First Impression: Destiny, The Taken King
This is the game Destiny always should’ve been.
There’s an actual story with actual cutscenes and ambient dialogue. The lines aren’t completely colored in but the game strikes a good balance between feeling vast and mysterious, like space should, while giving you just enough to contemplate. Shopkeepers, Faction Representatives, and Quest Givers are all animated upon “approach.” It’s one of the subtler changes I really enjoyed. The world feels populated now rather than like the museum it was before with all the people suspended behind glass with tiny plagues describing them. Other things to enjoy: Nathan Fillion and Nolan North (who’s replaced Dinklage as your Ghost which gives it a more human characteristic) are both big personalities given enough screen time to actually let you enjoy them.
I’m not trumpeting it as the best shooter ever. It is a good game though and the best Mass-Multiplayer Shooter ever – a short list, I know; take that as you will. The folks at Bungie have cracked the formula with the Taken King. They distilled all the necessary parts of what I liked about vanilla WoW – social hub to stand around looking cool and straightforward, no gimmick questing… a Molten Core Attunement Quest – with the right amount of faction grinding and world events from later Expansions. It then added in some fun-first shooting that has its own style (well, that was good before but there’s more guns and abilities now), and mixed it all together to form one fulfilling grindfest. And it is a grindfest. As a man that once main-tanked for a progression raiding guild, I am thoroughly enjoying it.
Destiny: The Taken King is vast and mysterious like space itself. If you’re an FPS fan and haven’t played Destiny yet now’s the time. Destiny: The Taken King Ultimate Edition retails for 60 dollars and includes the previous two DLC packs, the original game, and the TTK expansion – it also has a boost for one character to hit 25. It’s a great value. If you have Destiny already, you’ve probably already picked up TTK and should be playing it right now rather than reading. Go ahead and leave, I won’t be offended.
For those of you not yet convinced, did I mention I’m playing a fucking Space Paladin that uses the Sun as a melee weapon? I’m playing a fucking Space Paladin that uses the Sun as a melee weapon.