Destiny: The Taken King - gamescom Preview

For all its successes, Destiny has proved to be a polarizing experience for many fans. The highly anticipated game released last year to both critical acclaim, and negative reactions. Destiny provided tight gameplay and an immersive setting, but lacked a strong story and incentive for replaying that didn’t revolve around grinding.

Two expansions and a number of updates have been released for Destiny. These have made considerable improvements upon the game, offering a more diverse set of modes and a new social space that adds much needed variety. It’s these, small, incremental updates that have added so much more to the game. Events give you a reason to play, and The Crucible, combined with The Iron Banner is now worthy of your time, offering better rewards. There is a host of content available to suit every player and Destiny is now, more so than at launch, a very good game.

The two expansions that have been previously released for Destiny, The Dark Below and House of Wolves, saw the game shaping up to become what many had expected it to be at launch. But it’s the third expansion, The Taken King, which is set to launch on the 15th of September that looks to be the biggest and best one yet.

I was offered the chance to play the first campaign mission from The Taken King and right from the start I could see major improvements in the story telling. The Taken King is directly tied into the Crota’s End Raid with Oryx, Crota’s father being out for revenge against the Guardians who murdered his son. A cinematic trailer, the one revealed at E3, was shown to us before the hands on segment, detailing Oryx’s space fleet approaching, a tense set up for the upcoming expansion.

The mission I played was short but had enough atmosphere and cinematic design to feel much more engaging than many of the game’s previous campaign levels. I got to choose from a Titan, Hunter or Warlock, each level 34 and equipped with their new respective subclasses. I chose the Warlock as I was more familiar with the class.

I was tasked with surveying Oryx’s dreadnought, which had appeared in the solar system, above Phobos, the moon of Mars and one of Destiny’s new locations. Cliffs were all around me and not long after I had started my journey, when a Cabal ship flew into view, dominating the screen before flying off. Further on dead and dying Cabal soldiers littered the floor, one crawled to me for help, before slumping to the ground. These touches marked a noticeable change in the mission, and I felt more connected to the world than I had done in any other Destiny level. The House of Wolves improved upon the storytelling in the game, and The Taken King is bettering it.

Inside the dreadnought things didn’t look much better. Strange pockets of interdimensional space were scattered throughout the ship, a device of Oryx’s which allows him to drag enemies through. I finally encountered The Taken, but the enemies, who have been transformed into Oryx’s minions, weren’t all too different from other enemies. One of their abilities is to split themselves up, demanding you take them out before more spawn. The Warlock’s new Stormcaller subclass has a super that sparks a chain of lightning from your hands, a very useful move for multiple enemies. At the end of the mission I got to see a ghostly visage of Oryx, demanding revenge for the death of his son.

The gameplay of the mission didn’t deviate from what we’ve seen before in Destiny. Instead it focused on telling a cohesive tale, which sets up the remainder of the expansion. For arguably the first time Destiny may have a campaign in which the player feels invested in. A feature which woefully disappointed me on launch day.

Coupled with Year 2, which introduces a new levelling system, a friendlier U.I, easier ways to gain legendary and exotic gear and more, The Taken King adds to an already growing list of improvements. If you’ve been on the fence about Destiny, now may be the best time to invest yourself in it.