Gaming - Destiny 2: Shadowkeep (late) Review

I've been playing Destiny for five years and Destiny 2 for a year now. Fortunately I started with Forsaken but now, almost reaching the end of season of the undying, I think it's time we take a step back and look at all of what Shadowkeep promised and delivered (without Activision mind you) to see if Bungie is finally listening to the fans. So let's get this started.

New Mechanics

1. Finishers are cool but they don't do anything else besides... looking cool. We rarely use them except if there's a bounty involving them otherwise we skip them all together, also they break the momentum of fighting since there's always a stop and hit animation sequence that is not in sink with the motion of the game. Finishers IMO should have some sort of consequence or gain from them besides looking cool. Overshield, reload weapon, buff damage, immunizing, invisibility, something that makes it worth using them other then finishing someone. If they were usable in PvP I'm sure most people would be fine with just trolling using them but - like this - they're just nice to have and that's it. Why not make them like a shoulder charger or the arc striker Shoryuken? Those are also a lot cool to see and are somewhat easier to perform without breaking the momentum of the game. Also, even if you own the season pass, you only get one additional finisher. Thats one for all the three characters, this is kinda small considering all others are in Eververse and you have three different finishers to begin with on each characters. But we'll get to that later...

2. Nightfalls now have matchmake which I think is very cool but for higher tier they don't. That to me doesn't make any sense. The game has been around for what? Five years now?! We all know what nightfalls are and what the objective is. I think matchmake should be available in all tiers once power level is reached and you can still have your own squad. Which leads to the next subject...

3. Solo queue for Competitive is absolutely excellent. Much better matchmaking and absolutely no trouble at all reaching Fabled this time. Something that could be also extended for the nightfalls and maybe even pit of heresy (once you cleared them).

I still believe mods are a good idea but Bungie needs to make them meaningful in some way.

4. Mods. Here's the thing, I love mods. I used them in The Division and I know of their extensive use in Warframe but the difference here is... mods don't do much of anything. Most things you had before armor 2.0 will still be fine and sometimes even master worked before Shadowkeep so why change to this? You need an economy skill tree for mods. Element mods, exotic modes, rare mods, PvE mods, PvP mods, you need to give some kind of objective for the mod feature to be usable and achievable for all. Why would you masterwork something if the thing you have work fine? Unless you're doing the new nightmare activities that require almost absolutely the new mods, most times you're fine without them and this is a nono. I was expecting the mods to boost up everything like in The Division like max heal, or max damage or solar destroyer or void stealth or something. Instead the mods are just another way of saying armor perks and thats it. And you're not even masteworking anything because another piece might pop with better talents, like resilience or mobility, so why would you waste precious and hard to grind resources for a piece you might delete later?! As I've stated I love mods and i think mods are great but they need to be taken up a notch or they'll just be ignored all together.

New Activities

1. Nightmare Hunts are great for leveling up but afterwards what's the point of doing them?! There are no specific drops or mods there for you to grind so, once you it 950, thats it! You don't even have specific weapons drops for each nightmare or catalysts so, once you cleared all and reached cap level you're pretty much done. Yes, I know some of these are pinnacle activities each week but the 1000 power level is absolutely something you don't need at this point in the game cause the rewards are just the same everywhere anyway.

2. Vex Offensive is just a diluted version of the Menagerie with very less rewards. No special weapon or exotic armor quest is a part of it and basically you're just forced to grind it for the medal and that's it. No weekly drops, not even variations in mechanics or bosses. This is a bust for me and, unless you're power grinding, you won't do much here.

It's cool that you have a daily cycle for all three weapons in AoS but why not also armor or mods?!

3. Altar of Sorrow. Same as the Vex Offensive, this is a diluted version of Escalation Protocol on Mars but here, instead of a weekly cycle, you have a daily one. However the drops consist of only three weapons attached to each of the three bosses and no keys or mechanics for armor which is a dying shame since the event itself is quite fun. In any case, there's still hope they take it up a notch in the future.

4. Raid. Haven't done it, probably won't ever but again, unless a cool and shiny armor is your thing, you won't find any rewards worth naming there.

Negative Points

1. Eververse. Yes, Tess is back! Absolutely all good exotic ornaments, shells, sparrows and ships are now locked behind a paywall. Forget what you had until now when you open up an nostalgia engram all you get is trash. This is a new low blow from Bungie precisely because they now operate without  Activision. Before you either grind bright dust for a week and bought you're desired item or, you could get lucky and land a "oh-so-fine" ship with an engram. Now, you either grind all the weeklies in all three characters in hopes to have enough for an ornament or you better open that wallet to get that special item you want. I personally have stopped buying shells or ships (since they do almost absolutely nothing in the game) to save up for ornaments and i'm considering finishing the set only on my titan since it's now impossible to get all cosmetics for my three characters in just one season. We're kinda letting the Eververse controversy slide in the good hopes hat Bungie will somehow take it down a bit in the following seasons but watch it Bungie, we're on to you!

Good luck getting all these ornaments in Shadowkeep. You're lucky if you can get one without opening your wallet.

2. No drops. As stated before there are absolutely no good drops anywhere in the game now. if you're starting with new light and just bough Shadowkeep that might seem different for you but, for any Forsaken veteran, this is major BS. No ornaments, catalysts, ships or shells or anything of value drops anywhere anymore. You're stuck with the pinnacle grind, working on an exotic quest or PvP and that's it! That's the end game! Before, you could at least have some sort of hope in landing a ship or an engram for an emote somewhere or maybe that catalyst you're hoping to get in some activity. Now?! Good luck. Eververse is the only way for that so be ready for that bright dust grind instead.

3. Season pass. Unless you're looking for access to activities locked behind the season pass this season pass sucks. Really, Fortnite has better rewards than this! You get (for the season pass owners) five gear ornaments for each of your characters, one emote, one ship and one ornament for the Eriana's Vow (an exotic weapon) you get in season of the undying. Sure, there's lot of boosters for leveling up and other drops but after you reach level 100 thats pretty much it. Also, you get only one finisher for all three characters. I feel this needs to be revised quickly with the outcome being nobody buying a season pass unless it's also locked for new activities, which would make this a lot worse. Again, Fortnite gives access to all activities (for free) but locks only the rewards behind the season pass or other bounties and when the season pass of Fortnite surpasses that of any payed game, we have a problem.

Only things worth having are between levels 70 to 100. Before and after you really can't say you're getting your money's worth on this season pass.

4. No weapons or gear to speak of. I can't name one weapon or armor that I can link to Shadowkeep that had my mind blown. Yes, the Leviathan's Breath exotic bow is great but only for nightmare activities, which we all now know give no rewards what so ever so, after Shadowkeep there's no weapons you can say "I'm sure glad I had season of the undying for this". After all your work, you're left with a big mewh...

Final take on the game

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep introduced a lot of great mechanics but they weren't developed to their full extent, also the reward-economy-drops is far worse now. Each week, after the power grinding is over, you're left with a big question mark over your head on why you're playing the game since there are no immediate daily or weekly rewards for you to hope for. If you come from Forsaken this feels like a step down in the game with Osiris and Warming - now free - taking number 3, Shadowkeep 2 and the top still being Forsaken with Forges for the ultimate grind for god rolls, Menagerie for everything you need from armors, to PvP shotguns, snipers or great hand canons and Gambit still on the side lines waiting for a good reason to exist. 

This was the fist expansion without Activision and with a five year knowledge of what works and what doesn't in the game, Bungie seems to always take a step backwards before "listening to the fans" and fixing the game yet again! Let's just hope, this time, it's done right in the next season but by their long silence in new updates, I fear the worst is yet to come... Maybe not!