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Posted June 5, 20191 Comment Game Reviews

The Menagerie is the best activity in Destiny 2: Season of Opulence (first impressions)

How much fun did I have yesterday with the new content in Destiny 2: Season of Opulence?

So much!

Bungie hit it out of the park with everything regarding the Season of Opulence, in my opinion.

Invitation:
You start off the season with an invitation from Emperor Calus to come back to the Leviathan. Before you can get on to the Leviathan you have to go through a series of tasks to acquire your Chalice of Opulence and allow you to enter The Menagerie.

You also open up new daily and weekly bounties from Benedict that will give you a treasure map to a chest. The chest rewards you with a powerful engram, a rune, and Imperial currency for your efforts.

I enjoyed running through Nessus getting the Invitation done. It didn’t take long, but it did require some thought as each step introduced a new mechanic of utilizing your Chalice.

Knowing how to work your Chalice of Opulence is key this season and as soon as you reach The Menagerie and opened the final chest, you’ll know why.

The Menagerie:

To me, each room in The Menagerie felt like an ode to the best encounters in the Destiny universe so far. Besides the obvious gauntlet room and cranium uses, which made an appearance in Destiny 2 year 1 in the Leviathan raid and the Eater of Worlds raid lair, I saw so many nods to endgame activities already in the game.

For instance, in one room, you need to use swords to take down Hive Knight shields.

Hey Crota!

In another room, you had to keep feeding your well to keep the shield up. I found it to be a nice upgrade to the Blind Well in the Dreaming City, which is already a great activity.

Then we fought an Atheon-like boss this week! With the added killer vex walls, it really made for a blood pumping encounter.

Leveling:

Yesterday, I ended my playing session at 712 power. I chose to play one character, my hunter. I ran The Menagerie twice, some Dreaming City activities, a Nightfall, three strikes, and Gambit. I completed all of the Benedict bounties, as well as Ikora’s weekly.

I would say leveling was fair. Sure, you need to do all of the activities available to you, but I think that worked out fine. To be at 712 power without pushing myself for the grind is a good thing. That is a balance that I very much appreciate.

Overall, I have a very positive impression of Season of Opulence. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s in the rotation for next week and stepping into the raid this weekend.

Plus, I’m waiting on June 6th to find out the big announcement from Bungie about the future of Destiny 2!

Posted March 21, 20192 Comments Gaming Opinions

Opinion: Destiny 2 is in a great place

I’m a long time Destiny player. I’ve enjoyed my time with this game. Through the ups and the interesting times, I played and so did many others. But now, Destiny 2 is in the best place it’s been since Taken King.

Sure, Cayde-6 had to die and pretty much every guardian you come across is Dredgen but, hey at least we’re having fun, right?

I remember the height of Destiny. Always the top of the Twitch directory, never a dull moment with the grind for over-powered but fun weapons, and a very creative community that always made their own fun.

Members of the community made full blown charity events in the process of enjoying the game!

However, as being a content creator becomes more and more accessible, the voice of the community seems to be trending to a toxic conversation. Rants about economy issues in the game are a mainstay, loot drop issues, and lack of reasons to grind.

But, I think Destiny 2 is actually in a great place in this post Forsaken world with the annual pass.

There is more to do in this game than ever before. As a player, we have a longer content loop. You can do strikes, you can grind the Dreaming City, run the Black Armory Forges, and now play out the new modes, Gambit Prime and Reckoning in Season of the Drifter. And let’s not forget we still have two viable raids available as well.

In my honest opinion, I don’t believe we are expected to do each loop for each piece of content. At least not for the average player.

There are times when I don’t get to every milestone before reset. But for those privileged to be able to grind the content daily and reach max power in two or three days, I have a question.

Do you realize the weight your voice holds?

Between using your platform and attending summits, you are speaking for the collective.

Would it be so terrible to admit that the seasonal content since Forsaken has actually added much needed depth to the game?

Random rolls are back, new loot to chase, titles to grind for, longer content loops to play, and materials to stack.

Isn’t that the name of the game?

Plus, the lore is getting really interesting in the game. Have you been able to read up on the Emissary?

Sure no game is perfect and no developer can make the entire player base happy all the time. But, I’m enjoying Bungie’s game. And perhaps focusing on those positives is why I think Destiny 2 is in a great place.

-ABD