So yeah. Lightfall happened LOL

I'm sure I don't need to talk about the story of this expansion, because everyone in and out of the destiny fanbase surely heard about it at the time. This + the quality of the raid (which is slightly overblown if you ask me) had people up in ARMS calling this the worst destiny expansion to date, even though it's very clearly FAR from that. Neomuna was a great destination, with Strand being the obvious carrier of the expansion, and the QOL changes that came with this expansion as well made gameplay itself probably the best its ever been in destiny. Nobody talks about Veil Containment either when they're trashing the story, as that was arguably one of the best story beats to come out of this entire YEAR of destiny. But after how Lightfall butchered Calus and didn't really progress the main story of destiny at all? I don't necessarily blame them. You can definitely tell they split the story of this expansion and (presumably) The Final Shape into two different things.

The following seasons of Lightfall were.... okay. Much like how the story of Lightfall got the community in a ruckus, plentiful other things did as well as the seasons progressed. Season of Defiance was probably one of the better seasons about it?, but the passing of Lance Reddick definitely hurt things a bit. Season of the Deep saw people up in arms about the repitition of Seasonal Gameplay loops after big promised changes, which isnt the most unjustifable thing, but people definitely were taking it way too far. Season of the Witch/Wish (since it kinda happened inbetween these two seasons) saw the biggest uprisal with Bungie laying off numerous employees (fuck you bungie!), causing loads of people to take a break or quit the game entirely. Being a destiny fan was extremely rough throughout this year of the game, probably the roughest its ever been if im being honest.

But! The pure gameplay of Destiny 2 throughout these seasons was still REALLY good. I would go as far as saying that looking at pure gameplay alone, this was probably the best year we've ever had. The new dungeons were fantastic, the seasonal content started evolving with Rougelike and minor Deck-Building elements, and The Coil might honestly be the best activity they've ever had in a season (maybe not better than menagerie still but i digress).

The story of the seasons is alone what's keeping me from having this listed as four stars: since Bungie probably had no idea how to bridge Lightfall and TFS together narratively after splitting them into two seperate expansions (and i dont blame them), a lot of the narrative this time around felt VERY character focused. I'm never against building characters in destiny, especially because Bungie is really good at it, but when the legit END of your 10 year story is coming up? It felt very awkward, especially since the plots of each season weren't really progressing us any further to the witness (or if they were it was VERY incrementally.)

I probably should include Into The Light as part of this review, but I have yet to fully dive DEEP into it since I was out of the country when it dropped. However, it looks fantastic and I've really enjoyed the bits of it I have played, and community sentiment feels fairly high, especially since it seems Bungie is beefing up for TFS.

Speaking of which: I really really hope Bungie knocks it out of the park with The Final Shape. They very clearly need a win ANYWHERE right now, and it while Into The Light seems like it's helping, it probably isn't enough for a lot of people. I really don't know how to end this, other than saying goddamn why are the destiny worms still inside of my brain. Curse you John Bungie!!!

TL;DR: Story way down, gameplay way up. Please let the next expansion, and whatever follows it, be a banger.