Returning To The Hunt In Destiny: House Of Wolves

Destiny has evolved and progressed a great deal since it launched back in September of last year. A series of major patches have managed to redress the balance of weaponry, overhauled a number of multiplayer mechanics and generally improved upon the game, but flaws still ran deep and it’s really with the build up to and release of House of Wolves last week that Bungie are able to show that they’ve listened and learnt from the mistakes that they’ve made previously.

The most natural place to start with the House of Wolves is with its story, a relatively short five mission romp that revisits and extends upon the existing world. You’ll find yourself fighting through familiar places in reverse, as well as heading towards what were previously dead ends that open up into new and interesting areas. There are some particular highlights that I’m hesitant to spoil, but manage to bookend and build upon the lacklustre story from the original game.

At the heart of it all is the perilously mad plan of Skolas and his eponymous House of Wolves, and while you do not fight alongside them, the new voice acting for Petra Venj and Variks adds a sense of fun and levity compared to the darkness of before. Petra is particularly enthusiastic about getting stuck into some field work and blowing stuff up, while Variks’ somewhat Yoda-like jumbled up syntax and tone of voice is similarly refreshing and a vast improvement over the now silent Ghost and even Eris from The Dark Below.

That first expansion already looked to improve upon the story telling, with a clear antagonist throughout who made regular appearances, and House of Wolves takes it a step further. Similarly, the new strike sees you battle with the end boss at several points throughout the mission as you hunt down Taniks, the Scarred, and called to mind the ship assault from the Truth and Reconciliation mission from Halo.

Tendrils from the expansion spread out into the rest of the game though, and the run up to its release even brought a brief rejuvenation and fun activity back to the standard patrol areas, as packs of Wolves started to prowl areas on Earth, the Moon and Venus, much like the Blades of Crota that appeared with The Dark Below. While it’s just another variation on needing to kill a few waves of spawning enemies, and has lost some of its appeal now that the initial novelty has run off, it’s greatly improved by being tied to specific bounties that target a named foe, as well as the mad scramble and a race against the clock for special randomly placed chests in the area once they have been defeated.

The centrepiece new mode is really the Prison of Elders, which looks to provide a great deal of longevity to the endgame, in lieu of a new raid – which is still something of a disappointment. On the one hand it is an accessible horde mode which can be played in a team or with matchmade partners that can relatively easily be mastered and run multiple times for fun, and on the other it features uniquely crafted challenge modes which can really push you to the limits.

The base formula sees you head into the prison and face four rounds of three waves of enemies, rotating between the four enemy races and their themed battle arenas, before then returning to one of the previous races and duelling with a boss character. However, after the first round, various modifiers and secondary objectives come into play. It could be that you deal more damage while airborne, your shield can take greater damage but does not recharge or a particular element will deal extra damage. Meanwhile you’ll have to contend with capturing and holding points, taking out VIP targets and destroying mines, lest you fail and are returned to the start of the round. My main complaint would be that these secondary objectives always repeat from the second to third wave, while I would have liked to see them shuffle and vary further.

The challenge modes do drastically step up the difficulty, with particularly devilish combinations and end bosses that have additional abilities beyond what they feature in the basic level 28 Prison of Elders. In order to keep the variation high, there are five specific challenges which will rotate through the level 32 and 34 slots, while the final battle with Skolas will always site at level 35 as the game’s new ultimate challenge.

Naturally, going into these equipped with appropriate armour and weaponry – the Gjallarhorn features in many strategies – can reduce the overall difficulty, but the rewards can certainly justify the time put in, as you can receive the upper tiers of loot from defeating them and gaining access to the Queen’s treasure room. Just be sure to have a Treasure Key, which is where grinding through those wolf packs on patrol comes into play.

The new upgrade systems sees a vast simplification and more universal approach to upgrading your existing guns and armour to the new maximum Light level and damage ratings. While exotic items simply need another Exotic Shard, for legendary items it all hinges upon a new element – once again – called Etheric Light, and this is rather difficult to come by, and was rather unclear as the expansion released. It can be earnt via random chance from a number of activities – such as the Nightfall Strike – but the sure bets are with completing the top two tiers of Prison of Elders and reaching upper milestones in a Trials of Osiris passage.

The problem is that you’re stuck in a quandary of having too many things to upgrade and not enough Etheric Light. You can now reach level 32 – the previous maximum – by simply buying gear from vendors for Vanguard and Crucible marks, while the step up to level 33 and 34 has necessarily been drawn out a little, so that it’s possible for irregular players to do so over the course of a few weeks by buying gear as rewards for the level 32 Prison of Elders, but not instantly possible for veterans.

By having a single element handle both types of gear, where there were always two elements previously, anyone who is butting into the limits of the inventory and vault space will struggle to upgrade all of their guns thanks to the paucity of the Etheric Light drops. All of the previous materials have also seen their significance and import removed, and many a player’s vault will be overflowing with materials that simply cannot be used up.

I also feel that the new vendor armour and their weapons in particular are either a like for like replacement or a slight downgrade on what went before. All but the top tier of new weapons can be reforged to gain a different assortment of perks in their newly simplified upgrade trees – they start at 331 damage with a single leap to 365 damage by way of Etheric Light – but the perks have noticeably been rebalanced and toned down versus the original weapon set and The Dark Below’s.

There’s now often a degree of give and take in a particular perk, so that while range and stability might be increased, the clip capacity is reduced, for example, which I think is actually a very healthy alteration to the previous system. It does, however, mean that older guns can easily have the edge over the newer ones, and thanks to Etheric Light won’t lose their relevance but will persist. It’s not as pertinent in PvE as it is in PvP, but it’s a slightly disappointing step back, none the less.

As a whole package, House of Wolves features some of the best content within Destiny by a long shot. Naturally, it’s a little disappointing that there’s no new raid, how quiet and subdued the old tower feels compared to the Vestian Outpost and I have some hang ups with the new gear and simplified upgrade path, but with a fun few missions in the story and the refreshing challenge that is provided by the Prison of Elders, it’s still quite easy to recommend for the PvE focussed Destiny player.

Then there’s the Trials of Osiris and the recent changes made to PvP play, which we will discuss tomorrow.