Destiny: House of Wolves, Prison of Elders Review

The raids in Destiny are by far the game’s biggest selling point when it comes to PvE. The problem with House of Wolves, there isn’t one. Instead, Guardians can descend deep into the Reef to venture into the Prison of Elders. That sounds cool and all, but outside of the frustration, it’s nothing like the raids.

The maximum number of Guardians that can be in any one fireteam is currently six. Raids of course allow for the full six, but PoE doesn’t. Perhaps it’s easier to find two people to accompany you, but the feel of it comes across more like a strike than a special, new end-game content. But before I rip this thing to shreds, let’s start with the positives.

Artificially making the game harder by lazily adding enemies that are one level higher really grinds my gears. Wait…positives…nope, can’t find any. Okay, the new modifiers add a little more variety compared to the seven or so that existed prior to HoW, but that’s pretty much it. You can twist my arm into considering the new web mines a positive I suppose. There are a few aesthetic positives: The level design is inspired by the enemies you face, the room you descend into to collect loot at the very end certainly feels like a treasure room, and the swag you collect looks like some actual thought went into the design this time around.

I will also say that the creativity during boss encounters is much more distinct than just a larger version of a common enemy with a seemingly endless health bar. I want to stay away from spoilers here, but the level 32 boss and the level 34 boss last week were both innovative encounters that required some strategy.

But none of that makes up for the fact that you’re essentially playing a glorified story mission with a modifier and the enemy may have a level advantage or two on you. Both the Vault of Glass and Crota’s End introduced elements into the game that either required coordination or supreme skill. PoE simply requires your team to find a nice place to hide until you need to complete a “random” objective in rounds 2 and 3 of each wave. Based on the changes this week, it would seem that changing the order of the waves and the modifiers is Bungie’s way of adding variety. Again, I find this super lazy.

The Destiny community loves to mine for rumors, and the consensus for PoE was that it was going to be nothing more than a glorified horde mode. That’s essentially what it is. If the rewards, specifically etheric light, on level 34 and 35 weren’t borderline necessary, I am not sure anyone would bother playing it. For now, the popularity of raids has diminished. Although, Guardians are still trying to at least do Vault of Glass on hard now that you can ascend the loot drops.

Maybe that’s the real beauty behind PoE; it makes playing all the old stuff more rewarding as you can ascend the loot to the highest possible level up to this point. For some, that’s probably reason enough to grind through some frustration here and there. However, there’s a shelf life for that kind of activity and it’s a whole lot shorter than the raids. Most dedicated players were able to obtain at least enough etheric light to be able to reach level 34 on every one of their characters before the reset this week. By the end of June, there is a chance they’ll have ascended every piece of relevant equipment they own. Then what Bungie?

In the end, I don’t mind PoE, it’s at least something new to do after five months of the same thing. Still, I have a hard time believing this will hold the attention of Guardians into September. My hope is that we’ll get a mid-Summer raid as a way to make up for all the disappointment since launch. I don’t trust that hope though. My gut tells me Bungie has its dedicated player’s right where it wants them. PoE may be more about how much we’re willing to put up with more than anything else. If that’s the case, we’ll all be in some kind of prison until the fall.