What I'm Playing: Destiny 2: Forsaken

I’ve been playing a couple games since I last posted here. Destiny 2: Forsaken, which I’m writing about now, and then Kingdom Hearts 3, which I’ll hopefully have a post for soon. Hopefully it won’t be too long till I have that and then I’ll do a post on Anthem, which I’m playing right now. Maybe I’ll start trying to story breakdowns for games and maybe books I’m reading to hit more of a consistent schedule.

So, since I played the Anthem Demo, I had a sci-fi itch that needed to be scratched and I like to periodically check in with Destiny to see how it’s doing so I snagged Forsaken while it was on sale. I know, I’m really on the ball doing a post about Forsaken 2 months after it’s come out. Get off my back, I’ve got a lot of games to play and rep to earn in WoW. I had to make the Zandalari Empire and Thunder Bluff like me. It takes some time, but anyway I’ve played through the main story in Forsaken and done some of the free roam expedition quests as well as played some Gambit and Crucible matches. I don’t have a fireteam to join me, so I wasn’t able to run the new Raids though, nor did I buy the year pass and try the Season of the Forge content that’s just wrapping up now.

Gameplay

Well, big surprise, Destiny’s base gameplay of being a super-powered, gun wielding space hero still feels fantastic. Considering it was one of the few things that was really working with the launch of the first Destiny, I didn’t think Bungie would have changed it. The gunplay is still very tight and being able to do space powers in addition to shooting is just incredibly fun. I think the only issue I had with it, which was a very minor gripe, was that Forsaken’s new branch for my Warlock’s specialization wasn’t any use to me. I’ve played a Dawnblade Warlock since Destiny 2 came out. Slinging fire with my sword while flying through the air is awesome, especially once I unlocked the perk that gives me some charge back for my super every time I kill somebody with it. I then have my support ability as the area of healing so that my super does DPS and the secondary ability heals me and allies. However, Dawnblade’s extra branch changes my super to a healing circle just like my secondary ability which ended up feeling redundant. It was in no way big problem though, I just swapped back to the DPS and carried on, but it made me sad that I wasn’t using the branch.

Outside of the gunplay, Forsaken made some updates in endgame adding the Spider, a character from a story, as an area vendor for the Tangled Shore. He has some great functions like selling me upgrade materials and offering Bounties for escaped prisoners which can send the players across the Solar System to track down specific bosses. I haven’t played Destiny 2 much since launch, so I don’t know how much the amount of daily and weekly tasks has improved since launch, but it feels like it has a lot more.

Story

Destiny has had a shaky ground in story content since the first game released. The Lore of the game telling stories of the rise and fall of human civilization under the guidance of the mysterious space ball known as the Traveler is a fascinating backstory. It, along with the gunplay was what drove me to the game in the first place. I wanted to delve into the history and see it develop into interesting stories told as the game unfolded. However, as is widely known, Destiny 1 didn’t deliver on its main story and had some shaky story through the base game. It was confusing and failed to even offer the player an explanation of what was going on. It tried to do a mission to deal with a rising problem but didn’t explain what the problem was or why it needed to be fixed.

Ghaul in Destiny 2's launch story.

Destiny 2, however, started off with a simpler tale of revenge with Cabal leader Ghaul taking the Traveler captive, seizing the Last City on Earth and driving the now powerless guardians away. I thought it was a smart idea even before Destiny 2 came out. For a game that had struggled with player motivation on why they’re doing what they’re doing, a revenge tale is an easy way to convey to the player why they are involved. That person took your stuff, go get it back. It gets right to the point and Forsaken follows a similar idea.

Cayde-6 in his final moments

Forsaken centers around the story of fan favorite character and Hunter Vanguard, Cayde-6 being killed during a prison break by the Awoken Prince, Uldren Sov, and his band of corrupted Fallen. It’s another revenge story. Cayde’s been killed. Get payback. Uldren had been out of play since after his Sister and Queen of the Awoken, Mara Sov, disappeared and was presumed dead in the Taken King’s opening cinematic. Uldren was already an unlikeable character after the way he condescendingly talks to the player’s guardian in Destiny 1’s base story and Forsaken makes it clear that he’s not right in the head. Uldren thinks he hears his sister in his head and is on a quest to try and find where she is and release her from whatever prison she’s locked in.

Uldren hearing the whispers of "Mara"

The game makes it clear from the very first cutscene that Uldren is the one that pulled the trigger and ended Cayde’s life. It’s a revenge tale, it’s more about the player’s role and how much their guardian is willing to do to bend the rules to get the payback they desire. How much are they willing to do and, in the end, does that make them any better than Uldren? This theme is carried through the story and is first brought up when the player is in the room with other Vanguards, Zavala and Ikora, while mourning Cayde. Zavala is hesitant to retaliate against Uldren for fear of the assault it could bring down upon the Last City while Ikora wants to retaliate and not let such a brazen action remain unpunished. It’s an interesting tone for the story though I do think it would have been even better if the player their own decisions. I understand why there isn’t. The world is shared by so many players that it could get extremely complicated if player choice was implemented and the world had to change around them. So, it works as is. Bungie does a good job of hiding some aspects of the player character’s decisions so that the player can fill in the blanks with their own thoughts. It’s one thing I’ve kind of liked about the Guardian not speaking, it let’s me fill in what I think he should be saying, even if it’s weird when my ghost speaks for me.

Art

I feel like I would be making a mistake if I did not talk about the art in this game. Bungie’s team has turned out so many awesome armor assets that it makes it hard for me to decide which pieces to keep and which ones to scrap. I spent the time putting together an outfit as I leveled my character, he was pretty far behind since I hadn’t played since launch, and then the Iron Banner began, and I had to turn around and get the warlock set for that because it also looked amazing.

Plus, the armor designs are just the beginning. The character designs for The Spider and Uldren’s crew of Fallen Barons smartly works with their gameplay design and distinguishes them as unique targets for the player to hunt down during their quest for vengeance.

Audio

The score to this game continues to be awesome. The music is all fittingly epic to the scenes that it’s connected with and is just enjoyable to listen to. The voice acting is good as well. The major players are interestingly performed, especially Uldren’s visions of Mara Sov. She sounds hauntingly tempting that sends of some danger vibes but also conveys why the miserable, lonely and lost Uldren believes them despite the red flags. He just desperately wants his sister back.

Conclusion

I enjoyed my time playing Destiny 2: Forsaken even though I didn’t have anybody else to play the major team content. The single player content is fun and worth the time for anybody that is invested in the going ons of this sci-fi/fantasy universe. If you are just looking to play a looter-shooter I don’t recommend it unless you have or are able to form a group of people to get into the team-based endgame content. If you have any doubts on it though, I’d recommend at least giving it a go if you are able to grab it while on sale. It’s a fun story campaign with some fun endgame and a cool new area to explore.