I've run the first four story missions, the strike, and the associated bounties up to that point.
It's all pretty great.
First, I was surprised at how much territory is still being reused. The first three missions are entirely in old spaces. That said, I was also surprised at how well they were used. Not only running them in reverse to change things up, but encounters that felt like they took full advantage of the spaces. On two missions they played and felt so different I didn't realize I was in familiar territory until halfway through. Pretty good work on optimizing existing geometry.
I have yet to press a button and deal with waves of enemies. The ending battles absolutely still use rounds of adds to extend the fights, but they put you in a position of strength, and with options, and then populate the battlefield. More so than any other mission in the game, these are reminding me of good Halo missions (minus the vehicular element they brought). These were the first missions in the game to date where I saw a densely packed battlefield, and settled on a strategy that did not involve sitting at the entryway and sniping everyone from safety. The fight at the area where the game begins was a standout. And at level 32, it's found the sweet spot between being able to be aggressive - I did it with scout rifle and shotgun - and having to back the hell up because there were a lot of formidable enemies out there. Nothing has felt cheap or unfair yet. And I'm already looking forward to running these with different characters and load outs. Bungie is getting their encounter design mojo back.
I like that they split the bounties into two flavors: large battles in public spaces, and smaller hits on infantry troops off the beaten paths of the patrol spaces. It was a good way to mix them up a bit. The bounties are all fun, though I worry a bit about repetition as time goes on. Certainly there are a lot of them at least.
The story telling is getting much better. The text/lore added to quest screens when accepting them (which is really snazzy) are a good touch, the way Petra and the Fallen dude play off each other, the running thread of hunting the big bad down as he tries to rally the Houses to his side. It's all pretty good stuff and a marked step up from Eris and her Urn of Many Random Tasks. (I'm a bit confused as to when I'm getting rep for Petra vs. Fallen Dude as I go back and forth; this morning I turned in a quest step to him, and got Queen's Wrath rep.)
The strike was awesome. No extended siege sequences, which is good, given that's what Prison of Elders is all about. Just a fast, hard hitting chase through the ship and a relatively brief but intense fight at the end. Having the boss both make cameos through the strike, and have the damage we do carry over to the end is an improvement over the approach with Omnigul. Only ran it once, but I'm inclined to call it the best strike in the game so far. (And it was nearly all set in new territory, to boot.) My only knock against it comes in the story - it is not tied into the main thread at al, just something that popped up. "Oh, also go kill this unrelated guy." But that's about it as far as criticisms go. Is this added to the strike playlists yet?
As a footnote, I also started up a Titan yesterday. One side effect of the new bounties and Wolf events is the public spaces are really dangerous for low-level players. Which I think is actually pretty great - seeing guys on the horizon and having to steer way around them, feeling a real sense of danger, is refreshing. I did confirm I was able to poach in on a Prowling Wolves event to score the ether chest. I just hung way back in Skywatch while two guardians struggled through it, and I sat on a roof while my level 5 Titan pinged the enemies helplessly from time to time. I bagged the chest twice. Only mats and synths, since I don't have rare or legendary stuff unlocked yet. But poaching it felt great.
This really puts TDB to shame. Poor Eris. Her material exchange is undercut by the Speaker of all people, her quests done, her bounties mostly ignored for the new hotness. I have a feeling she's going to be very lonely.
