E3 2015 – Destiny: The Taken King’s Oryx is a ‘real boss’

Destiny may be a lot of things, but if there’s one thing that the game nails, it’s boss fights. Those battles live up to the idea of becoming a legend in Destiny. But you may not be prepared for the latest big bad who’ll be popping up in year two of the game. Oryx is coming…

Speaking to Destiny: The Taken King executive producer Mark Noseworthy over at E3, the first question I had was about just how much Bungie had learnt in the year since the game had launched. Year two is essentially a platform to introduce ideas and modes that fans have asked for. And according to Noseworthy, year two is all about fan feedback:

I think there’s a lot of lessons learned. To me the one that really stands out is just how important and influential the community is, on the development of the game. With Destiny, this is a living, breathing world that is constantly evolving.

Since the game came out, we’ve patched it probably thirty times. Some of these ideas are our own, but a lot of them we’re getting from the community.

We’re reading the forums, we’re looking at player data as we play the game and just seeing how hard it is to predict where we’re going to go. We have plans for things of course, but a lot of our plans are things that come up as reactions to the live game and the way that players are behaving.

Two of our most popular PVP modes, Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris, didn’t exist at launch.

It’s only over the course of this year and the way that we’ve been developing this game and adding things that those two popular modes came on board. And I think that’s what we’ve learnt, and how integral and important it is to the future of the franchise.

And that describes how Destiny has become a game that is driven by events. Whether they be random events that earn you some Vanguard marks or seeing Xur every Friday, Destiny is built around such instances. As well as the fight against true evil.

In other words, you better be ready for Oryx, as he won’t be holding back when he enters our system:

Yeah, events are a critical part of the game. The world of Destiny is this shared universe that we like to believe is real and real things happen in them. There’s a real timeline, and with Taken King, this is taking place a year after Destiny.

Oryx has arrived in the system and he’s here for revenge against your actions in defeating Crota, his son in The Dark Below.

Oryx is the true face of evil, he’s a real villain and he’s not a good guy and he does not have good intentions. He’s an ancient and powerful Hive Lord and he wields this Taken army.

These are combatants who are twisted and corrupted, who have been pulled from our dimension and changed, given new powers and abilities and sent back and they’re in his thrall, in his control.

He’s somebody you’re going to face throughout The Taken King, both in the brand new campaign and also beyond. You’re going to face him several times. He’s challenging, he’s a real boss.

I think my level 2 peashooter may be a tad bit underpowered for that fight. Stay tuned this week for more Destiny info! We ain’t done yet!

Last Updated: June 22, 2015