What’s up guys! I’m back with a big update for your favorite game to love and hate. Destiny 2 has a massive update coming this September 4, 2018. Forsaken is the brand new expansion coming to change and revitalize the franchise bringing fresh content to all players. There is plenty of new things for players who plan to purchase the newest expansion as well as free content with the new seasonal change. There’s plenty of things to go over and I’ll be highlighting some of the big stuff and some personal thoughts on the content. I will do my best to avoid heavy spoilers but there will be light spoilers to ease explanations.

First off, spoilers, Cayde-6 dies. Bungie revealed this back in June around E3 to start off the hype train and get people talking. Cayde is killed by none other than Uldren Sov, Queen Mara Sov’s brother. His reasons are unknown but he is amassing a large force of Exiled Fallen Barons known as the Scorn. Your guardian has the daunting task of hunting down Uldren and exacting vengeance. Bungie has detailed the story as “wild west revenge story” where your guardian goes beyond the control of the Vanguard leadership to pay back the evil that was done. As you make your way through the story, you will make some new alliances and rekindle old ones. Petra Venj, Mara Sov’s right hand and acting in charge, will make a return to help guide your character through the story and beyond. A new character makes an appearance known as the Spider. Not much is known about him other than he leads a faction of Fallen within the Reef and we will be dealing with him.

All of this primarily takes place on the Tangled Shore and the Dreaming City, two new locations introduced within Forsaken. The Tangled Shore is where the most of your time spent hunting Barons and activities will take place. It is also the largest destination in Destiny. The Dreaming City is an endgame location that is both an explorable location and the location that houses the raid, Last Wish. Within each location there will be the usual patrols, public events, world bosses to slay, but over in the Dreaming City there will be a new activity called Blind Well that will have players fight waves of enemies while dodging field hazards. The interesting tidbit about the Dreaming City is that over time the location will change due to the actions of raid clears.

There is a brand new game mode coming in Forsaken called Gambit. It is a hybrid PvEvP, (player versus enemy versus player) mode that pits the player to kill enemies in a given map, pick up the motes that they drop and deposit them into the bank to summon the boss and defeat it before the other team. Along the way, as you deposit motes in the bank, you send a blocker to the other team preventing them from depositing motes until they defeat the blocker. At certain intervals, you will be allowed to invade the other team’s map and enact some PvP to hinder their performance. When the Primeval (boss) shows up the portal to invade the other team opens more often allowing you to hinder the other team more often. The kicker is death heals Primeval, meaning if you die from another player it will heal your boss making it harder for you to beat the other team.

Then there’s the loot. It is always about the loot. It’s always cool to find guns and armor I can deck my guardian out with to look awesome and destroy my enemies with. Bungie has shown off a number of exotics, which are top tier gear, on their twitter accounts. There’s a brand new exotic rocket launcher called the Two-Tailed Fox which fires one rocket that suppresses and weakens enemies and another rocket that leaves a burning field after it explodes. A brand new exotic hand cannon called Malfeasance that on its’ fifth consecutive shot explodes. An exotic pair of Titan boots called Antaeus Wards which after sliding reflect projectiles back to its source. A Warlock chest piece called Chromatic Fire that makes all kinetic precision kills explode elementally. There’s even a brand new weapon type being introduced: bows. There are a variety of types of bows from slow firing and high damage to quick firing low damage archetypes.

Along with all these changes, Bungie is introducing 9 new super augments. Each class gets three and there is one per subclass that changes how the base version of the super acts. Such as for the Sunbreaker Titan, instead of chucking small hammers that explode, you get one giant hammer to smash the enemy with and leave tornados of fire behind. Additionally the Warlock’s Stormcaller subclass shoots a giant laser of electricity at its foes. In addition to the subclass changes, the weapon system has been overhauled. Utilizing a hybrid system from both Destiny and Destiny 2 players will be able to have a bit more freedom in what weapons they wish to equip in their loadout. Do you want to run 3 shotguns? As long as you have one in each kinetic, energy and power slot you can do that. Want 3 sniper rifles? You can do that too as long as your inventory meets the requirements.

Now if all that sounds good, and it does, you might be wondering is this enough? For some the answer might be yes, others might be a bit more wary on it. Both are valid emotions as Destiny 2 has had a rocky launch, its first DLC was subpar, and the second DLC was better but still lacking the pizazz that many were looking for. Bungie has put out numerous ViDocs (video documentaries) telling how they have been listening and making Forsaken back into the hobbyist game its predecessor was. Many of the changes, such as weapon slot restructuring, was a direct request from the community at large. Bungie has said Forsaken is the culmination of all the community’s requests and more made real. Now, I get it, you were let down at launch, so was I. I critiqued the game voraciously amongst my friends and on Reddit. I cared about this franchise and seeing it repeat the same mistakes of its predecessor was disheartening and disrespectful of Bungie’s skill and potential. I wrote a long summation of where things went wrong that was posted in our physical zine. I was like you. Yet despite all of this, I have been watching videos, streams, reading articles making sure I have as much info about this expansion as possible. As of now I am hyped for Forsaken, but I am cautiously optimistic about things. I plan to play Forsaken because I love Destiny and the friendships I’ve made through it. If you are on the fence about it, wait, watch some Twitch streams, read reviews. There is no harm in waiting and voting with your wallet if you want to.

Destiny 2: Forsaken launches September 4^th, 2018 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC and requires the previous 2 DLCs in order to play. There are plenty of editions to suit your buying needs at your favorite store.