Taking Down the Taken King: New Destiny Expansion in Review

Gamers, rejoice! The newest Destiny expansion is on the market, with quite a few new twists and turns. 
Photo courtesy of gamepur.com

Whispers in the dark like fingertips on the mind. As the Guardians take yet another bastion of darkness, an even greater threat quickly advances and threatens to destroy the Destiny universe; Oryx, the Taken King. 

On September 15, 2015, players from all over the world joined together to rise against the legions of the Taken and to attempt to take down the Taken King as Destiny's most recent expansion, Destiny: The Taken King, was released. Players will quickly discover that Oryx, the Taken King, possesses the unique ability to 'take' a variety of the enemies players previously faced in earlier expansions, effectively repurposing his newly acquired subjects to his whim. While many of the enemies take on visual elements of older enemies, they have vastly different abilities to challenge players in the most recent installment in the series.

The new expansion comes with many changes to the game's core concepts. Previously, players could reach up to level 20 through completing bounties and fighting the darkness and could gain further levels through improving the 'light' on their weapons and armor in the game's various content, up to a maximum level of 34. However, Bungie, the creators of Destiny, realized that this design locked many players out of the content they purchased, as they may not be able to participate in content that required the maximum level. As a result, the light system has been revamped and is now an average of all of the attack and defense values on gear, allowing players to focus their weapon and armor choices in a manner that is more practical to their play-style or even allowing them to outfit their Guardian with any cool looking items they find along the way.

Among the game changes, the maximum level obtained is now level 40. In addition, the warlock, titan, and hunter classes that were defaults in the core Destiny game have all added new subclasses to help shake up the game's experience with some variety. Previously, each of these classes could manipulate two of the game's three elements, but now each class gained mastery over the remaining element each one was missing. Hunters now have the agile Nightstalker, a subclass that uses the power of the void to tether enemies to a location to help other Guardians survive; Titans now have the the mighty Sunbreaker, a subclass that uses the power of the sun to throw solar hammers at enemies to bring a world of hurt; and lastly, warlocks now have access to the element-manipulating Stormcaller, a subclass that harnesses electricity by supercharging the Guardian who can then shock enemies by chaining lightning through groups. Playing primarily as a Stormcaller, the game play experience has been phenomenal, as it turns out being able to manipulate electrical energy to quickly dispatch groups of enemies or to throw a shockwave of the stormy stuff in order to protect valuable points of interest in the game's updated player-versus-player (PVP) maps is quite powerful. Each of these new classes have made a large impact in both the game's story modes as well as the PVP modes, providing a fresh experience on a game with a goal of lasting 10 years long.

Destiny: The Taken King is available on Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, and the Playstation 4 consoles and has even included a Legendary Edition for purchase, which comes with the base game and all of the Destiny expansions to date, making it a great time to buy everything for an efficient price and experience the game firsthand for the standard price of a major title on these platforms. Overall, the most recent expansion has done a great job at smoothing out the storytelling formula that earned Bungie much respect with the Halo franchise and looks promising as the Destiny universe unfolds over the next nine years. 

So Guardians, will you take to the skies and help fight the Darkness once more?