The majority of my experience with Destiny 2: Forsaken over the last two weeks has been overwhelmingly positive. I think the addition of Gambit, the change up of gameplay design and leveling, the raid, and the sense of scale with the two additional maps has really notched the entertainment value for this series up quite a bit. Forsaken truly is the best thing that has happened to the series. They do need to get crucible cleaned up, though, and sooner rather than later.
It is two weeks into Destiny 2: Forsaken’s release and we here at Digitalchumps figure it is time for a review. Forsaken, which introduces the fourth season of Destiny 2 to the world, essentially does a hard reset on the Destiny 2 vanilla structure. It not only changes the dynamics of leveling up, weapons acquired, upgrades in gear, and introduces us to new lands, but it sets new guidelines to make the game a helluva lot harder to get through. The latter of the bunch comes from the Destiny community wanting a game they could finish up right around the time a new expansion is about to hit instead of finishing the game in the first month, which has been the case in every release since D2’s launch. It’s a sensible request, and it does make a huge difference when it comes to longevity of the experience, but wow…Bungie really made the game a challenge.
Let’s get right into it, shall we?
Story, Creatures, and Lands
The story behind Forsaken is about as clear-cut as any Destiny story released to date, which includes anything in the first release. You follow the storyline of Cayde-6, a humorous Guardian that has made life hilariously bearable throughout Destiny’s lifetime. The story begins with Cayde-6 helping to tame a riot/breakout at the Prison of Elders. What you know as the player is that this breakout has to be contained. What you find out later is that Cayde-6 and his counterpart Petra were trying to prevent Prince Uldren, that glowy-eyed snot-nosed guy from the Reef, from breaking out, which he does. As the trailers show, Uldren meets up with Cayde and puts a bullet into Cayde’s head without thinking twice. The demise of Cayde-6 injects one large action-packed revenge story that sees our Guardian going from escaped prisoner to escaped prisoner trying to locate Uldren and bring him down. It’s one big revenge story (2-3 hours total), and a good one at that, so prepare yourself for some vicious action-packed campaign.
Now, during the story, there is a new set of enemies introduced because of Uldren’s actions called the Scorn. They are creepy looking enemies that bring a new set of ogre-like creatures with them in a manipulated version of the Fallen. They’re tough, unforgiving, and they have new exploders with them that crawl on all six (yeah, enjoy those). They are far better than the Red Legion, as they seem to be different enough from the Fallen to warrant a new name, and they make sense within the context of the story given. In addition, their loyalty to their father, Uldren, puts them in some weird cult category that allows them to actually exist without being related back to the Fallen. Let’s be honest, the Red Legion was lazily done when it comes to separation factor from their copied Cabal counterparts. They were given masks, turned red, and…well, that was the separation factor. Anyway, the Scorn are creatures of their own and they do enough to warrant it.
Beyond the introduction to the Scorn, the game brings in two new areas to Destiny 2’s world — the Tangled Shore and the Dreaming City. The Tangled Shore is the land that should have been with the Reef in the first Destiny. It is a multi-tier combination of pieces floating around the shore that are as creepy and broken as the residents that populate them. It’s led by a dealer called Spider that is helping to gather all the major prisoners that have broken out of the Prison of Elders. Spider is a huge Fallen figure that offers up daily bounties and wanted bounties (you can track down escaped prisoners that vary in difficulty). These reset every day, so enjoy that constant barrage of action. In addition, Spider offers up elements, which are far more valuable in Forsaken than in previous Destiny iterations, which you can find on all the different planets you’re used to exploring. To slightly get off topic here, the elemental aspect of Destiny 2: Forsaken is part of the grind when it comes to leveling. You will need elements to upgrade weapons and armor, so having someone offering up the elements, including master cores, helps alleviate some of that grind. That said, you should know that those elements are highly priced, so it might be better to go and hunt them down on your own. No matter which way you decide to do upgrades, you’re going to be grinding things out a bit. More to come in this category later. Regardless, Spider exists and fits perfectly within the broken world of the Tangled Shore.
The second world in the game is the Dreaming City. You have to complete the story mission and work with Spider to unlock this world, which is absolutely worth the effort and time you put into it. The Dreaming City, where The Last Wish raid resides, is massive as it is deadly. All enemies from Destiny reside in the Dreaming City and the city changes aspects of itself every reset. It’s an outside world with massive citadels spread out throughout its land. It also holds a shit ton of secrets inside of it and places to explore. The first night that my team made it to the Dreaming City, we spent hours upon hours exploring every nook and cranny of it. We eventually ran into the raid glitch, which was cool, where we had to maneuver our way through a broken piece of the City’s map to worm our way to a raid chest. That exploit has been since patched, but it was neat finding such a glitch during the opening week of Forsaken, and its an example of ‘you never know what you’re going to get’ with the Dreaming City.
Now, glitches aside, the city also introduces new sets of bounties and tasks via Petra, Cayde-6’s friend from the story. She gives you a few things to work with, which include new big quests for each weekly reset, and charges of light to activate a new Escalation Protocol called The Blind Well.
Starting with quests, they are hard as hell but drop really nicely leveled loot that helps you with the grind you go through in the game. For example, yesterday I played the new quest at level 525 and went up against two bosses that had a light level of 585. I was by myself, methodical in my movements, and, after two hours, beat the two bosses. Completing the quest dropped a 531 sniper rifle, which promptly put me at level 526. The game is hard, these quests are relentless and challenging, but the end result is worth the price of admission. The quests are something you can look forward to each week, until the game proves me wrong otherwise, so that’s a huge plus. In addition to the quest, you also get to play for small offerings for the queen (you know, Prince Uldren’s sister), which equal out to powerful gear as well. In addition, you have smaller daily bounties that help to complete a bigger bounty. It’s all neat and relative, so you’re not just shooting, for one thing, you’re playing for a lot more than that in the game.
Petra’s other offering, the charge of light, comes in three tiers. Literally, it’s tier I/II/III — and then a fourth, which I just acquired yesterday for the first time. These charge of lights allow you to play the Blind Well, which is a series of small fights that lead up to a big one. The higher the tier, the harder the fight. The Blind Well is the first place that you’ll want to start playing in order to begin the process of leveling up quickly. You essentially place a charge of light into a device, it starts the Blind Well challenge, and you go from place to place within the Blind Well trying to take down enemies. For each place you’re at, you have to stay within a dome of light to survive while shooting enemies that are relentlessly coming at you. If you go outside the dome, then you take damage. The goal is to find enemies that are surrounded by light and take them down to acquire said light. If you get their light, then a light percentage in the area that you’re at in the dome goes up a certain percent. Once you reach 100%, then you move on to the next dome. There are quite a few domes you have to conquer before making it back to the starting spot, and then you start the main boss fight. Tier I Blind Well challenges will get you a lot of lower level material, though that is important when you’re starting out. Tier II is more challenging, but you have a chance to acquire a Seed of Light, which unlocks a new subclass super move for you (you can only get one of these at the Blind Well). Tier III requires you to be highly leveled before you can win, and it’s not joking about that, folks. The Blind Well is a neat addition and it’s far easier than the Escalation Protocol.
Beyond the Blind Well, you’re going to find there are a lot more places to explore in the Dreaming City than in any other Destiny map — that includes the first Destiny game. Bungie and High Moon Studios did a superb job of encouraging players to keep their attention span squarely focused on the land and its potential secrets. For example, as you turn in bounties and continue your journey of grinding the game, you’ll run into Queensfoil consumable liquid, which unlocks things you didn’t see. If you drink the liquid, then you have 30 minutes to explore while tripping balls on it. What it gains you is access to Taken portals that are randomly scattered throughout Dreaming City. These portals sometimes take you to a bounty mission called the Ascendant Challenge, which puts you in a Taken world that is armed with multiple knights. Those particular challenges require you to take charges of light, bring them back to the center of the map, then charge up a ‘super’ well that gives you endless amounts of supers to perform on the knights. It sounds easy in description, but it’s a huge pain in the ass. The missions vary, and if you manage to set the right amount of charges in the center of the map, but your entire team dies in the process, then the mission resets. Yeah, that’s fun, especially when you’re on a timer with the Queensfoil. Regardless, the Ascendant Challenge gives you some solid rewards for the effort.
Beyond those missions, though, you will occasionally find hidden bridges that can only be seen on Queensfoil, and that lead to hidden treasure chests. Sometimes those chests are worth the effort, sometimes they are not. Regardless, it adds another layer of ‘let’s continue to see what we see’ with regard to Dreaming City. Anytime you can get motivation to continue exploring a place, especially in Destiny, then it’s a good thing.
Outside of those hidden gems, you will randomly run into treasure chests with charges of light requirements (you have to find those charges somewhere nearby). These are limited access treasure chests that anyone can acquire at any given point. If another team opens them up in your instance of the game, then they become unavailable until you either reset your instance or until the next day. They usually hold nice stuff, but it’s a crapshoot ultimately. Again, it’s another aspect of the game that encourages you to have your attention present with the map.
Before we move on to other D2: Forsaken details, there are still Lost Sectors scattered throughout the map, and other goodies that I haven’t mentioned yet (including public events that are tough as nails), but you’ll find them all. There is a lot of land to explore with the expansion of the Tangled Shore and Dreaming City. The game really wants you to enjoy them and it all works so much better than the last expansion in May.
Grinding and Raiding
So, we all bitched and moaned for a year about how easy it was to get through new expansions, leveling, and such. We all did it. We’re all to blame for this. Bungie and High Moon Studios probably said, “Cool. We gotcha.” And here we are, folks. I’ve played this game for two weeks now (day/night) and I’m at level 526, an achievement of sorts. I’ve gone through bounties, missions, quests, and even did the first part of the raid (using the glitch that is now patched). I’m at level 526 and it’s the best thing that I’ve experienced ever. My point? The game is a grind. It’s a big grind that you’re going to have accept. There’s no way around it. There’s no way through it. It is what it is. The Dreaming City will help you alleviate this a bit, but the game will make sure that you don’t go beyond a certain point too quickly. That’s not terrible, because it means you look forward to the bounties that you’re fed, but if you lack patience, then it’s going to be tough for you to accept this leveling pattern. For me, I’m okay with it. I’ve played Destiny since its first alpha and I don’t mind going through the game at a snail’s pace. Grinding should be a part of every type of MMO. The big key to properly make the grind acceptable is to make sure that you feel like you’re progressing. I have to tell you, there were times in week one where it felt like my poor character was going nowhere. Once the Dreaming City opened up, things changed quite dramatically, and I could see the light at the end of the Destiny tunnel.
Why do I bring up grinding when it should be something expected? Well, the grinding will wear on you because you will be rushing to level up to play the raid. Playing the raid at level 521 is not an acceptable way of doing things, trust me. It’s possible, but once you get beyond the first part of it, then you become incredibly useless to your team at a lower light level, and it doesn’t get better. Grinding is necessary to prep for the raid and it’s something you want to respectfully do before you leap into it, if not only for your teammates and to avoid them not hating you.
Speaking of the raid, it is massive, time-consuming, and brilliant…so far. I have made it through the first stage of it and the construction of it seems methodical. It requires you to be level’d quite properly, so I was lucky to have been part of a group that was higher light level and that exposed a glitch in the first part of the raid. The glitch allows you to do certain things without additional enemies bothering you on your main mission to take down a nasty witch. You’re probably going to need to be in the 530s for the Raid, at the very least. Good equipment and upgrades await you from this raid, but if you can gather together people to get you through at least the first part, then you’re going to be golden. The reason why the first part is vital is because you get your third seed upon completion, which provides you access to your third new super. That additional seed should help you to level up a bit faster, though I wouldn’t imagine too much faster.
As we progress through the raid, I will certainly update you on it. Right now, it’s a booger and worthy of your attention.
Crucible and Gambit
This section of the review is bittersweet. I was a huge fan of crucible in Destiny 1/2, and while there have been a few times where Bungie accidentally tipped the favor of some weapons too far on the gameplay scale, it has been fun for the most part…until May’s update. When the decision to move the shotgun from power to energy came down, it pretty much ruined the entire experience for non-shotgun toting Guardians, like me. Ammo is now readily available to shotguns, which means you’re going to have nothing but run, slide, and shoot shotgunners everywhere. Those people who love the shotgun are the people who have succeeded the most during my crucible experience since May. I know that Bungie tried to even the odds in May by bringing back the one-hit melee, but it’s useless because it’s a one-shot shotgunning when you get close to them — even when your Guardian is running at full speed. To be quite blunt, the shotgun has ruined the PvP experience and it’s no longer fun. The only way to rectify this issue is for Bungie to allow for customized PvP, kind of what you get in Battlefield when you’re choosing a server with particular attributes put on matches. For example, in BF4 you could look through a list of servers and pick out things like ‘no rockets’ and play on that server for a long period of time. We don’t get that option with Destiny 2. The closest is Private Match, but there should be public matches out there that limit certain attributes to the gameplay. I would come back if that was the case, but until then it’s difficult to play the game.
Now, I do get why they can’t do much in correcting the above complaint. You can’t move shotguns back to the power category because then it ruins the other aspect of gameplay for Forsaken. I’m sure one thing changed will tumble others, so the only viable solution would be customizable matches. Until that happens, I hope the shotgun people enjoy shotgunning each other.
On a more positive note, Gambit is freaking fun. There is a minimum amount of one-on-one contact between players, and more team-oriented gameplay, which makes for a great time. The idea of Gambit is that you’re going against another team on another map (you can’t see the team). Each team must take down enemies on their own map, collect triangular light pieces (getting 75 in total, but 15 at a time) from those downed enemies, put those pieces into a giant machine in the center of a map, then fight off a final boss once you get the max amount of light. The first team that defeats their final boss, wins the match. In between those moments where you collect the light and fight the final boss, you have to fight off rogue enemies (one at a time) that invade your side of Gambit, fight off Taken sent by the other team to disrupt the flow of the competition and block the machine from allowing you to deposit light, and take rogue enemies down before they take you down. If they take you down before the boss, then they’re just delaying you from collecting light. If they take your teammates down during the boss fight, then each kill puts health back on the final boss. It’s an intense PvP gameplay design and it’s a nice addition to the crucible. It’s worth playing a sweet addition.
Other things
While I may have not covered everything, I believe the above is the finer details of Forsaken and what people will be doing the most in season four…at least so far. There are additional strikes and some really gorgeous quests that I’m still playing and discovering. For the last two weeks, I have absolutely loved the Forsaken gameplay design and hope that Bungie works with High Moon Studios more to produce future content. They’re damn good at this whole gameplay thing.
Final Verdict
The majority of my experience with Destiny 2: Forsaken over the last two weeks has been overwhelmingly positive. I think the addition of Gambit, the change up of gameplay design and leveling, the raid, and the sense of scale with the two additional maps has really notched the entertainment value for this series up quite a bit. Forsaken truly is the best thing that has happened to the series. They do need to get crucible cleaned up, though, and sooner rather than later.
