12 Reasons Why 'The Taken King' Makes 'Destiny' Truly Great

I was less than impressed when Destiny first launched a year ago, and it wasn't until after both its first two expansions had also launched that I really started to get into the game.

In retrospect, I think I needed some psychic distance between the end-game and the lackluster story that led up to it. What I had expected to find in the game, I found very little of---and in many ways, The Taken King doesn't change that.

This is still not the game I was expecting Destiny to be. However, with the release of the third expansion I have started to think of Destiny as a great first-person shooter, and probably my favorite MMO. I'm nowhere near writing an actual review of the new expansion---there's far too much to do still, and the new raid isn't even out yet---so consider this list first impressions only.

In any case, here are ten things that The Taken King does that makes Destiny better, both for newcomers and veterans alike.

1. There's a real story now.

I still find the entire Destiny lore and narrative kind of silly, even as a big fan of space opera and fantasy and science fiction. But it's nice that we actually have some killer cinematics now, and interaction between the various characters that drive the plot forward. Now the Ghost and Cayde-6 and Eris Morn all interact. Now we have big, epic cut-scenes. This new Taken King story dwarfs that of vanilla Destiny in just about every way. And a big part of that is...

2. Nathan Fillion.

The Firefly star is simply delightful in The Taken King. I cannot emphasize that enough. He adds levity and humor to the otherwise dark, epic story in the expansion. And he's just so bloody good. Every time the sour, melodramatic Eris Morn says something dark and mysterious, Cayde-6 cracks a welcome joke. It's some of the most fun I've had with voice-overs in games ever. Nathan Fillion is awesome.

3. The Ghost is better and more useful.

Your trusty sidekick Ghost is also way better now. This is partly because Nolan North really is much better than Peter Dinklage in the role. Yes, I know, many of you have a patch of nostalgia sewed to your hearts for the good ol' Dinklebot, but let's face it: If North had been the only voice of Ghost there never would have been a controversy to begin with. He's great in the role. Earnest and a bit awkward with a touch of sadness, too. And your Ghost can do a few more things than before and looks cooler, too. The Ghost also contributes to your Light Level and gives you various perks.

4. Currency is simplified, and everything is better organized.

Gone are Crucible Marks and Vanguard Marks. Now you only earn Legendary Marks, though you don't earn them quite as easily as the other two currencies. It's nice to have one less thing to think about in your inventory, and it gives you more choices in terms of where you spend your marks. I like the streamlining here a lot.

The new organization of Quests and Bounties is also great, making it much easier to track different quest lines as opposed to more grindy bounties.

5. The missions are way better than ever before.

The quality of mission design in The Taken King is much better than just about anything that came before it, hands down. It's more interesting, more engaging, and more fun to play through Taken King missions than all but the best content prior to the expansion. You really feel like you're engaged in an epic mission with real variety in stage design (even a stealth stage!) and a sense of being part of something huge and epic. It's terrific. There are also great platforming sequences which provide a whole new kind of challenge.

6. Cayde-6.

Okay, listing Cayde-6 is just a transparent way to list Nathan Fillion again. But seriously! He's just so damn good it's hard not to list him two or three times. He steals the show at every turn, and is emblematic of how far Bungie's writing team has come in crafting a compelling story.

7. The new Crucible maps and modes are fantastic.

Rift and Mayhem join the various other PvP modes, and they're both loads of fun (except when your team can't get the stupid spark to the stupid rift and you keep getting scored on...) The two new modes come alongside a bunch of new maps which adds a ton of new variety to the Crucible. They're great maps, too. I'm seriously impressed with how good they are. A lot of them are a bit more compact than previous maps, and feel very tightly designed. Good times.

8. Starting all over in the gear hunt is surprisingly fun.

It's weird to start finding regular old green gear that's so much better than your Legendary and Exotic stuff. To boost your Light Level past its pre-Taken King levels you'll start swapping in mundane equipment before you move on to blue and purple and finally new yellows. But it's also really fun! And there's more to it now, since you also need to go test out the Gunsmith's weapons in both Vanguard and Crucible. That whole grind really grew on me after a while, and it's fun to be right back at it but with tons of new gear to discover.

9. The world feels alive, finally.

New, player-activated player events in the Court of Oryx are awesome, but even outside of that you'll encounter Taken public events against massive Taken Champions that are really fun, too. There's so much more going on all across the game now, it really feels much more dynamic and alive than Destiny used to. The game feels like a living, breathing world in many ways now that it didn't before.

10. The Dreadnaught is amazing, and so are the new enemies.

The new area in The Taken King is Oryx's Dreadnaught---a massive, elaborate spaceship that comprises lots of different missions and the new patrol area. It's one of the coolest areas in Destiny and it's just ripe for exploring.

It's also the nexus of Oryx's "Taken" army. These new enemies appear all over the various worlds of Destiny, of course, and they're really great. Taken enemies have new powers and abilities and provide a whole new kind of challenge to the game. It's a blast.

11. The new sub-classes are very cool.

Okay, well I've only played the new Hunter sub-class so far. But the Void-based Nightstalker is tons of fun so far, and I've heard equally good things about the new Titan and Warlock sub-classes as well. It's fun to have a third to pick from, really, and just start leveling up some new powers. I'm not sure I like the special as much as the Bladedancer's Arc-blade, but we'll see. I really like the grenades, though.

12. Nathan Fillion, son. Nathan Fillion.

Yeah, I know. But it's true.

I've gone from feeling underwhelmed, to starting to really like Destiny leading up to The Taken King, to absolutely enjoying the hell out of it now that the expansion is live. I kept thinking to myself yesterday as I played, "This is actually a great shooter." Not just a good shooter, but a great one. It reminds me of the way I've felt playing many other great shooters, like the first Halo (though it still lacks really good vehicular stuff.)

But I'm not anywhere near done yet, and I'm sure I'll have some complaints to provide counterpoint and balance to this list. And certainly there's a post waiting to be written about the way this expansion divides the player base in an enormously impacting way. More on that to come.

Destiny: The Taken King was developed by Bungie and published by Activision.

What do you think of the expansion so far?

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