Fans are almost universally happy when Destiny receives an update — but that's not the case with the upcoming House of Wolves expansion. Sure, there are plenty of Destiny players who can't wait to get their hands on the new content, but there are just as many who claim that Bungie isn't delivering on their promise. Why?
Well, with Destiny's first expansion, The Dark Below, the game was given its second Raid — a high-end, high-difficulty mission that could only be completed by the best of the best. Both the Crota's End and the Vault of Glass Raid were well received, but when Bungie announced that House of Wolves wouldn't come with a new Raid, fans were more than a little upset.
As part of its series of pre-release reveals, Bungie finally showed off the Raid's replacement, otherwise known as the Prison of Elders. Is this new, Horde Mode-style match a worth successor — or will fans be stuck with a half-baked co-op mode until the next true Raid is released? From what Bungie has shown, longtime Destiny players should be excited.
From what Bungie has shown, the Prison of Elders does retain some of the Raid's spirit. Players are forced to work together or fail, and the sheer number of enemies brings back nightmares from the Crota's End raid. It's however clear that the Prison of Elders is also a much less time-consuming mode. Rounds can be completely quickly by a coordinated team, and while the individual areas within the prison are large enough, they're nowhere near as large as something like the Vault of Glass.
In all honesty, players who were hoping for another high-level Raid will still be disappointed. The Prison of Elders is a different beast entirely, and every Destiny player should definitely give it a shot — but if you were looking for another long, linear dungeon crawl through the game's toughest enemies, the Prison of Elders isn't going to do it for you.
Everyone else should nevertheless be excited — the Prison of Elders is unlike anything else in Destiny. It probably won't require quite as much of a commitment from players, which means that more casual fans will still be able to enjoy the game's new mode. Bungie's also made a clear effort to keep the mode from getting boring, which is something that other similar modes often fail to do. Sure — it's not a Raid, but that doesn't mean the mode won't be worth playing.
Of course, there's no real way to tell if the Prison of Elders will be a proper successor to Raids until House of Wolves is released. That isn't so far off, as Destiny's second expansion is set for release on May 19.
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