New ‘Destiny’ Shield Bros. Strike Not A Drastic Change, But Improvement Over Year One
Bungie hosted a Twitch livestream demo of one of the new Strikes from Destiny: The Taken King on Wednesday. Select members of the Destiny community were also allowed to share their experiences with the “Shield Brothers” Strike at the same time. PlayStation and Xbox players shouldn’t expect a major shakeup to how Strikes are constructed, but some welcome tweaks were introduced.
In addition to Bungie, Datto from DattoDoesDestiny, Holtzman from PlanetDestiny, and MoreConsole all shared footage from the “Shield Brothers” Strike. The length of the activity is approximately the same 15 minutes or so that we’ve come to expect from Year One of Destiny, but the encounter is a little more varied, from the slog to the bullet sponge boss Destiny players have grown to loathe.
The Strike opens with entering the Dreadnaught and making your way to the point where the Cabal have crashed their ship into Oryx’s floating fortress. There’s a mini-boss fight against a Cabal Goliath tank in the middle of the Cabal ship. This leads to an escalating boss fight at the end with the two Cabal leaders.
Better Story and Commentary
The improvements to the storytelling with Destiny: The Taken King was previously covered by Inquisitr. We now get to see that in action, and it largely pays off for the “Shield Brothers” Strike. Both the Nolan North-voiced Ghost and Nathan Fillion-voiced Cayde-6 both provide commentary to set up the reasons for the mission and chime in during key moments.
You can hear the variability in the commentary between the different sources, as well. For example, Ghost asks, “Who puts a tank on a spaceship?” in one of the video. He then states, “They’ve brought a tank to a gunfight!” in another.
It’s a seemingly small change, but something that should help reduce the monotony of multiple run-throughs.
No Place to Hide
From the beginning of the Strike to the end, there was really no place to squat down and hide, forcing players into the action. This is one of the most significant changes from most Year One Strikes, which were too often littered with sections where players can camp and kill all of the enemies.
We’ll have to see if this helps reduce the number of players that join a Strike only to contribute nothing because they are “AFK.”
Improved Boss Fight
Including the inability to hide, the “Shield Brothers” boss fight is a step above those offered in Destiny Year One Strikes. It’s an escalating fight that starts off against the red brother. He can only attack by jumping in the air and punching at the ground, but he’s aggressive and the attack can be a one-shot kill if it connects and slams a player into the wall.
Once the red brother’s health is brought down halfway, the green brother arrives. A massive artillery cannon is mounted on his back that rains down shots through the arena. Players are forced to move while taking out minions and dealing with the boss.
When the green brother’s health is brought down halfway, he is joined by his red brother for a double team attack on the Guardians. Both of their attacks are upgraded, however, with the red brother leaving pools of fire behind in the wake of his slam attack and the blue brother constructing a large shield. The shield can be brought down briefly by running in and attacking.
Killing one of the Cabal brothers gives their power to the other, escalating the fight even further.
Some team coordination is required to bring the Shield Brothers down, though there isn’t quite the raid-light mechanics that were hoped for. Still, the more action-centric boss fight is a welcome improvement over the camp and snipe boss fights from Year One.
[Images via Bungie]
