The opening mission in a video game is critical for not only establishing the characters but the tone of the story. Destiny 2’s latest expansion – Forsaken – sets the stage with a set of riots in the infamous Prison of Elders. While it’s full of entertaining encounters, Prison Break’s greatest accomplishment is how it subverts our expectations.
(Disclaimer: Last week we visited Bungie to play around 8 hours of the new Forsaken expansion. Activision paid for the flights, transportation, and the hotel room in Seattle.)
Cayde-6 has always been the heart and soul of Destiny 2, but it’s rare we ever get to see him in action outside of a cutscene. Prison Breaks shatters this mold, placing Cayde directly in the chaos. Multiple times throughout the story we see our lovable rouge take on a variety of familiar enemies, only to almost perish at their hands. It’s exceptionally tongue-in-cheek, but knowing that Cayde-6 dies at the end of the level makes every moment quite unsettling.
It’s a secret that only you, the player, know and there’s nothing you can do to stop his fate. Because of this, Prison Break acts as a living memorial to everything that makes Cayde-6 such a lovable character. Destiny 2 rarely allows us to interact with NPCs in a mission, so getting to contain a riot with Cayde is surprisingly engaging. Bungie does a good job making you feel invested in this fight, despite knowing the outcome.
Forsaken is undoubtedly Destiny 2’s darkest expansion and Prison Break does a wonderful job showing that this kind of light-hearted carelessness has no place in the story. The entire mission is designed to remind the player why they love Cayde-6 before ruthlessly ripping him away from everyone. Even though you know it’s coming, seeing it all unfold is a gut punch. It also helps that Nolan North – filling in for Nathan Fillion – does an admirable job voicing the Hunter Vanguard.
As for the gameplay, Prison Break is filled with a variety of different set pieces, most of which involve multiple races battling it out. It’s all pretty familiar, but Bungie does produce a few notable encounters. One of the best involves our Guardian trying to lower isolation pods while being endlessly assaulted by the Hive. Since the room is fairly tiny, the entire experience is utterly chaotic and claustrophobic.
Prison Break also acts as our first introduction to the Scorn. These twisted and undead Fallen are more than just reskins of familiar enemies. They’re far more aggressive than most creatures we’ve faced in Destiny 2, preferring to overwhelm opponents with sheer force. Many of them possess unique twists on existing or familiar mechanics, which makes for more dynamic battles.
Ravagers charge at the player while swinging a flaming mace – which actually acts as their critical spot. If the flaming mace takes enough damage it will explode and kill everyone around them. There is also the kamikaze Screeb, that skitter across the ground in packs. Unlike the Cursed Thrall, these suicidal enemies are very fast and their movements are erratic, which makes fighting them quite tricky.
While we cannot go into a ton of detail just yet about all the Scorn, rest assured that these foes are exceptionally dangerous. With a little more than 24 hour remaining until Forsaken launches, how this story ends is still a mystery. However, if it’s anything like the explosive opening than we are in for one hell of a ride.