Destiny 2: The Final Shape – First Hands-On Impressions
It has been a long journey for Destiny over the last decade (that’s right: Destiny turns 10 years old in September!). It’s a journey that spanned two console generations and three publishers (first Activision, then Bungie itself, and now Sony). Hell, I met my wife, got married, and had two kids since I started my journey as a Guardian. The point is, it’s been a hell of a ride for the Destiny faithful, and this finale of the Light and Darkness saga has a lot riding on it for players who’ve followed this game since the beginning. And Bungie wants to surprise and delight their fans with something special for the end of the Light and Darkness saga.
The team invited us to play a handful of story missions, dive into Prismatic, try the new exotic class item, test out the new subclasses, play with a handful of the new exotics, and even let me get destroyed in PVP. Props to Fallout Plays, Datto, and More Console for taking it easy on me though. All of that crammed into two days was a lot. But I’m sure there’s one question that is on your mind: Did they pull it off? Did The Final Shape wind up being an impactful sendoff for the story arc we started all those years ago? Well… I’m not sure yet.
The story we did get to experience was… different. The entire premise and aesthetic the Witness has built with the Pale Heart is about perception and memory, and my interpretation of the story is that it seems to focus on one core tenet: grief. How do you deal with loss? How do you deal with the complex emotions of losing someone or something you love? To what lengths will you go to prevent it from happening again? It’s an interesting motif that plays out with the weird and wild interpretation the Witness has of the locations we’ve seen before. Like the highway where we were first brought into this world, but it’s held up by creepy hands that stretch out from beneath it. Or the Destiny 1 tower, which is all but abandoned and now covered in green growth. And even familiar but with some larger-than-life Ghosts who’ve lost their light looming in the distance. These interpretations are both endearing and off-putting at the same time. You’ll remember the time you spent there if you’re a long-time player, but something about all of it just doesn’t feel right. It’s almost like you’re exploring someone’s happy dream in one section, and their nightmare in the next.
To preface this part, I didn’t get to play the entire story, but I did play a very large chunk of the campaign, stopping just short of the seventh finale mission. And what I did see left me feeling a bit mixed from a storytelling perspective. The story is much better than Lightfall in terms of composition, but pacing in terms of gameplay feels… off. It also doesn’t even attempt to tie together any of the lingering story threads that are still there years later. No big payoff for some of the major characters who’ve been taunting us. Eris Morn didn’t make an appearance at any point, which felt odd given the important role she played in getting us to this point. And Remember Beyond Light? Well, the main villain Eramis made an appearance during Season of Plunder and has just kind or… ran away in the conclusion of her arc that introduced us to Darkness abilities. In Final Shape, we learn to completely remove the line between darkness and light and unlock a whole new subclass in the form of Prismatic. And these are all things that felt like they would come to a head in this final battle, as each of the pieces played a part in getting us here. Instead, it’s solely focused on a few key players. The Queen, Crow, Cayde, Ikora, Zavala, and our Guardian. And because this is the finale, I had hoped for a bit more than another romp with the Vanguard when there are so many pawns left on the playing field.
It’s almost like you’re exploring someone’s happy dream in one section, and their nightmare in the next.
But, to be fair all of that could be covered in the episodes, or post-campaign content we didn’t get to play. So I can’t hold that against them too much while there are still several pieces of the puzzle left in the box in the form of Exotic quests and follow-up missions post-campaign. What I can be critical of, however, is the implementation of puzzles that repeatedly grind your gameplay to a dead halt. A small example I can mention are the nodes that are hidden in sneaky spaces that you’ll need to hunt down before you can proceed in the campaign. But that feeling of grinding to a dead halt rears its head again with Transcendence if you’re not using the Prismatic subclass and instead want to try out one of the other new supers by themselves. Certain enemies require having a barrier removed with Transcendence during gameplay. So if you decide not to use Prismatic during the campaign, the only way to become transcendent is to backtrack and stand in a pool while you wait for your Transcendence to power up. Or take cover while the bad guys you can’t damage shoot at you as you cower in fear waiting for a pool to power you up so you can simply get to the next story beat. And there are other puzzles we got to experience that are similar to what I’m describing here. Puzzles that aren’t particularly difficult, but require completing a menial task to lower a barrier that’s halting your progress. I get what they were going for with the puzzles, but so far they are painfully easy, but tedious to complete. You’ll often be standing in an empty room hunting down a node, or having to run from one end of the room carrying an object that makes you move slower to another location just to place it. Or grabbing a material you need from the single opponent in the room to simply get to the next encounter.
There were some compelling puzzles later on that involved dispelling an aura, which is a bit more involved, and I did appreciate the fact that they actually made me think a bit. I can’t go into more specifics without spoiling things for you, but because I was on the void subclass I had to once again find a pool and wait to power up my Transcendence before I could progress the encounter. Most of the missions felt that way, which leads me to believe that they really want you to use Prismatic even if it’s not as powerful as I had hoped, especially as the starting Prismatic abilities on the Hunter, namely multi-shot golden gun and the Silence and Squall Stasis ability aren’t my favorite. You’ll have to wait until you unlock new abilities later in the campaign to try them out within the Prismatic tree. Simply put, the majority of the puzzles felt like either a missed opportunity at best or an annoyance at worst.
Complaints aside, one thing the team got right was including Fragment drops as part of your campaign progress. I was so thankful to see these as it meant no more boring material farm to unlock all of your Guardians’ abilities and get build crafting. Instead, it appears you’ll be able to acquire all you need from simply playing the game.
I can’t wait to see the pandamonium that’s unleashed in these areas the first few weeks after Final Shape launches.
And that’s just a small example of a quality of life change Bungie made. An even bigger one was the Pale Heart Patrol area that’s filled with entirely new public events, interesting patrols with new mechanics, new lost sectors, and an all new objective called Overthrow. As you clear the various objectives scattered about in the Pale Heart Patrol zones, you’ll be leveling up Overthrow to the max rank of 3. Once at level 3, a unique encounter will start that’s different depending on the area you’re in. In The Landing, I fought a Witch Devoted to Savathun. Ir would spawn protection that you would need to dispel in between each damage phase. The Blooming had me fight Voxelos, Taken by the Witness who needed to have its shield dispelled by standing in pools that gave you a Volatile Fetor buff. Once you had this you needed to detonate it on the boss to take down its shield. And on the Impasse landing zone, I fought Rhuna, Subjugator of Chasms who had mechanics somewhat similar to those found in the Rhulk encounter from the Vow of the Disciple raid, in that it would require you to collect Dread resonance to make Rhuna vulnerable again. Each of these were very fun and I can’t wait to see the pandamonium that’s unleashed in these areas the first few weeks after Final Shape launches. The map feels huge and every single public event I played was completely new. This was a huge highlight for me and a much-needed refresh to the landing zones in Destiny 2. There are even feathers to collect, which is just a perfect touch given the teaser we got between Crow and Cayde that leads into this finale.
Many of these objectives are part of the new Pathfinder reward system that will have you complete various tasks at your own pace to unlock a coveted item at the end of the tree. Don’t like one landing area? Take on another boss to progress. In practice, I like this, and just playing in the different areas passively I found that I unlocked this little bonus in the background. I do like that you’ll be able to take the path of your choosing, or branch off should you desire a new path if you get a bit sick of grinding gambit or battling in the Crucible. It seems like each area will have its own version of the Pathfinder. For example, Vanguard activities had one, and I also had one just for doing objectives across the Pale Heart.
Finally, the gear. I wish I could tell you the new Exotic Class item was particularly compelling, but looking at the combinations and having fiddled with Prismatic, I admit feeling a little bit underwhelmed with both systems. It feels like the Exotic Class item exists simply to buff Prismatic – which currently feels a bit weak. Granted, some meta build will emerge after launch I’m sure, but as it stands I’m not seeing a path that makes it really shine. For example, I made a really powerful Strand build that utilized the Hunter’s Void Tether Super, but even with a god roll drop on my class item, I don’t see how it buffs my Hunter more than just running a normal strand would. Strand is already very powerful, as are the core subclasses and I wasn’t getting that oomph or wow factor from Prismatic just yet. Well, the power-up animations are cool when you go Transcendent, I’ll give it that.
What I did like was the new supers, however. Rolling a Hunter, I was having a blast teleporting around with the new Storm’s Edge super. Once cast, your electrified dagger will fly across the screen and you’ll zip to its location. As a terrible PVP player, this was an incredibly powerful tool that I could see high-level players taking advantage of in some fun ways. And while I didn’t play with the Titan, the Twilight Arsenal Axe super also looks really intriguing because you spawn 3 Void axes that can be picked up by other players and used as a weapon. The Warlock sees the return of Song of Flame, which gives the Warlock a solar Soul that will seek out and destroy opponents in your path. None of these seem like they’ll be boss DPS supers, but for clearing lower-rank foes and in PVP I do think we’ll see some interesting usage of them.
And on the gear front there are a plethora of new exotics to try out. I only really got to try out the Hunter Leg Exotic Balance of Power. These boots give your Threaded Spectre increased duration and durability, but damaging it releases more Threadlings, and when you’re near your Specter you’ll remain hidden from radar. The Gifted Conviction Chest plate makes you spawn a wave of arc orbs that seek out nearby opponents and I’ve got to be honest… it’s probably the coolest looking out of all I tried. On the Titan side of things, I took a peek at Wishful Ignorance, which has an insanely detailed design of small moving levers that just look neat. It powers up to give you an additional Frenzied Blade charge and make both Frenzied Blade and Flechette Storm increase their damage with each strike, while pulses from your Banner of War return melee energy based on the number of allies healed. This one seems like it does a lot and could be really really good in the game. Hazardous Propulsion adds rockets to your class ability as you get primary kills, which is just wacky to think about. And Warlocks… Well, I forgot to take a peek for you, but we know the Mataiodoxia chest plate will give you additional needles causing suspension, and the Speaker’s Sight Warlock Helmet has a perk that makes healing grenades spawn a restoration turret. Healing allies occasionally spawns an orb of power. I’m sure there’s likely a lot more beyond all this that I didn’t cover in this preview.
On the weapons front, we got to toy around with a few returning firearms and a few new ones. It was a mixed bag, which is to be expected, but there was one standout for me in the form of Still Hunt.
Still Hunt is a Sniper that charges up with each precision hit and can then be activated by holding down R to give you 3 Golden Gun Shots. I can’t tell just yet, but this seems like it’s broken, especially when comparing what an actual golden gun does for damage while on the Prismatic Subclass versus this thing.
Khvostov makes a return and it seems pretty strong, as bullets will ricochet every 7th bullet that is fired from the weapon, dealing additional damage and ricocheting to nearby targets.
Red Death Reformed was the Battle Pass exotic, and after giving it a try it certainly felt like Red Death, healing on kills and giving a faster reload time.
And finally, Microcosm is a bit of an interesting one that I didn’t know how to feel about, but it claims to deal massive bonus damage to shields. I’m not quite sure just yet about the use case for this, but I’ll be interested to learn more.
There were also a handful of legendary weapons that had a card theme to them which… felt mostly underwhelming with the exception of one or two standouts. There was one notable sidearm named The Call which fired rockets and was really powerful when being used in battle. It was awesome, but the rest felt a little bit too similar to other weapons we’ve seen before. Bold Endings has a hard-hitting two-round burst, which is interesting for a hand cannon but didn’t really gel for me. Even the heavy machine gun Pro Memoria that I used in most of my footage was somewhat similar to my Marcato-45 with a hatchling perk. In the weapon department my standouts were easily the Still Hunt sniper for style alone, and the Wishful Ignorance Titan exotic arms for design and potential. But otherwise, time will tell how all these new introductions shake out in the loot pool.
And that’s the sentiment I largely left the preview feeling: unsure about how this will all play out. There were some really great highlights like the new patrol area and a ton of new information to parse during my two-day preview session. But I’m left worried it’s not going to come together in a way that fulfills fans. Gameplay-wise there’s going to be plenty to dive into for players after the campaign. But will the campaign be a hit for fans? Could it ever be a hit for fans? We’re talking about 10 years of build-up to this moment. A ton of story threads to tie up. A ton of pressure on Bungie to nail it.
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