Fate 2
As I wrote my thoughts on the initial campaign missions about a day after Destiny 2 released its massive Final Shape expansion, I knew it wasn’t going to be my full review. There was plenty left to come including a raid, a final mission and secrets that have just been revealed as of this week. But now with everything on the table, it’s time to do a full rundown of everything.
This is the best expansion Destiny 2 has ever done. Probably the best campaign story, best destination, best raid, and would you look at it, probably the best exotic mission they’ve ever done. I remember hearing how, internally, Bungie wanted, needed this to blow away all the other expansions, even The Taken King and Forsaken, and it just seemed impossible. It was not impossible. They did it. Here’s how:
campaign – This is the part I already covered, but Bungie created a great narrative focusing on the three main members of the Vanguard, plus the new addition Crow, in addition to our Guardian. They managed to do something I thought would be impossible, making Cayde’s appearance relevant and impactful instead of a marketing gimmick, and turning the Witness into a compelling villain capable of hatred, whom you very much wish to see dead.
The missions themselves are great, starting off maybe a little slow with a “reassemble the scattered team” intro, but by the end? The last two missions in particular are certainly the best the series has ever done in a story campaign. I’m not sure there’s anything in the story itself that matches the Witch Queen’s “Savathun and the Traveler” moment, but overall, this is the best story, ESPECIALLY once you reach the final mission that opened later.
Fate 2
Prismatic – The ultimate mash-up of all our Guardian powers has been a blast to play, and this has been further escalated as of this week with the release of exotic class items that combine two perks at once.
I haven’t removed Prismatic from any of my subclasses since the start of the season, and it seems like every day the community is coming up with a new, creative use of all the different potential combinations of abilities, aspects, and fragments that are so much fun to to be built and tested. It feels like it’s still evolving as everyone gets deeper into it, and the unlocking process was much better than what we’ve seen from Strand and Stasis in the past.
The raid – Easily the wildest raid Bungie has ever done with a First World race, which took place with the past as players struggled heavily with certain segments, namely encounters one and four. The raid race eventually it was some kind of bust with the main players pulling out their screens so no one could watch, but that’s not at Bungie.
The raid itself is incredibly creative, with that infamous encounter four in particular one of the most impressive mechanical things Bungie has ever done. It won’t be exactly MOST accessible to average players before some serious strategy is learned, but it makes perfect sense for this to be the craziest attack the game has gotten after all this time, and that’s exactly what they delivered.
Fate 2
The last mission – Easily the best moment in the history of the game. A deep Helm moment from Zavala at the entrance, the rush of every NPC we’ve ever played with in the mission, and then the first 12 Guardian attack of the game on the Witness and his forces, total chaos. NPCs warp to give us relic weapons, 12-man DPS stage before the Monolithic Witness. Fun, but not actually hard enough for any player to experience it.
The final scenes are just…out of this world. (Spoilers) Cayde’s sacrifice to resurrect our ghost is the most emotional moment of the entire series, and Crow’s ascension as Hunter Vanguard is the resolution of a scenario that has essentially been a decade in the making. I can’t think of how this finale could have been handled better.
Pale heart – We’re going back to the place where this all happens, The Pale Heart, which is definitely my favorite destination that Bungie has made. That’s also in terms of its aesthetic, which goes from gardens of paradise to hand-based horror deeper into the corruption of The Witness, and I’ve never stopped to take so many screenshots in my life. But beyond the visuals, the Overthrow system, and the use of space as a single example, it’s the most engaged I’ve been with a patrol mode since Escalation Protocol. A truly stellar setup and a great endgame location for all of the above to happen.
Fate 2
Exotic mission – But wait, there is more! Since this reset, players have done a patrol quest as Whisper to unlock a Whisper-like secret mission, Dual Destiny, which is used to obtain new exotic class items. The dual forced mission is incredibly creative, the first one forcing you to work with just one partner, but with mechanics that are easy enough to eventually speed things up, provided you communicate.
I know some decry the mandated multiplayer, but it’s easily one of the best exotic quests we’ve seen from Bungie, and I appreciate the risk they took experimenting with a PvE concept that we literally haven’t seen in ten years. I want to see more like him in the future.
This is as close to perfection as a Destiny expansion can get. If my biggest complaint is “I don’t like the new shader icons” and “the Ritual Pathfinder system needs to be fixed”, I think we’re doing just fine. Instead, The Final Shape represents a stunning finale to a decade-long story arc that is not only a huge event for Destiny itself, but the entire industry, as I simply don’t think there is another point of comparison in the history of games, provided you have been on this journey for so long. Bungie left everything on the field and delivered on all fronts.
Is one 10/10. The most emphatic 10/10 I can give.
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