Bearing this in mind, with Bungie’s forthcoming The Taken King expansion, the studio has promised to not only give long-standing Destiny fans a more comprehensive experience by paying attention to their most wanted features, but also appease new players by providing a more familiar role-playing game atmosphere with a fresh level system that’s experience based. Not to mention, the company has also heeded complaints that the majority of the title’s Strike Missions are bland and repetitive, assuring fans that Year Two will be better.
Although such vows regarding the Strikes are to be taken with a grain of salt – especially since it’s Bungie making the guarantee – thanks to Game Informer’s ongoing coverage of what fans can expect from The Taken King, the good folks over at the publication have revealed that the Strikes will indeed be more dynamic. Apparently, the studio has learned from its past mistakes by taking several cues from Destiny’s raids in terms of content that’s better-tailored to specific skirmishes.
One of the biggest priorities Bungie had concerning the Strikes is making sure they have a high replay value. Whenever folks revisit Strikes, the studio has made sure that each encounter is unique with a battle against the Cabal one time, a fight with the Taken the next go-round, ammo spawns and turrets cropping up in completely different places, and even multiple lines of dialogue so that fans can get a deeper sense of Destiny’s mythos. Plus, the developers are updating AFK issues. For instance, if a Guardian is too far behind and the team is moving ahead without them, the character immediately warps forward with the party. However, if a player is away for too long, it’s likely that they’ll get killed repeatedly until their return.
On top of all that, The Taken King Strike bosses are set to be more distinctive, as each one revolves around a different mechanic. For example, the Restorative Mind on Venus’ Echo Chamber – a PlayStation exclusive Strike – utilizes a rotating energy shield, whereas the Sunless Cell’s boss Alak-Hul the Darkblade wields a giant axe just as large as he is. Furthermore, each mission will offer players a slice of Destiny lore that will help them piece together the bigger story.
Additionally, The Taken King Strikes’ new matchmaking structure will now work using the aforementioned light-based level system which is divided into three separate categories. The sets are known as Vanguard Legacy (a Strike playlist from regular Destiny, and the previous two DLCs), Vanguard Ursa (random heroic Strikes awarding would-be Guardians with legendary marks and engrams), and Vanguard Marmoset (Strikes explicitly culled from The Taken King). Moreover, Strikes design lead James Tsai says that Bungie is making a definite attempt at handcrafting the modifiers for Nightfall Strikes each week.
Concerning all of these updates to Destiny’s Strikes, fans of the game ought to be extremely pleased to know that Bungie has put in so much work in setting The Taken King apart from the title’s DLC predecessors. Nevertheless, until the expansion is officially available for everyone to play, it still remains questionable as to whether or not it’s worth the $40 price value.
Destiny: The Taken King will release on September 15, 2015, for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
Source: Game Informer
