Destiny: The Taken King E3 Impressions

If you had told me before E3 that I would be even more excited to play Destiny than I am now I would have called you crazy. I came in pretty late, in between The Dark Below and The House of Wolves, so I missed out on a lot of the early game. That said, Destiny has capture my heart. It’s not perfect, not by a long shot, but it was something new in an environment filled with different shades of the same product.

The Taken King is Bungie’s newest expansion to Destiny and the first part of Year Two, the second season of Destiny if you will. The meat and potatoes is this, Oryx, Father of Crota, comes back from wherever it is that he’s been and he’s back with a vengeance. He is capturing the enemies of the Light and twisting them into his own army of Taken. Fear not, Guardians, new skills, armor, and weapons will be available to help us in our battle with Oryx.

Each class is getting a third subclass to fill that ominously empty spot on the character sheet. Warlocks will be able to unlock the Stormcaller subclass making them floating Sith Lords shooting bolts of arc energy from their hands, something this Hunter is very jealous of. Titans will rediscover the lost art of the Sunbreaker, a solar hammer throwing juggernaut. Last but night least, Hunters gain group utility with the Nightstalker and their Void Bow which can be used to anchor their enemies to a single point and severely hamper their movement.

Sounds fun, right? Well there’s more! We’re getting new maps, new modes, new strikes, and a new raid! Most of that wasn’t being shown but the new modes were out in full force. Mayhem turns everything up to eleven by increasing the rate that special and super energy recharges. While I didn’t have a chance to play it myself I did hear from a reliable source that the game mode does live up to its name making for a fun variation on the classic Team Deathmatch of old. Want something a little bit more objective driven? Check out Rift. It’s single flag CTF built for Destiny with a single objective, the Spark, spawning at a central point that must be taken to the opposing team’s base, their Rift, with bonus points for entering the Rift backwards.

So there you have, The Taken King. Get ready, Guardians, year two starts on September 15.