The diehard fans are no longer Forsaken.
What They Say:
The Reef has fallen to lawlessness, and now the most-wanted criminals in the galaxy – the Barons & Uldren Sov – have organized a jailbreak at the Prison of Elders. You and Cayde-6 have been sent in to bring law and order back to the embattled facility, but things do not go to plan. Facing insurmountable odds, Cayde-6 ends up paying the ultimate price. Beyond the Vanguard’s authority, you’ll venture into the Reef alone and take justice into your own hands. Explore new regions, awaken new powers, earn a wealth of new weapons, and uncover lost Awoken secrets. Destiny 2: Forsaken also includes a level 30 character boost that allows you the option to play the latest content right away or start a new character.
The Review:
Destiny 2: Forsaken is available right now and continues this interesting trend of having Destiny 2 feel a lot like its predecessor. The original game released, had issues, had two expansions that didn’t fix those issues, and then The Taken King came and changed everything. While I’d argue that Destiny 2 was a lot better than the original at launch, it didn’t have enough content to keep players and its first two DLC expansions were pretty forgettable.
Forsaken sets out to change that, offering a game-changing experience similar to that of The Taken King and it succeeds pretty well at doing so. However, it does it by following up on what really worked in the base version of Destiny 2 and expanding upon that. Unfortunately, it does so with some of its own mishaps along the way.
Destiny 2: Forsaken takes players to The Reef, a lawless new region in the solar system with a new enemy race to take on. This expansion, much like the base game, is story-heavy and actually has a pretty healthy amount of cutscenes for players to enjoy. The story follows players on a vendetta to take Uldren Sov and his Barons after some certain spoilery events happen at the very beginning.
Uldren is a more emotional and relatable villain, offering a different approach than other recent villains that players have had to take on. Much of the story and the cutscenes revolve around him and his relationship with his sister. While not exceptional or groundbreaking, a more thought out story was a welcome change.
This is helped by the fact that the story is more connected to the gameplay than ever before. Much of Destiny 2: Forsaken has players systematically taking out the Baron bosses while finding a way to get to Uldren himself. This is clear from the beginning of the game and it gives the expansion an Assassin’s Creed progression of sorts.
Unfortunately, there are some annoying required challenges that must be completed before getting to the Barons and Uldren that slowed my progress to a crawl and felt like unnecessary filler. Once I was past that, though, the missions opened up and allowed for a lot of choices.
The Assassin’s Creed-like progression comes in here. The player is able to take on six of the Barons in any order they’d like. While some are noticeably harder than others, the ability to choose what order to tackle them in felt like Bungie was finally evolving the Destiny 2 formula that had become so, well, formulaic.
The Adventure missions that each Baron has are pretty unique in and of themselves, too. Each boss specializes in a different thing with generic names like The Rider and The Mad Bomber. For instance, The Rider’s mission almost entirely revolves around the player having access to various vehicles for taking out him and his minions. Each of the six is different and do a great job of not making the expansion feel too samey or boring.
The Scorn themselves are a new type of Fallen enemies that players will face in Destiny 2: Forsaken. While not a totally new race entirely, each enemy variant of the Scorn have new traits that the player must contend with. During my time in Forsaken facing the Scorn, the enemies were interesting enough to keep me on my toes at all times.
A lot of this has had to do with their traps. Some of the Scorn can throw down traps right next to you randomly that either damage you continuously or keep you from moving far until you destroy it. These traps can change the course of a battle quickly as you have to take care of them first before focusing on the enemies again.
The Reef itself isn’t a terribly interesting place to explore but, thankfully, Destiny 2: Forsaken does come with some secrets for the diehard fans. I won’t spoil it but the story and the content within the expansion do contain a few surprises that reward those who are willing to see it through to the end. Those surprises and the freeform nature of the mission more than made up for the generic Reef locale.
Destiny 2: Forsaken also brought with it some new gameplay changes, the biggest of which are the new PvP mode, Raid, and the bow weapon. The new PvP/PvE mode Gambit gives the much-needed shake-up to the Crucible. I found myself pretty uninterested in PvP in Destiny 2 because of how repetitive it was but Gambit changes that.
In Gambit, players compete in teams of four, taking out enemies to collect orbs, and then dropping those orbs before they die. The first team to reach 75 orbs summons a boss enemy and the first team to defeat their boss wins the match. The twist in Gambit is that occasionally a portal will open up that a player can jump into and attack the opposing team. This allows for you to impede their progress in picking up orbs or against the boss directly.
Bungie hasn’t pulled any punches with its new Raid either, offering a true challenge for diehard players. As of publishing, I still haven’t been able to complete it just yet but the beauty is that it’s still fun and engaging regardless. The surprises and twists that it has are certainly worthy of being the endgame content. Finally, Destiny 2: Forsaken introduces the bow weapon type. This long-ranged weapon is one of my new favorites, as it can be as slow or fast as you want it. You can immediately launch arrows for a quick but inaccurate attack or charge it for a more accurate and powerful shot.
In Summary:
Destiny 2: Forsaken is what Destiny 2 needed right now. Though the new location isn’t super interesting, the story and content are. For the first time since the base game, it feels like the story matters with more cutscenes, a clear motive, and a complex villain. The new enemy types keep you on your toes, as do the missions themselves.
The ability to complete a large portion of the content in whichever way you want is a welcome change and one that we hope continues in the future. The new Raid, Gambit, and some other surprises offer a much more engaging endgame to keep players logging back in for much longer. With Forsaken, Bungie has catered to the lapsed players, the new players, and the diehard fans alike.
Grade: B
Released By: Activision
Developer: Bungie
MSRP: $39.99 (Standard version)
Release Date: 9/4/18
Platform: PS4 (reviewed), Xbox One, PC
This review was done with a review copy provided by the publisher. We are grateful for their continued support.
