The expansion of Destiny 2 Forsaken could be the best of the series

Destiny 2 is a video game difficult to judge. It's not something like, say, the new Spider Man, which came out last week to an almost universal acclaim. If you understand that the latter is a story-based solo action game, and you trust what people say and share about it, you probably have a reasonable expectation as to whether you will appreciate Spider Man. Meanwhile, you could have spent 300 hours of the last 365 days playing Bungie's Destiny 2, and I would not be able to say for sure that you will find the new game Abandoned Expansion, which was also released last week, to be fun or worth the time, effort, and money it requires of you.

That's what makes Destiny 2 – and the Abandoned Expansion, in particular – a game so difficult to discuss. It's a game that constantly changes with the time and whims of its voice fans and the sometimes obscure desires and desires of its sprawling development team. (Many team members spent their first careers at Halo in an iconic video game franchise.) In this way, the destiny The game you played three or six months ago may be unrecognizable from the one you play today. But despite its constant evolution, the emerging consensus of the past year is that Destiny 2 is a game that is overproduced and subdelivered, costing players $ 90 for the basic game and its two extensions. So the question now is: is Abandoned time to go back, especially since it costs $ 40 more?

After spending more than 25 hours with the game during the last week, I can say that on the surface, Destiny 2 is better than ever. This could even be the best iteration of the series that developer Bungie has ever produced. Abandoned massively improves on almost every element of Destiny 2either by incorporating a piece of work from his predecessor, or by reworking an existing and dysfunctional item until it reaches a happy medium. There are still flaws and troubles and problems to be solved, but these are nothing compared to the improvements made by Bungie.

Crucible, Destiny 2Competitive multiplayer mode, has received some of the most notable corrections. Bungie brought profound mechanical changes to the way the weapons are equipped and functional, added more power to all subclasses and created a quick and complete experience that manages to regain some of the original chaos of the world. ;original. destiny. Even the simple use of the new type of crossbow weapon to guarantee a victory in a tense enemy encounter is one of the most successful experiences the series has ever offered.

Meanwhile, Forsaken's main narrative is meaningful, with sharper writing, a darker tone, smarter humor, and a non-linear structure that rethinks how Bungie tells stories in this universe. Elements of the first destiny, including randomized weapons likely to be unique quests, long and complex for rare exotic weapons, are back. The new features, such as the excellent Gambit gaming mode and the multi-step matches with which a dozen players can participate, are now the cornerstone of how you can spend your time.

Even the menus are greatly improved. The new Collections screen, now placed directly in the characters menu, allows you to access all firearms, armor pieces, collectibles and legends all in one place. The Triumph screen, also present in the character menu, offers players an almost limitless flow of unlockable results, medals to win and other checkboxes to occupy and work at their own pace towards an objective of their choice. You also get a Triumph score to compete with friends.

All the improvements mentioned above are so shocking that it is hard to imagine the game delivered without them, which brings many people on the online forums and elsewhere to declare that Forsaken Destiny 2 should have been at launch. Still, you may be wondering why, if the original game did not have much effect, did people keep playing?

It's a complicated question. For beginners, when Destiny 2 Launched, it has been praised for the way it best respects a player's time, with Bungie purposely suppressing some of the worst aspects of the original game that have earned him a bad name during his three years of life. That's why I made one of my initial impressions, about a year ago: "Destiny 2 is all the fans were asking for." The game was really improved by giving up its most repetitive elements and disrespectful, or what RPG fans like to call "the grind". There were also a number of innovative improvements that players now take for granted: maps and visible public events, faction leaders, quest lists and easy-to-find milestones and elimination of horrors. wasting items such as unlocking weapons and material culture.

But as days and weeks became months and people spent a lot of time Destiny 2 inflated from a dozen hours to over 100 hours, it became apparent that something was missing. We just could not see it at first because destinyby its very design, requires a considerable investment of time to engage in all its forms. But even at the end of the first month and in the second, it became apparent to the hardcore gamers – those who were browsing all its content and starting to complain in the fan forums and on Reddit – that the game I did not have a chance to play. I do not have much to do. It turns out that a maneuver, if it is designed in the right way and rewards time spent appropriately, encourages players to stay hooked and happy.

Even worse: what Destiny 2 fact The offer was not so fun. The first big raid of the game was a slog to pass and even less fun to repeat, and the competitive Crucible felt flat and uninspired. Everything seemed to come to an end in the spring of this year after the first expansion did not solve the problems Destiny 2 could be considered a failure. Warm, The second expansion of the game, which was launched in May, has made great strides in getting things back on track and laying the groundwork for Forsaken. But it's quite understandable that fans have felt a certain apprehension about this latest expansion and if they could really revive the game. Why come back to something that continually disappoints you?

Abandoned, in many ways, is a Bungie mea culpa. The company has traditionally kept its secret development process, its secret long-term machinations and its internal work far from the public eye. Over the past year, Bungie opened video after video, with designers and key leaders acknowledging the game's flaws and misconceptions about what the players wanted and what would be healthy and productive for the game .

One of the recurring themes that Bungie has come back to repeatedly is that the creators of Destiny 2 Want it to become a hobby again, a game that brings together friends for long and rewarding gaming sessions several times a week. In some cases, the original destiny It was a game you played every day, and my more than 1,300 hours of play and the many friends I gave her testify to the power and depth of the relationship she created with her players .

That's why you can hear strange terminology destiny fandom if you were to go watch these days – saying that Bungie would have "repaired" destiny where destiny is "back," as if it had taken a long sabbatical in the country to meet. People start playing again, vigorously and for hours every day. he feels like the first game, in the best way possible because people do not have to think about Why they play it or what they get out of it. There is no time to wonder why you play when there is so much to do.

A given game session may involve breaking a stage or two in an exotic quest; complete daily strike challenges; go to Gambit with a team of three other friends to play with; move to the Crucible to get your competitive solution; and then maybe play a high level activity to have the chance to raise your light level by a few points. Suddenly, you spent two or three hours with your friends in the Bungie universe. It is the destiny cycle, and that's what his players had been hoping for since launching.

Of course, all of this existed in the basic game in one form or another – although it was definitely less fun and dynamic – and a lot of critics and players, including myself, enjoyed it very much Destiny 2 during its first launch. How do we know that we have understood this time? How even does Bungie know he understood this time when players spent more hours playing at Forsaken in the past week than their development team could have tested?

It is impossible to say before having lived with the game much longer. But that's what makes destiny a series as exciting and influential. It's an ongoing experience that keeps changing. It may not be the revolutionary marriage of the first-person shooter with the massively multiplayer online game that we originally promised, and the game could end, as it did a year ago. But with Forsaken, Destiny 2 is better than it has ever been and it is probably worth it to come back. What you get out of it is your choice. Fortunately, this time there are many, many choices to make and all feel rewarding.