I’m feeling kind of low on both inspiration and motivation right now. I’ve got things going in the boring old real world, I’m also struggling to make this blog what I want it to be at the moment. And I don’t really know what to do about it. That’s my issue though. I had something else planned for today. But instead, I’m just going to spend some time writing, stream of consciousness style, when it comes to my initial feelings about the new Destiny expansion that came out this week.
I’m also fairly certain I never paid for it, and somehow have access to it anyway. Which I’m not complaining about, this was one of the expense ones.
Cayde’s Death
The entire crux of the story in Forsaken hinges on the fact that you really like Cayde-6. It feels like the thing Bungie have been betting on since Destiny 2 came out. Cayde is their meme generating breakout character. They expected everyone to love him, and then they killed him off.
Personally, I was pretty indifferent to Cayde. I like Nathan Fillion a lot. But Cayde’s shtick was a little much for me. He’s simultaneously a bumbling idiot, but also hugely competent. For this expansion, Fillion was unable to return to reprise the role as Cayde, and without him providing the voice, the character cast incredibly heavy shades of Deadpool right up until he died.
After gets himself killed, it seemed like all the characters were beside themselves with grief stricken rage. The player character even managed to speak again for the first time since pre-The Taken King to kick off this revenge quest. One that Zavala and Ikora Rey disagree on.
In this instance, I agreed with Zavala. To drop everything and leave the city unguarded was pretty irresponsible. Especially for the sake of a revenge quest I didn’t feel to deeply invested in. In the end, it proved to be something worth pursuing to put a stop to the Beholder that Uldren had unwittingly summoned.
I hope the doom and gloom soundtrack at the tower doesn’t continue for too much longer.
Story
Aside from the revenge plot, I enjoyed the way the story was set out. While previous expansions felt brutally short. The way Forsaken is spaced out worked for me. You do a bunch of story missions before doing a few bounties that help you find your way around the new patrol area in the Reef.
After that you do a bunch of adventures, killing the Barons one by one, working your way up to taking down the Fanatic and then Uldren. Each of the Barons have their own gimmick and personality quirk, presented in a way you might see in an old instruction manual from the days of video game yore.
There’s sorting very video gamey about it all in a way that was satisfying. The Spider is a cool new NPC, although I find it weird that all the Fallen just speak English now, especially with the weird Jabba the Hutt like attitude he has on him.
I’m just sad Variks never makes a reappearance. He gets mentioned sure, but its not the same.
Weapon systems
I’m already enjoying the changes to the weapon system a whole lot. Taking snipers, shotguns and fusion rifles out of the heavy slot is probably the best change they’ve made. It makes me feel powerful as a player again, it brings me back to the days of playing the original Destiny. We just need the heavy machine guns back now.
Speaking of the original Destiny, the return to having random rolls on guns is a very welcome. While I’m still early in the loot grind cycle, getting multiple of the same gun is exciting in a way the game hasn’t managed since it came out. With a lucky combination of perks, anything has the potential to be something.
The days of just throwing away all of my purple guns without a second thought is, thankfully, past now.
Bow’s are cool as hell too. I’ve only managed to pick one up, the now you get as a part of the story progression, but I am having a load of fun using it in both regular gameplay and PVP.
Other assorted dust
Other than that, I like the change to the weekly and daily milestones. They’ve added more bounties than ever before and I feel packed with stuff to do.
The design on the new ghost shells and ships are really cool. I know they’re come with the paid for currency aspect of the game, but putting the Eververse bounties into the game allows you to save the dust needed to buy the cool cosmetic stuff when it eventually rolls into the shop anyway without a need to buy silver.
The new super abilities are a ton of fun too. Essentially giving each class three new supers makes up for the fact that there still isn’t any customisation to character builds. It’s hard to dwell on that when you’re swinging a giant hammer of fire around though.
The Triumphs are a great addition. I haven’t poured through them all yet, but in a game where I oftentimes find myself playing with nothing real of value to accomplish, these new 762 tick boxes to mark off might keep me playing Destiny 2 for longer than the previous expansions could drag me away from Overwatch.
I haven’t tried Gambit yet
I haven’t tried Gambit yet, but the new mode seems very interesting. I’ve never been too enamoured with the Trials breed of ultra competitive multiplayer, but ended up playing it out of an obligation to get the gear I’d be missing out on otherwise. I’ve still never won a game of Trials though.
Gambit looks like something I could get deep into. Although I’ll touch on it more at a later date.
Final Thoughts
I am enjoying my time with Destiny yet again. Every expansion to the game has brought incremental improvements that are threatening to return the game to the highs of Taken King/Rise of Iron era of the first game.
It’s still early days, Forsaken hasn’t been out a week yet. But It already looks incredibly meaty and is giving me a ton to sink my teeth into. I’m going to continue playing this in bouts along with Spider-Man, and I’ll probably give a more complete collection of my thoughts a few weeks down the line.
I’m thinking of taking a less structured, more loose approach to posts for the next few weeks. I had some retrospectives, genre breakdowns and full reviews planned, but I just don’t feel the motivation. So I hope you like a more bloggy blog for the next few weeks, but that’s what I can manage.
A Richard Wood Text Adventure 