Coming into to Lightfall, Bungie had all the momentum in the world. The general quality of content and story they were delivering was above and beyond nearly anything we'd seen from them in the past. Witch Queen and Year 5 definitely had their flaws gameplay and balancing wise, but Lightfall was looking to bring massive improvements to the games systems while still keeping the narrative going at full speed. This was the beginning of the climax for an 8 year old franchise, and the entire gaming world had their eyes on Bungie.
With the spotlight on them, they fell flat. Lightfall delivered us an extremely disappointing campaign that left me more confused than anything. Strange narrative pacing, little to no explanation for major plot details, backseating of main characters, extreme focus on Strand, all for it to amass in an ending that made the entire campaign feel like a filler arc.
Calus was one of my favorite characters heading into this expansion, and I was excited to see him take the role as a major antagonist. He stole the show every time he got screentime. That being said, I truly wish he got more here. The irony of the selfish Cabal Emperor who spent his life treating his own family and subordinates with no care becoming nothing but a pawn in The Witness's scheme is not lost on me, but that doesn't mean they didn't have room to do more with him.
Neomuna as a setting is...fine. I love the look and aesthetics of the location a lot, and do believe it can become an interesting place narrative wise over time. However, the game itself did not do a great job at fleshing it out as a breathing, wartorn city. the most we get is the occasional "Neomuna Civil News™" and the occasional citizen with the most annoying dialogue you've ever heard in the patrol zone. speaking of annoying...
Nimbus. They're...ok. Their lighthearted and high energy attitude isnt the worst idea in concept, but they did not match the tone when they needed to. I like their development in the LMG quest however, and I am generally ok with their addition to the Destiny roster.
Let's talk some gameplay. Firstly, I want to give Bungie praise with Strand. Strand is such a great addition to the games sandbox, feeling extremely powerful and fun while not being too overpowered. No complaints there. The campaign gameplay wise was pretty good. it had a lot of fun and memorable encounters, the last stand with Caiatl being the highlight personally. Tormentors are a fun addition to the enemy sandbox as well. The loot is good, I could not give less of a shit if they're reskins or whatever. Neomuna patrol is weirdly challenging, and not to an annoying extent. I enjoy it as a patrol space, but it's strange for it be a level capped activity of all things. That can be applied to a lot of the system changes that came with Lightfall.
No complaints with the loadouts. I do not like the new mod system however, its overtly simplified to the point where it killed a lot of builds (RIP elemental shards). Commendations and Guardian Ranks are kinda lame, I don't think they're too far from being in a decent place though. People were way too worried about the difficulty changes making the game too hard, it is still braindead easy. On that note...
Root of Nightmares. I am a pretty avid raider, done every raid numerous times, have some titles, and I generally think Raids are the best of what Destiny has to offer. I think this might be my least favorite raid in the Destiny 2. It's kind of the opposite of my complaints with the campaign. Lore and concept? Great! super cool stuff. Gameplay? Actual snoozefest. I think the fact a raid released in 2023 is solo flawessable is truly all that needs to be said about its difficulty. Extremely disappointing
All and all, this was another case of 1 step forward, 4 steps back with Bungie. Lightfall had it's ups, for sure, but the host of the aforementioned issues are too major for me to ignore. I didn't even mention Crucible or Gambit or the extreme technical issues that the game is currently facing, but hey neither has Bungie! If this is the direction the game is heading in, then I genuinely can't see me playing this game past Final Shape.
With the spotlight on them, they fell flat. Lightfall delivered us an extremely disappointing campaign that left me more confused than anything. Strange narrative pacing, little to no explanation for major plot details, backseating of main characters, extreme focus on Strand, all for it to amass in an ending that made the entire campaign feel like a filler arc.
Calus was one of my favorite characters heading into this expansion, and I was excited to see him take the role as a major antagonist. He stole the show every time he got screentime. That being said, I truly wish he got more here. The irony of the selfish Cabal Emperor who spent his life treating his own family and subordinates with no care becoming nothing but a pawn in The Witness's scheme is not lost on me, but that doesn't mean they didn't have room to do more with him.
Neomuna as a setting is...fine. I love the look and aesthetics of the location a lot, and do believe it can become an interesting place narrative wise over time. However, the game itself did not do a great job at fleshing it out as a breathing, wartorn city. the most we get is the occasional "Neomuna Civil News™" and the occasional citizen with the most annoying dialogue you've ever heard in the patrol zone. speaking of annoying...
Nimbus. They're...ok. Their lighthearted and high energy attitude isnt the worst idea in concept, but they did not match the tone when they needed to. I like their development in the LMG quest however, and I am generally ok with their addition to the Destiny roster.
Let's talk some gameplay. Firstly, I want to give Bungie praise with Strand. Strand is such a great addition to the games sandbox, feeling extremely powerful and fun while not being too overpowered. No complaints there. The campaign gameplay wise was pretty good. it had a lot of fun and memorable encounters, the last stand with Caiatl being the highlight personally. Tormentors are a fun addition to the enemy sandbox as well. The loot is good, I could not give less of a shit if they're reskins or whatever. Neomuna patrol is weirdly challenging, and not to an annoying extent. I enjoy it as a patrol space, but it's strange for it be a level capped activity of all things. That can be applied to a lot of the system changes that came with Lightfall.
No complaints with the loadouts. I do not like the new mod system however, its overtly simplified to the point where it killed a lot of builds (RIP elemental shards). Commendations and Guardian Ranks are kinda lame, I don't think they're too far from being in a decent place though. People were way too worried about the difficulty changes making the game too hard, it is still braindead easy. On that note...
Root of Nightmares. I am a pretty avid raider, done every raid numerous times, have some titles, and I generally think Raids are the best of what Destiny has to offer. I think this might be my least favorite raid in the Destiny 2. It's kind of the opposite of my complaints with the campaign. Lore and concept? Great! super cool stuff. Gameplay? Actual snoozefest. I think the fact a raid released in 2023 is solo flawessable is truly all that needs to be said about its difficulty. Extremely disappointing
All and all, this was another case of 1 step forward, 4 steps back with Bungie. Lightfall had it's ups, for sure, but the host of the aforementioned issues are too major for me to ignore. I didn't even mention Crucible or Gambit or the extreme technical issues that the game is currently facing, but hey neither has Bungie! If this is the direction the game is heading in, then I genuinely can't see me playing this game past Final Shape.