Season 4 of Destiny 2 has arrived, and along with it comes Destiny 2: Forsaken. Is the expansion worth your hard earned bucks, or should you spend that cash elsewhere?

Read on to find out.

The Destiny saga has come a long ways since the story began back in September of 2014. There has been quite a few enemies vanquished, and new enemies have constantly emerged that needed our guardians to eliminate. The one thing that has been constant since day one has been our supporting crew. Ikora Rey, the Warlock Vanguard, Commander Zavala, the Titan Vanguard, Cayde-6, the Hunter Vanguard, and Master Rahool, the almost always frustrating Cryptarch, have always been there for us in good times and bad, and were major characters in the series. Forsaken did the unthinkable and took one of these characters off the board for good.

Forsaken opens up as our hunter Vanguard, Cayde-6, is fighting his way through the Prison of Elders and is trying to quell a prison riot. During the battle, his trusty ghost is taken out by a sharpshooting Baron, and without his Ghost, there is no respawn. He fights an epic battle, showcasing several new Hunter abilities, but in the end, he faces off against Prince Uldren Sov, brother to a murdered Queen of the Reef and the Awoken, Mara Sov, and it is here when our friend and comedian confidant meets his maker. Uldren and his cohorts escape the prison, and it is our duty to eliminate them once and for all.

As you play through the campaign, new abilities are unlocked, depending on which class you choose to work with. All three guardian types get three new sub-classes each, and being able to unlock them all will take a serious time investment. The new max light level of 600 (up from 385) will also take some time, as once you hit 500, you’ll be taking baby steps as you inch upwards. That’s not a bad thing if you enjoy spending time in the Destiny world, and the new activities should help you enjoy it even more.

Two new areas are included with Forsaken, the Tangled Shore and the Dreaming City, but you’ll have to not only finish the campaign, but also a final quest to reach the Dreaming City. You’ll want to make sure and check in with the new NPC in the Tangled Shore, Mr. Spider, as he will point you in the right direction. He also has bounties for those missing bad guys running loose from the Prison of Elders, so be sure to farm some public events at the Tangled Shore in order to earn enough Ghost Fragments to purchase them. These bad guys can be found just about anywhere, on any planet, possibly roaming the streets or hanging out in a Lost Sector. The bounty will point you in the right direction. He also has a weekly bounty that will task you with taking down a 540 light level escapee, but be warned, those adventures are no joke.

Once you’ve reached the Dreaming City, be sure to speak to that area’s NPC Petra, as she’ll have bounties for you as well that can earn you a powerful engram. She also has offerings for another new event type found only in the Dreaming City, the Blind Well. For those of you that played the original Destiny, you should remember the Court of Oryx, where you could summon increasingly harder enemies, and earn better gear by defeating them. The Blind Well is similar in that there are four levels of summoning dependent on which offering is being used. Tier Level I, while not too hard, should only be attempted when you have at least 3 level 50/500+ guardians. Levels II and III, you better have quite a few more folks armed to the gills and ready to roll, because those get harder and harder, exponentially.

Once you have your first new sub class fully upgraded, you’ll need to successfully complete Tier II runs a random number of times, and eventually you’ll receive a seed of light which will allow you to start working on a second sub class. We successfully completed over 15 runs before finally getting our seed of light, but some folks say they got one after completing it once. Regardless of how many times it takes, it is a fun new event that will test your skills immensely.

Another new event type is a mix between PVE and PVP called Gambit. In this mode, it’s a 4v4 battle where you are divided into separate areas and are tasked with taking out large groups of enemies. These enemies drop motes of light, which you’ll need to pick up and bank in your center console. You can gather as many as 15 at a time, and create blockers that spawn tough bosses that will block the other team’s console. Be careful hanging on to too many motes at a time, though, because if you go down, you’ll lose those motes for your team. Bank enough motes to summon a Primeval, and then take him down for the victory.

The mode is simple enough, but there’s also an invasion tactic available where you can invade the other team’s area, or they can invade yours, and try to slow them down by taking them out. Keep in mind that this is only a 4v4 game type, so if one person is invading the other side, that just leaves three to try to bank those motes or take down a big guy. You may be slowing the other team down, but how much are you really helping your own team? All in all, Gambit is an intensely fast paced and fun game type that blurs the line between PVP and PVE nicely.

One other nice change to mention is how you access your collections of weapons, armor, ghosts, vehicles, or flair. You have probably found a lot more than you realize, and may have even forgotten about some of your old favorites. From the menu, tab over to the collections menu and you’ll not only be able to look at all you have found, but repurchase them as well. Want a high level Hard Light but accidentally dismantled one a while back? Purchase one here and then infuse it with a high level energy weapon of your choosing. Need a ghost to help find stuff on a given planet? Find the planetary ghost in the collection and purchase it for a small amount of glimmer. Such a handy little tool.

Destiny 2: Forsaken not only kicks off Season 4 with a bang, but brings so many new bells and whistles, that you’ll be busy for many hours to come. Working towards that new max level will not be an easy task but you’ll need to be pretty high to take down some of those escapees as well as completing the new raid which drops on September 14, 2018.

Thanks Bungie for expanding on an already great game, and making it even better!

9

Destiny 2: Forsaken review code provided by publisher and reviewed on a PS4 Pro. For more information on scoring, please read: What our review scores really mean.