Right off the bat, let me say this, if Destiny had released with all the content of Dark Below, The House Of Wolves and The Taken King, on its initial release; it would have been a formidable game. Well recieved both by critics and gamers. Living upto its huge hype, and establishing itself as one of the popular franchises for a long time to come.

Sadly it was not so, and while the game did set records for the best selling New franchise ever. This victory however was marred by complaints of thread bare contents and barely there story. The interface was half-assed, and standard stuff like economics and loot were difficult to comprehend. Most of the gamers agreed on its crisp gameplay mechanics though, and praised its well balanced multiplayer events. There was something for every kind of fan in Destiny, however there wasn’t enough when put together. Something which was abundantly clear in my review of the Year 1 version of Destiny.

The Taken King, solves all of those problems. The foremost of which is cohesiveness. Single player missions are stringed together into a more coherent quests lines, with more dialogue and context to each mission. All these quests along with your bounties are track-able on a separate tab now, where you can also see your different ranks with factions, Crucible and Vanguard among others. Bounties too, are now claimable directly from the Quest tab, so you don’t have to run back to the tower every time you are done with one. Affiliations with factions have also been streamlined, now you can only be aligned with 1 faction at a time which is shown clearly at the bottom of the Quest tab (no more changing bands and hoods and what not).

 Detailed Destiny The Taken King Review

(+) More Shooting Less Grinding

The amount of play content has increased too. The Taken King roughly contains the same amount of game time as Dark Below and House Of Wolves put together; which by modern game standard is sizable. This time the single player missions are much more fleshed out. With new sub-classes available to Hunters, Warlocks and Titans. There are a couple of class specifics missions too; which makes it much more enticing to play with different classes. The Taken King is also better written. The cut-scenes are much more in depth, and the focus on the 3 Vanguards is appreciated. Dialogues are witty and well written, with a more hands-on story which is on point instead of being all over the place like the original Destiny.

The Taken King also for the first time provides a villain which is visible right from the onset. Unlike the Black Garden, the existence of which seemed like an after-thought. And Crota, which you never actually fought. Oryx is almost always the final boss that you fight in each of your mission. He is there, a face someone towards which you can direct your actions towards. The game also introduces a new set of enemies. Well technically no, but hear me out. Taken Psions are able to split themselves into 2, Taken Thralls can teleport, and taken Vandals can create shield spheres around them. This provides some new dynamics to the existing gameplay and make for much more interesting battles.

(+) All Hail The Multiplayer

On the multiplayer side, The Taken King adds 3 new crucible modes “Rift”—a capture the flag-like mode, “Mayhem”—which greatly lowers cool down times for abilities, and “Zone Control”—a modified version of Control where points are awarded only for capturing and maintaining control of zones. The shotguns are still being Nerfed though, and all existing exotics have received a downgrade in damage, so there is that.

(-) Rebooting the Economy AGAIN!!!

The economy of Destiny is also restructured. Motes of Light now are used to add experience to equipment. Vanguard and Crucible points are done away with, Strange Coins however retain their position as currency for Xur. The new currency for buying exotics and legendary is called, wait for it… “Legendary Mark”. Shared across all characters, Legendary Marks can be used to re-purchase exotic items that had already been found by a user, along with upgraded versions of some pre-existing exotics, through the new “Exotic Blueprints” system (although this also requires Exotic shards) and engrams that are guaranteed to contain a legendary weapon. Year Two weapons and gear can no longer be upgraded to increase their stats; instead, for a fee, Legendary gear can be “infused” with another Year 2 item of the same type that has a higher level. Sounds confusing, well some thing never change.

Finally, the level cap has been increased to 40. With players who don’t own The Taken King being restricted to Level 34. Any year one players who don’t own the Taken King are also locked out of Daily Heroics, Nightfalls and Daily Strikes; which is sad, but that’s the way it is. You can see it as an underhanded tactic to make you buy the Taken King, but let me assure you, its a good thing to fall into this trap this once.

(-) I need to buy Destiny Again!!!

The Taken King can only be bought separately if you already own The Dark Below and The House Of Wolves. Otherwise you have 2 bundles to choose from, a basic edition which costs 3,999 INR and a Destiny: The Taken King Legendary Edition, which includes some bonus content which is priced at 5,999 INR. Both games include the basic game, and all the 3 DLC. Its pinching to think that you are basically re-buying the game if you want to play The Taken King, but if its any solace, you don’t need to download the entire game again, it just activates your existing copy (at least on the PS4).

VERDICT

Destiny : The Taken King is what Destiny should have been in the first place. As I killed hordes upon hordes of aliens with my precious hand cannon, a thought kept creeping in my mind. This is the game that Bungie must have pitched to Activision; this is the vision they must have had to make this into a Halo Killer. Destiny is a much better game than it was an year earlier, and its regrettable that it had to lose most of its crowd during that time. However, if you are looking for a reason to give Destiny another chance, this is time. With the promise of more free missions, and even newer multiplayer activities on the horizon; Destiny has never been more tempting.