Destiny 2: Shadowkeep — Review
Five whole years have passed since the original Destiny exploded onto current gen-consoles only to fall slightly flat on its lack of story, repetitive nature and meme spawning loot caves. Each year bringing new expansions and changing or improving how players take down the varying factions that the mysterious darkness throws at you. The entity known as the darkness is finally brought somewhat into the forefront with this newest expansion to Destiny 2 in Shadowkeep. This new expansion builds on the gameplay changes that make forsaken so great whilst also tweaking and changing for the better some of the things that didn’t make the previous year of the live-service fun.
This expansion also launches alongside developer bungie’s foray into being both developer and publisher of their games and the year one content of Destiny 2 launching as a stand-alone release that is free to play and starts all players new and current at the same level. This huge change allows new players to buy expansions and seasons ala-cart meaning new players who want to join in with their veteran friends can join in with the newest content and not have to drudge through no less than 4 campaigns and 3 seasons of content to be on the same playing field as older players.
Right from the beginning we are shown that things have changed allot since our last venture to the lunar surface and a full blown onslaught of hive are trying to increase their dominance of the moon and there is a huge crimson fortress and tower that is clearly the epicentre of this. For the first time in the franchise, this opening mission is match-made and can have up to 6 or so players in the given instance and really makes you feel like part of the world and the vanguard’s efforts to push back the hive. The difficulty of this mission and the expansion is something bungie emphasised and was clear in this first mission where all the enemies were much stronger than you but not strong enough that it would make the content impossible to complete.
It is soon after this opening mission that we realise just how high the stakes are and what caused these events by meeting up with the former guardian (and fan favourite) Eris Morn who hasn’t been seen in the original Destiny or Destiny 2 since the taken king expansion back in 2015. The darkness has finally been shown as having a pyramid ship hiding away in the moon all this time and it is our goal to find a way into the ship and stop both it and the nightmares now covering the moon.
Also included (and now live) is the season of the undying and it’s season pass. This season covers the moon in the vex and brings a new match-made activity and public events along with specific weapons and some surprising and gradual changes to the tower. This is one of the ways bungie is now positioning the game as a truly live and evolving world that has changes and activities that may or may not come back and impact future stories. But the transition to a season pass model has it’s benefits and drawbacks.
Following the model that every other free to play or live-service game does, the pass has a free and paid tier with paid for getting certain weapons early or exclusive rewards. this means that those who play new light and have no expansions will have to grind the ranks to get exotic weapons that premium users will get quicker or instantly as is the case with new exotic hand cannon, erinna’s vow. That being said in my personal experience, such weapons aren’t ideally suited for pvp or competitive activities and as such do not offer a “pay to win” situation
After having beaten the campaign, some post game activities and the seasonal stuff, I can happily say the game is amazing but does have some shortcomings. The campaign falls short of the forsaken campaign from a year ago and even with some padding still can be done within a couple of hours. It leaves the plot dangling on a cliff-hanger, but this will be resolved over the next year of seasonal events and content. For now, if you love destiny and have been eagerly awaiting this expansion you’ll have a good time and I give a big recommendation but if you’re new to the franchise, start with the free to play version and see if you like what’s on offer.
