Destiny 2: Black Armory

With the Black Armory, Bungie has opted to dramatically shift its content delivery strategy for Destiny 2, and results are mixed. On the one hand, if you’ve hit the maximum level you’ll have new weapons to chase and a few of the new Forges to explore, which is good enough to keep me busy for a while. However if you’re not at that 600 power level yet and have been excitedly looking forward to new PVP maps, Strikes, or Story missions to help you reach it in an entertaining way, then you’ll probably be disappointed as that’s all completely absent.

We open with a mission that’s unintentionally hilarious. You’re told you’re not welcome to the new area, but then your silent guardian flashes a badge you simply picked up from Spider while sporting a confused look on their face. Ada reacts as though you’ve given the secret Stonecutters’ handshake, rescinding her hostility and ceremoniously welcoming you to this new coveted space with no questions asked. This interesting character is then reduced to a stationary plot-delivery device and bounty vendor from that point forward, and it’s incredibly disappointing.

For the few at the top, Black Armory delivers new Forges and a new Raid, and promises a new Exotic quest, called The Draw, coming in January. To get you started today (after the laughable intro you’ll be done with five minutes after booting up) you’ll begin a set of quests that, for anyone who’s cleared so many hurdles already, are frustratingly trivial, with the goal of unlocking the Forge game mode and weapons within.

Black Armory feels like an extra-hollow addition to the base game.

You see, the Forge isn’t just open. Each requires drudging through a boring grind that involves nothing more than shooting enemies, then doing it again, then doing it a third time but collecting “Seeds,” and then doing it one last time to unlock the event. Only then will you be granted entry to the first, and once there the 610-power-recommended Forge activity will likely have you replaying content you had already owned to get ready for the fight. This makes Black Armory feel like an extra-hollow addition to the base game, spaced out with shallow quest design that does little or nothing to expand the story of Ada, the Forges, or your guardian.

So what is the Forge? Well, if you’re familiar with Escalation Protocol, Blind Well, or even Archon’s Forge in Destiny you’ll be right at home. As of this writing, two have been unlocked. Besides being loaded with some really cool and well designed secrets to uncover, here’s how each boils down. The first, The Volunder Forge, has you kill Cabal, pick up balls, and throw them at the Forge before defeating a final Cabal boss. The second, the GoFannon Forge, has you kill Fallen, pick up balls, and throw them at the Forge before defeating the Servitor final boss. There are more to come but as of now it’s a mystery as to what they might contain. If I were a betting man, I’d guess we fight either Vex or Scourge, pick up balls, and throw them at the Forge before we fight a final boss. But really, the remaining Forges could be anything! (But they probably won’t be.)

To be positive for a second, I really enjoyed the little secrets that are being discovered thus far like the keys for the mysterious exotic quest or the emblem the community found. Also, opening the second Forge added some interesting quests that explore the Spider character’s past a little bit more, and use the Lost Sectors as a hub to challenge you with high-level enemies. I was happy to delve into Spider’s history with his brother a little bit, but thoroughly disappointed with the quest because of one particularly egregious portion where you’re again sitting around waiting for a high-value target on Nessus. Because this quest step is tied to a high-value Fallen character who spawns at a low rate, this can result in being locked out of the event until you’re lucky enough to get this quest step to show as complete. This same problem arose when the hidden Whisper of the Worm quest was created and players sat around for hours hoping an RNG event would spawn and grant entry. While it’s nowhere near the eight hour wait of that encounter, it seems the quest designers forgot how frustrating it was to rely on the randomness of a world event for progression.

Bungie really needs to put a stop to these uninteresting and tedious barriers to entry.

Bungie really needs to put a stop to these uninteresting and tedious barriers to entry that are not challenging or rewarding in any manner (another example being the Heroic Ether Ritual Public Event that was needed for entry into the Dreaming City). Especially when, once completed, you’re rewarded with Forge entry and with another weapon frame that, again, has you shoot enemies in the face through an uninteresting quest until you’re ready to power it up in the Forge.

Sarcasm aside, the activity adds an incredibly important feature: Matchmaking. This has been an ask since the original Destiny, and with Black Armory we’re finally able to run through these Forge missions with other experienced guardians looking to clear it quickly. The power level barrier to entry also ensures you’ll likely even get an experienced player as a partner for the time being, but as I’ve now reached 640 power the encounter is quite easy to pass.

The weapons you acquire through these Forge events include the beefy Hammerhead legendary machine gun which (with a good roll) offers void damage en-masse to really tear apart bosses without taking up an exotic space. The Ringing Nail auto rifle was mostly the least interesting as it didn’t happen to have a special perk, but Tatara Gaze promises to be a PVP must-have as it with a kill clip roll it can be a deadly weapon in the right hands.

The main attraction of Black Armory is going to be the new Raid.

The main attraction and value with Black Armory is going to be the new Raid, titled The Scourge of the Past. (If you’re completely avoiding spoilers, please pass over the next two paragraphs!) Scourge collects an excellent mix of team-based mechanics like all the Raids do, but also a spice of Sparrow Racing to change things up. There are four total encounters, including the Sparrow Racing section, and I actually enjoyed the brevity and change of scenery this time around. The puzzles also use an interesting map mechanic that hasn’t been done before and it was really fun to see a visual element added for one team member to coordinate the group who’s roaming the battlefield.

This all culminates in a really fun encounter that reminds me of Metal Gear, but as always I’ll leave that moment for you to experience with your team (or by seeking it out for yourself on our YouTube channel, if that’s how you roll). One sad note on the Raid was that at launch it seems that many teams (mine included) had a bug on the final encounter resulting in infinite revives being allowed. Unfortunately for me, that made the encounter easier, but also resulted in the victory feeling somewhat hollow.

The problem with Black Armory is largely with expectation. It feels shallow because we’ve been trained to expect something completely different from Bungie’s DLC, but instead it offers the more-of-the-same type of content you’d expect from a subscription game like Final Fantasy 14 or World of Warcraft once you hit the level requirement. Even then, it appears to only be more of the mostly similar Forges and the chasing of weapons that you acquire by participating in uninteresting quests. I’d expect that’s going to result in many feeling left out as the most enthusiastic players power through the content and burn through the grind quickly. Yes, the weapon and Forges have been parsed out, but while the weapon pool is interesting so far, nothing has stood out as a must-have piece of gear the way the previously coveted Ikelos Shotgun was in Escalation Protocol.

The Verdict

At best, Black Armory offers high-level groups new but grindy weapon quests to chase, repetitive Forges to conquer, some Exotic quests, and a decent Raid to plunder. But with shallow quests and puzzle design for the Forge and weapon chase, so far that only leaves a Raid that adds some new mechanics that give rise to great potential, with the caveat that it’s currently buggy and easier than intended as a result. Time will tell if this new content strategy pays off, but if you’re not excited by a few new guns hidden behind a boring grind or you just haven’t passed 600 power yet then you’re going to find little if anything of value here.