Tim Clark - gamebastion.com

Earlier today, Bungie tugged back the curtain on Act II of the Revenant episode, which starts on Tuesday 19 November. As had been widely expected, the update will include a reprised version of the Prison Of Elders activity, which has now been made more roguelike—think The Coil and Riven's Lair, if you've played either of those. Interestingly, a new mechanic will enable dialled in fireteams to skip certain sections with the tradeoff being that they'll face more difficult enemies. Conversely, teams which are struggling will face a longer slog but less punishing opponents. I'm sure that won't lead to any toxicity in LFG teams.

The mode is now called Tomb of the Elders to reflect that the prison has become derelict, and it does look promising. The enemy races from the old version have been swapped out with fresh ones: Shadow Legion Cabal, Revenant Scorn, Lucent Hive and The Dread. The encounters are a mix of enemy-dense combat and short traversal sections. Each arena also features some manner of challenge to complete. In one example shown on stream, the room was filling with poison gas which needed to be switched off. You'll also face some of the new negative modifiers that have been popping in Strikes (including 'Counterfeit', where ammo bricks will sometimes explode, and everyone hates).

My one worry about Tomb of the Elders is the loot. Bungie promised a rewarding treasure room at the end of the activity, but didn't show it on stream. In fact, the only new weapons mentioned are an SMG and shotgun from the current seasonal set, plus a reprised version of the Gridskipper pulse rifle. If all Tomb of the Elders has is those plus more copies of the seasonal gear we've already been grinding weeks for, it will likely struggle however fun it is. Certainly that's been my problem with the current iteration of Onslaught, which is great to play but doesn't feel worth the time investment given that you can earn the same guns from popping a tonic and doing literally anything else.

Tim Clark