Destiny: The Taken King

If you’re a veteran player, after a jolting transition this is the best the game has ever been. If you’re new - this is the best thing available to play on console. Let’s pretend it’s always been this good.

The best example of this incremental improvement is in the game’s new raid.

Current players get the Destiny they’ve always wanted, and new players get to experience the best iteration of the game.

You couldn’t pick a better time to try Destiny if you haven’t yet. The Taken King is a testament to Bungie’s craftsmanship and its ability to listen to the feedback from the players who both loved and hated year one. The studio has given us a game that truly is legend.

Brilliant: Bungie has finally delivered the era-defining shooter it promised a year ago. [Nov 2015, p.63]

Forty dollars to access the base content may be steep depending on what players expect to get out of The Taken King. If it's hundreds of hours across all activities, then it's a bargain; if it's just the campaign and some casual competitive play, notsomuch.

The Taken King could have been named Destiny 2 without lying. The quantity of new content is made for those still playing the game and looking to take full advantage of Year Two.

The Taken King is truly Destiny 2.0. Practically everything has been revised and improved, making this the unmissable Bungie title that Destiny should’ve been a year ago.

It uses preexisting flaws as the foundations for something that is better in just about every single way: bigger, more coherent and, best of all, immeasurably more generous. With that comes, appropriately, a puzzle for Bungie to solve. How do you continue to build on a game that has so few chinks in its lustrous, gleaming exotic armour? [Dec 2015, p.106]

The Taken King is a bold, brilliant expansion that brings out Destiny's true potential. It's pricier than I'd have liked, but still a massive new adventure whether you're a newbie or a veteran Guardian. [Dec 2015, p.92]

A complete overhaul of the core game, boating improvements across the board. Bungie has raised the bar and reeled us back in, making a year-old game fresh and exciting all over again. [Issue#262, p.62]

This is a sizeable u-turn that deserves the moniker ‘major expansion’. It really does make the original Destiny release look like a beta, thanks to large framework tweaks and a king’s ransom of exciting new content. We’re quite taken by it. You will be too. [December 2015, p60]

This is the Destiny the world deserves. The Taken King offers a lot of new content, but most of all it gives the players a complete (and much needed) revamp of the gameplay and the leveling system.

It isn’t perfect, but it’s much better than what existed before. The new content, namely the raids, subclasses, and progression systems all land exceptionally well.

Destiny: The Taken King is a huge improvement over last year game, which is come to a more defined structure and scope. The new raid, like the Vault of Glass before it, will be remembered as a gem in game and level design.

An awesome upgrade that's addressed most of my biggest problems with Destiny over the past year.

The Taken King goes far beyond a simple expansion, and reworks the core of the Destiny enterprise.

Having managed to reach but not successfully beat Oryx for the first time, it already feels as though the boss battles have the kinds of game mechanics and the inherent but not unduly unfair difficulty that will help to sustain interest in repeated plays in a few months time.

Destiny has changed and in many ways - this is a better, richer and more functional game than the original release. With a better way to tell its story and well-implemented substantial changes, Destiny: The Taken King is a very good expansion with plenty of content.

The Taken King is a solid package offering several more hours of fun, engaging new gameplay.

Destiny looks more and more like an MMO, and that seems to work well with the gameplay we already know. The Taken King is a good expansion, as it works exactly where Bungie's online shooter was having a hard time: by giving the players much more content to deal with.

The Taken King is a major expansion, compared to the previous ones. A new portion of universe based on a new philosophy and rich with things to do: campaign, assaults and much more. This is likely what we were expecting from day one.

Most of what made the original Destiny a good game is still there, but the overhauls and tweaks to the lesser parts have given Destiny the sort of boost it needed.

A new coat of paint has resulted in a newer and better game, perfect for any initiate or returning Guardian. The foundations for Bungie’s latest franchise aren’t just more solid than ever, but a fun experience that is years ahead of anything else in the genre.

Bungie makes Destiny better than ever, building on the solid foundations it already had. If you missed it the first time, it's a great moment to find out what it has to offer. If you already played it, it will tweak the experience to make you want to go back at it.

The Taken King is a huge improvement over last year's release. It features a far better story, much stronger voice acting, more exciting and varied missions, and an endgame that is more rounded out for long-term play. Not only that, but it also refines the overall gameplay and makes the game a far better experience than before - one that is definitely worth playing.

The Taken King multiplies Destiny´s content, adds variety to its missions and rewrites its gameplay in certain key aspects. Being a DLC, it´s not cheap, but it feels like a new, even better, game.

The Taken King could be Destiny 2, perfectly. The Destiny base is improved with a better campaign, better loot, tons of new side quests, gear and weapons. This expansion has all that Destiny fans expected. It's a must have for them and for newcomers.

Bungie has delivered a helluva final act to what's been a very surprising, highly purchasable rethink of this wayward franchise.

The Taken King is one helluva good apology for the mediocre mis-start that was 2014's Destiny. All of our grievances have been addressed in some way. The loot system is fairer and more sensical, there's an actual story worth emotionally investing in, plus the combat's had an adrenaline shot thanks to new enemies, gats to gather, and exciting new subclasses.

A worthy investment for any fan of the original game and a pretty good one for those who weren't exactly thrilled with the initial experience.

Destiny: The Taken King and the Year Two Update is a significant step forward towards making this game something more enjoyable rather than a chore, but it still focuses very narrowly on pleasing its existing player base.

The Taken King is a love letter to Destiny fans and an apology to critics who felt let down by previous expansions. Systemically, this is the game Destiny should have been from the beginning. Content-wise, it lives up to the hype, with huge additions to solo, group, and PvP gameplay.

This is literally and figuratively a game changer for Destiny, and in a good way.

One year later Destiny is slowly turning the page from quite good to excellent. While it’s easy to criticize The Taken King for being too expensive for an expansion, it definitely manages to breath some fresh air into the game. Had the original Destiny had the storytelling chops of The Taken King, the game’s reception would’ve probably been much better. [Oct 2015]

I had a great time with The Taken King. There really is more to it than a new set of story missions and some new strikes and multiplayer modes - it has improved upon Destiny in many of the areas in which I thought that the original game fell short. And, unlike the original, I'm compelled to keep playing the game even though I'm am through with it from a review perspective.

If you are a new, returning, or current player in Destiny, the Taken King is absolutely worth checking out.

Destiny didn't release a bad game one year ago. But Bungie listened to all critics and user comments and give us the real Destiny. The Taken King is a fresh start with solid changes.

Still, The Taken King is an overall improvement to the game and it kind of reminds me of what Blizzard has done when they released Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls – expanding the narrative, leading inevitably to better end game content.

Above all, The Taken King's new raid brings a whole new level of challenge and you will be forced to put your power and friendships to the test in your quest to bring down Oryx.

It adds a lot of new things and changes game mechanics for the better: less grinding and easier to get into for new players.

The Taken King shows off Destiny's full potential. This is a must have.

There are still some flaws, but The Taken King finally makes Destiny the game it should have been at the release. It is finally a complete title, with a lot of fun and varied content, and a lot of implemented changes based on fan feedback. As we said, anyway, some changes are still due, some design choices remain weak, and the growth potential remains impressive. We just hope the next expansions maintain this level of polish and content in the future.

Destiny: The Taken King is what Destiny should have been when it was launched a year ago. 'Nough said.

The Taken King feels like the first effort to make good on the hope that Destiny players have been holding onto for the past year and change. The Taken King finally makes Destiny not just fun, but great.

After one year and thee add-ons, Destiny finally went to where we expected it to be when it released in 2014, but as Activision and Bungie need to keep the IP alive for a decade, we'll have to make do with very rare releases for future content.

Thanks to The Taken King Destiny finally is the game we wanted during release. We'd almost call it Destiny 2.0. Bungie again makes a few confusing choices, but the game experience has definitely become a lot more accessible.

The Taken King is a must-buy for people wanting to start or continue their friendship with Destiny. Bungie has gone the Blizzard way - The Taken King is to Destiny what Reaper of Souls is to Diablo III. A great refreshment and a metric ton of fixes and upgrades. It's worth to give Destiny a second chance, you won't regret it.

This is the first true expansion for Destiny and it’s the culmination of all the potential the original game showed when it first released.

It’s more of the Destiny that the fans love, with enough tweaks to keep them grinding for hundreds more hours to come. This is the game that Destiny should have released as, and there’s no doubt that people jumping into it for the first time are getting a great game, and a lot of it at that for a lovely low price, while dedicated players will enjoy themselves immensely while nursing their poor wallets back to health.

The improvements gathered in The Taken King make Destiny a much better game and it gives its users more content than ever before.

For the first time, Destiny feels like it’s complete. It’s not perfect, far from it in fact, and I still can’t entirely disagree when they speak of the package itself as bad. But I’ve also been unable to put it down for the past month I’ve played it.

Ultimately, however essential we say this update is, it’s only relevant if you’re a Destiny sceptic and haven’t already upgraded. If this is you, pick it up – the price is steep but there’s a huge amount of content here, plus you won’t fall too far behind. If you’re a new player, thanks to this update this is now one of the best ‘shared-world’ experiences out there – one that you’ll find hard to put down due to its stellar FPS mechanics, enormous scope and undeniable progression.

The Taken King fixes so much of what was wrong in Destiny, but still doesn’t quite make it to the epic status it aspires to.

The Taken King is an expansion that transformers Destiny into the game it should have been a year ago. The new content is more thought out and gives the end game a much needed boost of variety. Perfect gameplay is something that Destiny has had since day one. With The Taken King the contents is starting to get to the same level.

The Taken King expansion was given the daunting task of saving the game. We know it couldn’t be flawless and perfect. Within the limits set by the original game expansion excels and veterans will love the Oryx adventure mainly due to the imaginative end game content and interesting changes in the economy and loot. It didn’t change a fact that Destiny is not for everyone. If you already left the game long ago hilarious stories and better approach to newcomers won’t lure you back.

The overall package is that of a game that’s progressed tremendously in the last year. Bungie could have made minute changes to Destiny and delivered a solid game, maintained its current fan base easily...It chose to repair its mistakes, though. And in doing so, it delivers a far more impressive, satisfying experience.

Destiny enters its second year stronger than ever. The fans will finally have a chance to experience Bungie's vision in a much more polished game overall.

Whether you're an ardent fan who has logged into Destiny every week since launch, or someone who set down the controller the moment the credits rolled at launch last September, everything has been tweaked and changed for the better for everyone.

It doesn’t fix everything that was wrong with Destiny, but The Taken King does enough in all the right places to make it a highly enjoyable FPS experience overall. A renewed focus on narrative and a streamlined progression system helps to push Destiny in the direction it should have been heading all along.

Destiny's biggest expansion to date makes the game a whole lot more enjoyable and easier to recommend.

Bungie offers more of the same with The Taken King, but does change the feel of Destiny. That makes this first real DLC a great moment to start playing Destiny, as The Taken King complements Destiny in both quality and quantity.

With impressive storytelling, tight controls, and a sense of purpose, The Taken King is not just an expansion, but a noteworthy improvement to the Destiny series as a whole.

Destiny is back on track thanks to The Taken King. It's a very good expansion that managed to enrich almost every aspect of the game and provide countless hours of gameplay.

Bungie could have thrown in a bit more content given the price tag, but what's offered in The Taken King is definitely solid and certainly adds to the Destiny experience, making this a must-buy for fans of the game.

There are still plenty of thorns, most notably in the laughable matchmaking (or lack thereof, when it comes to end-game raids), but The Taken King manages to address and improve just about every aspect of the original 1.0 release.

Destiny still has a few issues that could be sorted out, but The Taken King brings hope that future Destiny expansions will fix those too.

The Taken King is everything Destiny's fans wanted from Bungie. A new area, new Strikes, a wonderful Raid and lots of contents. This second year starts in the right way, despite a very short campaign and a cap level that you can reach in a couple of hours.

The Taken King is the first time since launch that it’s been possible to say to new players that now is the time to start playing Destiny. The flaws have been ironed out, and the future’s bright.

The Taken King lights the way forward for the sci-fi shooter, and while it's not the brightest of glows, it's clear that Destiny's darkest days are over.

The Taken King is more than just an expansion; it's also a heart transplant. And with its wounds sewn shut, the anesthetic wearing off, and the scalpels put away to dry, Destiny has pulled through the operation with renewed vigor and a much stronger pulse. Now, only a few scars remain.

With the help of this third DLC, Destiny is finally the game we were waiting for since the initial launch.

The Taken King has come and he’s brought a much-improved experience.

One of the biggest criticisms levelled against Destiny from day one was its lack of a coherent storyline. The Taken King addresses that in a big way, with a dramatic opening cinematic, an easily understood narrative (very bad alien is assembling very large slave army to take over the solar system) and lots of lovely little character moments.

The Taken King shows Destiny is willing to reach for everything it might be, and it's hard not to look forward to what comes next.

Destiny takes the best parts of Halo and combines them with the worst parts of Borderlands.

Destiny isn’t a sci-fi game with big ideas or interesting characters like SOMA or Mass Effect but rather a mechanically excellent first-person-shooter that doubles as a virtual community center where you perform activities with friends or engage in pick-up games with strangers.

Slowly but surely, Bungie is morphing this chimera of a game into something more presentable.

The hardcore Destiny fan will most likely have already bought this without a thought as the game becomes fairly unplayable if you don’t. The more discerning that haven’t already sold or tried Destiny and looking to see if it’s worth trying or going back for this I’d say wait for a discount and then pick it up because it is definitely worth playing.