Why ‘Forsaken’ May Be The Shot in the Arm Destiny 2 Needs
Destiny 2 has been in a lull for some time now. The game got off to a rocky start last fall, coming under fire for being essentially a watered down reskin of Destiny. This was followed up by the poor reception of the first DLC expansion, Curse of Osiris, which cost $20 and had very little to offer besides the smallest and least interesting patrol zone in all of Destiny. Many players simply abandoned ship after CoO failure and took up other franchises with similar gameplay loops and combat flow, like The Division or Warframe. Developers scrambled to revitalize the game’s fleeting fanbase and vowed to return Destiny to its former glory.
By the time Warmind, the second Destiny 2 expansion, had rolled around, there had been lots of time for change. Legendary armor and weapons could now acquire the status of a Masterwork, which had a random 5 point roll in any attribute department, like handling, reload speed, etc. PvP in the Crucible got a pretty big overhaul, with adjustments to time-to-kill and map restructuring with power ammo. Swords were added as power weapons, and generally, the game had received a major upgrade. These updates rolled out in several patches from December all the way to May when Warmind launched. Along with the new updates, there was a new patrol zone: Mars. There was a new variety of Hive there, a new endgame mode called Escalation Protocol, and a new story featuring a worm God (that’s not a joke, either. It’s a giant worm that the Hive cultists pray to). For some players, it was shaping up to be a really good departure from the souring Curse of Osiris.
And for a lot of players, myself included, it was. Without getting into the details, the story was meh but the content of Mars was amazing. Enemies were refreshingly new, with a few Hive variants that I don’t think spawn anywhere else, like Acolytes with sniper rifles and Hive knights with durable shields that are more aggressive than the standard knights. This, and new weapons quests, vehicle quests, and other such easter eggs. It was ten times more engaging than Brother Vance and Osiris on Mercury.
But again, it seemed that most weren’t really won over. It was another $20 (in my opinion it was absolutely worth it) and that just didn’t sit right with people. That, and general anger with the Eververse store and poor outings for Iron Banner and Faction Rallies, led players to still keep their distance.
Now, there is a but to all this. In the near two months since Warmind launched, there have been a multitude of game changes that have helped the game feel and play a lot better, like the ‘Go Fast!’ update and exotic reworks, further PvP additions like new maps and a dedicated weekly mode playlist, more PvE changes, like Nightfall Strike scoring and Guardian related fixes, and even more fixes that I probably failed to mention.
Where ‘Forsaken’ falls in all this is the real key. With these changes having already happened, what do we have to look forward to? What meaningful changes are occurring with this update? Let me tell you.
1. They’re adding bows to the game
The general consensus on bows and arrows in games is that they’re badass. Tomb Raider, Far Cry Primal, and several Assassin’s Creed titles all have pretty awesome bows. Where people have qualms with it is that it seems somewhat “too little, too late” for the series, or just a lazy game of catch-up by the developers. For example, Crysis was an amazing game, and Crysis 2 was equally awesome (though its story was somewhat generic), and then Crysis 3 hit, and OH MY GOD they added a bow! And it was incredible! But it’s almost like that was all they cared to really add. The game felt oddly recycled, and it seemed that this trend carried over to other games. When it does pop up in other games, the bow and arrow is sort of interpreted as “they didn’t have any ideas left to add to the game, so they slapped in a bow and arrow” or melee variants in lootboxes, in the case of Call of Duty: Black Ops III or the rope dart in Assassin’s Creed III. Things that, while somewhat cool on their own, are such a departure from the gameplay fans had gotten used to that it was only a hindrance or a gimmick ex. the freaking dumb arrow wrist crossbow thing from Assassin’s Creed: Unity (heaviest sigh imaginable). It’s almost a trope to add a weapon outside the normal realm to spice things up, if that makes sense, so the bow has some major ground to cover if it is to be considered more than just a gimmick. I, for one, am holding out hope that it’s just as badass as the devs want you to think it will be. Even if it isn’t, Forsaken has a lot more going for it than just a bow.
2. They’re “bringing back the grit of Destiny”, and it’s kicking off with the permanent death of Cayde-6
Since the launch of Destiny 2, Cayde-6 has been a walking one-liner machine that, if it weren’t for Nathan Fillion’s pleasant voice-acting, would be the most annoying character in the game. He just doesn’t do anything, though that trend isn’t dissimilar to any other NPC aka literally what does Ikora do besides pretensously judge Zavala and give Cayde a stiff talking-to? That’s besides the point.
Bungie released a teaser trailer for Forsaken that got the community buzzing. In it, Cayde-6 gets executed with his own hand cannon, the Ace of Spades, by none other than Lord Uldren from D1. When I saw this, I raced to the comment section and it was lit up with Guardian activity discussing how they’d get their vengeance for their fellow fallen hunter. With this trailer and the reaction it garnered, Bungie and their developers are making a drastic statement: The Destiny 2 you knew is gone. In fact, it was literally murdered before your eyes. No more quips (or at least far less), and no more playing savior. This time, it’s personal.
3. Random rolls are back
That’s right. In their docuvlog about Forsaken, Bungie devs revealed that randomized rolls are returning in Destiny 2. The game itself had been missing them, for reasons unknown, up until this point. The community has been pining for them ever since the game came out, and it looks like they’re getting what they asked for. Not only this, but a new weapons system that more closely resembles Destiny 1’s.
4. With ‘Forsaken’ comes a new PvPvE mode called Gambit
No lie, this game mode is very complicated. So at the beginning of the round, the map will load in and the two teams of four will be put in separate sorts of arenas. These arenas will be filled with mobs and the teams will have to kill them to get rewarded points called motes. Each team member can grab motes and deposit them in a bank. The more motes you deposit, the closer to summoning the enemy you need to kill to win the round. This is what’s called the Primeval. In addition to summoning the Primeval once enough motes are deposited, a player who deposits larger amounts of motes at once summon an enemy blocker to the opposing team’s arena, in the hopes of slowing down the enemie’s mote collection. But once enough motes have been summoned by one team, their Primeval will be summoned. While this is active and still alive, the team that doesn’t have their Primeval summoned yet has the ability to send over one of their teammates and invade the enemy arena. They’ll get sent over with a buff to allow them more time to do some damage. For every kill this buffed player gets on the enemy team, the enemy team’s Primeval heals. The team that manages to kill their Primeval first though will win the round.
Still confused? Check out the trailer here.
5. New Supers!
One of the coolest things that is coming with the Forsaken update are new supers for each subclass of each Guardian. That’s 9 total new supers! This includes a crazy lazer beam super for the warlock and void daggers for the hunter. There are more, but information describing them isn’t particularly forthcoming, so for now, these pictures are going to have to suffice (I had to screengrab a few of them from the reveal, but to see them in motion, check the video near the bottom of the post).
6. Two completely new zones: The Tangled Shore and The Dreaming City
By far the best thing to come back to Destiny 2 for is new patrol zones and new places that us Guardians have never been. Forsaken is set to deliver on this with not only a new story area, The Tangled Shore, but a new raid and patrol zone called the Dreaming City. We don’t know too much about either, but the Dreaming City is said to be very exploration based and that there are unique puzzles and challenges awaiting us there that we haven’t seen before. As for the tangled shore, it’s a section of the Reef (as in the area from Destiny 1) that no Guardian has set foot in. And these sections are not only new to us, but filled with new enemy types.
7. New enemy types: the Barons and the Scorn
The new enemy types available in Forsaken are described as “wild”, almost feral monsters that can really pack a punch. Alongside these aggressive creatures are the main sort of antagonists of Forsaken: The Barons. Barons are high-level enemies that tie in directly with the main story of Forsaken, and are pretty much bosses, from the sounds of it, with unique weapons and abilities that will challenge the player in unique and differing ways. One such encounter was described by one of the developers as “a sniper-vs-sniper battle”. Personally, that sounds awesome to me. It’s gameplay tweaks like this that should really set Forsaken apart from the base game and subsequent expansions, by pushing players to engage with enemies in ways they hadn’t done in a Destiny game before.
Want more clarity? Check out that docuvlog down below!
It’s very clear what the developers have intended for Forsaken: amping up all the things that we, as a community, were asking for and maturing the game by giving us a real, personal adventure to set out on. Gone are the days where our Guardians face seemingly impossible odds all alone, but because of the nature of the game, we have to win. This is a tale of revenge, and one that each player will have the opportunity to personally enact. Whether it’s new weapons or new places to go or even new game modes, I think Forsaken could really revitalize Destiny 2 and its fanbase by introducing a ton of new content and a bunch of new reasons to fall back in love with the universe. I mean, what more could you ask for? I really can’t think of anything, and I don’t think the developers could, either. That being said, Forsaken launches September 4 on all popular platforms (except Switch, of course) and will cost you $40. With the new additions, let’s hope that the spiritual successor of ‘The Taken King’ can deliver.
