Destiny 2: Forsaken (Re-Review)

So it's been just over a year since we got the base Destiny 2, one of the first games I have ever reviewed on this very site. So with more titles that are "live services" nowadays, I feel like as a reviewer, I owe it to you guys, as well as the devs, to talk about changes, good or bad, and if the game might not have been your thing when it came out, might be something better now. It's no secret that most didn't care too much for D2 just a few months after it was released, but really what happened? Why was it not so good? First was three items.

Eververse.

Bumbles and bugs.

A lack of an endgame.

These things weren't apparent at the release of the game. These were instances that happened months after the initial release. Than came the first expansion, Curse of Osiris. This was an expansion that no one really wanted, not by a lore standpoint, but an executed standpoint. It was buggy, boring, and far too quick. It didn't fix any of the three issues, or at least not in any way that is meaningful.

Than in came the bumbles. A lack of communication, and a lack of transparency didn't aid in the relief Bungie so desperately needed. Than there was XP throttling's, the first Festival of the Lost that was called Festival of the Cost by the ENTIRE community, and you get the point. The game just wasn't getting any better, and it looked to us on the outside that Bungie was just turning off the lights and pretending not to be home. However, we learned that wasn't actually the case, they were trying to right the ship behind those closed doors, and it took many huge updates, as well as this huge expansion Forsaken, to get the series back to where they want it. So does that mean it's back? Destiny is back? Well if you listen to the reviewers who have said something much sooner than me, you'd get a dramatic YES! But with me, I wanted to take a bit more time. I also got a bit busy, as we had broketober, as well as a SUPER busy November, and I haven't gotten a chance to say my peace. But here I am now.

I also wanted to get to the first event in the new Y2, the second iteration of Festival of the Lost. This was a huge look into how serious Bungie was going to take Y2. They could either mail it in, or give us something memorable. Well they did the latter.

So let's slow down just a bit, and try to talk about what has changed, and if it's as good as so many perceive it. First, let me start by asking a simple question, that I want to answer straight away. Is Destiny back? Short answer is, yes and no.

It's mealy mouthed, I know, but let me explain. Yes Destiny is back, but no it isn't back to being the same as D1. It's better. I can say this now, after the great Festival of the Lost event that concluded a couple of weeks ago. I had so much to do, but so little time to do it all in, that I actually got mad that I missed out on a few things. It's been a long while in any game that I got upset I missed out on obtaining something. That's actually high praise coming from me. With Festival of the Lost, Bungie did something they haven't done before, and it almost seems genius.

You see, with Curse of Osiris, Bungie gave us something we wanted more than anything, a place called The Infinite Forest. To most on the outside, that's gibberish, but to us fans of Destiny, it was an exciting prospect. Random enemies and levels generated? That sounds great. The execution though, once again, was poor. There wasn't anything worth while in the forest to obtain, and really, even with the dozens of randomly generated arenas and enemies, it was just SO boring. Than comes this new attitude Bungie, who takes one of the worst experiences of Destiny, sad to say, and turns it into something that's memorable. Enter The Haunted Forest. The Haunted Forest, was randomly generated, but everything was pitch dark, lit only by your Ghost over your shoulder. Sounds great already, right? But there is more. Than on random levels, have an invincible, who is like 20ft tall, chase you down, and try to cut you up with this giant fucking axe. All of this, while trying to get through as many waves as you can, before your 15 minutes are up.

It's exciting, and it was once again, genius on Bungie's part. I had a lot of fun with this event. The whole time, you could earn rewards as you leveled up, keep Eververse to a minimum. They overhauled Eververse to make it not as potent several months ago, but this event showed me how serious they are to making sure that nobody feels like they need to buy boxes and silver from this storefront. Everything feels obtainable. You see, Eververse's biggest sin in Y1 was that so many items that were cosmetic were held back in this storefront. But with events going forward like they are, so many new things obtainable in raids and Nightfall strikes, even with the new emphasis on bounties to earn dust to get the items that you want, I don't see Eververse as a problem really anymore. I feel like Bungie did the best job they could to keep both Activison and fans happy. Endgame was definitely their next big ticket item that I wanted to keep my eye on, and I can say with a smile on my face that Bungie nailed this too. There are honestly so many things you can do to get more powerful now, that I normally don't complete them all. With Daily and Weekly bounties, the Raids and their Lairs, Strikes, Public Events, and the new offerings like Warmind's Escalation Protocol or Forsaken's Blind Well, your head will spin. This isn't even touching on the Three man Raid/Dungeon they introduced a little while back, or the new PVPVE game mode Gambit. Both of these new editions are also some of Bungie's sandbox team and crucible team's best work. Bungie said they wanted to bring the hobby back, and with these events, as well as the return of random rolled weapons, I totally believe it. Bringing back random rolls on weapons and armor was a smart thing to do, as the biggest issue with endgame in Y1 was the lack of anything worth obtaining. Everything was so easy, that nobody got excited about getting new weapons. Each one did the same thing, and with a looter shooter, that's bad. What's the biggest appeal of Borderlands 2? The zany and great characters are one aspect, but it's the endless, randomly rolled, and weird as guns you obtain that keep you coming back for more. Same thing with Diablo 3. In those two games, you're always on the look out for something that either fits your playstyle, or something can help you try a new one out. In Y1, Destiny didn't do this either. The raid? The raid has you taking on a fucking dragon. Well, the equivalent of one anyways. I haven't gotten a chance to play it myself, as I haven't gotten a team together, but I have watched it, and it looks amazing. It took the first team like nearly 20 hours to complete the first run. It's definitely some of the best work Bungie's raid team has ever put together.

All of this, and Bungie has been more open with us too, which seems to have knocked down the amount of bugs. Now this could also be from something else, I'm aware, but it feels like instead of spending so much time trying to hide shit, they spend more time showing us the shit they have been working on, it takes pressure and energy off of everyone, and let's them focus on the task at hand. Or like I said, it feels that way, I could be wrong. So, all of this sounds great, but how has it exceeded past D1 in your eyes Steven? Well, I'm glad you asked! To me, what sets this so far ahead has been the art and story teams. The art team has always been on their A game since base D1 came out, just go to the moon and watch the Earth fucking spin and tell me how many games give you that much detail? But the two new areas that you get to explore, The Dreaming City and The Tangled Shore, are some of the greatest places we've been able to explore. Ever. They said they were going for a Tolkien Lord of the Rings vibe, and they absolutely nailed it. However, the story team needs to get so much credit, because they are always ragged on for not being able to rise up and make Destiny the epic that they seem to want it to be. With D1, The Taken King seemed to be a huge step in the right direction, delivering us a simple story, packed with a ton of lore. But with The Rise of Iron, it seemed a bit off, like the momentum was undertaken. D2's story was alright, much better than D1's, but that bar wasn't set too high. So after a short and bittersweet CoO, and a solid, but still short Warmind, I think everyone was a bit nervous, Hell, even some lore nerds like My Name is Byf didn't really expect much, and I can't blame them. But with Forsaken, not only do we get a simple tale of revenge for a fallen friend, but there is an overarching story about a Queen trying to retake her land that she lost back in D1. The villains are interesting, each with a style that was fun to adjust to and try and beat. But the biggest villain, is the last boss of the Raid, and they even get the last laugh, as the first team to beat the Raid, triggered a "Curse on the land" that rotates in and out new missions and objectives and even transforms the land around you. It's great, no, it's fucking amazing, and I feel like Destiny 2 finally is tapping into it's own potential, and Bungie is finally feeling themselves. New missions and lore is constantly being added into the game, even now, 2 months later, and it's all great!

So while fixing the three main issues D2 had in Y1, as well as starting to heal and fix issues stemming back to the base game of D1, you would think that I would give this game a 10/10 right? I mean, look at all that praise! But there a couple of missteps done, that I feel like either can be addressed a little later down the road, or can be fixed in D3. The first one is the lack of matchmaking in newer items like Escalation Protocol and the Blind Well. Now I get that the idea is to meet people in the wild, make new friends, etc. The issue is, sometimes you have to wait awhile to get enough people to make it work. Both events run smoothest with 3-4, and with like a make of what? 8-9 people on a single server, it's hard to get the people to do these, and both events are great. They have said there isn't much they can do now, so I understand, but for future endeavors, it would be great to get something that could aid this more. Keep them in the wild, but try and have it so that when you boot it up, it looks for other people much like Fortnite's Save The World does. The next issue is the fact that Strikes are still kind of weak with rewards, I get that they wanted to scale back on rewards according to what a lot players wanted, but now? It doesn't feel like it has any purpose right now.

Speaking of game modes, right now, Gambit is great. However, once you start to climb to the higher levels, it becomes a bit of a grind as you start losing match after match, and it just gets infuriating. You'll get paired with randoms, while you fight a team of 4. I'm excited to see if they shake this up just a little bit next season, but as of right now, I almost kind of dread this mode, and I LOVED it when it first came out. Final issue, is that the economy is still a bit in flux. With Forsaken, you can still level up old gear to newer light levels, but you have to use four things now, instead of what was once one or two. The issue is right now, that a lot of those things don't have any way to really farm or obtain them, short of either hitting up a new NPC, The Spider, or by farming planets, and that can get dreary. Bungie is supposed to be aiding this by adding new Bounties, so hopefully this should be straightened out fairly soon.

So with that, I want to give my final verdict to Destiny 2: Forsaken. My final verdict is... 9/10 I know I gave the base game an 8/10, and to be honest, I probably rushed a bit to get the review out there, so a few of the issues I wound up hating I didn't get a chance to talk about, but with this time around, I feel much more confident in what I'm putting out there. The game now is really better than it has ever been, and I love it. I'm looking forward to December as the new games and movies slow up, so I can enjoy some of the ones that have come out. This is going to be the busiest week for me, as I'm giving you guys new stuff just about every day. I have a lot of reviews to catch up on, and I've been working on the office to start getting you even more in the form of video reviews. So stayed tuned, and I'll see you guys next time. Steven out.