the franchise, Cayde-6. This is supposed to instill emotion into the process, but as with every story Destiny since the launch of the first game in 2014, the possibilities presented at the beginning never work with a satisfactory conclusion.
A story of revenge. Kinda.
Forsaken is a more personal story than the great adventures that threaten the world and that players have faced before. It begins with a prison break (in space!) And ends with the death of Cayde at the hands of an old character Destiny called Uldren Sov.
The setup puts the player on the road to revenge for Cayde (who had the biggest character character in Destiny 2 by far), by eliminating Uldren and each of the Barons who helped him to get out of space jail.
Abandoned is a major improvement for Destiny 2 but also another weak entry in a series of weak expansions.
Unfortunately, that's all for the story. The players head to the "lawless border" of the Tangled Coast (read: full of bad guys, as everywhere) to hunt the Barons and kill them. This is not a sanctioned mission. Your goal is to kill those who murdered your friend, basically abandoning your role as protector of humanity for a personal crusade. Forsaken occasionally brings out that conflict and mentions that you are hunting and executing criminals who would otherwise leave you alone. Is that what the good guys do?
While the game asks that question, it never tries to answer it. In contrast, Forsaken focuses on boss fights. You will knock down a guy while you fight over the "Pike" bicycles; another establishes traps everywhere, which requires that it be more vigilant (and use them against it); Another uses lures and sniper fire to try to get you out before you can corner and confront him. It's great that Forsaken makes each of the boss fights feel unique and fun, even if the Barons have little or nothing in terms of characterization.
The campaign culminates in the hunt for Uldren. The story implies that it is something strange that has to do with the Taken, a creepy group of bad guys from the original Destiny . Here, however, Bungie can not or does not want to fully embrace his own ideas and premises, and there is no reward for mockery. The climax is a frustrating and strange battle that does not make sense and does not offer a satisfactory ending to the story of revenge, or any other point of the plot established through the campaign. It's all flash, no substance.
Changes for good and bad
Although there are many other entanglements on the tangled coast: new strikes, new public events, new weapons to hunt and new secrets to find, the most striking (and welcome) things in Forsaken are your changes to how works Destiny 2 .
The new Collections menu is a great quality of life change that allows players to get rid of all the crap they could carry.
Some of those changes are clearly better. Destiny 2 now tracks almost everything you do in the game on a list called "Triumphs", which is basically a great snapshot of the players' race Destiny 2 . It is very useful for the organization, but more than that, it is full of objectives for players to achieve even after having worked all the content of Forsaken . The Triumphs list should help keep people involved for more time in those gaps between content drops, and that's great news.
The expansion of "Collections" is also great, a great list of all the weapons and armor players that have found in Destiny 2 . A great organizational assistant, the Collections menu allows players to get rid of all the crap they may be carrying and that they do not need.
Any loot that you have unlocked in the game can be recovered for a Collections price. allowing players to hold on to the best things. That's an improvement in the quality of life that should make all the loot of Destiny 2 cleaner, while adding an additional incentive to show the players exactly what they're losing, so they can return to the world and find
However, not all changes are for the better. Some frustrating features have come back from the original game. Increasing the power of weapons, for example, forces players to track a group of different coins and items. Doing this is not an option, because its power level in Destiny 2 (and, therefore, what content you can access) is based on the power level of your stuff. It's the mandatory busywork return.
DT Gameplay
More to see
So far, Destiny 2: Forsaken is an expansion with many ups and downs. The tale of revenge that Bungie might have expected to turn seems unenthusiastic, like most of the narration in the universe Destiny despite the abundance of strange and interesting knowledge to play.
The boss fights, however, they are wonderful. Destiny 2 is always at its best when Bungie injects creative alterations to the main shooter's formula, and much of that is on display in this new expansion.
Changes in central systems, meanwhile, take two steps forward and one step back. The long list of improvements of the game is combined with the performance of grinding for the pleasure of grinding.
Check back later this week to get our final impressions.