Destiny showcases an amazing universe with untold potential, and that excites me. What keeps me off-put is the increasing unwillingness or inability to showcase a tangible story. What is my destiny? What is the point of any of this? And House of Wolves has an incredible opportunity to address that, and will probably fail.
First off, good things. Trials of Osiris and Prison of Elders provide new endgame content that look fun and will certainly provide good rewards. More importantly, bad things. Trials of Osiris and Prison of Elders seem disconnected entirely from the universe that Destiny has already set. Osiris is an extension of the Crucible, which, really, should be tied into the story as the warring factions of the city--New Monarchy, Dead Orbit, Future War Cult. Anything less, like a training grounds sort of idea, makes the crucible useless in terms of story. And why should it be disconnected from the story? Further along that route, Brother Vance could provide another warring faction to the mix, hoping that the reef's political agenda is made heard in the tower. Ooh, now that's an idea.
On to Prison of Elders. What we've seen so far is a space that has four different areas where the enemy factions seem completely at home. I never imagined the Prison like that. Moreso, in grimoire it states that the queen walks along the Prison and its cells and how they all resemble the Archon Priest's. Small details, not really important.
The million dollar idea then with prison of elders is, instead of the queen saying, hey, here's all the valuable stuff we have, enemy leaders, loot that cost my guard their lives, you know stuff like that-- That the escaped prisoner, Skolas, put a hit on the queen. He knows what leaders are down there, he knows what the reef hides, and he knows there's a current power vacuum. He has the house of wolves, and he escaped with his life. No, the right way to do wave-based endgame isn't to mow through enemies and fight the boss they're protecting. The endgame is to defend the reef from waves of enemies who are trying to save their bosses, and, at the end, to have them all face their inevitable doom.
This all points to fighting an enemy with intelligence. Which leads me to the strike mission-- The Shadow Thief. There's nothing really new or exciting about the strike, you know. Chase an enemy that throws minions at you until you corner them and gally the bajeezus out of them until they die. Omnigul version 2. Except... there's an incredible opportunity in the strike that shouts out to be done and the chance to make something of it literally doesn't happen.
You follow this dude into a ketch as he goads you on, and you lose communication with the outside world. You're so hellbent on 'killing' this guy (when we know full well that Archon Priests and presumably any fallen can be revived from a servitor in the same manner that ghosts do with guardians) that you chase him into a corner he wants us to go into. While we're stuck on his ketch fighting and chasing him, the million dollar idea is for it to be a distraction. A play. What if, during this time that we lose communication, the traveler or the city or the tower come under attack?
It's just
It's like all the ideas are already there and Bungie, it's like you refuse to take that step. Show us something new, something bold, something wrong and something definitely right. I couldn't care less about this gun or that armor. Flesh out your universe.
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HA!!! NERD!!! jk :P