As a long-time Destiny 2 fan, there isn’t any sugarcoating this. Destiny 2 Lightfall is the most tone-deaf disappointing instalment in the franchise’s history. If you’ve been playing Destiny from the get-go right up until now, the chances of you wanting to continue playing this game are probably quite low right now because of Lightfall’s campaign.
Bungie has made some ridiculously strange decisions with the story. Lightfall, which was supposed to deliver some spectacular story content that has been hyped up for years, concludes with more questions that will leave you scratching your head and asking yourself “What?”.
Quality of Life
So let’s dive into the actual gameplay here first before circling back to the story. Gameplay in Destiny 2 Lightfall has been tweaked a bit. Players now finally have access to numerous quality-of-life improvements. You can finally save load-outs and swap to them on the fly. You can also access all your mods from one screen and no longer have to deep dive through multiple menus or icons to find something. This has been something that players including myself have wanted for years and it’s finally here. Praise the Traveler!
Players can commend other players too now and while this is a nice touch, it doesn’t really serve any purpose. There have been some changes to the way weapon crafting work and the difficulty of the game has been hiked somewhat. This might be a tad of a miss-step from Bungie because more casual players might be put off by this.
Given the seasonal nature of Destiny 2’s gameplay, Bungie will actively be changing things up throughout the current season (and beyond) as per usual. As it stands right now though, there’s a lot to consider changing up in Lightfall and I sincerely hope that they are listening to the more vocal fanbase about the problems that this expansion has brought to the table.
All of the above doesn’t even take into account Strand. So, what exactly is Strand? Well to answer that, you’ll have to play the campaign and be perplexed as to how and why it exists because the campaign sure as heck doesn’t do a good enough job of explaining it. You’ll just have to deal with it as a plot device and unfortunately, it was completely and utterly wasted here because instead of letting you use Strand unrestrained from the get-go, you’ll only have access to tidbits until the end of the campaign when it’s fully unlocked.
While this might be similar to how Beyond Light introduced Stasis to Destiny 2, Stasis was implemented throughout that campaign in a far superior manner and one that actually made sense in the greater context of things thanks to the already-established lore.
Neon Lit
The campaign story of Lightfall follows the Guardian on an adventure on Neptune in the city of Neomuna. Neomuna is an untouched, somehow thriving neon-lit metropolis that humans established during the Collapse. Players will meet Rohan and Nimbus here and the game delivers a very cheesy 80s action movie-esque campaign filled with some solid set pieces and gameplay. Where it tends to fall apart however lies with its inconsistency with the tone of the game and the impending doom that’s incoming from The Witness. The launch trailer for the game and even the opening cinematic were quite hype-inducing but none of that really translates well with the storytelling in the game itself being disappointing.
Calus is back thanks to The Witness and you’re tasked with protecting something known as The Veil. What is the Veil? Well nobody knows exactly and the campaign once again does an extremely poor job of even explaining why it’s important in the first place. The campaign is also rather short and you can complete it in around 6 hours or so.
Story grievances aside, Destiny 2 Lightfall does deserve some praise. That praise is aimed at the superb art direction and the sound effects as per usual. While Beyond Light delivered us a gorgeous ice world in the form of Europa, and The Witch Queen brought us Savathun’s throne world, Lightfall showcases a neon-soaked metropolis that’s packed with detail. Strand’s luminescent green colour really stands out too and it looks gorgeous in action. Bungie has really done a great job with the visuals.
The core gameplay in Lightfall is about the same as always. Players will still be doing the usual gameplay grind loop and unlocking levels of the season pass for more rewards. The excellent gunplay is coupled with plenty of new weaponry and armour to chase and acquire. There are 6 new exotic armour pieces and 5 new exotic weapons with 1 being a raid exclusive. All of these have their unique perks and players will find their favourites quite soon as they work them into their new load-outs.
While I haven’t personally managed to complete the Root of Nightmares raid yet, the encounters seem to be quite fun and the community will most likely begin to tear them apart very soon.
Final Verdict
Destiny 2 Lightfall is ultimately an extremely mixed bag. On one hand, it doesn’t deliver what it should, the tone is inconsistent throughout, and the game tries and fails to do some basic things but at the same time still features the very strong gameplay elements that veterans love. It just doesn’t sit right with me though due to the inconsistencies and I’m definitely not the only one in the community that feels this way. It feels like what we got here was just filler content to keep us busy.
If you’re a casual Destiny 2 fan, you might want to give this expansion a skip because you’ll be super lost as to what’s going on. If you’re a hardcore seasoned Destiny 2 player, you probably already bought the expansion and will be feeling perplexed. Bungie dropped the ball here with regards to the lore, and with the Light and Darkness story supposedly being ended soon, being left with numerous questions is not ideal – Especially not when we’re in year 6 of the game and with the Final Shape looming.
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