Destiny: House of Wolves review: A fairer, more accessible, but just as challenging expansion

Release Date: May 19 (worldwide)
Platforms Available On: PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360
Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Activision
Genre: First-person online shooter

'The Dark Below', the first major expansion to Bungie's hugely popular online shooter Destiny that was released last December, was a misstep in many ways.

It felt light on content, encouraged more grinding in a game that probably had too much of it already, and on its release, rendered much of its hard-earned loot that players had put hours into acquiring essentially useless.

It had its moments, but the way it haphazardly approached its convoluted systems left a bad taste just months after the game first debuted.

This second expansion, 'House of Wolves', does things much better. For one, all those fancy weapons and armour laden with exclusive properties you've become attached to can still be as potent as anything else in the game, provided you do a spot of leg work first.

With the 'The Dark Below', as soon as the new level cap was ushered in your equipment was old hat, with light levels that couldn't possibly match the new goods available. Here, you can ascend any purple (Legendary) or gold (Exotic) items with a new (albeit very rare) material to bring it up to the new highest level.

One of the best decisions in 'House of Wolves' is that obtaining and upgrading higher-level better weapons and armour can be done in multiple ways.

While players can once again instantly match the previous level cap by just buying new armour on sale at the game's vendors (handy if you want to get to 'House of Wolves' new stuff faster) the old stuff isn't always obsolete.

Since many have exclusive qualities - whether it's helping you survive in Raids or outshining the competition in the Crucible - there's both the means and a reason to upgrade your favourites.

One of the best decisions in 'House of Wolves' is that obtaining and upgrading higher-level better weapons and armour can be done in multiple ways. Before it was exclusively through the Raid, with you and five overs replaying a lengthy and challenging dungeon that drip fed exclusive materials that, even after a lengthy session, wouldn't guarantee the items you need.

Running Raids is one of Destiny's biggest highlights and a real draw to the end-game, but relying on luck for the most valuable loot, not to mention the task of getting together a large team of players and dedicating the time each week to do it, was far from an accessible end-game.

Now, there's multiple ways to get the best armour. Two of them are from two of the expansion's new modes - the arena-based Prison of Elders and competitive Trials of Osiris - which take less time to compete, are guaranteed to drop valuable materials or armour at certain points, and require smaller teams of players - three instead of six.

There's even a third - if less reliable - way through the existing weekly Nightfall event, meaning even those without the expansion can even get on the high-level ladder.

In short, the barrier to the end-game has been dramatically lowered. But it's not dumbed down; though these new modes aren't as finely tuned or as compelling as a Raid, they're unique and challenging in their own right, and are set to test players in different ways over time than the tried-and-tested gauntlet of re-running the same Raid with the same objectives time and time again.

Prison of Elders is our favourite of the two. Best quickly described as an Horde-style arena based mode, players are dropped into large rooms while waves of the game's many factions - from the rushing Hive to the hulking Cabal - swarm in.

The game's excellent combat feel means at a base level it's interesting enough to play, but light point objectives add just the right level of complexity, even on its lowest difficulty.

The best parts of the Raid and Strike modes are incorporated too, with end bosses introducing surprise mechanics, and changing modifiers that require regular changing of elemental types in order to even the playing field.

Prison of Elders is tough and requires focused teamwork, but without the sometimes stifling inch-by-inch co-operation of the Raid, and rewards those who have done the legwork of collecting a well-balanced roster of weapons by allowing them to tackle each new threat and modifier effectively.

Trials of Osiris, meanwhile, is a new Crucible event that takes place a few days each week. It pits small teams against one another, the winner emerging after the best of five rounds, and winning streaks paving the way for exclusive rewards.

By using the one map and limited respawning, co-operation and tactics are vital in success. Despite its stripped back approach, by having player levels count means there isn't quite a level playing field, giving the advantage to those who have best tuned their Crucible gear. We found limited success, but the unique premise and eventual rewards - including a few real surprises - means there will be a compelling reason to return and try your luck each week.

At the very least, it's good to see Destiny offer a regular end-game route for those who prefer the competitive side of the game. The new modes and approach to levelling work hand-in-hand, giving players more freedom than ever to play Destiny however they want.

There's also new missions and maps that slot into existing modes, too. 'House of Wolves' new story missions are required to be completed before moving onto the major new modes, and thankfully, they're some of the best yet in the game, with more personality, less filler (there's only one Patrol-based fetch quest this time round, and it's so brief and pointless you almost wonder why it was included at all), and some clever twists on established areas and enemy types.

Like 'The Dark Below', there is some recycling of previous areas, but with the clever and surprising ways it reuses them, this is easily forgivable.

It's exactly what the game needed after its troubling first expansion, and whether you're an obsessive who plays the hardest challenges on the weekly server reset or someone who drops in occasionally to tick off a few bounties, 'House of Wolves' benefits all Destiny players.

Then there's the Strike, which benefits from a tighter story focus and a speedy progression through a series of challenging areas. The Crucible maps, meanwhile, aren't quite as successful.

While they're maps that serve their job of offering the usual array of blind corners and choke points that challenge how you approach objectives - and one map having the neat idea of allowing players to drop into an objective from above, paving the way to more vertical gunplay, albeit briefly - they're mostly forgettable, especially compared to the likes of the expansive Skyshock map that came with 'The Dark Below' last time.

There are things in the expansion that also don't quite work; as players' vault spaces are close to bursting there's yet more reputations and materials to figure out and use, while others - such as the Patrol's Ascendant material drops - now seem somewhat redundant.

Meanwhile, though the Prison of Elders doesn't allow matchmaking at higher levels due to its close-knit requirements, there's no way for booted players to rejoin outside of a small exploit, rendering one of our lengthy runs useless.

While there's certainly more systems to juggle, it feels like almost everything has been tweaked and touched for the better. One of our most favourite things about the expansion - and something that's barely discussed in the expansion's list of additions - is the change to the Patrol mode.

It introduces new enemy encounters in familiar locations, leading to skirmishes against high-level groups followed by a new, fun exercise of quickly finding a hidden loot chest that momentarily blinks in and out of existence.

For me, Patrol is the ying to the yang of the highly focused end-game content, allowing you to breeze through simple objectives with friends while taking in the sights of stunning worlds.

Having new bounties and targets to mop up, and the chance to benefit your Prison of Elders run with spoils from the timed loot chests in the process, breathes new life into the mode, and with the scores of players now circling around these areas, also give the mode a greater sense of community.

It's things like this change to Patrol - as well as rolling in a whole new social area set in The Reef - that makes 'House of Wolves' feel like much more of a complete expansion than 'The Dark Below' ever did. It's fairer in its grind without comprising the challenge, and doesn't do away with all the spoils that the most dedicated players have earned over the last few months.

It's exactly what the game needed after its troubling first expansion, and whether you're an obsessive who plays the hardest challenges on the weekly server reset or someone who drops in occasionally to tick off a few bounties, 'House of Wolves' benefits all Destiny players.

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