Year 4 of Destiny 2 was somewhat bland with the removal of abundant playable content and another story of somewhat redundant alien villains, but our passage through Europe in the Beyond Light expansion has turned out to be quite fruitful: regardless of the many complaints that we can have, the downloadable is full of great, unexpected moments… and a much clearer horizon for the franchise.
Opinions for Destiny 2 – Beyond Light on Steam: “52% of the 1999 reviews for this game are positive.” Phew. I truly understand some of these criticisms. It is not normal to ask someone to reinstall the game, put them through several hours of inoperative servers, present a world with half the content, more technical and balance problems than ever, give them a few hours of new missions for 40 euros and wait that on top of that he is happy, but it is just what happened. Nothing strange, actually, if we consider that saving some very specific DLC like The Taken King , Forsaken and maybe Rise of Iron, the norm in the launches of this franchise (and the entire genre, if you hurry me) is that they come accompanied by some kind of controversy . But there is the game, without going down from the top 10 of the Valve platform, as always. And the truth is that having taken so long to find a space to write the analysis has helped me to remember to what extent things can change in a small space of time.
Why? Because if the launch day of this expansion was a bittersweet moment, within three weeks a new season has arrived, a new raid, and the outcome of this has opened new missions, new stories and even new explorable places. After all, D2 has always remained faithful to that ideal of the constantly evolving world , and perhaps we agree that part of the analysis should understand the game not as a campaign with extras, but as a whole platformof new experiences that are well or badly configured for the future. In this sense, Year 4 brings with it some immediate, tangible and generally quite positive design novelties; but also others at the code level a little more … spicy. Because of course, we’ve all been excited to release more beautiful graphics, optimizations for loading screens or to know that the engine manages missions more intelligently , but seeing whole planets and cool activities disappear to allow Bungie to update them is not so popular.
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They say that sometimes the remedy can be worse than the disease, and although I personally find the so-called Destiny Content Vault as something logical and necessary, it is also entirely valid to think, “They have removed content that I paid for.” Be that as it may, Bungie is targeting expansions like The Witch Queen (2021) and Lightfall (2022), and it has taken a very, very interesting direction with Beyond Light: going back to the roots, recovering characters and threads from the pre-alpha version of D1, and revolutionizing the entire landscape of the game both at the playable and narrative level. Today, D2 is a game that is easy to get into, and one that strives to make it easy to stay. One with very exciting key moments, but also bumpy. Let’s see what the experience is like when walking on that path.
History and progression
Last year, Bungie talked about the importance of controlling the number of characters in the Destiny universe. Writing about new heroes and villains is faster than representing them in-game with your own cutscenes, missions, and inventories; so the new trend is to create new stories from faces we already know. The Beyond Light campaign is built around a new villain – something that worked very well in 2015 and that we’ve seen repeatedly since then – Eramis, Kell of Darkness and leader of a fledgling Eliksni faction, the House of Salvation. . During the entire promotional campaign of the game we understood that these enemies were the great protagonists of the new story, but they are not. Rather, they are the “excuse” to meet with theunknown exo and finally understand who she is, what unites her to us and ultimately, explore the whole background of the Clovis Bray family. The latter makes for a much cooler, more spectacular and interesting arc, but also one more inaccessible to some players: it doesn’t really start until the end of the campaign, and is expanded by high-level content without matchmaking, as always.
Although it may not seem like it, Clovis Bray has a huge role in this expansion, and is a beastly character.
So we spent our first hours in Europe acting as errand boy for Variks , the elusive fallen man who does not fight but handles the strings of fate as he pleases. After giving the insomniac queen Mara Sov control of the largest fleet in her entire civilization and starting the mutiny that ended with the death of Cayde-6, she now tries to protect her own from the clutches of a tyrant who truly does not understand the powers he’s wielding. To justify Eramis’s motivations, Bungie has gone to the trouble of briefly illustrating with cutscenes.how the decline of his fellow men occurred and the meaning of the term “fallen”. That comes from pearls for newcomers, I wish we veterans had been so lucky! But that’s where the first complaint comes into play that I can fit into the new story: that if you’re more or less up to date with the game’s background, you spend a few hours saying “okay, this is all very cool, but give me something that isn’t know already “. And back then, it didn’t help much that there were only a handful of things to repeat after putting the bad guy on duty.
As I said, here what really interests us is the unknown exo. Retaking a crucial character who was fired more than five years ago without any kind of clue about his identity and motivations is not easy, but I think the matter has been handled quite correctly: during our crusade against Eramis and his entourage, he does of “Jedi Master” instructing our guardian in the cosmic arts simply asking him to trust, but then it is time to explain. There is much to read and listen to understand it, but all the questions that may arise are resolved, a perfectly logical meaning is given to its absence and its return, and most importantly, it connects us with Clovis Bray: an absolutely round character, who has gone from being a small cog in history to, perhaps, the most charismatic villain in the saga. It is also connected to… well, almost everything: the origins of the Vex and the Exo, the Dark , the Golden Age, Europe, the Moon and characters that I am not going to mention here so as not to ruin surprises for anyone. The fact is that it surprises, a lot and for the better, and it is a directly unmissable appointment for fans.
The campaign is more challenging in terms of level and there are new, tougher enemies to fightThat is where my second complaint comes in (this one, smaller than the previous one) and that is that, to be so important and so exciting, I could have already had a video that gives it more visibility or representation among casual gamers. Because of course, not everyone here has the time or patience to figure out the ins and outs of this cool story, so even if there is a lot of content related to the topic – the Exoscience Bray facilities, the exo challenges, the Crypt raid of the Profound Stone, etc. – a better job could have been done of bringing the story to the players. Be that as it may, at least it has a component of closeness and immediacythey didn’t have other great bows from the past, so that’s a step up. If you are willing to discover all this stuff, in the process you can upgrade your character to power level 1260 , which is the current cap without counting on seasonal artifact progression. The process can be summed up in a single term: smoothness.
Traditionally, D2 has relied on an escalating progression that seemed crude or violent to me: you hit a certain cap, and suddenly all items of peculiar rarity became 100% useless. Here they can continue to help you level up the most neglected slots on your character sheet, always falling slightly behind your max level to help you infuse any useful gear you may have out of date. That, on the one hand; on the other, Bungie has done two other good things in this regard. The first is the difficulty– The main campaign takes advantage of its level design much better than in the past because it manages to stay challenging. The level of the opponents is usually slightly above yours at all times (sword icon) and there are many elite units even in the lowest ranked creatures; not counting the new enemies : robots in the case of the fallen, and wyvern in the case of the Vex. Both designed to put us on the ropes. The second big catch is that the weekly ritual is less mechanical than in Year 3 because useful equipment comes from basically everywhere. Even outdated raids feel more interesting.
Equipment and contents
We come to the thorniest part of the DLC. As I mentioned above, it is difficult to digest the loss of some parts of the game. The forges? No one will miss them, it’s that simple. But say goodbye to the House of Beasts and its customizable rewards, to raids as interesting as Crown of Pain or Scourge of the Past, to great raids like Song of Savathûn or Will of the Thousands … that already hurts more. And it’s not just about that, but that the old content that is left still poses a few problems. Think, for example, that of the three raidsthat can be played right now we have Garden of Salvation incredibly crushed because it has been the only relevant one in terms of loot in recent months; And that Last Wish, as wonderful as it is, is still a technical laughingstock: I doubt that many new players are going to have a chance to defeat Riven without using the glitches that basically everyone uses, without counting new sonic errors that have appeared. in other encounters. But there are even more design problems elsewhere in the game.
Most of the loot that can only be accessed by Forsaken or Shadowkeep is irrelevant to current content, with outdated power levels; while the inventory of merchant NPCs is merely anecdotal: boring model reviews that don’t help us level up, don’t include key weapons for the meta, and don’t add 60+ stat points either. Variks and Uldren Sov (now Cuervo), the two novelties in that repertoire, share the same inventory divided into categories of “pounding” commissions of little interest, a bit in line with what was seen in the Season of the Worthy. The hunts of FuriesThey have some fun new mechanics, yes, but the charm is lost very quickly; and the factor of importance merges among the serious problems that we are facing at the moment. Personally, I would say that the worst part is this one that corresponds to the merchants, along perhaps with the fact that the public playlists have not received anything interesting. Gambit has only one version and says goodbye to special sets, strikes add up fewer activities than they lose, and the Crucible faces a contentious metagame with stasis again.
Incentives? Few: there are not many interesting new pieces, and Adorado, the new version of the Dear key sniper rifle, has essentially the same appearance, saving patterns, choose the progression you choose to unlock its ornament; while the weekly bounties on the trunk lists now reward us with half as much light dust as before. More is included in the season pass, yes, but that one cannot be repeated. Players who keep Eververse current know what this means. But having visited the (many) issues that arise with Beyond Light and Year 4 in general, there are certainly points that are still too young to be judged, such as the new perks of weapons.. Having discarded the combinations that are repeated over and over again in the metagame (reload speed and damage) the trend is now to offer more original things: “the shotgun shells reload two by two, but the process is slower” . It sounds interesting, but it remains to be seen how viable they are when certain weapons become outdated. Apart from this, there are also a handful of great successes when it comes to challenges and rewards , of course.
We have been waiting for this foray for five years and it is full of great momentsFor example, I find it very positive that the armor sets for each raid now have a fifth slot for mods unique to that activity, giving them a prominence and interest that they didn’t have before. The fourth slot is now compatible with all sorts of modifiers from previous seasons, while the artifact mods that give certain weapons anti-barrier, unstoppable and overload effects are now on the armor and not on the weapon, giving extra viability to the pieces of exceptional rarity and also the legendary ones. A great decision! The spectersthey are also more useful now that “demon of speed” is an effect common to all vehicles and can be improved like any armor, manually orienting their bonuses around the acquisition of experience, lumen or materials; and in the degree that you want. When it comes to activities, I think that what has come out clearly to be the level design : practically everything that remains is important for one reason or another (the EDZ is huge, the Cosmodrome brings together the new Guardians and the veterans, the Moon has its nightmare hunt, the Tangled Coast has the Furies, the Dreaming City its secrets and its curse, Europe its storm and mysteries…) and almost everything you can do is interesting and profound.
Lighting is one of the revamped aspects of the game engine.
For example, the exo challenges of Jupiter’s moon are not far from what we saw in 2018 with the ascending challenges: platforms and combat that come together to surprise us week after week. The Lost sectors have gained importance bestial, because they are not only more complex and entertaining than before, but also have versions of Legend that rotate every day offering greater challenges and rewards exceptionalfor specific slots to those who dare to complete them alone. The new armor of this rarity is truly transformative, with some offering unexpected possibilities (did you know that Necrotic Grasps can be combined with Thorn’s poison?) Although I would say that the weapons are even better. The pulse rifle theme No Time for Explanations is very funny, and if there is a single sword capable of standing up to Guillotine Fall, that is Lament : the “Samuel Hayden – Crucible” moment that precedes it is spectacular, but nothing compared to its background or how utterly devastating it feels, smashing the new Vex units and crashes we talked about above effortlessly. But what really makes the difference is the new incursion.
Stasis feels like the future of skillsThe Crypt of Profound Stone had resonated with the most enthusiastic fans since 2014, but we couldn’t have known it was going to be that interesting. It is true that a small section of the community has found it easier than the previous ones, but to be honest once the level requirements are passed, all the raids become relatively easy. In any case, it is a mission full of unique moments. I don’t want too many to ruin key points of his story, so I’ll just mention that he has already become a favorite of many players precisely things like the interlude between matches 3 and 4, where Deep Stone Lullaby plays.and we are greeted by the voice of a certain AI: “You now face godlike judgment. May it extend eternally”. Omitting important details of its history and background, I will just add that the encounters aptly mix the classic power-up juggling that we see in this class of activities with bosses that are not simply large torsos that take damage and occasionally fire. It is a totally special design, the rewards are worth it and also the final chest can be looted multiple times following an economy similar to that of Last Wish.
Mechanical: stasis arrives
Lost Sectors have gained quite a bit of prominence now that they offer rare rewards on their highest difficulty.
In 2018, Bungie launched the “Weapons 2.0” system that allowed us to carry, for example, three shotguns. A year later, “armor 2.0” arrived with the elemental polarities of each piece and the modifiers; So the logical thing is to think that we now have “2.0 skills” among us —especially because there was a certain appetite in the community to recover D1 customization— is this the case? No, at least not as is. But stasis does feel like the future of skills, both in terms of player settings and the mechanics it offers. In fact, it is not only that it is a very positive surprise, but that it will continue to expand in the future, according to those responsible.subclasses present in the game. What it brings to the table is a lot of fun: unlike the Light-based specializations, here the thing is not so much about doing damage (be it a single hit, concentrated in time or in small doses) but about controlling masses. The damage is divided into two phases , one to freeze and another to fragment, but the ways to manage one and the other are somewhat varied.
We have a grenade that creates a cosmic crystal wall on the surface where it hits, sorcerers can freeze anything that comes close to their power or healing rift, while the super of the Giant subclass titans freezes in area when hit soil. Both crystals and enemies are fragmented when taking damage from any source, or with special actions. Without going any further, Titans can unlock a certain “skin” (essentially, a subclass mod ) to break the ice when sliding. In practice, this is all fun… in PvE content. When it comes to PvP, it’s a much more delicate matter. The last word will always be the most capable players in the world, of course, but in my humble opinion this does the panorama a disservicecompetitive . Yes, it is true that the freeze was four seconds and after a patch it lasts less than two, but even so, the type of game that players and developers like least is rewarded: the abuse.
What if you find out that sticking your head out where it doesn’t touch will freeze you and be completely unable to respond to enemy fire? Well, you put the camera in the third person with a gesture or a sword and look through the covers. And it wouldn’t be weird if all of this eventually resulted in Guardians being able to only slow down rather than freeze completely. And one more thing: this review is written before the first Trials of Osiris have taken place, the most intense event in competitive fighting. They have been deferred multiple times for different bugs, and there is still a cover that bullets can get through in Exodus Blue. In short, if what we have seen of stasis in PvP so far is already controversial, what is coming can be much worse. But we will see what happens.
“Very good”
Destiny 2 – Beyond Light
In Beyond Light, Destiny 2 faces a number of serious problems: There is a lot of content “on vacation”, many weapons are left out of date, and the economy of the game can get frustrating. Bungie’s releases are just like that, but fortunately beyond those bumps we find a heart-stopping artistic and sound section, an exciting story, many small (but important) improvements in different areas and content that feels different, interesting, solid, with personality. Gone are those times when the problem with these DLCs was recycling: now, what one wishes is that they had less roughness.
- New missions, challenges and raid have great level design
- Clovis Bray and the Stranger’s story arc marks a big step forward
- Art, music, design, difficulty … Europe more than meets expectations
- A fun, interesting and transformative repertoire of exceptional pieces
- Many technical, balance, management problems … need urgent solutions
- The best part of its history is also the most inaccessible to many players
- Core playlists like Vanguard, Gambit, and Crucible need attention
- Some great old content has been temporarily removed
