The Taken King is a massive expansion to the original Destiny and apparently has quite significantly changed the core game as well, for the better by what I hear. I can’t comment on that as I never played it before this release, what I can say is that I absolutely loved the Taken King! This release includes the original game, plus its expansion packs and the Taken King missions all in one package. So if you want to jump into Destiny this is the one to go for.
Destiny is a sci-fi shooter with role playing elements and can be played solo or as part a team working together. So far I have mostly played solo and although it is probably best when playing as part of a team, I don’t really feel like I have missed out on much, except for the raids, more on them latter though.
There is a story in Destiny but I’ll be honest I didn’t really follow it for most of the game except the Taken King missions and I honestly didn’t care at all. The game play is just so great I wanted to keep going back in for more. However the basic premise is that you are a Guardian, who are the defenders of Earths Last city, imaginatively called The Last City. You go about shooting alien races that are trying to shoot at you and, I dunno take over the galaxy or something. The controls are excellent and to add to this every enemy race requires a different approach to take them out which keeps the combat varied, challenging and exciting.
As you kill things and complete missions you gain experience and level up gaining new skills, making you a more powerful force to be reckoned with. You also gather loot, in the forms of new equipment such as guns and armour. The more powerful your equipment then the better “light” level you have. This leads to the slightly confusing fact that you have two important numbers denoting how powerful you are: a “character” level and a “light” level, although sounding confusing this actually works well in the game.
Pretty much every mission you get some new loot to boost you character stats and you never really get stuck “grinding” i.e. where you play without any reward or meaningful advancement of your character. This makes the gameplay very rewarding and addictive!
The main missions you take up come under story, patrol, strike and raids. Story and patrol missions can be played solo or as part of a team whereas Strikes and raids require you to be part of a team. Story missions do what you would expect and advance the story, while patrols let you run around a level with other players and pick up tasks and have random events spawn, such as warping in a massive enemy to take out. You can help out other players if you choose or just ignore them and run on by, they equally have that choice, so you know be nice, you never know when you might need some help!
On starting a strike you will be matched randomly with two other players of similar ability if you are not already part of a team. You work together to complete the mission which is usually much harder than story or patrol missions, hence the requirement of a three person team, and normally involved taking out a big boss character at the end. These are great fun you as you work together and help each other out to get to the end, although the team work is mostly reserved to reviving fallen team mates.
Raids are a different beast altogether, and I have never played one! Why well because raids require six players and there is no matchmaking, therefore you need to have five other friends available for your team. If you don’t have a huge friends list then this can be tricky getting enough people wanting to play at once, hence why I’ve not played it yet. There are plenty website to help you find people wanting to play but I‘ve just not found the time or to be honest, bothered enough to do it.
I do find it slightly annoying that there is no matchmaking as I’d love to play them especially as they are apparently one of the best things about Destiny, however I like the fact that they are something special that only the best and most dedicated players are rewarded with. Add to that the fact I have spent many hours in Destiny and have loved every minute of it, I can’t be angry at the developers for putting in something that quite frankly I haven’t put the effort in to earn, that’s squarely on me, the player!
In fact it is quite the opposite, I thank them for making a great game that is constantly evolving, new content being added and rewards you the more you put in. If that sounds good to you, go get it! Oh and I’m Gordybird1 on PSN if you fancy a friendly Guardian to help you out ;o)
