Destiny: The Taken King PS4 Review: What a Difference a Year Makes

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DAY ONE

They say that you never forget how to ride a bike. I wish the same could be said for MMOs. Maybe it's just me, but I tend to quickly forget the ins and outs of a game if I don't play it for a while - and such was the case with Destiny when I fired it up for its new expansion, The Taken King.

The only aspect I've really played of it since its launch a year ago is the PvP side of things, as my exceptionally poorly geared level 24 hunter attests. Well, I'm very poorly geared for PvE, but actually quite well geared for PvP.

Fortunately, The Taken King gives you a complete set of new gear to start with – and a one-time boost to level 25 for one character via an item delivered to you in the mail called a Spark of Light. I didn't use it on my hunter, and instead simply went ahead and played a few PvP games to tip her over the mark to 25. I used my precious Spark of Light on my level 4 warlock – might as well not waste it, right?

Playing a few rounds of PvP was a good way to ease my way back into the game, and once I'd hit level 25, I had a good feel for the controls and cadence of the game once again. Then it was a case of returning to the Tower and seeing what was new.

And what's new is a Taken King quest line that has a much more robust storyline than last year's release. It's a simple enough premise: a story of revenge. Oryx, the eponymous Taken King has taken it upon himself to avenge the death of his son, and has assembled an army created from the Darkness to that end. Following a failed attack by The Queen and her troops on his Dreadnaught ship, he is poised to launch a devastating attack on the Vanguard and Earth. That's where you come in as the hero of the day, on a series of missions to track down tech that will put an end to the Taken King's ambitions.

Almost the moment you begin the new missions, the difference between Destiny 1.0 and 2.0 becomes apparent in terms of the quality of its story, dialog and voice acting. This time out, the on-mission exposition is far more interesting, and engagingly voiced. Nolan North does an excellent job as the ghost, imbuing your robotic sidekick with a certain sense of charm and wit. This isn't just better voice acting – the dialog is tighter and makes more sense than last year's hum-drum ramblings.

Early missions feel very much like Destiny 1.0, and my initial reaction was one of concern. One of the complaints that I had with last year's release was that while there were open areas to explore, they had nothing in them. Just empty spaces connecting the areas where you engage the enemy. In those zones, the action could feel somewhat relentless: corridors full of enemies connecting spaces usually filled with a boss-type character, with little respite in between. It was pure first-person shooter fare, and missions often felt like levels from a regular FPS game. Of course, that makes sense because Destiny is an FPS – but it's also an MMORPG, and in that sense last year's game felt like it was missing something: there wasn't much in the way of mystery, and exploration was largely an unrewarding and indeed even pointless exercise. It looked and felt like an epic game, but ultimately didn't deliver on that.

The Taken King's storyline begins with a couple of missions that continue that tradition. Once again, it presents corridors filled with enemies, and not much else to see. However, as you begin to make progress into the story missions, the action becomes a little more spread out, and there are moments of quiet exploration between combat set pieces – and it works really well. It gives you time to breathe and take in where you are. A chance to marvel at some of the game's fantastic scenery and mission settings, and to also wonder what might be around the next corner. It might sound like a minor issue, but I feel these sorts of moments are what help make a game great. While action is, of course, all-important, you don’t want to necessarily see an entire game down the barrel of a gun. Being able to explore a little, and feel like you're adventuring as well as giving your trigger finger a good workout helps make the game feel more balanced and more interesting. Especially when there are areas that are actually worth exploring, unlike last year's wide open empty spaces that had nothing much worth seeing.

There's even a bit of platforming to do, as in one early mission where you're climbing up a rickety old tower. It took me a few moments to figure out what to do, because my immediate reaction was to look for something to shoot at. Not so in this case: I had to make my way up to an item that was right on top of said tower, and activate a piece of machinery. Again, it's a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but it helps give the game variety and your character a sense of place, and articulate that the challenges he or she faces aren't just solved by squeezing a trigger. There's a little more to the game than just that – which to me is a welcome change over vanilla Destiny.

DAY TWO (Morning)

Something I'm liking about The Taken King is that loot drops and leveling seem to have been seriously beefed up. I'm picking up plenty of interesting items in terms of loot, which is definitely what you want from an MMO, but, more importantly, the missions aren't outstripping my character's levels. I ran into situations a few times in Destiny 1.0 where the experience I was garnering from missions wasn't quite sufficient to level me up quickly enough to keep pace with the level of missions I needed to tackle next. Because of that, I ended up having to farm some of the early missions a few times so I could level up enough to move onto the next missions without too much difficulty. Rather than moving forward with the story, I was repeating levels, and it just made the game feel more like… a game. A rote series of missions that needed to be done, rather than some kind of continuous grand adventure where you're immersed in the story.

Fortunately, that's definitely not the case with The Taken King. So far, my level is keeping pace with the level of missions, so I'm not feeling like I'm going in under-leveled, or under-geared. It just feels like the game has been better balanced in this respect, and progress feels much less of a grind.

Another thing I like is my hunter's new super – a bow formed from gravitational void energy. It's not necessarily overpowered, but it just feels quite dynamic and fun to use in clutch situations. I don't know how other classes' new supers equate to the hunter's, since I haven't had a chance to use them yet, but they certainly sound interesting to use: the Warlock has a new electrical storm bolt, and the Titan has a flaming hammer that can be used at both range or as a melee weapon.

DAY TWO (Evening)

Gah! Sometimes online gaming can be very frustrating. You don't think about that oh-so-important persistent connection until you try to connect and nothing happens. That's been happening to me for the last hour or so as I've been trying to repeatedly log into The Taken King, and I've been getting nothing but a "cattle" error. This basically puts the blame on my connection and network settings, but I know that all things are good at my end, because I just used Bungie's very helpful resources and links (to Sony) to make sure that my router is set up in the way that it should be. After visiting the forums and seeing other people complaining about having the same issue that I'm having, I saw that a moderator posted that Bungie is looking into the situation and should have a fix shortly. And lo and behold, I was able to log on about 15 minutes later.

What's the point in me telling you this? Nothing, other than the fact that when it comes to assistance and staying on top of what's going on, it seems that Bungie is pretty responsive and has a decent suite of resources to help out. Your mileage may vary, of course, but it's good to know if you're buying into an MMO that there is some helpful and fast-moving infrastructure behind it should the worst happen. This is the only time I've experienced a glitch with connecting and running Destiny, and my down-time was a little over an hour, which, while frustrating because I want to be playing so I can continue to write this review, wasn't too bad, all things considered.

DAY TWO (Night)

Back online, and back into my adventures again, and I continue to be impressed with the way the storyline is being articulated. The cut scenes and dialog are like night-and-day compared to last year's game. Nathan Fillion as Cayde-6 delivers a spot-on performance as a wisecracking mercenary type that made me smile on more than a few occasions. Lance Reddick also puts in a typically stern-sounding turn as Commander Zavala, and he also sounds perfect in his role. It's a great reminder of how important dialog can be, turning cut scenes from something you want to skip into informative and entertaining set pieces that imbue a game with atmosphere.

In the case of The Taken King, it really helps bring the characters to life. Last year they unfortunately felt like staid puppets that did little other than sit in the tower doling out missions, and the occasional piece of advice. This time out they really have substance, and indeed even a bit of panache about them. As you can probably tell, I'm quite enthused about this aspect of the game, and for good reason. The Taken King now has a real personality about it – I feel like I'm going on missions for good reason, and I have better understanding about what I'm doing and why. They're definitely not just exercises, as they often felt last year.

So far, based on my experiences with the game, The Taken King has built on what Destiny 1.0 offered and has smoothed out many of its rough edges. The game now feels more expansive, varied and interesting. Its characters are deeper, have personality, and are generally more engaging. Its storyline feels like a grand adventure, rather than a series of encounters with an enemy that I don't necessarily understand, and for reasons I don't really care about.

What a difference a year makes.

InterfaceNavigating through the game is largely the same as last year - using the joypad-controlled cursor is a little slow and clumsy.

Lasting AppealThere's plenty of endgame content to get your teeth into this time around, with missions, strikes and a new raid to test your mettle.

SoundSuperb voice acting is supported by solid music and effects to deliver a great-sounding game.

VisualsThe Taken King's vistas are impressive and well worth exploring. Sometimes the game tends to feel a little on the dark side, but overall the game looks terrific.

ConclusionThe Taken King is a huge improvement over last year's release. It features a far better story, much stronger voice acting, more exciting and varied missions, and an endgame that is more rounded out for long-term play. Not only that, but it also refines the overall gameplay and makes the game a far better experience than before - one that is definitely worth playing.

DAY THREE (Morning)

One thing I should mention is that I've been playing The Taken King solo. I've enjoyed it greatly, but there have definitely been situations where I'd like to have been part of a fire team to tackle some of the tougher encounters. Not because they're that hard, but more for the fun of playing co-operatively.

Still, despite the challenge of playing solo, I think the difficulty is gauged about right for single players. I've definitely gone up against a few boss-type characters that have soaked up a large amount of bullets and quite a few lives before I've been able to best them, but nothing that I've felt was unfair or overly difficult. Indeed, I've enjoyed finding creative solutions to beat some of the more challenging boss fights, using cover and hit-and-run tactics to work through some of the tougher situations.

In that sense, I think The Taken King is pretty well designed. Most encounters work largely the same as the original Destiny, but they're just a little more refined and have more variety. Sure, there are plenty of familiar elements, and some of the bosses still feel like bullet sponges, but for the most part they're less so than Destiny 1.0.

I think Bungie has found a good balance between giving existing players more of what they want – after all, despite some criticism about the original release, Destiny has been a huge success – while listening to some of that feedback and acting upon it to bring in new elements to mix up the gameplay and broaden its appeal. The Taken King definitely looks, plays and feels like classic Destiny, but its fundamentals have been fettled to make the game more appealing to players like me, who tried it out last year, but never stuck with it. Those tweaks are largely quite subtle, but they're certainly enough for me to look upon the game far more favorably, as I'm sure you can tell by my review so far.

A case in point: something I criticized vanilla Destiny for last year was that many of its encounters often felt like attrition – largely created by unimaginative enemy AI. You'd encounter situations where you'd essentially dig in, and use just a few safe-ish spots to fire endless rounds at the enemy until you'd finally killed everything. This time out, the enemy AI seems to be a lot more varied and intelligent. It's still not absolutely outstanding, but in making the Taken more interesting to fight, and giving them different kinds of behavior patterns, you end up having to be a little more mobile and improvisational than the last time out. Sure, there are still one or two boss fights where I've pretty much cheesed the AI, but I've generally had to be far more creative in my efforts to down monsters than last year. At least, that certainly feels the case.

Because of that, I've enjoyed encounters a lot more. They've felt more dynamic and have tested me in a more rounded way than last year, which often felt more like battles of endurance. I've had a few runs that have been quite tense and (literally) gripping. One (without giving away any spoilers) involved working my way into a heavily-defended enemy emplacement to find an item, and then escaping from it by running out. Well, I tried running out, but it turned out to not be a particularly good idea, and after dying, I ended up strategically running and gunning through the alerted enemy defenses. It was pretty tough and hectic, but had just the right pacing to feel stressful in a good way. I noticed that by the end of the run – which involved a rather tricky boss that kept spawning minor critters that I had to deal with – my hands were aching from holding the controller so tightly. I consider that a mark of a good game: it sucked me into the action so well that I wasn't thinking about anything else other than the immediate task in hand. Very good stuff!

Another series of encounters involved working through three rooms of increasing difficulty. Many of the enemies I encountered had pretty devastating long-range capabilities, so there was a lot of maneuvering to get rid of the lower-level threats that were charging at me, while dealing with the longer-range menace. Again, I had to be very strategic and methodical in terms of what I was doing, using cover and the occasional hit-and-run tactics to pick up ammo to prevent myself from running out.

Speaking of which, limited-supply ammo has always been a particular bugbear of mine. I'm generally not particularly enamored with the mechanic of running out of ammo, but The Taken King seems to be reasonably well balanced in that sense. I've had situations where it's been touch-and-go with low ammo supplies, but for the most part drops are frequent enough that as long as you're not spraying bullets everywhere, you're supplied with sufficient ammo to get the job done, even if you occasionally have to run into the thick of things to go pick it up.

DAY THREE (Early Afternoon)

I took a bit of a break just now to try some PvP, and, as I knew I would, I had a huge amount of fun. As I mentioned at the start of this review, this is the only aspect of the game that kept me coming back during its first year, and after my session just now, regardless of how I end up feeling about the PvE endgame, I'm certain I'll be returning regularly to engage in some PvP.

The game remains very fast and slightly unforgiving. Having put a lot of time into Call of Duty: Black Ops III beta recently, I do miss the death cam, which is a great way of learning how an enemy killed you – and teaches you how you might avoid a similar death in the future. I wish The Taken King had something similar. Sometimes you just get on the end of an insto-WTF death, and I'd love to know what weapon the person is wielding, or how they exactly managed to what seems like one-shot you.

I played the new Rift mode, which is a capture the flag style scenario where instead of a flag, you're carrying a spark taken from a single central location that takes time to charge up. It's straightforward enough, and if you've played capture the flag games before, you'll feel right at home. What works here is that because there's essentially just one flag, it focuses the fight in one area, and that makes games particularly exciting, since you're essentially fighting over a resource.

It’s funny. Yesterday, I was musing about the new specials and the fact that I didn't really know how good the Warlock and Titan's were, but after my quick PvP session, now I know. The Warlock's is pretty powerful, but the Titan's new hammer melee/ranged attack seems a little overpowered. I got nailed several times without being able to do much about it. Perhaps I was just up against decent players, but it definitely seems like the hammer is a bit more of a "win" button than my bow in clutch shootout situations.

Still, apart from that minor complaint, PvP remains solid, and in many respects, feels like business as usual. This is an area of the game I had few complaints about before, and it seems that Bungie has taken the approach that it wasn't broken and so it didn't need fixing. All the team has essentially done is add new maps and modes and let the players have at it. A good move as far as I'm concerned.

InterfaceNavigating through the game is largely the same as last year - using the joypad-controlled cursor is a little slow and clumsy.

Lasting AppealThere's plenty of endgame content to get your teeth into this time around, with missions, strikes and a new raid to test your mettle.

SoundSuperb voice acting is supported by solid music and effects to deliver a great-sounding game.

VisualsThe Taken King's vistas are impressive and well worth exploring. Sometimes the game tends to feel a little on the dark side, but overall the game looks terrific.

ConclusionThe Taken King is a huge improvement over last year's release. It features a far better story, much stronger voice acting, more exciting and varied missions, and an endgame that is more rounded out for long-term play. Not only that, but it also refines the overall gameplay and makes the game a far better experience than before - one that is definitely worth playing.

DAY FOUR (Day)

I've finally finished the main story missions, and I must say they were pretty damn intense. The level of difficulty is set reasonably high, and it took me about an afternoon to blast my way through the final set of missions solo, but I enjoyed them greatly. The tension and level of challenge builds quite gradually until the final few bosses, where you're really up against it.

What I did find – and it's something that I had difficulty with in vanilla Destiny – is that the game rewards patience and conservatism while fighting. If you're starting to run low on health, no matter what the circumstances, it's best to retreat and recharge before continuing the battle. Quite a few times I stood still just a little too long so I could get in a few extra shots on a boss, and was punished for that – which is what I also kept on doing last year. So I switched tactics and instead I'd get in a few shots, run to new location, get my bearings, and plan my next assault. Oh, and whenever any adds appeared, I'd make those my priority and take them out as quickly as possible.

This is beginning to sound like a hints and tips piece, but what I'm trying to do is describe the kind of fights you're faced with at the end of The Taken King. They're definitely protracted, but they're still fun. It's hard to put my finger on why I enjoyed these encounters more than I did the ones in Destiny 1.0, but I think they just feel more exciting and dynamic. While The Taken King's big set pieces are similar in style to last year's game, they require much more maneuvering and a little more strategy this time out. I've talked about this before, but last year I felt all I was doing was wearing down a boss through attrition – by finding a few safe spots, running between them and unloading round after round. You can’t really do that in The Taken King, and you need to be a lot more mobile – it's more about hit-and-run tactics than stick-and-shoot.

Once I'd completed the main storyline, I moved onto several endgame missions, and I'm happy to report that they continue to be engaging and entertaining. Again, there's a good deal of variety in terms of them mixing up game mechanics, with a balance of exploration, intense firefights and unique challenges – such as having to work against the clock to pick up resources that you can only hold for a limited period of time.

The other thing I like is that now I understand my place in the scheme of things – last year much of the story went in one ear and out the other – I find I'm more interested in what I'm doing, and it doesn't just feel like an exercise. It feels much more like I'm fighting my own part of a greater war, and because of that, I'm just more into it. Indeed, now I've finished the main story, I'm looking up what to do next, how I should spend all the resources I've collected, and generally figuring out what else the game has to offer.

Indeed, having to research everything is probably one of the biggest criticisms I have of the game. While the general gameplay has been much improved, and the storyline is a quantum leap ahead of where it was a year ago, Destiny: The Taken King is still a complex game with a myriad of currencies, gear and factions. The game doesn't do a particularly good job of telling you what they're all about, and which ones you should be concentrating on, so you have to rely on doing your own research to figure out what to do. It feels like an old-school MMO in that sense, where everything is laid out for the player, but without much in the way of in-game help to guide you along.

Still, it's that complexity that gives the game its long-term appeal, and in a way you can't have one without the other – I just wish the game gave you a few more effective pointers as to who you should be speaking to, and where you should be going next (beyond the immediate endgame story missions).

DAY FOUR (Night)

I played an extended session of PvP and finally hit level 40. Leveling has been pretty easy on the whole, and I think Bungie has gotten it right this time, particularly after the original Destiny's somewhat slow leveling process. By the time I hit the end of the main story I was 39, without taking much in the way of detours apart from a few games of PvP here and there. I'm certainly happy with my progress. It's helped the game feel rewarding and not a grind at all.

The more PvP I play, the more I've been enjoying it. It's a tough environment to go into if you're unfamiliar with the way the game works, and it certainly took me a good few games to get up to speed again, but once you get used to the fast-paced cadence of the action, you begin to adopt the right tactics to survive. The most useful and fundamental of which is be patient and don't go running at enemy players (because you can easily be one-shot by a fusion rifle or shotgun).

I like the PvP zones a lot. They're a varied bunch, and deliver a really good mix of environments, from tight, almost claustrophobic maps to ones that feel open and have the potential for long-range firefights. Because of that, PvP feels like it has a good degree of variety, and doesn’t just reward one type of tactic while playing. To thrive in PvP, you really have to understand where you are and how to best exploit the environment you've been thrown into, perhaps using a sniper rifle in areas where you have more space to move around in, or switching to a shotgun for maps that promote tighter, more close-quarter combat.

DAY FIVE

I've been playing strikes today, and once again, The Taken King has really delivered in terms of entertainment. Since I've been playing the game solo, I've relied on the matchmaking service to put me together with other players, and it's worked really well so far. The three missions I've tried were all quite challenging and very hectic, but my teammates and I were successful at all of them. One in particular involved fighting in almost total darkness, and that was really exciting.

I can definitely see myself getting more into these as I start to progress into the endgame. Overall, these fights are pitched pretty well in terms of difficulty, and as long as you prioritize reviving downed teammates, wearing down the big bosses is just like the rest of the game – a bit of patience and not being afraid of retreating to recharge will see you eventually prevail.

I've certainly enjoyed everything the game has thrown at me so far, and my plan is to continue to play through it this evening, and be back tomorrow to sum up my review with a conclusion.

InterfaceNavigating through the game is largely the same as last year - using the joypad-controlled cursor is a little slow and clumsy.

Lasting AppealThere's plenty of endgame content to get your teeth into this time around, with missions, strikes and a new raid to test your mettle.

SoundSuperb voice acting is supported by solid music and effects to deliver a great-sounding game.

VisualsThe Taken King's vistas are impressive and well worth exploring. Sometimes the game tends to feel a little on the dark side, but overall the game looks terrific.

ConclusionThe Taken King is a huge improvement over last year's release. It features a far better story, much stronger voice acting, more exciting and varied missions, and an endgame that is more rounded out for long-term play. Not only that, but it also refines the overall gameplay and makes the game a far better experience than before - one that is definitely worth playing.

CONCLUSION

To be honest, I wasn't particularly looking forward to playing The Taken King. After working through vanilla Destiny last year, and not really enjoying it a whole lot, I was worried I was going to have to once again battle through a series of protracted encounters, shooting endless rounds of ammo at bosses that I didn't really care about, against the backdrop of a story that made little sense.

As it turned out, nothing could be further from the truth, and I had almost the complete opposite experience. The Taken King has a tightly written, engagingly articulated plot, and a series of story missions that are varied, riveting and thoroughly enjoyable. Some of them are quite tough to beat – especially if you're not a Destiny veteran – but with a bit of perseverance, it's possible to emerge victorious as slayer of the eponymous King.

At the risk of repeating myself, the voice acting is a huge step ahead of where it was last year. The cast does a great job of imbuing characters with a bit of wit and charm, and as a consequence, the game has bags of personality. It's just fun to listen to, and a far cry from the monotone, sometimes incoherent ramblings of Destiny 1.0.

There's a lot more variety in the gameplay too. While the bulk of the proceedings are shootouts – as you'd expect from what is essentially a first-person shooter – there's a lot less reliance on big bosses this time around. Yes, they do exist, but there are also times when there are no bosses – just almost overwhelming numbers of enemies to deal with. Between those kinds of encounters, there are places to explore, and things to find that are tucked way in the dusty corners of maps. Once again, an almost complete reversal of last year, where many areas felt empty and lacked content.

Even when the main story is complete, the game continues with missions and strikes that are entertaining to play. I've been playing strikes and public quests the last few nights, and have really had fun with them. Some are definitely better than others, but put it this way: I've yet to play a strike or endgame mission where I've not enjoyed myself.

A testament to how much I like The Taken King is that even though my review is now finished, I'm already researching what to do next in the game, so I can continue playing. That's not like last year when once I'd completed my review, I walked away from the game and didn't really touch the PvE aspect of it again. This year, I'm really looking forward to continuing to build up my character, and hopefully doing some raiding at some point.

The PvP side of the game is rock solid. I've already gone into detail earlier in this review why that's the case, but I'll just say that while it's a somewhat brutal environment to get thrown into initially, with a bit of practice and lateral thinking, it doesn't take long to get the fundamentals of survival down, and once you learn them, PvP is engrossing and rewarding to play. Sure, it can be a little tough at times if you get put on a weak team, but overall the game is quite well balanced and features a series of interesting and varied environments that are enjoyable to run around.

Bottom line, The Taken King is the game I wanted Destiny 1.0 to be. It's taken Bungie a year to get it right, but now it really does feel like an epic game that has a lot of content to enjoy. Whether you're a single player, want to use matchmaking for PvP or PvE, or are a group tackling endgame missions and strikes, there are plenty of activities on offer. And yes, the game will eventually become a grind as you settle into the long run acquiring gear, but that's pretty much the nature of the beast in terms of an MMO. There's always going to be an element of repetition to the action.

Another downside is that the game is complex and still sometimes hard to fathom – you certainly need to do a fair bit of research to get up to speed on the different factions, gear and to generally understand how the endgame works. And while that is indeed typical of most MMOs, I think that Bungie could still do a better job of providing in-game guidance in terms of setting paths for players, and to explain some of the basics.

But regardless of that, The Taken King is a great expansion to Destiny, and one that really helps smooth out and refine the original's rough edges and ropey plot. The end result is a game that feels quite tight and buttoned-down, and presents a huge amount of content to sample, from its original missions through two content updates to the new story. Last year's Destiny looked like it had potential, but ultimately felt short of greatness. This year, The Taken King has realized that potential, and delivered on it.

InterfaceNavigating through the game is largely the same as last year - using the joypad-controlled cursor is a little slow and clumsy.

Lasting AppealThere's plenty of endgame content to get your teeth into this time around, with missions, strikes and a new raid to test your mettle.

SoundSuperb voice acting is supported by solid music and effects to deliver a great-sounding game.

VisualsThe Taken King's vistas are impressive and well worth exploring. Sometimes the game tends to feel a little on the dark side, but overall the game looks terrific.

ConclusionThe Taken King is a huge improvement over last year's release. It features a far better story, much stronger voice acting, more exciting and varied missions, and an endgame that is more rounded out for long-term play. Not only that, but it also refines the overall gameplay and makes the game a far better experience than before - one that is definitely worth playing.