Bungie recently announced the release of King's Fall Hard Mode for the first-person shooter game Destiny: The Taken King. However, the "hard mode," which everyone expected to be the hardcore, lengthy, hair-graying, rage-inducing, friendship-breaking raid that was it supposed to be, was finished in less than 90 minutes.
On Oct. 23 at 10:01 a.m. PST, Bungie tweeted that King's Fall Hard Mode, which houses bosses like Oryx, Golgoroth, The Warpriest and the Ir Anuk Sisters, has been opened and ready for the horde of players who were waiting to test their mettle. However, an hour and 15 minutes later at 11:16 a.m., the developer informed everyone that Clan Forever Live, headed by valleyram84, has already completed the raid.
Go. Be Brave. pic.twitter.com/OOv0XOjGcD — Bungie (@Bungie) October 23, 2015
It's official! Clan Forever LivE is the first team to complete King's Fall Hard Mode! Congratulations!!! pic.twitter.com/dbvO6bNoBh
— Bungie (@Bungie) October 23, 2015
The announcement came way sooner than everyone expected. Other raiding parties such as that of Kruzer's have also completed the raid in less than 90 minutes — 1 hour and 21 minutes to be exact. And while the quick times speak for the numbers, gears and strategic minds within raiding parties, they also connote the difficulty level of the raid, which some have noted to be "embarrassing." The Destiny community expected quite a lot from the Hard Mode. Especially, after how Gavin Irby, lead designer for the game, described King's Fall Hard Mode. "You've had time to hone your strategies and develop a rhythm," said Irby. "Hard Mode is going to upset that rhythm. We're going to give you one more plate to spin, and make you think on your feet." Apparently, the rhythm wasn't upset. The players got upset but based on how the first runs went, the rhythm wasn't disrupted. Not at all.
@Bungie Your guys' definition of "hard mode" is clearly different from everyone else.. — Holly (@ModifiedBatgirl) October 23, 2015
It's not really about who can design the longest raids or the most difficult bosses to deal with. If that's what you're after, there are other games — some bosses in previous World of Warcraft expansions took months before they were finally brought down.
However, a lot of gamers bond through raids. Moreover, a better sense of completion and pride, individually and as a team, is derived when raids and bosses offer some form of challenge. Why take that away from a game that's beloved by many?
Bungie built the raid backwards. What the team did was design the hard mode first and then took elements away from that design to come up with the normal mode. The result is a saggy peach. No one wants to bite a saggy peach.
Below is a Kruzer's King's Fall Hard Mode raid. It should give gamers an idea of how the instance was finished in a timely manner.
