Destiny 2: Forsaken from the viewpoint of a grumpy veteran

Reviewed on: PS4

Did you play Destiny 1? I mean at launch, on September 9, 2014, along with the rest of the world, competing to supposedly be the strongest on the server?

I did.

Today it’s not exactly something to be proud of, but Destiny managed to surprise by being something new and built on Bungie’s beautiful engine, which gave it mechanics that only Halo fans had experienced (and that was basically the reason Bungie cut ties with Microsoft: word on the street is that they wanted to risk something new, and Microsoft wanted them to keep making Halo). Anyway, Destiny was a game with a sensational start and terribly botched upkeep. After 3 years, for a game that had promised to last 10, Destiny had finally received enough updates to please fans.

On September 6, 2017, Destiny 2 came out. A friend had convinced me it would be the second coming of Christ.

It wasn’t.

With a weak, outdated progression system, without the Quality of Life improvements that had been made in the previous game, Destiny 2 was a step backward in practically every aspect of the series. A Bungie completely focused on breaking the fun into fractions, leaving the community absolutely furious. You couldn’t focus on any aspect of the game: if you wanted to do PvP, you needed PvE weapons. If you wanted to do PvE, some missions required PvP.

OK, and Forsaken? I’m a stubborn old dog too. Do I go looking for the Raid friends I deleted a while back?

Well, the news is that either your friends don’t play anymore, or they forgot about you and are in clans you’ve never heard of.

As for the game: Destiny 2: Forsaken is at a pretty fun level. All the series’ Quality of Life improvements are present. The pace of progression is quite pleasant. The main story manages to be engaging, and starts right off with the event everyone saw (the death of the only charismatic character in the cast).

If I seem quite wary of saying the game is sensational, it’s because I really am. The Raid was released a few days ago, and since I have the PC version, I’m still grinding my character to have enough level to beg for a clan at Destiny 2 Brasil. The news that’s been showing up has been promising, and the execution has indeed been exquisite.

At the risk of generating hype that wasn’t meant to be fed in any way, the future of Destiny 2 with the Forsaken expansion looks QUITE bright.

I just can’t let you, dear reader, forget that to enjoy this expansion, you need the previous ones, which won’t be used for anything (a euphemism. Obviously some things will be worth keeping). So think hard, because as this article is being written, the game with everything needed to play right now costs R$300,00 on Playstation 4. If you have PS Plus and claimed the base version of the game last month, you’ll still have to shell out R$31,50 for the first two expansions (which, again, you’ll use very little) and R$129,90 for the Forsaken expansion.

My honest tip? Wait a little longer. If you played the base game and are dying to keep playing, go for it. But if you haven’t yet joined the hypnotic Destiny wave, wait and see how the soap opera develops. Everything indicates Bungie has learned, but in long-running games like Destiny has become, what really matters is continuous upkeep.