What you should know about Destiny — especially if Taken King is your first experience

Destiny became so popular so quickly that success seems almost like, well, its destiny. Of course, that wasn’t the case. Developer Bungie’s road to making the massive first-person shooter is long and storied. This week, nearly a year after Destiny’s release, the game will receive a substantial update, making the experience more accessible for even more players. And next week, the largest expansion to the game, The Taken King, will hit stores. Now is the perfect time to learn what this game is and how it instantaneously rivaled the top competitors in one of gaming’s most crowded genres.

I invited Polygon’s Samit Sarkar, who handles reviews for Destiny expansions, to provide some context. Sarkar isn’t just a Destiny expert; he’s also a fantastic karaoke singer. Unfortunately, that will have to be discussed on another episode.