Commonly enjoying Destiny for the previous decade, by all its unforgettable highs and painful lows, has been an amazing leap of religion for me and my fellow Guardians. This uneven saga hasn’t at all times felt prefer it was main someplace price following, however with Destiny 2: The Final Shape, it appears our religion has been rewarded ultimately. After some extraordinarily rocky launch day server troubles, adopted by two days of nonstop enjoying, what I’ve seen to this point has been overwhelmingly superior. The marketing campaign (absent a correct finale proper now) is among the finest in sequence historical past, the brand new Prismatic subclasses are precisely the badass shock to the system its sandbox wanted, the recent set of weapons have been a literal blast to fiddle with, and the fearsome Dread enemy faction add welcome selection and issue to the battlefield. There’s nonetheless rather a lot left for me to play, together with the endgame raid I’ll be battling in opposition to this weekend and the story conclusion that’s locked behind it – however because the ending to this 10-year saga takes its last form, Destiny is extra enjoyable than it’s ever been, and I’m desperate to see if it will probably stick the touchdown.
If you happen to’re arriving extraordinarily late to the area opera celebration, The Final Shape is the most recent (and fairly presumably best) enlargement in developer Bungie’s ongoing, magically-infused multiplayer FPS. As an immortal and homicidally inclined Guardian, I’ve had the privilege of defending humanity in opposition to all method of alien threats through the years, from evil sorcerer bugs to an especially boring robotic military, all whereas looting cool weapons and armor, unlocking candy area magic talents, leveling up, and juggling so many currencies, menus, and ill-explained RPG programs that your head is liable to blow up Arc of the Covenant-style when you don’t have a pal to stroll you thru it. After seven years of expansions, patches, and seasonal updates, Destiny 2 has grown into among the best and twelve of the worst video games you’ll ever play, all wrapped right into a live-service bundle in contrast to the rest on the market. It’s nice; I hate it.
The Final Shape has the unenviable process of concluding the principle story of excellent vs. evil that’s haphazardly performed out for the reason that first Destiny. Though that story has largely been a veritable jambalaya of overused tropes, sci-fi gobbledygook, and lore so convoluted one player had to make a ten hour YouTube video to explain it, it often brings the warmth with some genuinely compelling characters and significant tales, like these present in 2022’s The Witch Queen. To date, The Final Shape seems to rely itself amongst these uncommon cases of strong storytelling, lastly specializing in the massive unhealthy that’s been alluded to from the very starting for a showdown with the destiny of the universe on the road.
That archenemy comes within the type of The Witness, and though I wasn’t impressed with the character’s preliminary reveal or the setup that’s taken place over the previous two years main as much as this finale, The Final Shape’s marketing campaign, full of hard-hitting cutscenes that specify an entire lot, lastly offered me on this existential horror. I received’t go into particulars to spare you any spoilers, however The Witness ended up being a way more fascinating villain than I’d anticipated, the risk humanity is going through lastly feels actual as a substitute of like some distant shadow we’ve an appointment with, and I’m thrilled we’re lastly getting some precise solutions to the questions we’ve had all these years.
That mentioned, there are nonetheless loads of factors in The Final Shape the place Destiny’s normally sloppier storytelling continues in that custom, like with the center act of the story the place it pivots to some drama with the stoic and stalwart Commander Zavala, who immediately (and with solely the scarcest whiff of justification) turns into an emotional free cannon so as to add a little bit of unearned rigidity into the combination. There’s additionally some facet tales with obscure characters coming back from seasons you won’t have performed or lore entries you in all probability didn’t learn, which largely pulls focus away from the battle at hand with out including an entire lot – the form of par-for-the-course wonky Destiny storytelling that’s irked me since 2014.
However, finally, the factor that’s actually going to matter is whether or not or not The Final Shape can ship a satisfying conclusion, and that is still to be seen. Whereas I loved the seven-mission primary story, which may be accomplished in as many hours, it doesn’t have an actual ending fairly but – as a substitute, it units up the raid that unlocks in the present day, which can function one final large battle earlier than an eighth and last marketing campaign mission that may doubtless wrap all the things up. Right here’s hoping Bungie may give us one thing not less than nearly as good as the remainder of the marketing campaign with that, as a result of it’s largely delivered a satisfying finale to this point.
No matter how that story ends, the degrees you’ll play and new areas you’ll discover are a few of my favorites but. Delving into the physique of a God, you’ll discover The Pale Coronary heart of the Traveler, a weird actuality the place one’s recollections, needs, and fears manifest themselves within the bodily world. What begins as an idyllic however peculiar world begins to shift right into a horrific panorama, because the twisted needs of The Witness corrupt it, with a bunch of gross fingers and faces filling up the surroundings. That offers it an uncomfortable and surreal high quality that’s a large departure from the largely grounded areas our Guardians have visited to this point. It’s additionally unbelievable that we lastly received a map that isn’t only a loop with a couple of small areas to discover, as a substitute favoring a reasonably linear format that appears like touring from the Shire to Mount Doom on an epic quest to place the world proper. I’m nonetheless exploring its nooks and crannies, taking pictures and looting all the things I can discover, but it surely’s already simply my favourite vacation spot thus far.
Equally, its missions comply with within the unbelievable footsteps of The Witch Queen by including gentle raid mechanics and difficult fight encounters, which offer greater than the senseless taking pictures hallways that Destiny typically finds itself lowered to. In one stage, you’ll hop between two realities to unravel a puzzle with a view to kill a large boss, and in one other you’ll battle to the highest of some icy peaks, profiting from gale winds to propel you throughout large gaps. Every stage does a terrific job of instructing you a brand new mechanic right here and there, slowly including to the complexity of gunplay and puzzle fixing, till one way or the other you’re juggling half a dozen issues directly by the ultimate battle, taking out a military of foes in one of the crucial badass showdowns to this point. I had a ton of enjoyable enjoying the complete marketing campaign solo on Legendary, and am already trying ahead to going by it once more with mates on my different characters.
One of many issues that makes these missions so fulfilling is the primary new enemy faction Destiny has gotten in six years, referred to as the Dread. Even the 2 different enemy factions added in earlier Destiny expansions have been largely remixes of current enemies, so one may argue that the Dread are the primary absolutely unique faction to this point, and what a distinction that makes. The Grim, batlike creatures that fly round pelting you with blaster fireplace and screeching at you to sluggish your motion are overwhelming in giant teams, whereas the Husk are melee bruisers who rush you with lethal blades and ship explosive creatures flying at you when you don’t kill them in a particular manner. Most of those additions are utterly superior, injecting some desperately wanted selection right into a sandbox that has stagnated over time. That mentioned, there are a couple of which can be much less impressed: Attendants and Weavers, for instance, seem virtually as reskinned enemies from an current race and pelt you with irritating talents, together with one which makes you progress extraordinarily slowly for manner too lengthy, and which resulted in various deaths that felt a bit low cost. Nonetheless, these are minor qualms I’ve with a faction that’s been a ton of enjoyable to struggle to this point.
As at all times, the most recent Destiny enlargement comes with an entire arsenal of distinctive toys to loot and produce to bear upon your foes, and The Final Shape has some very nice additions. The Name, a small sidearm that shoots mini rockets, is totally phenomenal to goof round with, whereas Misplaced Sign is a grenade launcher that shoots a smattering of explosives that do harm over time. My private favourite new merchandise is an unique referred to as Hazardous Propulsion that launches a flurry of missiles out of your again everytime you use your class potential, which has gotten me out of so many tight spots currently – I’m utterly obsessed. Destiny has at all times been famend for its gunplay, even when different points of the shooter have come up quick, so none of that is significantly shocking. However even for a sport that’s recognized for its nice weapons and armor, The Final Shape is a standout to this point in what it gives. They actually cooked on this one, people!
The Final Shape additionally provides to Destiny’s area magic repertoire with a brand new subclass referred to as Prismatic, which lets you combine and match sure Mild and Darkness talents present in different subclasses to create fascinating combos. It then provides some new talents of its personal on high of that, from grenades that mix completely different harm sorts and standing results to do issues like droop enemies within the air and electrocute all the things within the neighborhood, to new tremendous talents which may allow you to throw large exploding axes onto the battlefield, then choose them as much as wreak havoc on the enemy. With the ability to wield a mixture of components and skills that have been beforehand locked behind their very own particular lessons is a significant sport changer, and takes buildcrafting to the subsequent stage by way of customization and enjoying round with completely different prospects. I’ve but to unlock all of the choices and have solely performed on one character class (the Titan) in the mean time, and I’m already equally overwhelmed and excited by the chances.
I’ve performed about 30 hours of The Final Shape to this point, and can simply play one other 40 over the weekend as I dive into the raid, end the story, discover extra of the facet content material, and check out the opposite character lessons, however I’m already having a blast with what I’ve seen. I will be again with a scored overview someday subsequent week, however The Final Shape has already delivered in additional methods than I believed doable – right here’s hoping that momentum continues as Bungie rolls out the final act.