Tagseason of the drifter

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 May 28, 20191 Comment Gaming Opinions

Preparing for Season of Opulence (Destiny 2: Forsaken)

Should you prepare for Season of Opulence? Good question!

Based on the trailer that just dropped, I’d think there is actually minimal preparation that you can do before the new season begins.

I understand top streamers have put together spreadsheets to maximize the amount of power you can gain in a short amount of time before the raid releases, but for some reason, I get the feeling Season of Opulence is not meant to punish players with hard and unbearable power grinds.

Is it possible that Season of Opulence is actually meant reward players for sticking with Bungie and the Destiny/ Destiny 2 franchise?

I watched the Destiny 2: Forsaken- Season of Opulence (trailer) that released earlier today and the wording in the trailer made it seem like power isn’t going to be an issue this time around.

We’ll be heading back to the Leviathan for treasure hunts, a 6 player activity, and a new raid. Minus the raid which always rewards with power items, it sounds like power items will be in abundance.

Before I saw the trailer, I decided that I would save up bounties and see if I could get the jump on a few weekly power bounties from Ikora, Petra, and Ada-1. Now after seeing the trailer, I don’t feel anxious about being able to gear up enough to join the raid day one.

But who’s to say? I could be wrong and come June 4th and we’ll all hit a power wall despite any preparation that we’ve tried to take.

To that, I ask…

Is not being completely overpowered on day one such a bad thing?

Posted May 2, 2019 Game Reviews

Destiny 2: The Revelry (Final Review)

The Revelry event is about to end next Tuesday on May 7, 2019. During my first week playing, my clan mates gave me grief for actually wanting to explore the content. They were quickly bored of the Verdant Forest and didn’t want to grind to get the exotic linear fusion rifle, the Arbalest.

I understood their frustration. However, I wanted that fusion rifle so I ended up going solo with matchmaking to finish my triumphs and get my fusion rifle. Of course, they ended up grinding anyway because that’s what Destiny players do.

We ask for things to grind for, we get things to grind for, we complain about the grind and then we complete the grind. It’s the circle of our gameplay.

Honestly, the Verdant Forest was cool. I think Bungie did a great job reusing content that should have weighed more during the Curse of Osiris DLC last year. What made the Verdant Forest better than the Haunted Forest was its uncapped level system. Allowing players to go as long as they wanted.

It may have been more exciting if there were more than five bosses depending on how many levels you completed, but I won’t complain about semantics.

My favorite part of the Revelry has to but the tonics.

I enjoy spamming grenades on enemies in PVE. Who knew!

I didn’t really go into PVP because I just didn’t, but I ended up swapping between my hunter and my warlock during the PVE activities like Gambit and Reckoning. I had the most fun on my Warlock because using the axion bolt grenade is like a mini nova bomb. Plus with Skull of Dire Ahamkara paired with the top tree of the void subclass is just fun.

I was a walking, infinite nova bomb in every activity.

And I had fun.

-ABD

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