TJ Okeeffe
Destiny: The Taken King
After much anticipation for bungies latest DLC creation the wait is finally over for us all. After the House Of Wolves DLC and the destruction of Crota there is a new threat to the solar system in the frame of Oryx aka Crota’s father. At £39.99 for DLC this game will have a lot to live up to for its die hard destiny veterans and new players alike.
With so many elements to this content we have split it all into tabs for you to choose what you would like to read more about.
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Destiny: The Taken King is quite simply a new game, its Destiny 2, this time round we have a proper story to get our teeth into which has followed on from the House Of Wolves DLC quite smoothly. The new story has a lot more enhanced cutscenes and gripping story from what Bungie first originally gave us which was pretty poor let’s be honest, boring cutscenes with a story that finished far too early and eventually everyone ended up shooting into the famous loot caves for the chance to get a legendary or exotic engram. It got boring really fast and felt like a giant BETA, something had to be done. Now we have an enormous amount of content to cipher through and a story that is worth the price tag… eventually.
A new cap of level 40 and a new light system has freshened up the game for me. The fact I can be level 40 with a piece of uncommon gear is intriguing and quite a nice surprise but then again it’s just putting off the inevitable in the search for the absolute set up of legendary and exotic equipment.
If i’m honest i’m quite disappointed that all my time grinding of The Vault Of Glass, Crota’s Raid and nightfalls and all the gear I have acquired have now become obsolete. Yes you can keep the gear and run them again but what’s the point? You could again grind the The Vault Of Glass for the Vex Mythoclast and Fatebringer just for it to be obsolete for all the new raids and missions. But before we completely lose our rag here there is still hope… if you have previously found any of these hard to get exotics like the Mythoclast then you can unlock them for the year two versions for 150 Legendary Marks. You will find the exotic weapons blueprints kiosk in the Towers Plaza, now this for me feels like bungie has listened to the Destiny community and found a successful transition for our favorite loved guns to be used in the new story and raid missions. Thumbs up from us Bungie.
The new story involves you more now with the three separate vanguard chiefs in the form of “quest.” They have completely overhauled the bounties and quests to be more story driven also helping you achieve getting unlocked legendary equipment to aid your progress. The quest’s are organised in a menu tab and you can track two quests at a time which makes everything a lot more organised.
One simple improvement is the fact that when you complete a bounty you don’t have to go back to the tower to hand it in you just click the completed bounty and you get instant XP! Bounties have also been increased so you can hold 16 at a time. What I like about these new features is that it brings all the worlds together and making the struggle seem universal, as each world has descended into chaos from the invasion of Oryx and his army…
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[toggle title=”PATROLS”]The patrol missions have been spruced up now which don’t feel like the barren wasteland of before where the maps are huge but not much activity is going on. All previous maps now have epic battles between The Taken Army and the rest of the enemy population, with all type’s of enemy champions randomly spawning to offer up the chance to fulfill your quests, so as well as epic battles and champions we also still have the daily events.
The patrols are just like a separate game there’s so much activity to get on with just in the patrol missions! The new area which is the Dreadnaught, a ship nesting in the rings of saturn offers up a completely new turn of events for Destiny players.
This time your patrols take place on the dreadnaught itself. To just explore the ship and all its secrets will take an age. We really have an exciting area to search for with all the hidden treasure chest which keys are dropped from conquered enemies.
There is epic battles between the Hive, Cabal and the Taken army continuously which really draws you into the new atmosphere that this arena brings. Personally i’m excited at what secrets will be revealed and events that will follow in future. [/toggle]
[toggle title=”INVENTORY / VAULT”]Our inventory has finally had a spring clean with everything a lot more organised which is a welcomed relief, so to put it bluntly there will be no need for hardronic essence or sapphire wire anymore, it has been replaced with Armor Materials which will be universally used for all three characters and saving you space in your character’s inventory and ultimately the tower’s vault.
Ah yes the vault! it’s been upgraded! MORE SPACE FINALLY, every gaurdian out there will be immensely relieved that Bungie have worked their magic and thus decided to create a half decent vault space for us all. Weapons space will have 75 spaces, amour spaces is also 75 and general there will be 36 spaces.
It’s not a colossal amount of space but it’s an improvement. Motes of light have been given an upgraded in respect that you can now use them as a consumable which once applied gives all of your armour and equipped gear experience to unlock the unlockable features of each individual item, this is an excellent use for what used to be an annoying reward from missions, engrams or nightfalls! This is one of many mini improvements you will find throughout this remodeled game. [/toggle]
[toggle title=”ARMOR / WEAPON INFO”]Everything your guardians wears now will contribute to your defence/light, what i mean by this is we have a few new added features to help us in our quest for the ultimate attack and defence. Your ghost adds to your defence capabilities so has its own defence rating plus has unlockable perks (the same as a gun or armour) as does your class armour i.e the Warlock Bond also contributes to your defence rating.
All of this is taken into account towards your defence and attack. So having an extra three items to help your cause will give boundless variety of loadouts to choose from.
Another new feature is the artifact that will help your teammates by generating more orbs and also counts towards your own defence rating.
Now we have a great selection selection of armour and equipment to choose from which at the moment seems boundless, it’s definitely a fresh approach from what was before completely stale. There has been a new design to the warlocks look with a selection of helmets and armour that doesn’t make him/her look like a demented gun touting ballerina!
Vanguard marks have been moved to one side and have made way for “Legendary Marks” as i mentioned earlier you can purchase exotic guns/equipment from previous conquests. Now these are shared across three characters which i found amazingly helpful for acquiring new items. So if you have achieved maximum success with one character but another character needs improving, whatever Legendary Marks acquired from your maxed character can still be used by one that still needs improving. This for me is a minor change in retrospect from the old system where vanguard marks was achieved tirelessly from strikes etc at a very small collection rate. But now you can collectively gain them across three characters its starting to become one of my favourite new features. The Cryptarch only gives Legendary engrams now which is a big improvement from the annoying white and occasional green ones of past, these require Legendary Marks to purchase. So as we can see all in all this small improvement will have a big impact on how you purchase new gear in the future.
Now Legendary weapons have also had a little make over which in my eyes is another little gem of an improvement, now at present auto rifles seem to be the preferred weapon of choice thanks to the overuse of Thorns and Gjallahorns in the crucible. Now if you receive for example you have a legendary hand cannon and you don’t wish to use it, instead of breaking it down and getting rid of it you can now infuse it to another weapon. In doing so you will improve your preferred weapon of choice and can mix up some of the current guns perks.
Doing this will come at a price:
- 250 glimmer
- 10 weapon parts
- 1 mote of light
- 3 Legendary Marks
To be honest that’s not a lot to part with to instantly improve your current weapon considering you will only get 5 legendary marks for dismantling a weapon that you will not use in the first place.
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[toggle title=”ENEMY INFO”]So with all the new equipment and loadout gear to tinker around with let’s move on to the “ The Taken”. Oryx is a lazy sod who doesn’t really have that much of a following, he just takes killed enemies and drafts them into his “ The Taken” army. During the story mode you will fight a number of tough opponents from the cabal and hive and once they get them near death Oryx sucks them away through a break in space into his own army! Once you progress you will have the chance at defeating them.
The Taken army is a new dark type of enemy, far more annoying than what we have previously encountered. Here are just a few of the new enemy to take their bow in this new DLC:
Taken Psion, these guys take split personality to a new level. You will be shooting at one while another morphs into a duplicate so one become two! Don’t let these guys live as you will soon have a mini army on your tail.
Taken Phalanx, the Phalanx are much more adventurous than there cabal predecessors. When they hide behind their shield they are not trying to get cover, instead they’re charging their shield to blast you away into the distance!
Taken Knight, The Knight’s new features are to do a short teleport out of your line of fire OR if you are looking for the nice headshot they will shoot fire at you instead. These guys are not to be underestimated.
Taken Vandal, let’s be honest the vandals Lost cousins plagued your previous raids and mission from afar with their annoying sniper rifle, now this skinny pests have a shield bubble very similar to that of a titan. Makes taking them out compare to a game of chess.
Taken Captain, here we have my most annoying enemy to fight. 100% headache when fighting an entire room full of different types of Taken enemies The captains will shoot a large blast of darkness that will blind you for about 4-5 seconds which is a long time. These guys have solar shields instead of arc so come prepared.
Taken wizard, depending on level of the wizard compared to your own there always going to be a pain to get past. In addition they have void shields instead of solar. There main feature is that they spawn shadow thrall! Thats right, this annoying enemy has got worse and spawns constant cannon fodder. [/toggle]
[toggle title=”SUB OFFICER INFO”]What will please all guardians is they will have a new subclass each to master which is exciting. We have seen a massive move forward in abilities for each class.
First up we have the Warlocks
“STORMCALLER.”
The majority of the destiny community never really had the warlock as one of their preferred characters with a lot of people either having two titans and a hunter or vice versa.
For me i loved the warlock. The ability to self resurrect during gameplay was pivotal for games modes such as Skolas, prison of elders, Crota raid and so on.
This time round they have been given an offensive upgrade if the mould of the Stormcaller sub class.
You summon lighting “stormtrance” through you hands once your super is charged and the unleash hell from your fingertips something George Lucas would be proud as Darth Vader’s master also had the same trick when giving luke skywalker a spanking. Pressing the right trigger enables you to use “thunderstrike” which is basically a melee version of the stromtrance, once upgrade that melee hit can link together multiple targets and kill them. This has given the warlock a breath of fresh air and will excite some older veterans to invest a bit of time in the trusty warlock.
Next we have the hunters,
“NIGHTSTALKER”
The hunter is a firm favourite in the world of destiny for its unique subclass’s and the ability to turn invisible is always handy in a tight spot.
The nightstalker subclass offers up something completely different, once supercharged your character fires shadowshot which tether foes together to a void anchor slowing, weakening and suppressing them for you and your allies, which gives you a great advantage as once trapped to the void anchor damage to one enemy filters to the others also trapped. Now you only get one shot to start with which isnt much but once you upgrade the subclass you will have the opportunity to fire THREE. This will have a good chance at creating an incredible amount of orbs for your allies.
The grenades are one of my favourite on offer the first is a “voidwall” which creates a long line of void fire separating you from your enemies.
The second is “smoke” which is a clever device that once thrown at an enemy it slows and disorientates enemies trapped in its cloud. One of the unlocks for the smoke is the ability to throw near your allies and they will vanish from sight!you can throw it at your near your allies and then will vanish from sight! excellent team work grenade i must say. But there is some bad news, the hunters jump is abysmal i mean a zimmer framed granny has a better chance at jumping to a 20ft ledge than your hunter does! Fear not though guys as it can be upgraded to a triple jump similar to that of exotic leg armour the “BONES OF EAO,” which is a huge relief!
And last but not least the Titans
“SUNBREAKER”
We all know Thor’s hammer kicks the hell out of people in The Avengers but destiny have taken it to a slightly different level with the titans new subclass.
The supercharge for this class is called “Hammer Of Sol” which summons a flaming hammer which wreaks havoc on groups of enemies. This supercharge will be epic visually for other players as this is upgrade and perks changed as once you unlock “Scorched Earth” this will ignite the world, creating sunspots everywhere your hammer of sol impacts.
One handy perks is “Cauterize” which will regenerate your health by enemies dying from your fire which i’m sure will be handy on any strike/boss raids. The melee perk is called “Sunstrike” which is pretty much the same as before (swift right hook from the titan) but as always once upgraded that one punch kill will instantly recharge it for another punch! [/toggle]
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One thing this game has changed up for the good is the vanguard strikes, for me they needed freshening up bigtime. For such a big effort and time to complete these strikes the rewards to be frank was shocking.
They never made you want to go back for more and grind for better gear, vanguard marks etc. Now, the old vanguard strikes are still available obviously for new players, but we now have The Taken King strikes which are far more entertaining offering much better rewards for the quest of a better light grade.
This needed to be addressed as the old versions we’re definitely getting stale and needed freshening up. Since playing the Taken Kings vanguard strikes my characters have really progressed quite rapidly and the rewards are far more fruitful than before, this is a key area that bungie have remastered for our benefit which leaves you hungry for more.
The nightfall strikes of past games have always been a challenge but as players progressed more and more people were flying solo instead of doing it with a fireteam. This time round we have nightfall strikes a hell of a lot harder than before offering up the ultimate challenge, but as always once completing the rewards are amazing!
Gone are the times when you used to get 9 strange coins after slugging it out tirelessly to reach your goal to be left bitterly disappointed. This has been restructured for the better…finally, oh wait there is also bad news.
If you haven’t purchased the taken kings dlc then you will be pretty much locked out of any new strikes and will be limited to lv 20 vanguard strikes, so year 1 players will be missing out bigtime, this does leave a bitter taste for players unable to purchase the new content. [/toggle]
[toggle title=”CRUCIBLE/MULTIPLAYER”]The crucible multiplayer has also had a fresh lick of paint with eight new maps to chew through which will please PvP pros, the crucible has always been the pinnacle for maxed out players to master and is definitely not a place for the faint hearted. These new maps offer up a much more complex environment with a good variety of map design.
The new game mode which catches our eye is RIFT, this requires two teams of six guardians that fight for control of a spark in the centre of the map, when a player takes the spark they must try and fight through the other team and “dunk” it into the enemy’s rift located at their base. It’s basically like capture the flag but with a few added bonuses for players. Nothing is worse than getting millimetres from the flag when you get killed then one of your teammates takes the glory.
This time Bungie is spreading the love to the whole team as if you had carried the flag towards their base it gets you additional “distance travelled” points which is a fresh approach to a very popular game mode. One thing i am impressed with is the fact that there is a timer on the spark and explodes if held for too long! That’s great as so many times before have we seen teams go 1-0 up and they get the “flag” and hide or protect their player so then enemy cannot get it.
Not anymore campers your time is now at an end! This will turn out to be a very exciting game mode that will require some very clever tactical awareness. [/toggle]
[toggle title=”TAKEN KING RAID”]Now for the piece de resistance the Taken Kings Raid. This is the ultimate test for all players that have busted through all the content and want to challenge themselves against their toughest test. Already billed as a classic this is as challenging as when the iconic Vault Of Glass first came out, now this is the place where all the best gear and equipment is being held. It has already been dubbed as the spiritual successor to the vault of glass which is a tough act to follow. The recommended light is 290 but that’s minimum as some of these stages are extremely hard and is probably well advised to search out some walk through tactics to help, as approaching this raid cold is going to turn into a 24 hour slugfest of frustration! As always your loadout will be key, a good scout rifle and auto rifle is recommended, a powerful sniper rifle with penetrating bullets for bosses and strong shotguns are a must for hive knights with shields etc Basically bring all your ground breaking nappy changing weapons as this will require everything. All weapons at with least 280 will be a minimum. It will be interesting to see what players come up with in how to defeat the ultimate boss and the puzzles that follow. [/toggle]
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