I’ve been a big player of Destiny since it’s original launch back in 2014. It’s no secret that the first game had serious problems from the abysmal Dark Below to the games peak in The Taken King, after which it was downhill for the series. Destiny 2: Forsaken is the latest expansion for Destiny 2. Bringing more of what draws players to that universe whilst hopefully fixing many of the issues that have been present since launch. Issues that really shouldn’t have been there. Will Destiny 2: Forsaken be enough?

The set-up for the story is as simple as it gets. Six deadly Barons have escape from the Prison of Elders and during the breakout Cayde-6 is killed by Uldern Sov, the prince of the Awoken. With the barons free and Uldren still at large, your guardian sets out on a personal journey of vengeance.

The art team kills it, yet again.

It’s a ballsy move by Bungie killing off the fan favourite character but its one that mostly pays off. The darker tone is much appreciated and giving us a reason to care goes a long way in telling a good story. Uldren Sov is the villain Destiny was in desperate need of, since the events of Taken King he has been a broken individual and his motivations make him a more sympathetic.

The story might be a step-up but Bungie still can’t nail it. Our Guardians voice finally returns for a grand total of two lines. I was so disappointed that the character we spent four years still has nothing to say, It’s hard to get invested into a story when our own character won’t react to anything going on. The major plot twist can be seen coming from the very beginning  (to be fair it wasn’t trying to hide it) and the Ghost is still an annoying companion, this led to an underwhelming ending with very little impact.

Nolan North does a great job replacing Nathan Fillion for the role of Cayde-6, throughout the opening mission Cayde is constantly cracking jokes until the very end. It’s odd to have someone else send off the character but he pulled off a memorable performance. Elsewhere the rest of the cast pulls of some decent voice performances.

A new threat has arrived, the scorn. Twisted and mutated version of the familiar Fallen that aren’t just basic reskins but become an entirely new addition to the growing roster of factions. The Scorn have a striking visual design and most importantly are incredibly fun to fight with some really unique units.

The Dreaming City left me speechless.

With this expansion, there is not only one, but two entirely new patrol zones. First is the Tangled Shores, a bunch of baron asteroids held together by hundreds of cables to stop them from floating way. It’s certainly a more interesting looking area than it sounds and it should be, since you will be spending a good chunk of time here hunting down Uldren. The missions in the Tangled Shore mostly consist of hunting down the Barons which you can do in any order.

Then there is the Dreaming City, secret homeland of the Awoken. This entire area is one of the most visually stunning areas I’ve every seen, the art team did an amazing job creating a new mystical world full of secrets. This patrol zone is reserved for high level players, as some of the most difficult content is located here. They’ve also finally given us a dedicated end-game area. The Dreaming City is evolving; so far every week has given us new (if small) story missions that seem promising, as well as some other things I won’t spoil.

The Blind Well is a new defense type game located in the heart of the city. It’s activated during the patrol, and has you and up to seven other guardians clearing out waves of enemies within a given time limit. Each wave gets harder, all the way up to a boss fight. It’s a fun game mode that provides a tough but fair challenge, but it’s a shame the matchmaking can take too long to bring new players into the experience.

A lot of work has been put into the environments.

As is standard with Destiny content drops, there are new strikes available. Three of which are in the Tangled Shores, and the last one is in the Dreaming City. These strikes are some of the best in the series, with larger and more intricate level design with fun boss encounters that absolutely destroy most of the base game strikes in terms of quality. There’s a fifth strike that is annoyingly exclusive to PlayStation 4, this really shouldn’t be the case since all versions cost the same.

Gambit, Destiny 2: Forsaken‘s new PvPvE mode, is a welcome change of pace. In this mode, two teams compete to bank points to summon a boss, first team to kill their boss wins. At certain intervals you will be able to invade the other teams instance and wreck havok. I never liked the Destiny PvP, I always thought it was a dull mess, but Gambit brings fresh life into the PvP portion.

Destiny 2: Forsaken might not be enough to convince newcomers to finally dive into the series, but for long time fans this is a great improvement that rivals The Taken King expansion. Will Destiny continue on this upwards climb or will the cycle continue?

Destiny 2: Forsaken is available now on PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

Reviewed on PC.