Destiny 2: Beyond Light - Review

Most of the content of Destiny 2 today is free-developers are asked to pay only for DLC and major extensions, and the newest of them will be discussed in this review.

Beyond Light is a huge addon that significantly cuts and changes the game in every sense. Like the previous autumn updates, the new one added a lot of locations, loot, strikes and raid, but most importantly-Beyond Light strongly affects the plot and ENT of Bungie's brainchild.

The main theme of the expansion was the influence of darkness on the world of Destiny. Previously, little was known about her – we were only told that she was a danger to the guards and the wanderer. Questions were also raised about pyramid-shaped ships that had something to do with darkness. At the end of Destiny 2, they fly into the solar system, and in the addition of Shadowkeep, we even try to interact with one. But the topic of darkness was not really revealed.

Several planets in the solar system have disappeared from the map. The Guardians notice strange activity on Europa, a moon of Jupiter. There, the fallen have become active, and under the leadership of Eramis, they master the forces of darkness to destroy the guardians and the wanderer. Our main character goes to meet the villain. His task is to subdue the forces of darkness to fight back and prevent the fallen from coming to Earth.

The plot, unfortunately, does not try to surprise. It is absolutely linear and predictable – in the spirit of past additions. The whole action unfolds once again according to the same scenario. We arrive at a new uncharted location, see the main villain, mobilize with colleagues and stock up on loot, fight back. Next, the stage of the leitgame begins, in which we prepare for the raid, go through it and knock out the most interesting and rare items in the game. However, it should be noted that the narrative in Beyond Light still became a little more interesting. Throughout the story missions, we speak directly to Eramis and Varix (who is now our ally). And in this way, the first one literally tells us about her motivation, about the history of the fallen, about the darkness, new locations and new abilities. As we explore Europe, we also learn more about the history of the Exo race. After all, since the first part of Destiny, it was known that its homeland is on Europe. Play, gently plunging into the ent Destiny 2 in this form, much more pleasant. After all, previously such detailed information could only be obtained from cards with descriptions that opened in the menu.

The center of the gameplay in the new addition was Europe-the satellite is presented in the form of a huge frozen location. This place looks very fresh and incredibly beautiful. Bungie's visual design is one of the best in the industry, and the developers are proving it once again. You will explore icy deserts and caves, the buildings of the famous Golden Age scientist Clovis Bray I, and the buildings of the fallen.

In Destiny 2: Beyond Light, the Spaceport – a location from the first Destiny-has returned, and almost unchanged. New Guardians now start the game here, completely ignoring the story arcs of previous additions and the original Destiny 2 storyline “ "like in the good old days". The cosmodrome evokes feelings of nostalgia among loyal fans. There will be several story quests, as well as one modified old strike. However, there is nothing more to do on the location-adding it to the game is more like a hack, it seems like an attempt to fill the time of players with second-rate, already familiar, content.

There are also new activities in Beyond Light. Exo – mission tests in virtual reality, for which the player is awarded a high-level item. The sectors have changed, now they have difficulty levels that change every day. And the loot that drops out there looks more interesting. And now, as in Forsaken, the world of the game gradually changes after players pass the raid. In this case, fragments of the space station fell on Europe, which opened access to new activities for all users.

Bungie decided to make adjustments to the balance radically by introducing the Sunsetting system. Its meaning lies in the fact that some of the guns that are available to us from previous additions can not be swung to the current light level, which makes them useless. Many players did not like this system, as a result of which the developers reacted with a quick return to Destiny 2 of the most popular guns. On the other hand, the legendary weapons from the new addition turned out to be boring and weak against the background of already familiar combat vehicles. You will probably not even pay attention to them, or just sort them into more valuable resources.

However, with the exotic, everything is much more interesting, since now players are actively hunting for the sword "Executioner “and the rocket launcher”Eyes of the Future". They look insanely cool, and quite allow you to do a lot of damage.

One of the most striking innovations of the expansion is stasis - a new ability granted to the guardians by the darkness itself. This is a new element, for which a whole separate item in the character's menu was prepared. Guardians can now switch between using the powers of light and darkness. But if in the menu of the forces of light we have already known classic abilities available, then from the forces of darkness there is only stasis. As you can guess from the name, the new ability is associated with freezing-guardians master the powers of ice. The ability feels very fresh and pleasantly diversifies the gameplay.

Stasis has unique grenades that create blocks of ice at the site of the explosion. Blocks can both damage enemies and slow them down, and if you throw a grenade into the wall, you can jump on the blocks. This is used in some story missions as a platforming element in the process of completing a level. Very original idea. Stasis is not pumped in the same way as the forces of light. We will need to grind perks (which, by the way, are the same for all subclasses), then to create an interesting combination of them. In subclasses, stasis differs only in the ultimate ability.

It is worth noting that stasis initially turned out to be extremely unbalanced. What in PvE, what in PvP at the start of the expansion, we observed a tangible superiority of the ice element over any other. However, the developers quickly made changes. At the moment the stasis seems to be a much more balanced relative to the forces of light.

It is necessary to say a few words about the most controversial innovation Beyond Light. Namely, about the Destiny Content Vault. A very large chunk of the game is missing – the planets Titan, Mercury, Io, Mars and all related activities. Plot-wise, this is justified by the fact that the planets were swallowed up by darkness, but in fact the developers cut out some of the content from the game to optimize it for the new one. However, this solution can be a problem for beginners who want to dive into Destiny 2, because the story campaign of past additions can no longer pass, interesting strikes too. And you won't be able to look at the raids. The content will return in the future, but when and in what form is still unknown.

New large-scale addon really changed the feeling of Destiny 2. Namely, I was pleased with new abilities and a new location. However, the activities in general repeat the already established formula from past additions, the plot is very superficial, and the removal of old content from the game is an extremely ambiguous decision. During the passage of Beyond Light, a strange feeling is created in the dry residue – the structure of the add-on is outdated and well known to us, but it still turns out to experience new emotions because of the pleasant innovations associated with new abilities and ENT. The addon does not create a revolution in the gameplay and the world of Destiny 2, but it can pleasantly entertain you for a while – yet the basic shooter formula of the game works perfectly.