So we're a few weeks into our second pack of expansion content for Destiny, and it seems like it's being received pretty positively for the most part. Especially sitting next to the Dark Below, something a lot of players would consider a modest kick in the teeth, House of Wolves manages to shape up and improve a lot of different systems and content problems that the game launched with. It isn't all sunshine and roses however, with Bungie still not addressing problems that still exist in the game, or falling into new unforeseen pitfalls. Here are the five best and worst aspects of this DLC pack from where I stand:
The Good:
+Better story content
(mild spoilers)
One of the most upfront criticisms to be met head-on with the expansion is the story and how it's presented this time around. Granted, you've got a lot working in favor for the storyline, such as mildly better set-up from the main story, but what really manages to help convey story beats are the characters. It seems so incredibly minor, but having some actual excitement being displayed by Petra Venj, or even the helpful (and sometimes creepy) growls of Variks help to inject some life into whats going on.
Out of all the factions presented in Destiny so far, the Fallen are the ones we arguably know the most about, and as such, have the least amount of mystery around them. It's actually an impressive feat for Bungie to have interesting developments occur around these 4-armed foes, namely through their interaction with other foes, as well as the destinations they manage to take you. While some areas of story have been spoiled since near the game's release (looking at you Vex Citadel), there's a story mission that will surprise most Destiny vets and put a smile on their face.
+New unique weapons and gear
While there was initial disappointment of how small the Destiny arsenal was on the game's outset, Bungie has shown that they've been able to use weapon classifications and really think outside the box. You really only get to see this design philosophy in full-force with Legendary and Exotic gear, but when you start breaking the rules of what's expected, you get weapons and armor that define entire playstyles, and House of Wolves is no slouch in this department. Armor offerings managed to take an exciting departure from what was datamined, doling out some tough choices to players. The highly desirable Celestial Nighthawk turns Hunters into one-shot boss killers. The Ram helps to turn Voidwalkers into nifty sorts of vampires, offering some competition to the tankyness offered by Sunsingers.
Weapon-wise, House does a similar step to The Dark Below by handing out a Legendary weapon through story progression, but as a new weapon class, and much earlier in the storyline. The sidearm Vestian Dynasty manages to fill in a niche for secondary weapon slots that's been missing for far too long, offering a slightly longer range solution than the coverage offered by a typical shotgun, and no pesky charge-up a la fusion rifles. It's fun to use, evoking a very sci-fi weapon feel, like a laser pistol or phaser, and just happens to be handy for dispatching Fallen shields. The real shame is that there are currently only two flavors of sidearms offered in the game at the moment.
+Prison of Elders
While it's easy to get dejected with the lack of new raid offerings this time around, playing through a round of the Prison helps to show why this activity will be more than a worthy substitute. As a play on horde mode, the Prison manages to integrate all four factions into specifically themed battlefields, mixes in some modifiers and objectives, and then just says go. Each week changes up the expected foes and modifiers, allowing for different experiences than the bog-standard raid lockouts. It's pure combat, easily one of Destiny's greatest strengths, and occasional objective and boss mix-ups help to keep players somewhat mobile.
Reward structure for the activity is also more immediately gratifying than just random drops. Exotics are guaranteed for your first run through on the 28 version with a treasure key, and rewards offered by Variks help to smooth out gear progression from week to week with predictable armor and weapon cores that can be exchanged. Hitting level cap won't be nearly as random as waiting for your last piece of Crota gear to drop with this system, and the ability to rerun Prison again with more keys lets players grind to their hearts content if they feel so inclined. The presence of another item however offers up some tempting alternatives.
+Etheric Light and gear implications
Just about any system progression system presented after The Dark Below was bound to be better recieved this go-round, but Bungie managed to go one step further and garner back a lot of good will. With the newly implement ascension system, any old legendary or exotic gear could be brought up to max statistic levels for this expansion, so long as you had exotic shards, or the much more coveted Etheric Light. As long as the text was purple or gold, old gear could help to formulate a new strategy at max level, and this causes an interesting sort of ripple effect in the community.
Immediately on the surface, hard-core Destiny players with vaults full of old raid gear were rewarded and validated for the hours they had played prior, able to use classic gear like the Fatebringer, Vision of Confluence, or even old Raid armor, without feeling like they were sacrificing stats for style. And for players without the gear, old raid content is now much more attractive with tangible rewards to be offered. I know personally there are some hard mode raids I want to run just to help complete my arsenal for certain burn-modifier missions.
+Trial and the Lighthouse
The ultimate PVP challenge being offered up for this expansion is quite something: can a handpick team of three guardians go nine straight games without losing? Only offered up on the weekends, the Trial of Osiris demands coordination and tactical perfection for the best rewards. Knowing game systems in and out, as well as team comp strategies, counter strats and battlefield tactics all come into play. Oh, and you better be decked out in the best gear you can muster, because all those statistics matter similar to an Iron Banner run.
Teams that manage to rise to the top however are treated to quite the treat. Rewards tiers along the way help to make filling out a trial card worth your time, but the perfect 9-0 record offers the exclusive Mercury social space. The Lighthouse manages to mix in rewards, an awe-inspiring vista, and even a healthy amount of lore to boot. It's super cool, and it's making normally PVE-exclusive guardians think about jumping into the crucible. Once again, brilliant move by Bungie, especially for keeping the area under wraps for so long.
The Bad:
-Retreading a lot of old terrain
Probably the most prevalent failing of these two expansions has been the lack of new space to explore. While we're doing slightly better than Dark, new places to explore can be summed up as the Prison, a Ketch, the Lighthouse, the Reef and a handful of new rooms. Story missions by in large rely the same trick of running other story areas backwards, or sometimes being shunted off into a new room, and letting reconfigured enemy packs make up more of the gameplay. This is especially disappointing knowing that Bungie is capable of making some downright gorgeous vistas and player spaces. C'mon guys, let's see some new planets already!
-Last light level always frustrating
While there are more options in the game for getting that last critical light level in game, it's still mired by confusion on what the most optimal way to obtain it. Pure vendor mark gear, ascending an exotic and an armor core will get you to 33 without too much problem, but if your like most players, you'll probably stuck there for a few weeks unless your lucky. Simply put, you need Etheric Light for legacy gear, and for most players, the best bet will be a random drop from a nightfall. Level 34 Prison promises a light drop, but then your doing content under leveled, which never feels good. You could try your hand at Trial of Osiris or Iron Banner, but once again, under leveled. Most players are probably just going to have to depend on Variks and hope that he doesn't sell a duplicate piece of armor for 3 weeks in a row (assuming of course you can cover one the fourth slot with an exotic).
-Key RNG
The largest community complaint at the moment (and one that Bungie claims they want to address in an upcoming patch) is the key system associated with the vault room at the end of Prison of Elders. If you want the big chest in the center with the best goodies, you'll need a key that you can only get through RNG. Everybody gets one per character for finishing the story content, and even then a promised exotic is a pretty sweet prize all things considering, so it's hard to complain about that aspect, but it's also how they get you. Suddenly if feels like a bit of a waste to run the vault without having a key in your inventory, the ornate container taunting you as the mission completion timer ticks down.
So how do you get a key? Lots of farming it turns out, and even then, you have to be lucky. Taking on the bounty contract fallen yield an opportunity to find a time limited chest with a slim chance of holding a key. Very slim. So much so that I've personally yet to see one from said chest. And that's if you can find it. Players have even found a way to double dip on these chests if they locate them fast enough. Actually completing bounties and gaining rep with Petra Venj can yield reward packages occasionally, which may also have keys, once again, at a very low drop percentage. Finally, the small chests next to the large chest in the vault room of the Prison may also have keys. Once again though, super rare to see them. This just rounds out to a very frustrating system as far as loot goes.
-Still not tackling fundamental problems
There's still a lot of obvious stuff that Bungie has missed out on that have been longtime community requests. It's good that the community has stepped up on some of these shortcomings with things like LFG sites and the Destiny Item Manager chrome extension, but it's simultaneously ridiculous that I feel a need to break out my laptop every time I sit down to play this game. Social spaces still don't feel social when the extent of interacting is dancing and kicking a soccer ball. The unnecessary step of not being able to just start at the tower or the reef when the first thing I'm going to do every session is check bounties, just feels insulting. Some people label these things as nitpicking, others call them "quality of life" changes. Personally, I just don't like having my time wasted.
-High price for content, drought till Comet?
Despite word from Bungie that the supposed leaked slides for planned future Destiny content may be inaccurate, most of the community surrounding the game still believe that the next major content release will be somewhere around the one year anniversary of the game (Sept. 9th). If the theoretical Comet does manage drop on said date, what does that leave the player base to do until then? We're potentially looking at the largest range of time without anything new to do, and that seems pretty scary all things considered in order to retain a player base. There might be some hope with the recent rumors flying around that High Moon studios might get involved with giving Bungie a hand on the dev side, but I'm not exactly holding my breath waiting for public confirmation of that detail.
I know that Bungie themselves keeps going back and saying that Destiny isn't an MMO, but the game itself takes so many lessons and design choices from the genre that it feels disheartening at times that they can miss so many critical developments over the past decade.
All of the content included in these "expansions" so far should have been free.
They should have been content updates, worked on one at a time, and rolled out on a monthly basis to the community free of charge. So much of the content just retreads old space and is barely explorable. They do a disservice to other games that have used the term "expansion" in the past. A storyline added each month, or a new multiplayer arena even every few weeks would go so far in building faith and goodwill to a community that has been nothing if not judgemental since the game launched.
I like House of Wolves a lot, I think it has added a lot of reasons for even the most jaded players to go back and give Destiny another shot. Bungie still has a ways to go though until they can turn this game into something worthy of having this studios name attached to it.
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