I'm a huge 'Destiny' fan: Here's what I think of the massive update so far

Bungie

I woke up at 5 a.m. Tuesday morning to start playing "Destiny."

I suspect millions of other people did the same.

Not everyone loved "Destiny" when it first launched last September. There were great expectations considering it was made by Bungie, the same studio behind the "Halo" series. The hope was the team could pull off another timeless franchise.

But unfortunately the game met several stumbling blocks right out the gate: There was no coherent storyline, missions felt repetitive, there was zero character development, and the systems for rewarding gameplay felt arbitrary and didn't match one's own efforts.

But Bungie hasn't given up on "Destiny." In the year since that initial release, "Destiny" has undergone over 30 different updates and patches to address issues like bugs, balance, and playability — and the game has improved substantially.

With this week's release of "The Taken King," the latest major expansion, "Destiny" has taken a major step forward — at least it seems that way, having played a few hours of the new content this morning.

What it's like to play "The Taken King"

Right from the get-go, "The Taken King" feels like a much more deliberate, cinematic effort. First you're treated to a gorgeous cutscene with some of the principal characters — you see King Oryx for the first time, and you understand how big of a threat he is.

In the first mission, you visit Phobos, one of the moons of Mars, to witness a clan of militant aliens called Cabal get totally wiped out by a new enemy threat called "Taken."

The design of the first "Taken King" mission feels extremely deliberate — in a good way, like you're on a Disney ride. The game points you in the right direction with excellent visual cues, and your first interactions with these new enemies lets you see how their new mechanics work. You also get a chance to play with plenty of new weapons, even in this first mission. I can tell you right away that new weapons in "Destiny" work, sound, and feel better than ever.

I finished the first mission in roughly 15 minutes, which felt like the perfect amount of time. The mission had a wonderful sense of dread and urgency, and fighting these new monsters was extremely satisfying.

You can watch me play the beginning of that first mission in the video below.

I also got to play a couple more missions this morning, including the missions to get your new powers: My titan, for example, received the new "Sunbreaker" subclass, which can wield and throw flaming hammers. It's super fun to play around with.

I managed to play nearly 2.5 hours this morning, but I feel like I'm just scratching the surface. There are still plenty of new missions and strikes to try, and I also can't wait to patrol Oryx's Dreadnaught to try some of the new public events, as well as the game's raid that goes live Friday. But so far, I'm extremely impressed.

"The Taken King" doesn't completely rewrite the rules of "Destiny": It's still all about shooting aliens, and Bungie still uses some of the same old tactics, namely reusing areas over and over again in different ways. But the emphasis on story through cinematics and in-game commentary makes "Destiny" really come alive in ways it hasn't before. All of the weapons I've tried are really fun to play with, and so are the new super powers, at least on my titan. I can't wait to go home and get my warlock and hunter up to speed.