Destiny: The Taken King Legendary Edition
Overview -
'The Taken King' is Bungie’s first entry in Year Two of their plan for 'Destiny'. It is billed as a rather large expansion with lots of new content, including strikes, many missions, more PVP activities, and the first new raid since 2014. 'Destiny: The Taken King Legendary Edition' includes the new expansion as well as all major content released to this date. As such, new players will get the combined story, raids, and PVP content of the past year on top of the new stuff, however, as noted in the review, 'Destiny' has changed. With 'The Taken King' comes a new 'Destiny' experience.
Video Review
While the visual formula overall hasn’t changed, the new cinematics, effects, and gear all look very nice. Weapons are distinctive, even the weaker ones. Textures and surfaces look more detailed during cutscenes. Loading times feel shorter, but it also feels like there are more of them. The Dreadnaught is very creepy, as are the Taken. Some of their effects can be dramatic.
Audio Review
'The Taken King' has a new soundtrack and it is quite lovely. The old one was no slouch, but this one is menacing and foreboding instead of sweeping and epic. The voice acting is also a much higher caliber. While Eris Morn is as weird as ever, Cayde-6 steals the show with his subversive wit and complete disdain for all things bureaucratic. The new (ever-present these days) Ghost actor has replaced the bored Dinklebot, although it’s not much of an improvement.
Final Thoughts
For newcomers to the series, 'Destiny: The Taken King' presents a much larger and more user-friendly 'Destiny' experience, and that's after a year of crazy highs, and RNG lows. For veterans, it feels as though we have to take two steps back before we can go forward, but the way is paved with fun things to do. If you’ve been putting off playing 'Destiny' until it got better, now’s the time.
