Destiny 2: Forsaken Review – Destiny 2 Part 2

Destiny 2 has just begun its second year and with it Destiny 2: Forsaken. Aside from a massive new expansion, Bungie has made an array of changes and additions to the Destiny 2 formula. Many of these changes seem to be a response to fan feedback that’s poured in since the beginning of Destiny 2’s life cycle, a large bit of those being a return to form for the series.

Destiny 2: Forsaken
Developer: Bungie, High Moon Studios
Price: $39.99
Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, PC
MonsterVine was provided with an Xbox One code for review.

*Editor’s Note: Destiny 2: Forsaken is not yet content complete. A Strike is missing and the Raid, Last Wish, will launch on September 14th. This review will be updated to include this content as it comes out, as well as the changing nature of the Dreaming City and the Destiny environment as a whole.

Despite Destiny’s ups and downs, its potential and rewarding challenges have made it my hobby of choice over the past four years. Despite a successful launch, both financially and critically, Destiny 2’s longevity as a hobby has been rocky. The complexities of randomly generated armor and weapon perks were tossed out, powerful special weapons like sniper and shotguns were replace with elemental primary weapons and moved to the power slot, and Bungie’s microtransaction store, Eververse, seemed to be overly prioritized. Bungie’s smaller downloadable content drops, Curse of Osiris and Warmind, introduced minor content drops and additions to the game, but Destiny 2’s flaws kept many players at bay once they finished the content.

Forsaken and the 2.0.0 update, introduced the week before the expansion launched, have altered the structure of Destiny 2 in a way that answers these issues and builds the foundation for an interesting and highly replayable year 2. Progression is both slowed and constant, and end-game activities already feel challenging and earned. Shaders can finally be deleted in bulk, although only in 5 which isn’t as big of an upgrade as I’d hoped. Collections, triumphs, collectibles, records and slot changes have all finally arrived.

It’s no secret that Bungie has been marketing Forsaken with the death of a major character, but if you’ve somehow avoided any details about Forsaken it’s time to bow out now. Aside from this talking point however, the rest of this review will be spoiler-free.

Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way: Cayde-6 is dead. It’s been in every piece of marketing for Destiny 2: Forsaken since E3, and both his last stand and his actual death as seen in-game have been publicly released for months now, but it was no less impactful. From additional cutscenes, special missions, and the Ace of Spades, Cayde’s trusty hand cannon, his death will likely warrant an emotional response from most users. Watching a Vanguard’s light go out, and seeing its impact in the tower and beyond, is a humbling experience.

Aside from Cayde’s death, the story of Forsaken is a mostly positive experience. Structurally, Forsaken is mapped out better than any prior story experience in Destiny. The campaign itself only has 5 missions according to the new Triumphs system (more on this later), with two post-campaign missions related to Cayde-6 and some end-game contents. The majority of the meat of the campaign comes from the 6 adventures in the Tangled Shore, each of which is dedicated to the assassination of one of the 8 barons directly involved in Cayde-6’s demise. These can be done in any order, although they do have a pattern of increased power level per adventure if you do feel like a linear sort of progression.

Each mission and adventure is more varied and overall more enjoyable than just about any Destiny mission to date. Almost every one features unique themes or game mechanics including vehicle play and other fun gimmicks. Each Baron has a distinct personality that lends itself to the mission themes. These Barons are largely well done, but can occasionally feel too gimmicky or off tone. The new enemy type, the Scorn, is incredibly interesting and is much more unique than any other faction in the game, with less copy/paste roles than the rest. On a deeper level, Forsaken attempts to challenge the Guardian’s morality, drawing fine lines between revenge and justice, and the light and the dark. While I definitely felt the tinge of revenge in my actions,  the moral ambiguity of my actions was still hit or miss. How exactly is stopping a terrorizing monster a dip into a dark path? The line between light and dark may be thin, but Destiny 2: Forsaken doesn’t always do the best job of expressing this.

The real strong point of Destiny 2: Forsaken comes from the end-game content, including an entire patrol zone, and the quality of life improvements. The Dreaming City is entirely shrouded in mystery which, when paired with time-gated unknown content and new collectibles and in-game lore, is revolutionary. The big questions of Destiny are beginning to be addressed, and huge events that have been in motion in the far background are beginning to come to the forefront.

Entirely new to the series is the new PvE/PvP mode called Gambit. Two teams of 4 are each in their own instance of a rather large map filled with enemies spawning in specific locations. When enemies fall they drop collectible items called motes that, when banked, can sabotage the enemy team by locking their bank with Taken enemies. The real PvP aspects come into play when 25 and 50 motes have been banked on either team. At these points in the game a portal opens and a Guardian can go over to the other team’s arena and wreak havoc. At 75 motes a large Taken boss, called a Primeval, appears. Over time, and through the elimination of key enemies players will get a buff to their damage to prevent overly long boss fights. During the entirety of the time that players have their Primeval out, the enemy team’s invasion portal is open, and death by Guardian heals the Primeval. Gambit is a wild success with worthy rewards, a fleshed out ranking system and plenty of clutch moments. Gambit can be annoying when placed against a full team of coordinated guardians with equipment meant for melting down bosses as quickly as possible. Particularly, the Sleeper Simulant is drawing contention from the community, as it is quite a powerful tool for one-shotting Guardians, both when invaded or when invading, and doing an intense amount of boss damage. Ultimately though, Gambit is definitely Destiny 2’s strongest contribution to the series.

There are also new additions that aren’t quite as flashy as Gambit but equally important to the longevity of the series. Triumphs were added with Forsaken, which ultimately amount to a cross between simple achievements and grimoire score from the first game. There are some 800+ triumphs for players to work towards and earn. Included in the Triumphs are significant bits of lore and collectibles that begin to flesh out some amazing tidbits about the universe without having to resort to external websites or community leaders. Collections were also added as an alternative to hoarding things in the vault, despite the vault space being nearly double. Collections allow you to purchase anything you’ve ever owned or deleted with the huge exception of randomly rolled weapons and gear. This means that collections exclude basically all newly obtained gear, but it is a nice way to delete and retrieve nostalgic gear, shaders and emblems.

Finally, as with most expansions, Forsaken adds new Crucible maps and strikes. As usual the Crucible maps added are serviceable, but not much to write home about. Of the three non-PlayStation-Exclusive Strikes added, one of them is not currently available as part of the game’s new mantra to be ever evolving. We expect the Strike to either launch on the next weekly reset or when the raid launches on September 14th. The other two strikes are easily some of the best Strikes to have come out of Destiny. The Warden strike specifically, is easily the best strike to date, and has a lot of references for fans of Destiny’s Prison of Elders.

Sadly, huge launches like Forsaken tend to cause significant problems on the bug side of things. This release is not only not an exception, but a shining example of issues. Right now some items have been deleted or not obtained by players, Triumphs are not quite working properly, the Raid location has been broken into, a player progression has hit a major reset snag. Although, as of now, those last two issues have been swiftly mended. This will all be mitigated in short time, but as of now, these can be significant sources of player frustration if not avoided.

If I Had to Rate It Now

Aside from some launch issues, Destiny 2: Forsaken is everything that it needs to be and more. The content is engaging, progression is slow, steady and rewarding. Mission structure is novel, even if some of the morals of the story can fall flat. With the Dreaming City as amazing and dynamic as it currently is, I couldn’t be more excited for the new Strike and the Last Wish Raid.

MonsterVine Review Score: 4 out of 5 – Good