Is Forsaken Destiny 2’s Saving Grace?
My First Impressions On Destiny 2’s New Expansion

I have a love/hate relationship with Destiny 2. Some parts are amazing—specifically the first-person shooter mechanics. Whether you’re playing PvP or PvE, being a Guardian just feels good.
The first raid, Leviathan, is also incredible. I’m historically terrible at first-person shooters, and the focus on puzzles and mechanics-based challenges are right up my alley.
But some parts are… not so good. The story, though much better than the first (which isn’t saying much), is nothing to rave about. I didn’t feel attached to any of the main characters and the stakes just never felt high enough because of it.
And that brings me to Destiny 2’s Achilles heel… its endgame. Once you finish the game, it’s just sort of… boring, which wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t meant to be more of an ongoing experience. A hobby.
Destiny 2 is supposed to be a game people consistently come back to, but, in the main game’s case, there was just no incentive.
I stopped playing a few weeks after Destiny 2 came out. I skipped the last two expansions because I just kept hearing bad things. However, I’m back in the hopes that Forsaken will be Destiny 2’s Taken King.
The Good
Let’s just get this out of the way right off the bat — Gambit is seriously awesome.
For those who don’t know, Gambit is the new hybrid PvP/PvE mode that pits two separate fireteams against multiple waves of enemies. Each team spawns in a secluded portion of the map, only accessible through a portal on each side.
When enemies are killed, they drop motes. Fireteams must work together to collect motes and store them in the bank in the middle of the map. Once your team reaches 75 motes, you’ll spawn a Primeval, which is pretty much just a huge, bad ass boss. Kill the Primeval, and you win the round. First team to three wins.
Gambit has a sort of competitive, mini-raid feel to it. Good communication is key, which is why playing with a full fireteam of four is so damn satisfying, and simply fun.
It’s also why playing by yourself kind of sucks.
But who plays Destiny 2 alone? I sure don’t.
The new bow weapon class is also amazing. Like I said before, Destiny 2’s first-person mechanics are the best you’ll come across, and playing with a bow really highlights that. It feels so good to charge up a shot, blast a Dreg in the dome, and watch the body fly into the air like a rag doll.
I haven’t had a chance to test it out in the Crucible, so I’m not sure how it stands against the other weapons, or how it fits in with the current meta, but I could never really do any good in the Crucible anyway.
The Bad
I wonder how many terminals I’ve scanned in my Destiny career. Isn’t my Ghost sick of it by now?
Forsaken’s story missions are plagued by fetch quests — so far, at least.
Go here, scan this. Now scan this. Oh, you know what, while you’re at it, scan this too. Uh oh, wave of enemies coming in hot, better scan something else.
It’s all just a little annoying after a while. I caught myself audibly sighing at one point, and realized that I was just playing the story to level up and find new gear.
That’s a bad thing.
Gameplay aside, the story is just another Destiny story. I’d say I’m about halfway through, and I have no real emotional connection to it.
Cayde-6 shines in some of the early cutscenes, and then he’s gone.
There is this weird reveal early on where your character speaks. I think Bungie hoped it’d be cooler than it actually was. To be honest, it almost made me feel like Bungie killed Cayde-6, previously voiced by Nathan Fillion (now Nolan North), then said, “Wow, there’s finally room in the budget for a Guardian voice actor!”
I don’t know, maybe it did something for you, but it didn’t do much for me.
Final Thoughts
My main complaint about Forsaken is that it just doesn’t feel like much has changed. I thought I’d log in to Destiny 2 on September 4th and be blown away by all this new and amazing content. It’s definitely marketed in a way that makes you think it’s going to be a huge departure, but it isn’t.
It’s just Destiny 2. More Destiny 2. Maybe I was a little naive to think it’d be anything more.
That being said, I have a lot more game to play. I’m working on finishing the story, leveling up to 50, and blasting through the new raid with my buddies when it releases on September 14th.
Hopefully my opinion changes as I move through all the new content, but for now, I’m pretty much in the same position as I was when I stopped playing Destiny 2 — confused and a little bored.
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I’ll talk to you all soon. Next up, Spider-Man!