Destiny 2 – Armoury Collection

11 January, 2024 - 12:00 pm by Joseph Whitfield
About 7 mins to read
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5

I’m back with another Destiny 2 DLC review and this time I’m taking on 2023’s newest bundle, The Armoury Collection. Rather than being a new addition like the Lightfall update, this package combines both the 30th Anniversary Pack and the Forsaken DLC, which was removed from the Legacy bundle in favour of The Witch Queen expansion.

Note from the Editor: As Destiny 2 is a live service game, we’ll be reviewing all of the expansions and what they mean to the overall game. Current reviewed expansions are found below:

At A Glance

Destiny 2: The Armoury Collection
Positives	+ Guns + Lots of guns + Oh and a new Raid
Negatives	– You’re mainly paying for guns – And access to a couple of trophies/achievements – But mainly, guns
Overall	No Score
Played On	PS5
Also Available On	PC, PS4, Xbox Series X\|S, Xbox One
Find out about our scoring policy here.

The Destiny 2: The Armoury Collection is a neat little package of two halves. I’ve decided to treat it as such and have split the review accordingly. To be clear, I would only suggest buying the Forsaken DLC and The 30th Anniversary Pack as part of The Amoury Collection to get the most value out of the content, but I understand everyone is different, so let’s have a look at what you get.

Forsaken DLC

I should be saying that the Forsaken story revolved around the Guardian’s seeking to avenge the death of a popular character at the hands of Prince Uldren Sov. I would then go on to say that Uldren, corrupted by the Darkness, was in search of his lost sister, Queen Mara Sov. Both names should be familiar to those who played the epic The Taken King expansion in the original Destiny. I could have then wrapped up by saying the expansion was one of the more popular releases that Destiny 2 has seen in years. The 2018 expansion detailed the heartache of the Guardians losing a key character in such a manner. Except this is irrelevant as Bungie removed the story from Destiny 2 early in 2022. New players will only get the briefest mention of these events as it’s all gone, much to my annoyance. These were some of the best missions within the shooter, full of charm, wit and charisma that balanced the seriousness of the war with lighthearted comedic moments.

Still, the Gambit mode that launched as part of the expansion didn’t meet with the same fate as the story mode. These PVP and PVE modes gave Guardians a break from the reality of war and it gave a real sense of how Bungie could evolve Destiny as a game. Players were no longer limited to nightfall missions but were finally able to fight in compact sandbox-style levels either together or against each other. Each of the modes is recognisable as typical multiplayer modes like deathmatch and capture-the-flag style, but Bungie manages to keep them fresh, entertaining and meaningful. Much like Nightfall Strikes, each of the modes found in Gambit rotates each week to keep things fresh and despite my reluctance to battle in competitive areas, I rather enjoy getting my arse handed to me regularly. A personal favourite is the 3v3 guardian mode with a capped weapon level, meaning players have to strategise to knock out the opposing team. With so few players on the map, it felt like battling in an abandoned theme park which gave a sense of tension throughout each round.

An exciting multiplayer mode might sound like the Forsaken DLC is good in theory, but when Bungie decided to confine Forsaken to the vault, the team carried Gambit over to the free-to-play base game. This means that buying the Forsaken expansion only unlocks a large number of exotic weapons and amour. This is handy for those looking to complete the game’s dastardly trophy list, but for me, that doesn’t scream value for money. This is why I’d suggest that to get the full experience, players should consider combining the expansion with The 30th Anniversary Pack to get the most value for money.

The 30th Anniversary Pack

The pack is a celebration of the studio’s three decades of creating video games. It contains a handful of fan-favourite weapons for players to unlock as well as a new raid based on what Guardians experienced with the original Destiny.

The Grasp of Avarice raid is a three-player co-op dungeon crawler set in the Cosmodrome. Taking inspiration from the old loot raids from the original game, players explore, puzzle solve, and take out powerful enemies to unlock a treasure trove of goodies and it is tough going. I particularly enjoyed the level of puzzle solving required, and while there were a few cheap tricks like booby-trapped doors and unexpected platforms falling from underneath me, the overall experience was a great change of pace from the usual run-and-gun style Destiny 2 is known for.

Aside from the dungeon and the plethora of weapons and armour, there is very little to speak of and as such, the mileage you get with The 30th Anniversary Pack in Destiny 2 will vary. I am very much a creature of habit and have my specific loadouts so I found myself just throwing all the weapons in my archive rather than adopting them into my usual rotation and the dungeon, while nice is only one to come back to a handful of times.

Conclusion

Bungie has done the right thing by combining The 30 Anniversary Pack with what remains of the Forsaken expansion into one price for what is essentially a couple of dungeons and a plethora of weapons. While I’m sure some players will derive value for each bit of content (looking at you trophy hunters), I would only recommend buying either DLC as part of The Amoury Collection. It remains frustrating to see what was a strong story in Forsaken reduced to two cutscenes that don’t enhance the story in a meaningful way. If you are interested in picking up this bit of DLC, then please, get it when it’s on sale.