Destiny 2: The Final Shape Review
Part 1: The Beginning
I tried writing this review before the raid and the final
story mission came out and I just couldn’t do it. It didn’t feel right, and the
vibes were off to say the least. To say more, it felt like reviewing Lord of
the Rings: Return of the King after the big 2nd act battle, when our group of heroes are
talking about next steps to confront Sauron, and if you review it at that
point, even though everything you’ve seen has been great so far, there’s a
feeling of incompleteness that comes both from the creative work and the review.
All that nonsense out of the way, Destiny 2: The Final Shape is exactly what Bungie
needed to put out properly cap off this big messy saga they’ve been making, and
there is basically nothing that I wish they would have done differently. If
this is the last expansion Destiny 2 ever receives, the game will be remembered
for its best aspects because of this expansion, a legacy secured.
Before talking about the ending, spoilers for anything by
the way, let’s talk about all the other individual parts that add to the
greatness of the whole work. Many things come to mind, but I think the best and
most obvious things to talk about are the campaign, both in terms of story and
mission design, the Pale Heart destination, and the new Prismatic subclass,
kind of all at the same time.
Part 2: Early Campaign
Feelings
Besides all the error codes that either kicked me out mid mission
or stopped me from viewing vital cutscenes, I had both a blast and was a little
underwhelmed. I was having a blast because there truly is nothing else like a
Destiny expansion release, where it’s the one time during the year where you
KNOW every player is doing the same activity for the first time. My being underwhelmed
came from the actual mission design though, as I feel that both the Witch Queen
and Lightfall had better opening missions, where the missions themselves were
able to generate excitement rather than the excitement come from “the idea” of
playing the big finale, if that makes sense. Not to say that there aren’t great
things in these opening missions, but if I play the comparison game, I just
come out having more notable memories from fighting a Tormentor for the first time
or entering into Savathun’s throne world. I think a big reason for this is the
decision to focus this story on the core Vanguard trio, Crow, and your
guardian. This decision pays off big time by the end of the campaign believe
me, but the slower start to this journey leaves less of an impression in my
mind.
The best part of these early missions, and something that is
most definitely a marker for the future of Destiny, is the new prismatic
subclass, a subclass that lets you mix and match certain perks and items from
the other light and darkness subclasses so you can wield both light and dark at
the same time. It took some getting used to, but it was a ton of fun to play
through the legendary campaign with, as even the limited opening combination of
aspects and fragments a player is given is enough to get the gears turning on
what new possibilities these builds can offer. My only observation about it is
that the team seemed to have chosen all/most of the under used aspects from the
other subclasses to make this subclass. So, my prismatic build, at least on
Titan, felt like the leftovers of an all you can eat buffet. Let me be clear
here though: I understand why this decision was made and respect it, as opening
the flood gates all the way undermines all the other subclasses and probably
would be impossible to balance for years to come, but I am still wanting just a
little more. Prismatic: great, the idea of what my prismatic build could be
while having no experience balancing a videogame: better.
Part 3: The Two
Towers (get it, because we have a tower and so does the Witness)
While I would describe the opening and middle sections of
the campaign’s story as slow, I would not describe it as bad. With the
exception of Lightfall, every Season in Destiny 2 since Season of the Chosen
has felt like a near or total slam dunk in terms of progressing the world, the
story, and its characters. The Final Shape really does feel like a culmination,
not only of all these stories that Bungie has told, but also of all the
progress that Destiny’s storytelling has gone through. Again, apart from
Lightfall, long gone are the days of vanilla D2, where Cayde was nothing but
jokes, and Zavala and Ikora felt like cardboard cutouts of their actual
personalities. Here we see the Vanguard reunite, but after all this time, it’s
far more complicated than that. While I think that comparing every finale to
Avengers Endgame has gotten really old, I do think the comparison is apt here,
because so much of that movie and this expansion are about reuniting this
broken team in spite of how much the odds are stacked against them facing a foe
that it seems has already won. There’s an entire essay I could (and plan to)
write about how great all the Vanguard stuff is and how far Destiny 2’s storytelling
has come, but for now we get to one of my favorite parts of this expansion: the
Dread enemy race.
The Destiny universe needed some new foes, that coveted
sixth enemy race. We’ve had Taken reskins of enemies, and we’ve had Scorn
reskins of enemies, but the Dread feel like the real deal this time. The Dread
have five enemy variants to contend with, including (and I’m going strictly off
of memory for this) the fly boys called Grims, Psion boys that use Strand or
Stasis powers, Rhulk boys that also use Strand or Stasis powers, sword boys
that vomit an exploding projectile on death, and Tormentors. Having to fight
against a new enemy in a new way is just what this game need in its 11th
hour. I don’t really have anything notable to say about the Dread other than
the fact that they are a vibe, and I am glad they are in the game.
Part 4: The Third Act
Ramp Up, The Raid, and the Finale
The story, the characters, the mission design, the world,
they all get a level up in between the 2nd and 3rd act.
The last few missions felt like Bungie operating at full potential, whether it’s
the environmental storytelling in the parts of the Traveler that the Witness
was able to shape, the wonderful penultimate mission (that had a pretty killer
boss fight to beat on the legendary difficulty), or all the post campaign, pre
raid in between activities, everything felt like it was leading up to this
pinnacle moment that the entire community would experience together.
Now, I am a normal human being, which means I can not beat a
Destiny raid on contest mode, especially when Bungie tunes it to take around 20
hours for the BEST teams to play. But I am good at watching Datto play, so I was
there in spirit (kind of but not really). The point is, is that the raid was
just beaten this morning, and it looks so spectacular, and with that, the final
campaign mission was unlocked: A 12-player activity, the first official and
supported 12 player activity.
The finale was everything I could have hoped for. It wasn’t
a difficult mission by any means, but that’s also not always the goal. Here, everyone
was able to be here for THE moment.
Part 5: The End
Destiny has had an incredible impact on my life. It went
from a game my brother got for Christmas to now being the game I have the most
amount of time ever, no question. The gunplay, the music (that I’m listening to
now as I write), the world, the LORE, the characters, the breadth of
activities, the LOOT. Many games have come and gone trying to replicate Bungie’s
success with Destiny, and most have come and gone like dust in the wind, but
Destiny is still here. Destiny is special, and I’m so glad that I got to be
here for this moment, a moment that I will not soon forget.
I hope my weird ramblings made some level of sense, and I
hope you enjoyed this review.
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