The Edge of Fate is a title that’s maybe a bit too on the nostril for a recreation balanced on a blade honed by years of iteration but additionally worn boring by time. Within the storied and wealthy custom of Destiny 2, this newest enlargement as soon as once more takes a couple of main steps again after lastly feeling like perhaps it’d discovered its footing. The 14-mission marketing campaign is monotonous and padded to the gills with busywork (regardless of having a sometimes-compelling story), the RPG and buildcrafting rework is locked behind one of the worst grinds Destiny has ever seen, and the brand new planetoid of Kepler isn’t as much as Bungie’s regular requirements. However even because it stumbles in its try to redefine itself after the wonderful ending to its unique story in The Closing Form final yr, I do admire the dangers The Edge of Fate takes, each in the daring new route of its story and the sudden mechanics it tries all through its experimental marketing campaign – although it doesn’t precisely nail both one. I nonetheless must play via the raid earlier than my ultimate evaluate, however the 20 hours I’ve spent with it to this point really feel like that messy spot the MCU was in after Endgame, fumbling for what comes subsequent following a conclusion that felt fairly, effectively… conclusive.
I want I may say The Edge of Fate picks up the place The Closing Form left off, or that it might probably simply be loved by itself, however each of these are extraordinarily not true. If you happen to haven’t been taking part in each little scrap of seasonal content material in the previous yr, you’ll actually be off to a rocky begin – there’s a brand new antagonist sporting the face and voice of an outdated character, godlike beings previously relegated to distributors and goofy gameshow hosts who’ve been repositioned as omniscient puppetmasters who we’re now alleged to take critically, and about half-hour of practically nonstop information dumping, which appears like one thing out of a pulp sci-fi novel as voices clarify how “darkish matter” is completely completely different from “the darkness” and different such gobbledygook. It’s such a horrible opening, I feared the worst for a sequence that’s missed the storytelling mark extra usually than it’s hit by a reasonably extensive margin. However a weak first couple of hours makes manner for a story that was really significantly better than I used to be anticipating because of a really sturdy new supporting character in Lodi, who’s shrouded in a thriller involving time journey, and a very sudden backstory lastly given to 1 of Destiny’s longstanding forged members that actually blew me away.
There’s nonetheless lots of wonky dialogue, much less attention-grabbing characters like Orin who largely simply fill area, and an overreliance on established lore throughout over a decade of content material that may go away even longtime followers scratching their heads – plus, in an effort to make the brand new baddie intimidating, they do one of my greatest story pet peeves and retcon it in order that really all of the stuff that’s ever occurred was all half of their grasp plan (insert huge eyeroll right here). However on the entire, that is one of the higher tales Destiny has pulled off, and I’m particularly impressed by what number of huge swings are taken to make me care concerning the subsequent saga in this bizarre universe. That is maybe finest showcased by Lodi, who manages to effortlessly really feel like a useful half of the forged regardless of actually exhibiting up out of nowhere.
The precise marketing campaign, and particularly the planet it takes place on, fare much less effectively although. Kepler is Destiny’s first foray past the celestial our bodies in our quick photo voltaic system, so one may hope to marvel at locations that really feel new and alien, however as a substitute we get a very acquainted setting that reuses belongings we’ve seen 100 occasions and slaps them onto masses of rocky cliffs and caves stuffed with huge yellow warts. For an tour that’s alleged to be a daring frontier that represents the long run for the shooter, that is undoubtedly one of probably the most lackluster settings they’ve added – to the purpose the place I typically forgot The Edge of Fate was alleged to happen on a brand new planetoid. Seemingly in an effort to disguise how small the brand new space is, you aren’t allowed to summon your sparrow, which is as a substitute changed with a number of gimmicky skills you must use to entry sure elements of the map, like one the place you flip your self right into a tiny ball and squeeze via slim passageways, Samus-style. This construction has the vaguest potential resemblance to a metroidvania, however often solely succeeds in making the trek backwards and forwards to finish humdrum quests extra irritating.
Though these new skills are usually irksome once they’re required to get round, they’re rather more welcome in the context of fixing puzzles throughout story missions. One such skill has you selecting up a portal gun that allows you to teleport to in any other case inaccessible areas, whereas one other enables you to shift the positioning of objects in the setting to create platforms or clear obstructions. So there are occasions the place you discover some loot simply out of attain and have to make use of a mix of the Samus-ball and the opposite two to clear the best way, which will be fairly neat. Sadly, these puzzles are so extremely straightforward to unravel they usually really feel extra like busywork to artificially stretch out the journey’s 8-hour runtime than something of notice, and since you possibly can solely use these skills by discovering particular nodes that grant you their energy for a short while, I spent about 95% of my time operating round looking for the instruments wanted to finish puzzles, and solely the opposite 5% really fixing them.
And although I love that Bungie has tried to include these identical instruments into fight, they often solely serve to interrupt the circulation in an odd manner. For instance, it’s actually bizarre that in order to kill sure enemies or progress a boss to its subsequent DPS section, you’ve gotta flip your self into a little bit ball of mild and roll round amassing gadgets whereas enemies completely lather you in gunfire you’ve little hope of dodging. This awkwardness is magnified by the truth that they reuse these three tips nonstop all through the journey on Kepler, and it begins to really feel needlessly repetitive in fairly quick order. Nonetheless, I’ve been saying for a while now that Destiny’s been resting on the laurels of its superior gunplay for a lot too lengthy and wishes a shot in the arm to maintain my curiosity, and these puzzle-forward skills are on the very least an attention-grabbing try at doing simply that, even when the execution just isn’t at all times profitable. Right here’s hoping that is the prototype for one thing extra partaking and fleshed out in future expansions.
The wonky skills and forgettable location aren’t the one causes the 14 primary missions in The Edge of Fate’s story are fairly underwhelming although, as characters fill empty area with exposition as you struggle bosses which are carbon copies of dangerous guys we’ve slain repeatedly all through the years. To its credit score, there are a couple of new enemies right here and there, like flying aliens referred to as corsairs and little robotic bees that swarm you, however their impression on moment-to-moment gameplay is fairly minor once you spend 90% of the time taking pictures the very same Fallen and Vex we’ve been murdering for over a decade. Even worse than the principle missions although are the handful of aspect quests that have you ever actually retreading the identical locations you visited in story missions to scan objects and listen to some extra characters chatting over comms earlier than studying you’ve accomplished the search unceremoniously. Even for a recreation that has struggled to make attention-grabbing supplemental content material, these are some of probably the most boring we’ve been subjected to, providing virtually no profit for finishing them as well.
The greatest modifications to Destiny 2 since The Closing Form are the reworks to weapons and armor, which have been overhauled but once more. I’m not one of these gamers who frets when updates and energy creep invalidate my hard-earned loadout, so I don’t really thoughts most of the modifications right here. A brand new tier system supplies extraordinarily clear labels to simply how good your loot is, so you possibly can spend much less time sweating over stuff you simply dismantle, and including set bonuses to armor is a characteristic I’ve craved in Destiny for a few years that lastly offers me an actual motive to hunt for various armor units as a substitute of discovering one good set and by no means taking it off. The downside is that, a minimum of proper now, there isn’t sufficient loot to chase, with only a handful of armor units and a little bit over 30 weapons added to the pool at this level, so I didn’t really feel a lot of an incentive to tear and exchange my present loadout simply but.
The actual subject is that even when I did really feel compelled to seek out the brand new gear accessible, the insane, painful grind to take action is in no manner definitely worth the effort required. When you’ve accomplished The Edge of Fate’s marketing campaign, you’re directed in direction of numerous playlists containing outdated content material that you just’re requested to replay time and again, slowly upping your energy degree till you possibly can full actions that grant larger tier loot. What’s extra, even these excessive degree actions are simply pulling from the very same legacy content material that has already been one of the principle methods you’re anticipated to interact with Destiny 2 for years now. I used to be really shocked to seek out that after I’d rolled credit on the brand new story, I used to be virtually instantly loaded right into a story mission from 2021. The new loot system has mainly turned the endgame of Destiny 2 into an virtually limitless hamster wheel the place you’re drive fed the outdated content material made arbitrarily tougher based mostly on the world tier and modifiers in play, all so you may get barely higher variations of present weapons which have little use past (you guessed it) grinding tougher variations of those self same actions. Destiny has suffered via some fairly egregious grinds through the years, however this may simply be probably the most brutal and ill-conceived one but, and it virtually instantly made me settle for the truth that I’ll seemingly by no means have any excessive tier gadgets till they resolve to respect my time.
The ultimate exercise on my guidelines earlier than slapping a ultimate rating on this evaluate is to play the brand new raid, The Desert Perpetual, which on the time of this writing was solely very lately crushed by the Destiny group’s courageous day-one raiders. I’ll be hopping in shortly to see what nice surprises, if any, are to be discovered. For now, The Edge of Fate strikes me as extremely simply okay, with some new experiments that don’t at all times work, a neat story hooked up to a weak marketing campaign, and a few cool tweaks to the loot recreation which are hidden behind probably the most monstrous and boring grind Destiny has ever had.
