Written by: Daniel D
Introduction
Forsaken is the third and largest expansion for to be released for Destiny 2. The new expansion is packed with quality changes and new things to do potentially making this one of, if not the best expansion Destiny has ever seen.
Gameplay
Forsaken’s storyline is centred around the Hunter Vanguard, Cayde 6, who has been working with a familiar face returning from Destiny 1 to contain a wave of prisoners who have escaped the Prison of Elders. Cayde is struck down by the Awoken’s Prince, Uldren Sov, who has gone rogue and is now leading a group of corrupted Fallen calling themselves the Scorn. This sets players on the path to avenge their fallen comrade.
The DLC brings with it two new patrol zones, The Tangled Shore and The Dreaming City. The Tangled shore is where most of the campaign missions take place but also contains several other activities. A new vendor, The Spider can be found here, he provides access to the new Wanted bounties that players can complete to obtain some rare loot.
The Dreaming City is the DLCs second explorable space and is where the game’s endgame is now focused. This space contains its own lost sectors and public events but also many pinnacle endgame activities such as the Last Wish raid, Blind Well and the new ascendant challenges. There is a three-week cycle associated with this space and as a result many changes can be seen occurring from week to week such as new activities becoming available and some loot may only be obtainable at certain times.
A new enemy faction, The Scorn, have also been added, these are a horde of Fallen that have been resurrected and corrupted by the mysterious powers possessed by Uldren’s second in command, the Baron known as The Fanatic. The Scorn may borrow the occasional trick from some of the other factions, but they feel closer to an entirely new faction than any previous additional factions like The Taken or The Devil Splicers. The scorn do have some new tricks such as the fiery flail wielding Ravagers who’s crit points aren’t their heads but instead their fails which they also spin and swing wildly for melee attacks.
Three new strikes have been added into the rotation on all platforms with a fourth being PlayStation exclusive for the time being. The strike playlist has seen a significant overhaul with Heroic strikes being scrapped altogether in favour of a new 3-tiered difficulty. Strikes can now be undertaken at 300, 400 or 500 power and all have a selection of modifiers attached. Two previously PlayStation exclusive strikes have also been made available to PC and Xbox players.
Three new Crucible maps have also been added to the rotation on all platforms with another PlayStation exclusive map set in the Tangled shore being added as well. A new Crucible mode called Breakthrough has also been added this is a mode that plays similarly to Overwatch’s control point maps and will eventually be added to the competitive playlist.
The new PvEvP activity, Gambit, is a welcome addition to the game as well as it has appeal for both the crucible players as well as the players who are more interested in the PvE side of Destiny.
Some major changes to the sandbox of the game have come into effect since the launch of the DLC, the new weapon system being the highest profile of these changes. The kinetic, energy and power slots for weapons remain unchanged but the weapons that can be found in each slot have been altered significantly. Shotguns, sniper rifles, fusion rifles and breach-loaded grenade launchers are no longer relegated to the power slot, they have instead been assigned to either the kinetic or energy slots except for some of the more powerful Exotics.
This change as well as the addition of the new Bow weapons means that playstyle has never been so customisable in Destiny.
The weapon slot changes are balanced by the new changes to how ammo works in the game. Previously white, green and purple bricks would have been used for kinetic, energy and power weapons respectively but in the new system white bricks are used by primary weapons (Bows, ARs, Scout/Pulse rifles, Hand cannons and sidearms), green bricks are used by special weapons (Trace rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, fusion rifles, breach-loaded grenade launchers) and the purple bricks are much the same being used by anything that is found in the power weapon slot (Rocket Launchers, Drum-loaded grenade launchers, swords, linear fusion rifles and some exotics)
Progression in the game as seen a rework as the player level cap has been bumped from 30 to 50 with the power level now being capped at 600. Getting characters to level 50 with power level 500 is done in the same way it has been previously but once the soft cap of 500 has been reached the real progression changes come into effect. Players need to obtain powerful gear to progress past the soft cap and like in previous expansions this gear can only be obtained through completing selected activities, most of these activities take the form of challenges. Most of these challenges reset weekly however there are some that reset multiple times a week, these work on a four-day cycle seeing a new challenge get added for each of the four days before being refreshed on the next. There are also some other miscellaneous bounties and activities such as the highest tier of the blind well and the raid which can also reward powerful gear.
Other miscellaneous changes include increased rarity of Exotic weapons, balancing of various weapon archetypes, planetary tokens can no longer be acquired, mod system has been reworked and year 1 mods have been deprecated, Year 2 weapons and armour have randomly rolled perks.
Graphics
Destiny 2 Forsaken has not provided any visual upgrades over the base game’s already impressive visuals however the new environments and the new enemies are welcome additions. The Tangled Shore is set on a series of desolate rocks in the asteroid belt that have been haphazardly tethered together. The shore is not a colourful space, most of the map is populated with grey rocks and grey building, most of the map’s colour comes from the map’s Skybox and as a result some of the emptier spaces appear a little dull and uninteresting. However, some spaces such as the crashed Hive ship and some of the Lost Sectors spread across the map make up for this with the uniqueness of their appearance.
The Dreaming city is almost the exact opposite, it is a beautiful, colourful space; from the green vegetation and rocky cliffs to the monolithic ivory tower and almost Elf-like architecture, this may be one of the most impressive maps Bungie have ever created
Many activities in the later stages of the game will involve the player moving through the Ascendant Plane, these spaces are dark and devoid of colour and in many ways harken back to Destiny 1 and some of the Crota related encounters as well as some of the visual elements used during the Taken King expansion.
The new enemies, The Scorn, for the most part do not differ too much in appearance compared to the usual Fallen enemies, the bulk of the change is in the armour they wear as well as their sickly complexion. The Screeb, The Scorn’s answer to The Hive’s exploding Cursed Thralls are one of the more different in appearance as they scuttle along the ground and are covered in glowing blue blisters. The Mongrels, one of the heavier Scorn units, are large and almost Ogre-like in appearance.
Audio
The first thing worth mentioning about the Forsaken expansion is the voice acting, Nathan Fillion, who has up until the expansion been providing the voice work for Cayde-6 was reportedly unavailable to reprise his role so the reigns have been taken up by Nolan North who also provides the voice work for the player character’s Ghost companion. To the average Destiny player, the change may not be too obvious as Nolan North spends most of his lines doing a very serviceable impression of Cayde-6 but to the more invested players the change will still be noticeable. The expansion’s voicework overall is solid, there are no moments where it falls flat quite to the degree some of the base game showings like the Taeko-3 dialogue of the Savathun’s Song strike did.
The expansions score is another pretty amazing showing from Bungie, from the powerful themes of a tense boss battle to the sombre tracks that fills the game’s quieter moments the soundtrack has something great for every moment.
Replay Potential
In Destiny story campaigns have always been nothing more than a beginning, an introduction to things to come and Destiny 2 Forsaken is no different. In forsaken the real Destiny experience doesn’t begin until players reach level 50 and power level 500, it is only here that Destiny really comes into its own. The core Destiny experience has always been about the hunt for loot and growing in power, the changes for Forsaken provide players with a plethora of ways in which they can work towards both of those objectives.
The mix of weekly and daily activities that can be undertaken for loot means that there is always something for players to do, whether they wish to spend one hour or four in the game, this allows Destiny to once again be treated like a hobby. Completionists have plenty work toward now as well because Destiny 2 now has over one hundred very rare Exotic items that can be obtained as well as many more legendary items, to compliment this a collections tab has been added to the UI allowing players to keep track of their obtained gear as well as the gear they are missing and how it can be obtained.
Value for money
Value for money is where things start to get a bit foggy because of the variety of expansions and passes available, Bungie has tried to remedy this as of October 16th by including the two previous expansions, Curse of Osiris and Warmind, with any purchase of Forsaken. There are still several purchase options netting players a variety of bonuses depending on edition but forgetting the cosmetic bonuses the main editions are the Forsaken pack which comes with the DLCs but not the base game and then there is the Legendary Collection which has the base game included.
Another consideration is the Annual pass, this gives players access to yet unreleased expansions due in December 2018, Spring 2019 and Summer 2019. This can be purchased as part of the Destiny 2 Complete edition for those who do not have Destiny 2 and wish to get everything in one package or can be added onto a purchase of Forsaken for those who have the base game.
I find it difficult to give a definitive answer regarding whether Forsaken is worthy of people’s time and money, so much is dependent upon the experiences and opinions of each person faced with the decision. For any fans of the original Destiny who may have decided against purchasing Destiny 2 during its initial launch and the launches of its two initial DLCs due to the negative feedback, this may be the best time to jump in as there is a massive amount of content to consume and nearly all the negative feedback has been addressed. For those who did buy the base game but dropped off due to the lack of content and did not return for the DLCs, Forsaken may be worth trying. For those who hated Destiny 2 and the DLCs and no longer have faith in Bungie and Destiny as a franchise, although forsaken has done much to fix Destiny’s problems there is no guarantee more problems won’t be created in the future and because of this I can’t recommend Forsaken to people of this view point.
Conclusion
To conclude Destiny 2 Forsaken puts Destiny in probably the best state it’s ever been in, a wide variety of activities are available so there is something for everyone whether their preference is PvP or PvE. The game still has its issues, minor problems with the economy slow down progression too much and much of the old content has been rendered irrelevant but despite these issues it is well worth the time of any players who enjoy Destiny’s core gameplay.
Score – 88/100
+ Much improved Story
+ Massive amounts of new activities
+ New Items to collect
+ Weapon changes improve customisation
– Much of the old content irrelevant
– Economy issues
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