On finishing the story missions in Bungie’s online shooter, Destiny, many gamers had the same reaction: “Wha ... what?!” Most of us got the quasi-mystical backstory concerning a gigantic moon-like Traveller imbuing the human race with super tech skills; and we understood that a force named “the Darkness” has been chasing the Traveller across the universe. But it was never really clear what the heck was going on beyond those airy concepts. How are the Guardians revived and who are they? What the heck is the deal with that royal family living in the space junkyard? And why do the Ghosts sound like Peter Dinklage waking up from a really long sleep? Also, what the hell are the Ghosts? So many mysteries.
There are, of course, rumours that the Destiny story mode was originally much more dense, but that Bungie was forced to jettison great chunks of content as the planned release deadline loomed (hence the relegation of lots of narrative detail to the Grimoire cards, which you have to go online and READ). Of course, no one will ever confirm this, so what we’re left with is a very obtuse story experience and a rather unsatisfying conclusion. But with House of Wolves, which is set to add five new story missions to the game, Bungie says it is determined to set things straight.
“One of the first things we set out to achieve with this expansion was a very clear, simple story,” says creative director, Christopher Barrett.
It is one that we can pay off via what the player is doing in the missions. The dialogue takes the player on a journey and there’s a clear villain that players understand – they’re able to capture him at the end. It’s a compelling story that has everything players need.”
Barrett conceded that Bungie will still be adding Grimoire cards to provide deeper lore for those who want it, but the main thrust of the story is all there. The new missions and quests will focus around the Reef and its rulers, who now seek revenge on the Fallen for having a bit of a rebellion. Petra Venj of the Queensguard and Variks, a Fallen loyal to the Queen, are set to be major characters. “One really cool aspect of the Variks character is that he speaks the Fallen language,” says lead designer, Matt Sammons. “As you come across enemies, he’ll translate what they say, so you get more of a sense of all the backstory we’ve built for the Fallen; you have this insight into their world.”
Bungie isn’t saying much else about the story content, just that the team has been working to improve the gameplay diversity of the missions, as well as the “sandbox” feel of the environments, making them more rewarding as explorable spaces. A new vehicle has been added, a heavy version of the pike, complete with a canon and, as Barrett puts it, “a few other tricks that you’ll discover when you play it”.
Added to this is perhaps the major new feature of the House of Wolves, the Prison of Elders, a set of co-operative three-player challenges, set in a series of vast arena spaces. Fireteams need to take on waves of increasingly difficult enemies before facing a major boss battle. There are five unique challenge bosses, as well as a culminative Level 35 giant named Skolas The Fell – all have their own defensive and offensive capabilities. During a demo session at Bungie HQ we were shown one of the newcomers, an ultra centurion who has a shield that cycles through different vulnerabilities, so players have to keep switching their weapons. “We wanted to make sure we didn’t just create giant bullet sponges,” says Barrett. “We know that has been a critique of the game and we feel that ourselves. We wanted to make these encounters much more dynamic and much more interesting in terms of strategy.”
The Prison of Elder challenges are split into different Guardian XP levels. The opening Level 28 version has a matchmaking system which means anyone can get in and play with strangers. After this, the level 32, 34 and 35 versions require players to come in with a pre-set Fireteam. Having experienced them we can see why. The challenges all work in the same way – you access the arenas series and have to beat every wave of enemy that comes at you – but the difficulty level gets extremely high so communication and intricately planned teamwork are a must. The reward, of course, is great handfuls of exclusive exotic and legendary loot.
We completed the basic Level 28 Prison of Elder challenge – a series of five arenas packed with enemies. In one area, a dramatic wasteland of trashed Vex transport gates and twisted machinery, there’s a swarm of goblins and minotaurs, complete with floating mines that explode on touch and leave a stasis field that slows down anyone who runs through it. The next arena is a foggy green-hued bone yard seething with thrall and acolytes: on the second wave the game adds a Critical Objective which involves destroying one or two large mines before they detonate and kill you all. Later we fight in a sort of steampunk inferno, littered with wrecked spacecraft and crawling with centurions. We also meet a variety of new shanks, including one that explodes in your vicinity; elsewhere there are shanks with line rifles and shanks with gun turrets. They’re pretty annoying. At one point we also find a Fallen relic, the powerful Scorch Cannon, a sort of grenade launcher that gives us a timed boost in firepower, like the Sword of Crota in the story campaign.
It’s fun stuff, relentless and demanding, and doing a very good job of providing the sort of tense Horde mode action we’ve been enjoying since Gears of War 2. And for Bungie, it’s there to provide a sort of transitional activity for intermediate players. “It’s kind of a bridge between Strike-level difficulty and Raid difficulty,” says Sammons. “With the match-made version you can get in and have fun quickly - you can get the sense, the rhythm of how it works, and then be ready for the challenge modes which are getting closer to the Raid level of difficulty.”
Ah yes, the raids. Many Destiny fans were disappointed to see that there wouldn’t be one in House of Wolves. You get new multiplayer maps, and the fresh Trials of Osiris PvP challenge, as well as the new story missions and the Prison. But no raid. Why is that? “We love raids,” says Sammons. “Bungie is working on raids – raids will come in the future. But for House of Wolves, we really focused on what we wanted the end game to be – and that was Prison of Elders for us. We feel it’s addressing our entire audience.”
Barrett says that the need to bring the PvP experience up to the same level of value as PvsE was another objective with the package. “We wanted to create rewards that are enticing and compelling as those seen in Raids,” he says. “So now the best PvP players in the world are going to be wearing stuff that only they can get.”
We also saw another brief addition to House of Wolves, a single Strike mission named The Shadow Thief and set on the Moon’s Ocean of Storms. It’s a super quick skirmish against ogres, reaver vandals, and a boss that continually warps to fresh locations; all set in a familiar warren of caverns and computer workstations. Beyond all this, of course, there are the systemic changes, including gear ascension that increases the maximum light capabilities of all weapons as well as legendary and exotic gear.
“We also created a whole bunch of new bounties that Petra will be offering, and those tie in to the new public events,” adds Barrett. “The other thing we wanted to do was create more variety for players, so with the Prison of Elders, there are new challenges that come out every week so you can’t shoot through everything in the a couple of days. Petra’s bounties rotate, too, so you get new ones after the first week. We’re trying to pace things out a little bit.”
I guess it’s up to every fan to decide whether this is enough, though for committed players, House of Wolves does offer up a good range of content. It also doubtless represents the ongoing pattern for Destiny: additional strikes, challenges, gear and weapons, along with multiplayer maps and modes – but also a few reactive features that respond to fan feedback. Bungie is keen to stress how important that part is.
“As the game is released into the wild, we play it ourselves and understand it better as players,” says Sammons. “When we were developing House of Wolves we had that perspective in mind: what would we like to see as players of the game?”
- Keith Stuart attended a press trip to Bungie in Seattle with other European journalists. The travel and accommodation costs were met by Activision.
