REVIEW: Destiny: House of Wolves

Since Destiny was announced, it has experienced varying amount of praise and criticism. From the moment we first laid eyes on the title, we not only saw potential for this game, we were also promised 10 years of Destiny content down the road. Since I first got the game at the midnight launch, the game has always been a product with a split community. Previous Bungie lovers, who were attached to the Halo franchise, were either taken into this world, loving each moment, or picking up the flaws that were obviously in sight. Destiny has great core mechanics, and all content that has been released since launch reuses maps and assets from the base game, and introduced aspects to the core game to change the pace. Many enemies and challenges found within Destiny lay within the characters, and bullet sponges to prolong the experience. The Dark Below was a disappointing DLC, and except for the raid, introduced little content, and dull minor tweaks to gameplay.

House of Wolves is the second expansion for Destiny, and adds a range of new content for players to enjoy. Since the first reveal, the concepts that Bungie have pushed are very much different to those previously, and hope to reward players with end game content. The new game modes found in House of Wolves are different to what we have previously seen, with more re-playability and goals. This expansion is welcomed to Destiny, and something I wish to see again in the future. Even though the DLC is not perfect, for a Destiny expansion succeeds in many areas.

The expansion includes the following content:

• 5 Story missions
• A new Strike
• Prison of Elders
• 4 New Crucible Maps
• Trials of Osiris

House of Wolves focuses on the Fallen faction, and the less explored Reef location in the solar system. The Queen of the Awoken has opened The Reef to all Guardians, to hunt down the Fallen who have rebelled against the awoken. The House of Wolves have betrayed The Queen, and Skolas: Kell of The House of Wolves aims to command all the Fallen houses.

The story missions are one of the weaker points of House of Wolves, however are compulsory to access most of the DLC content. These story missions are similar to what has been found in previous Destiny expansions and feature a simple objective, which you must work towards over the course of 20 to 30 minutes. When the expansion first launched, me and one other player ran through the story missions in under 3 hours, gathering little loot and benefits. The story missions within Destiny are never expected to be revolutionary, and almost act as filler for the DLC. The Prison of Elders and Trials of Osiris are the ‘meat’ of this expansion, with story to fill the package up.

The new strike ‘The Shadow Thief’ is integrated into the story, and continues to focus on the theme of taking down the House of Wolves. You must hunt down Taniks, the Scarred, who is hiding at the Ocean of Storms on the moon, on a Fallen Ketch. You start in a familiar location, however after the first few minutes of the strike, are teleported up to the new area. Nearly all the enemies found here are from the base game, however still present a challenge, and offer an enjoyable experience. The strike is in a similar structure to most strikes, where you will progress through some cannon fodder, before meeting a sub-boss, until you kill the final target. This is not a bad structure, however can get stale with the enemies taking large amounts of damage to prolong the experience.

Until now, The Tower was the only social space available in Destiny. All tasks and purchases were made in The Tower, with few Vendors. With House of Wolves, a range of new Vendors have been added, however in a new social space, set in The Reef. Vestian Outpost is the new area where Destiny’s House of Wolves Vendors are available, with other familiar vendors seen in The Tower. This new social space adds a new area for Guardians to interact with vendors, and players in a passive environment. Sadly, the “social” spaces have little player interaction.

Vestian Outpost has the following Vendors:

• Petra Venj is the vendor who supplies story missions, bounties, and the related rewards.
• Variks is the vendor who supplies all Prison of Elders gear and rewards
• Brother Vance supplies rewards and aids for the Trials of Osiris
• Vendors who are also seen in the Tower, such as the Cryptarch, Postmaster, Bounty Vendor and Xur, appear in The Reef.

The Tower has also undergone changes, to adapt the market for House of Wolves features.

• The Speaker now offers a material exchange, where Destiny’s currencies can be exchanged for their equivalents in a different currency.
• The Gunsmith also allows weapons to be ‘Reforged’, where weapons can we swapped for one with a different stat roll.

The Reef is a great social space, and since its release, I have rarely visited The Tower. The Reef looks technically amazing, with a great view into the distance. One thing I have noticed is, The Reef social space was playable when Destiny was announced for Playstation 4, back in February 2013. It therefore begs the question of how much content is already existent for these expansions.

Prison of Elders is where this expansion makes its mark. Prison of Elders is an arena based cooperative mode that requires a Fireteam of 3 guardians to fight waves of enemies, and progress through tasks. As a first to Destiny, the difficulty and levels will be randomised and rotate weekly, to keep the experience fresh and add a level of re-playability. The Prison is located in Queens Bay, The Reef, similar to many of the additions in the expansion. This arena is controlled by Variks, one of the few Fallen who has stayed loyal to the Queen. Variks, warden of the Prison gives commands to the player through the Mouth of Variks, a modified servitor. In the Prison you will be fighting “all enemies of the reef”. You can expect to fight all factions in the Prison of Elders. In each run of the Prison of Elders, there are 5 rounds, each housing 3 waves. A checkpoint is set every round; however one run must be completed in a single sitting. For the fifth round, guardians will have to fight a randomly selected boss.

Challenge modes are an extra addition to the Prison of Elders, which have an increased difficultly, and no matchmaking. These range from Level 28-35 and utilise modifiers to change the flow of gameplay. New modifiers are included in the challenges, which can favour certain weapon types and classes, or styles of play. There are three challenges per week, which reset at the Weekly Reset Time, 9:00AM UTC, Tuesday. For higher level runs, players will be expected to fight two bosses, who rotate weekly, to keep the experience fresh. The bosses in Prison of Elders are exciting, and add new challenges, which require precise tactics. Skolas is the Level 35 boss, which is constant for all playthroughs of the Level 35 Final Round. The teamwork required for this fight is similar to that of a raid, which makes it clear why matchmaking isn’t available for the higher level difficulties. The Skolas fight is easily the most satisfying boss to finish, found in Destiny.

All of the Prison of Elders content feels satisfying, and gives rewards frequently to keep players interested. The idea of new content or layouts each week adds to the layer of re-playability. This is one of the best parts of the expansion.

Trials of Osiris is a high stakes PvP mode that was added to Destiny with the House of Wolves. With a non-matchmade Fireteam of 3 players, you play competitive gametypes with no respawns. Revives are allowed, however when the whole team is wiped out, the round is over. There are 5 rounds per game. This crucible gamemode is only available during weekends. The map is also constant for the weekend, and rotates weekly. The game rewards flawless runs, where teams are unbeaten to access new content. The high stakes element of this DLC allows more valuable weapons to be rewarded to players. A flawless run of 9 wins will also grant a player access to The Lighthouse, which is our first look at Mercury. Sadly, I will not share anymore details, as this is a hard task to complete.

Trials of Osiris doesn’t bring any new concepts to the Crucible experience, and even though this mode is fun, after a while the few benefits and rewards will have been unlocked, and players will not receive anymore higher level gear. Even with the Light Level cap being raised to 34, I, and many other players already have the gear to hit this.

The House of Wolves expansion brings a range of new game modes, which please nearly every player. There is a healthy balance of PvE and PvP gametypes, therefore every Destiny player will find something to play. Sadly, the re-playability will fall off over time, similar to the core game. The core mechanics of Destiny are perfect; however this allows the whole game to focus on reusing that experience. Many players enjoy this, but the lack of content is always present. If Destiny had shipped with the content from The Dark Below and House of Wolves, Destiny would have been a much more compelling title. The idea behind Destiny’s ecosystem reminds me of slot machines, and teasing new content. Bungie never over delivers with their releases for Destiny, which results in players constantly begging for more. This is a clever tactic, however still leaves the game worse off. House of Wolves delivered compared to previous content releases, but sadly still manages to leave us wanting more.

With the £20 asking price, House of Wolves should be picked up, as a Destiny player. Sadly, this is not the DLC to revisit the franchise with.