Destiny 2 May Be Changing For the Better, But Bungie Sure Isn't

<br>As a fan of Halo-era Bungie and of Destiny in general, it sucks having to point this out now that Bungie has finally shown some signs of passion for Destiny. Forsaken has all the hallmarks of a product that’s had some real love and care put into it, and the team behind it deserves all the praise and kudos that they’re currently enjoying for it. If it manages to meet the sky-high expectations this past week’s reveal has no doubt inspired in the Destiny community, then they’ll deserve even more. Forsaken and it’s team aren’t the issue here, but rather Destiny in general and specifically Bungie’s incessant need to squeeze its player base for all they’re worth. It can be done better. It is being done better by several others. So what exactly is Bungie’s excuse for treating their fans like a bunch of simpletons with bottomless wallets? Do they even think they need one? Hopefully they’re not that far-gone, but since they’ve been employing these same practices for almost three years now and are now escalating even further, refuting such an impression is difficult to say the least.<br><br>Uldren Sov serves as a passable antagonist but ultimately suffers from a lack of interaction with your Guardian. Outside of a handful of cutscenes from Destiny and a brief interaction at the start of Forsaken, Uldren hasn’t had much impact on your story. Much of the animus you’ll hold for him lies solely on whether you like Cayde-6. It doesn't help that a random final boss appears out of nowhere to rob Uldren of his spotlight.<br>Forsaken’s plot is a refreshing break from the consistent ‘save the world’ plots of Destiny games, and expansions tend to throw at us. The tale is more personal and adds additional depth to the generic light vs. dark struggle that has permeated the series to this point. Forsaken represents a leap forward for storytelling in Destiny, surpassing the benchmark set by The Taken King .<br><br>Probably the biggest albatross hanging over the entire expansion, however, is the lack of anything new. Despite some additional areas to explore and a fresh coat of paint, this is a map players already paid $60 to explore back in 2014. Nightmares are just reskinned versions of enemies we've already fought and they don't behave any differently. Two of the three new Crucible maps are remasters of old maps. The new Nightmare activities are against bosses that players have already fought hundreds of times. The new Strikes and Raid are excellent additions, but you don't even need to own Shadowkeep to play the Strikes. For $34.99, players should expect more and Bungie should have provided plenty of new content rather than rehashing older material.<br><br>Destiny 2: Forsaken takes place sometime after the events of the base <a href="http://aquaguard.com/?URL=https://links.gtanet.com.br/karenz624830">slg game walkthrough</a>. You and Cayde-6 fly to the Prison of Elders to help an old friend, Petra Venj, put down a prison riot, but the trio quickly learns that the riot was orchestrated to cover up the breakout of eight Scorn barons. Rescued by the long-missing Prince Uldren Sov, the nine successfully escape the prison, but not before killing Cayde-6. Fleeing into the Reef, you pursue them to exact your revenge.<br><br>Clocking in at four-to-five hours, Shadowkeep's campaign generally overstays its welcome despite such a short completion time. The campaign doesn't offer anything interesting in the way of revelations or mission design. Instead, it spends most of its length tasking players with mindless busywork. After that, it ends on an interesting yet unsatisfying cliffhanger that likely won't be addressed until the inevitable Destiny 3. The campaign never approaches the awful Dark Below or Curse of Osiris , but it's a severe drop in quality from Forsaken.<br><br>It's lucky that the rest of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is quite good, though familiar. The Moon, a vanilla Destiny location, never got its fair shake back in 2014. Unlike the other areas in the game, it was easy to finish off the Moon sections and then never come back. In Shadowkeep, Bungie has made it a location players will want to keep visiting. Though the design is familiar, the studio has done quite a bit to make it more visually appealing. Giant chasms have torn the landscape asunder, new caves have opened up never-before-seen locations and an enormous Hive citadel looms large over the horizon. Adding to the spookiness of the locale are Nightmares of fallen Guardians, whose silhouettes replace the standard Patrol Beacons. It's clear a lot of compassion went into bringing back the Moon and transforming it into a place players want to visit.<br><br>This is an easy one but an important first step. Due to all the change that has come with Forsaken getting one’s bearings on what all has changed with menus and inventory will be the most important. There are now Triumphs to be tracked, Collections to be had and an assortment of other things that are all around different. The Cryptarch can now break down Shaders in quantities of five; all those Shaders going to no use? Head over to Rhaul and he’ll be happy to get rid of them quickly as you can hit a button over and over (took me less than five minutes to get ride of most of my useless Shaders). Players returning might also notice that all of the modifications are null and void. This is due to the entirely revamped modification system, so might as well delete those too. Don’t freak out seeing that light level of certain items has gone down, this is just the modifications being useless and one’s Light Level going up will quickly fix this.<br>