Will Destiny’s Forsaken DLC lead the Franchise into light or Darkness?
Destiny’s diminishing player population has recently gone up in a supernova with the price of Destiny 2 falling from 49$ all the way to 0$ (for PS+ a least!) leading to hundreds of new players installing Bungi’s endless loot grind and giving the series a fresh approach. With Destiny’s 3rd DLC freshly released for players to get there loot hungry teeth into, it was a genius move to make the game free, days before their much anticipated DLC: Forsaken, hit the Destiny Universe. Though, an influx of new players to a now free game probably isn’t enough to persuade people to invest in another of Destiny’s (rather expensive) expansions; it has to be of the standards of 2015’s The Taken King, or the franchise may just find itself buried alongside Crota.

DLC’s are quite a controversial subject when it comes to the gaming community; especially paid ones. Infamously, EA is a good example of a developer who releases unfinished games and then finishes it over 2 years by consistently adding paid DLC, like 2015’s Battlefront reboot. This caused a rather large amount of debates, and it turns out that games should be released fully completed, rather than dragging out a release by 2 years and paying three times the games price. But somehow, Destiny has managed to avoid this uproar and is releasing its 7th for the generous price of $39.99, whilst lingering in the darkness avoiding the revolution that freed gamers from the money grabbing tactics of EA. So, luckily enough, in avoiding this rebellion, Forsaken has managed to cling onto its price tag and hasn’t become a target of unhappy guardians, of which if it did, it would likely have been bust before release. So Forsaken has succeeded in the first stage of release, unlike a lot of other games; avoiding a conflict.
Like a lot of post release content, its often not as in depth or good as the game its going into, which is the story for 4/6 of Destiny’s expansions. To sum up each expansion with one word on a scale (with top being the best), you’ll get something looking a lot like this;
The Taken King; King
The House of Wolves; Fun
Rise of Iron: Interesting
The Dark Below; Backwards
Curse of Osiris; Trash
Warmind; Waste
So Destiny doesn’t have a clean record with its DLC, but does have some jewels hidden in its dark crown, one of which shines brightest is TTK; if Forsaken is of that standard, then it will surely succeed, and the light will be restored in Destiny’s name, but if not then it could be the end of Destiny as we know it and being the content expected to restore the games many previous issues.

The First thing that Forsaken does very well unlike more or less every other Destiny DLC is its story — the heart wrenching cinematic of the death of the franchises most noteworthy character — Cayde 6. A fantastically distressing beginning drawing you into a threating storyline, made more intense by the death of a story driving character — it definitely feels like a revenge story. It definitely fills in the gaps of cinematics Destiny has never fully implemented, making it feel like a wholesome story. Couple this will the death of Cayde, it feels like you generally are fighting for a purpose that is personal, hunting down a traitor that you actually want to obliterate with you’re entire arsenal, which previous expansions haven’t even touched. So the story is a definite reason to come back to Destiny, of which is a huge turning point in the Destiny Universe; this huge turning point may just be the reason players will come back.

But Destiny (as always) is trying to be all things to all people, so a singular fantastic story, alongside a new twist in the Destiny lore, won’t cut it for a lot of Destiny fans who are drawn to PvP, raids and exploration. Well that's lucky Bungi have added (some could say) a revolutionary new mode; PvEvP, which sounds *epic*. Fighting players, while pummelling enemies with a fire squad in Gambit is something along the lines of what I've wanted from game for a while and definitely delivers with Destiny’s fantastic gunplay. If this doesn’t fulfil you’re PvP dreams, then I don’t know what will.
To those explorers, there is a refreshing new area of the Reef to explore; the tangled shores, which sounds most intriguing alongside the dreaming City making this, what Bungi is calling the largest endgame destination ever, hopefully as dense and interesting as the story is, which would give another high class reason to play Destiny. The reef is one of the least known and least explored area, dominated by that of the awoken. These blue faced mixtures of the light and darkness are still quite mysterious and will probably create an interesting loop of lore to follow in the exploration of the reef, alongside the friendly and fiendish Fallen.

Why do people play Destiny? (Mainly) because of the loot. If you’re looking for more loot then the Reef is the place to go, because by God there's some fantastic new looking weapons. And its not just the game, Auto rifle, pulse rifle or hand cannon, its *Bows* (the trinity ghoul and wish ender); bows that you shoot arrows out of, while flying in mid air, over some poor Fallen Dreg and unleashing a hail of arrows into its face, just like Robin Hood. And that's not it, Bungi has shaken up gear ideas and mods, creating some strange and pretty cool ideas; new boots to defect bullets while sliding (and yes, even rockets), a sword that shoots energy projectiles and even a flamethrower. This literally sounds like a new game… which is why Forsaken might just be a (huge) success.
And it doesn’t stop there; if you’re bored with all the subclasses in Destiny, then there are 9 more to try out, making the game so much more complex and the gameplay so much more interesting, (plus there’s more to grind for if you’re a hardcore completionist). These subclasses also counter the problem that held destiny back before, making it a more class based experience; so if I chose warlock, I won’t have the exact same ability of that of a Titan, whose upgraded skill tree is to a similar standard as mine. This results in more thoughtful tactics, rather than just simply running into a raid guns blazing (there's a new raid too) and blowing the head off every Dreg in sight without a thought, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but brings a new element of gameplay.
New strikes, new PvP, new game modes, new *improved* story (with amazing cinematics), new loot, new mechanics, (takes a breath); everything about Destiny 2; Forsaken seems new, but what's more, Destiny seems new. Which is obviously what Bungi wants to do, to entice new players. Its smartened up UI makes Destiny 2 feel polished and well constructed, which when ultimately combined with everything, screams Destiny 3 — a new start and beginning for the Franchise. It looks like Destiny is approaching the light again, thanks to Forsaken.

