For almost 10 years has the Destiny franchise been around, telling its story with different chapters and expansions. With Destiny 2: Lightfall, the first steps have been made to round up the story of Destiny. Last year, we had a great expansion where we fought The Witch Queen and it was a total blast. The expansion’s story kept us on our toes, with lots of different weapons and superb environments to walk around in. The bar has been set, so let us see if Lightfall will exceed our expectations…
Just like in any superhero movie, there are always some baddies who wreak havoc on the surface but there’s always that one big boss who pulls the strings. With Lightfall, we finally get a glimpse to see the bigger picture. At the beginning of the campaign, we can already see the immense power the Witness has, as it blows up almost every spaceship the guardians can throw at it. It’s a first reminder that we’re dealing with something more powerful, than the guardians ever faced. It won’t be a small fight on the battlefield, it feels like an immense battle across the Destiny universe. Being pumped- up and hyped for the battle to come, quickly turns into a tempered-down version of myself as the campaign moves forward as a long and slow search for “The Veil”. It’s the thing that nobody seems to know what it’s really about but only one guaranteed certainty: it can stop The Witness.
“So it’s a give-and-take kind of situation.”
Let’s dive deeper into the campaign… you can outline the story into 2 things: the long search for this mysterious Veil and the long grind for your new subclass power Strand. This mysterious Veil is the thing that drives you to defeat multiple enemies and overcome different obstacles. Throughout the journey, you figure out that Strand might be opening for you to figure out what this Veil actually is and how it can overcome The Witness. The first chapter of this expansion left me with even more questions than what I started with. Although the whole story progression felt a little off, I have to say that the ending boosted my hype for the story yet to come. So I can say that the campaign does feel a little off at the moment, but I’m sure it’ll probably get better along the way. Even though the story’s progression didn’t feel like it was going somewhere, I can say that the missions were exciting enough to see this through. So it’s a give-and-take kind of situation.
Neomuna is the new city you’ll visit on Neptune. The environments within the expansion are very colorful and truly feel like a futuristic city where everything is cybernetically enhanced and where the “cloud” plays a big role. I won’t spoil too much but the concept of the environments perfectly fit the concept of the world they were aiming for. If you like the looks of a dystopian future world where modifications and the concept of a metaverse world are central, Lightfall will definitely appeal to you. If I had to choose between the environments of The Witch Queen or Lightfall, I would choose The Witch Queen. This of course is a more personal choice, because I like the aesthetics of a dark and aery world where the line between the real world and the demon realm is very thin. This is just to state that the developers truly know what they want when they try to make a digital environment within the setting that they want for a certain expansion. All the elements of their concepts on how they see a specific world are present and this is just a great example that they can create anything they want because of their talented presentation team.
“However, the writing of these character roles isn’t in sync with the image I had in the trailer.”
There are also a couple of new characters that you’re being introduced to. Without spoiling too much, I didn’t feel any empathy or interest for these characters. How they are represented, is the best concept they can get within this specific background story. I can appreciate the link to this concept of a colorful cybernetic punk-like world and the role they play within this world (Cloudstriders) is appreciated because it opens my imagination towards this world. However, the writing of these character roles isn’t in sync with the image I had in the trailer.
These Cloudstriders are cybernetically modified human beings that could take on the world if they didn’t have an option or at least that was the thought I had after seeing them in one of the trailers but in reality, they aren’t actually helping out in your battle with the Witness. They fly by, talk about what’s happening in the world, and the rest, they’ll leave it up to you. There’s even one of the characters that make or try to make jokes but these jokes really don’t come over as profound good jokes. Along the way, you do get to see some of the character’s development, so I’m wondering on how these characters will evolve but for the moment as they are now, I truly couldn’t care less about them. They also don’t give a lot of information on the thing that’s called “The Veil”, so in other words they feel a bit underwhelming.
“So the Strand subclasses are very interesting and offer some new amazing gameplay elements in Destiny.”
I would also like the developers to re-think how they’re introducing a new subclass. It’s only when the first chapter of the story was finished, that you actually had access to your new strand abilities. It would have been so much cooler to get the subclass after a couple of missions because then you would be able to get stronger along the way and you would be able to experiment with builds step-by-step. You also don’t get a realistic expectation when you receive your strand ability at the end of the story. The moments when you’re able to use “Strand” throughout the story make you feel OP and what you’re getting at the end is only a fraction of what you experienced. I am aware that Destiny is more built around end-game and you have to grind your ass-off to get to a viable point for legendary strikes or raids but being able to experience your builds first-hand will allow you to figure out if your build is going somewhere. You’ll have a better direction in what way you want to build your class toward the end-game content. There are already enough guns to work towards, so if you have a certain build in mind, you can approach your build in a more thoughtful way.
So the Strand subclasses are very interesting and offer some new amazing gameplay elements in Destiny. I won’t go too in-depth with these classes but the different abilities definitely fit the guardian’s classes perfectly. The presentation of these ultimate abilities has been well done and feels powerful as you’re using them but there’s one thing that stood out for me and that was the ability to grapple onto the strings of life and get to places where I couldn’t get before. The grapple ability is such a great way to traverse the environment and use it as a strong weapon against your enemies. Unfortunately, the grapple mechanic is very limited in the ways you can use it but it just brings a fun element to the game as a whole. For example, you can grapple onto a bike of another player and ski your way around the environment. This is the kind of fun I would like to see more often within the Destiny environment.
“It doesn’t feel like a chaotic world like it used to be.”
Destiny has always been overwhelming when it comes to new players. You would jump into the game and before you can actually make your choices about your adventure, you would often be sucked into these missions that would introduce you to the new story or the new season. For an experienced player, this was nothing too difficult to handle but for a player that’s only just starting, well it could be. So the developers introduce this new system where new players are given more tips on what they could do next. This system has different ranks with different challenges to do. Once the challenges have been completed, you move over to a new rank which introduces new challenges. This system is definitely a step in the right direction. It gives you a ton of stuff to do which also allows you to experience the whole game at your own pace. It doesn’t feel like a chaotic world like it used to be.
Veteran players will also have the opportunity to help out the low-rank guardians as their rank is being shown above the player. This will allow the veterans to help out a hand or avoid the guardian completely. Yes, there are also players who would make the second choice, unfortunately… But it’s a great system to introduce the player within the world of Destiny and grow more structurally along the way. There are also some interesting quality-of-life options that have been introduced with the Destiny 2 Lightfall expansion such as re-usable armor mods, change-out load-outs, re- usable color schemes, … All of these small elements are a big step up for Destiny’s accessibility. It’s not an easy task to create a game that’s still interesting to veterans and accessible for newbies but doing these little quality-of-life changes definitely helps. Great job Bungie!
Conclusion:
Is Destiny 2: Lightfall a great expansion to the franchise? Yes, it definitely is. Everything feels better and more structured. Lightfall is the best way to introduce a new friend to their responsibilities as a Guardian. The game is a lot more accessible for new players and veterans can benefit from the quality-of-life elements that they’ve been craving for so long. The strand abilities are very amusing and the grapple is life-changing. It’s a big step towards the longevity of Destiny’s fun.
Is Destiny 2: Lightfall the best expansion in the franchise? No, it definitely isn’t. Even though I can appreciate the work that went into the presentation of the game like environments, strand abilities, and missions. The story is progressing very slowly and feels like a rough start where we were left with more questions than answers. The character design is great when it comes to the presentation but the development of these characters feels underwhelming. Also, the collection of guns has been expanded but I do feel like a lot of weapons have just been re-skinned and re-formed with minor traits. Again this is just a personal feeling, I’ll have to continue my quest for exotic items, before coming to a real conclusion.
Would I recommend Destiny 2: Lightfall to a new friend? I definitely would. At the moment, Destiny is in the best place it ever has been. Veterans are getting their fix with new challenges and quests for exotics while newbies can enjoy a step-by-step progression towards the end-game. The quality of life elements was needed to bring out the best that Destiny has to offer. If you’re still on the edge about whether or not you should jump in… don’t hesitate, just do it! You’ll be able to sink in a lot of hours of playtime before you run out of things to do.
7.5/10
reviewed on PC
