Destiny: The Taken King Review (PS4)

Last year, Destiny, the multiplayer-only first-person shooter from Bungie and Activision, was supposed to herald a new age for gaming and kick off a ten-year cycle for the massive property. The end result, however, fell short of those expectations.

I gave it an 8/10 in the original review and cited the lackluster story, the repetitive gameplay, the general grinding required from players by the actual game. There was still plenty of fun to be had in it, especially with friends, but Destiny wasn't so willing to let fans enjoy themselves.

Since then, many different free updates and two premium expansions have arrived, implementing quite a few changes to the shooter based on fan feedback. Now, the third and biggest add-on so far, The Taken King, has arrived, promising a suite of much bigger modifications to the general game, albeit with a heftier $40/€40 price tag.

Do the new content in The Taken King and the general modifications to Destiny make the multiplayer shooter a more attractive experience or should fans just go elsewhere for their online gaming fix? Let's find out.

Story

The story in the base version of Destiny was lackluster, to say the least. The worst thing about it was the fact that it had so much potential. However, due to poorly written dialog and unimpressive acting, the general tone was campy and felt underdeveloped.

The two expansions released so far, The Dark Below and House of Wolves, did much to improve the general tone of their individual plots, and now, with The Taken King, Destiny's story finally manages to meet fan expectations.

The plot has a good pace, the cut scenes keep the action going while providing context, and the acting, together with the dialog, ensures that players are invested in the actual proceedings, instead of just mindlessly trudging through mobs of enemies in pursuit of the final boss.

The actual content is quite intriguing, as the actual King of the Taken, Oryx, arrives to seek vengeance on our solar system for putting an end to his son, Crota, in The Dark Below. There's also a fair amount of environmental storytelling through the massive new zone called the Dreadnaught, which is actually Oryx's ship.

As always, Grimoire cards, which are still only available on Bungie's website, tell a much bigger story. Even the side missions tell better stories and are more appealing from a plot standpoint.

Face off against Oryx in The Taken King

Gameplay and multiplayer

As mentioned above, the actual plot of The Taken King is attractive and manages to keep fans excited about the story missions. Their actual design, from a gameplay perspective, is pretty good. You aren't just taken from battle to battle in a linear patch. While that is relatively true for the prologue mission, once you reach the Dreadnaught, things get more open.

The new Taken enemies are basically recycled units from other factions but with their own dark twist, as Oryx infuses them with teleport and cloning abilities that make them pretty tough to deal with. Patience and careful use of cover are more essential than ever, especially as you progress to the new level cap of 40.

Unfortunately, there are still plenty of questionable design choices in some areas of the story missions, as Bungie seems fixated on disappearing platforms, endless chasms, and on enemies that can easily push you to your death.

This can get pretty aggravating, especially in some of the secondary story missions that are added by the game. Tricky spawning positions and cheap attacks also put a hamper on your adventures. The final boss fight with Oryx also suffers a bit from this downside, as during the ending sequences, you're taken to a new zone where you only have just a few moments to hit him before he backs away and becomes invincible.

As far as the actual multiplayer activities are concerned, there are several pretty impressive Strikes added by The Taken King, which take place largely in the Dreadnaught. The missions are varied in terms of enemies and goals, and one particularly stands out in the form of Sunless Cell, which has quite an interesting boss encounter.

Of course, on top of everything, there's the King's Fall raid. This all-new experience was hyped up to be the biggest activity ever for Destiny, and it certainly lives up to those promises. The sprawling adventure is a good mix of shooting and puzzle solving, but like the main stories in the expansion, it has a big obsession with platforming, as a major sector is allocated just to jumping between teleporting ships and, most often, to your death. Bear in mind that you need to reach the new level cap of 40 as well as have a light level of at least 290 in order to withstand at least some of the punishment in King's Fall.

Unfortunately, Bungie is still unwilling to implement a matchmaking system for Destiny's raids, so you have to either get your friends to play or find other people willing to work together online. While I understand that raids are supposed to be a more private and much more cooperative experience, so to say, it still punishes those who don't have enough friends able to play the game.

There are also a huge number of gameplay changes brought forth by The Taken King, starting with the three new sub-classes for each of the main classes. They're each tied to a specific quest and manage to make learning the new specialization much more exciting.

As always, the new legendary and exotic items are pretty impressive and manage to make saying goodbye to your Year One gear a bit easier.

Complete big missions in The Taken King

Visuals and sound

The Taken King manages to introduce some very impressive-looking visuals to the already-pretty experience. The Dreadnaught is imposing in terms of scale and design, and the Taken enemies manage to add a good amount of tweaks in order to avoid the impression that the faction is just recycling other units.

The voice acting, this time around, is much better. For the story sequences, Cayde, played by Nathan Fillion, steals the show by delivering some great and often hilarious moments. Nolan North, who takes over from Peter Dinklage as Ghost, also delivers a pretty decent experience but he doesn't talk all that much in this expansion.

Reach level 40 in The Taken King

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion