Some Destiny 2 spoilers below! Obviously…
Destiny 2 is an unwieldy beast. There have been updates upon updates since its launch back in 2017, so many in fact that the game only really resembles the original release in name – Over the last 2 years we’ve had the reveal that legendary Warlock Osiris is just a dude with a fancy Ghost, Rasputin – the AI assigned to guard Earth – was also apparently based on Mars? The only good character in the entire franchise was killed off, and revenge is surprisingly quick and dull, and more recently we learned there was entire fucking armoury just sitting around in the New Tower and no one ever thought to use it?! Now we’ve entered another new season and it’s time for the big DLC to kick things off; for your consideration, Bungie present Shadowkeep. Back to the Moon baby!
Seriously, who’d of thought that the most dull and barren of all the solar system’s planetary bodies would be the one we would be most excited to return to? Master of Creep ceremonies Eris Morn is back, and her antics lead you back to Luna where the space zombies – The Hive – have built up a giant red tower right slap bang in the middle of the huge crack in the lunar surface. Heading into the new tower you’ll come across a fairly big reveal – Probably the biggest reveal in Destiny lore for quite some time… The Darkness is on the Moon. During the opening mission you turn a corner and are suddenly staring right at one of the Pyramid ships from the final cutscene of the main D2 campaign – Looks like one’s been right under our feet the entire time! What will this mean for the future?! Turns out not much… After that stunning and powerful reveal, there isn’t much else story-wise that’s quite as interesting; in fact from that point on, everything starts to get a little more same-y.
The grind that the series has been known for over the years seems to have been lessened – No longer are questlines inaccessible to solo players who would rather avoid the PvP of the Crucible; sure, some things are still grindy, but nothing too taxing for the average player, and nothing that will slow the main questlines. It all seems to be gearing towards those of us who don’t have time for long-winded objectives, and can’t get together to game with our friends all the time. It’s a nice touch, but perhaps it’s too little too late for most? Asking around my friends, it’s clear that very few had any interest in getting back to being a Guardian, after being burned one too many times perhaps. I can understand that outlook, really; each update and DLC doesn’t add too much to the game alone, and during my time I had plenty to do but only because I hadn’t played in months!
Is it really okay to charge £30 a pop for each DLC and pass when they don’t add anywhere near as much as they could? Probably not really. The story and new gear brought on by Shadowkeep just doesn’t seem worth it; sure, some lore fans will approve of what we learned, but to me it’s just more unanswered questions that seem like we’ll never really know enough about.
Destiny 2 had a big problem that most fans of the series would agree about; it just wasn’t as good as 1… However, Bungie seem to have mistaken that for “we want rehashes of everything”, so welcome back to the Moon almost exactly as you remember it. Is that good though? During my time exploring Luna again and picking up Helium Filaments, I was just reminded of better times that I had playing the first game with my friends.
All Shadowkeep has been doing is reminding me that those times are now gone. I blasted around the Hellmouth on my Sparrow and had flashbacks to doing the same with my friends back in 2014 – This time, though, it was just a slog all on my lonesome because my Destiny friends have either quit or become so powerful that I can never really catch up and be any help; basically, Shadowkeep is just a grim reminder of happier times!
Destiny 2 Shadowkeep gets a 6/10 from me.