'Destiny 2: Forsaken' - The Scorn Impressions

After seeing Cayde and his ghost shot down, something inside of me immediately said, "Play Destiny 2 now."

I bought the first two expansions almost immediately, and beat both within a day. My impression of the two expansions is: there is enough content in both to match one, but this isn't about Curse of Osiris or Warmind, it's about Forsaken.

What intrigued me the most was the introduction of the Scorn, Prince Uldren's gang of Fallen. Each Scorn Baron had a unique story, look, feel, and presented so much more than how Bungie executed them on Forsaken's release.

Impressions: The Scorn (Story and Gameplay)—SPOILERS

If you've already played through Destiny 2: Forsaken's story, you'd understand that Prince Uldren Sov (Cayde's Killer), commands a group of Fallen called the Scorn, and the leaders called Barons. Now you would expect the Scorn, which were seen as major villains in all of the Forsaken trailers, to be challenging.

I personally was very disappointed in how the Scorn were presented. Six of eight major villains weren't exactly in the story, and the last two were as easy as the rest. After meeting a certain ally named Spider, it's revealed these Scorn Barons are more than a prick in The Reef's side and you need to kill these Barons if you want to enact revenge on Uldren Sov for Cayde.

It's disappointing because all of the Barons, excluding The Fanatic and The Machinist, were in adventures. Adventures are nothing more than side-missions you can repeat when in a certain area. It was simple, rack up your power-levels and kill them, which I had no trouble or challenge with.

There was no backstory to these six Barons other than a brief overview followed by a quick death. No quest step to fight these Barons, no traveling to other locations in The Reef, and certainly no more lore regarding the Scorn Barons. By the very least, with each Baron's notoriety, they should have been included in real story missions or at least Strikes.

Also, these adventures were like any other adventure: easy. I used the same method of activating my newly acquired super, and each Baron died just as fast as I joined. These adventures were nothing more than when I explored a lost sector, except there were more enemies to kill. They held almost no ability or mechanic to make their encounter challenging.

Playing Mario Kart was a weak attempt at creating a new villain, dodging the Scorn's Deadshot, was like dodging any normal Vandal, and chasing down a villain whose tricks were nothing more than "do it for the vine" made it all the more bland.

If I see a Fallen that has created it's own Ascendant Throneworld, I'd expect it to be more powerful, maybe even shift between dimensions, switching its patterns and power.

As for the Fanatic and the Machinist, they were just as easy as the other Barons, with the only difference being they had one ability to them, such as the Machinist would shoot a powerful beam that would follow your character around, causing you to constantly strafe and run around.

With the hype and anticipation to fight these new Fallen, The Scorn was this expansion's biggest disappointment to which the developers could have done so much more with the Scorn Barons.

Impressions: The Scorn Fallen

The Scorn are almost all Fallen that have died and been Resurrected by The Fanatic, the Scorn's leader. These Fallen were nothing more than variations of each race made Fallen.

We're introduced to the most interesting and fresh enemy at the beginning of the campaign: Ravagers. Ravagers are Fallen that slung around a mace with big ball of fire on the end, only to smash you and cause a moderate amount of damage. Luckily, these Ravagers could be defeated by shooting the balls of fire, causing them to explode and cause a chain reaction if there was a cluster of Ravagers.

Next were the Screeb, which were nothing more than cursed thralls on all fours with a smaller, but still deadly, explosion radius. Screeb are probably the easiest to kill, but can still be overwhelming due to their speed and masses. These little monsters can be surprising if you're already fighting an army, as the fact they are crawling around, it can be hard to spot them.

The next that came were Raiders. They are the most common and can be either a Dreg variant, or Vandal variant, as they either wield a Dreg's gun, or snipe you from a distance. What made the Raiders unique was their ability to shift around a battlefield. I'll be honest, it was frustrating to see I had fired whatever shots only to see them turn invisible and run away.

Afterwards were the Lurkers. Lurkers are the Fallen's Phalanx, with thinner bodies and smaller indestructible shields. Lurkers can get out of hand as well, as if you missed the first headshot, their shield would rise and you would have to resort to shooting its legs in order to have them stumble.

Chieftains are the Scorn's Captains, which they place totem-like objects with different effects. These effects are random and can include: a rather annoying solar turret, a void totem that makes all Scorn in its area invulnerable, and an arc totem that slowly sucks all Guardians to its location.

Last but not least are the Mongrels. Imagine a smaller ogre, except this ogre shoots bolts of lightning that deal lots of damage every few seconds. They aren't as beefy as ogres, but are still a tough enemy to take down.

Overall, Forsaken was an expansion with enough content to make up for the Scorn's disappointment. The new Scorn Fallen add somewhat of a new experience to Destiny 2, but still fall short of making an impact due to lack of power from their leading counterparts: The Barons. I enjoy encounters with Scorn Fallen, as they come in medium-sized groups, and are more challenging than fighting Dregs and Vandals.

I am a big fan of lore, Destiny or not, and I felt the execution of the Scorn Barons was a huge let down. They were supposed to be the big baddies of Uldren's force that also helped kill the beloved Cayde-6, and yet, they felt nothing more than a high value target turned mission (adventure).