Destiny has been reviled and admired in equal measure since it initially launched back in September of 2014. A title with grand aspirations of creating a living, breathing universe loaded with a breathtaking plotline that spanned a solar system, and the trademark unparalleled gun-play that Bungie is respected for as a studio. Instead we received a skinner box plagued by constant half measures: interesting in its own right and certainly a technical marvel, but endlessly and disappointingly short of the vision that Bungie had initially made fans so enamoured with.
8 months on and the title is still chugging along with veritable financial success, having just shipped its second expansion pack in the House of Wolves. Rumours are afoot of a further addition coming in September this year (which we'll most likely see more of this E3), which in conjunction with the quality of life changes being made to the platform as of current shows glints of what seems to be a bright future for Destiny. But how is House of Wolves? Has it corrected some of the mistakes of The Dark Below (and the base title, on that note)? Let's take a little more of an in-depth look at what the two biggest additions in the expansion have done for the game.
The Prison of Elders
The unrivalled highlight of Destiny as an experience thus far has been the raiding. The Vault of Glass rose the base game up and delivered an exhiliarating, unique team based puzzle that took 6 players and let them battle through a trial by fire packed with imaginative encounters, offering excellent rewards for doing so successfully. Most will remember it fondly for years to come as a small showing of what Destiny could have been from the get-go. The Dark Below came, bringing with it Crota's End. Disappointly, it felt like a stopgap measure. It was a much shorter challenge, disjointed and lacking any sense of a uniform, singular experience. The second raid was still good, sure, but it was no Vault of Glass.
News that House of Wolves was to forfeit a new raid, instead opting for a wave based survival arena in the Prison of Elders was no doubt rage inducing to some as a result, the fallout a testament to that fact. Where was the blockbuster experience? Luckily, the Prison was an ingenious addition to Destiny's end-game content portfolio, bringing exactly what was needed to tide users over until September. We didn't need a new raid, we needed reasons to log in each week. These bite-sized chunks were engineered to bulk out value on a weekly basis and give players more goals, more options.
Three regularly rotating arenas placed at levels 32, 34 and 35 on a weekly basis alongside a randomly generated Strike companion at Level 28. Each of the higher level challenges offer unique mechanics to boss battles and different modifiers to each round, ensuring that players will never be locked into camping in a corner mindlessly popping heads for too long. Three weeks in and it's paying off fantastically. We've encountered a literal version of "the floor is lava", an interesting puzzle requiring challengers to destroy a mob to gain the powers to save their comrades, and a tasty array of cheese for the main final challenge in Skolas. Delightful.
What sets it aside is the fact that it's slightly more manageable time-wise than a raid, adding a decent amount of content to the weekly menu of regular players with little work. For those that check back in every day, there's much more Destiny to enjoy, more meaningful PvE activities to participate in. For everbody else, there's an experience that will take them literally months to fully experience thanks to the constantly altering arenas. We know a new raid is coming, too, likely in September. The key right now however was to tide us all over in the meantime so they can focus on delivering something unforgettable in a few months - something Bungie has nailed here.
Trials of Osiris
PvP fans often had a tough time with drawing out their Destiny experience, starved for content and left out in the cold. Iron Banner would roll around once per month to breathe life into affairs, otherwise remaining a monotonous revolving wheel of matches for no stakes and uninspiring rewards. Enter the Trials of Osiris, arguably the best House of Wolves addition to the Destiny portfolio.
Every weekend, players descend upon a pre-determined map to battle it out in intense 3v3 matchups. The more wins a squad can tally up before they uffer 3 losses, the better rewards they secure as a unit. If a team manages to take 9 wins flawlessly, they may venture onwards to Mercury, the finest rewards for Trials champions awaiting them. It throws in a new mode for good measure as well - Elimination. Round based combat, with no respawns and a paradigm exceptionally similar to classic Counter Strike. Little nuggets of gaming bliss right there.
What it does in reality is offer reasons to go and shoot other players in the face. Repeatedly. Every week, a high stakes Crucible game type becomes available with raid tier prizes. PvP players have something to play for, the addition of a completely new game mode further offering the fruits borne from Crucle fans' previous suffering.
It was clear that on the whole The Dark Below was packed with ideas that had been conceived and mostly developed pre-launch, before Bungie was able to see exactly how players interact with their game. The House of Wolves has aimed to fix some of those issues, bringing a little more parity in content for both PvE and PvP players, further broadening their Destiny experience with enough weekly content to keep all parties occupied until the next predicted expansion in September. These two major additions, alongside the story missions and quality of life alterations have certainly made Destiny a more enticing prospect to play right now.