Destiny: House of Wolves Review

23/05/2015

Destiny’s latest DLC released earlier this week and with the hype leading up to it we were keen to get our hands on it. This expansion deals with some of the minor characters in the base games story, mainly the Queen of the reef who has opened the mysterious doors of her realm to the Guardians, seeking their aid after she was betrayed by the Fallen wolves (a prominent alien race in the game). First things first, i will compliment the story, whilst it is not yet anywhere in the same league as Bungies previous work with Halo, the story is getting consecutively better. I was intrigued with the story and apart from the few jarring moments where i had to go on Bungie.Net to check a grimoire card for some background information, the entire experience was reasonably smooth. The story missions themselves are fun enough with friends, but become rather stale when done alone as a lot of the maps once again feature reused assets and areas of the game.   

Well let’s get the major deal breaker for some out of the way, yes there isn’t a raid, is this a problem? Well yes and no. Yes because there are two new end game activities in place of the raid. No because whilst these two end game activities are good, one lacks and does not really uphold to prior expectations. These two activities are called The Prison of Elders and Trials of Osiris, Prison of Elders (PoE) is a wave/horde like game mode with a different set of objectives and goals every round. You and your fireteam of 3 must face challenges ranging from killing a number of enemies to defusing mines. Whilst this type of gameplay is unique to Destiny it isn’t really new in the gaming world and compared to a Raid I personally found this gamevtype lacking. Been stuck in a mid-sized area with a group of enemies for 4 rounds and then finishing with a boss on the 5^th just seems uninspired. Whilst it does promote close knit teamwork and coordination I felt it still did not match with its forerunners: the Vault of Glass and Crotas End to a point that I actually got bored of it after a few run throughs (and you will need to do it a few times over if you want to get the top end rewards).

The other endgame mode, Trials of Osiris, is actually a player vs player mode and is where this DLC really shines. You are given a trial by a mysterious cult and tasked with competing in a highly competitive multiplayer mode against other players; it is a 3v3 elimination game type. It’s compulsory to enter with a fire team of 3. The goal is to reach 9 wins; if you lose 3 matches you are kicked out of the trials and have to start again. If you manage to win 9 games straight without a recorded loss you get to go to a hidden location and get some of the best end game loot in the game to date, I won’t go into specifics but going to this location after all the hard earned team work and getting and comparing loot with your friends is one of the most rewarding game moments I’ve had to date. Trials of Osiris isnt anything new but it is a blast. You and your friends will have some of the most intense, suspenseful and hilarious moments in Destiny to date. If you haven't tried this game type yet grab some friends and get to it, but just remember the Trails only occur on weekends.

Leading up to the DLC Bungie introduced a lot of updates and tweaks, including material exchange and now the ability to max out any legendary in the game. I feel now as if the game really is where it should have been at release and finally is a complete package. Bungie really have a good sense of how to reward the player, some parts of this DLC seem long and drawn out but the end rewards are simply that satisfying you will find yourself coming back again and again week after week. All in all I would recommend this DLC to old players and new, if you weren’t satisfied with the original game and haven’t been back since, have some spare change, a few friends interested in extreme team work and some laughs you should check this out.

8/10