Destiny 2: Shadowkeep

If you were ever curious about Destiny 2, Shadowkeep is the perfect entry point. If you are a reneged player that struggled with content doubts, there’s no better time to come back. And if you are neither of the aforementioned, you probably should be. Shadowkeep is everything every player wanted from Destiny 2, and in true Bungie fashion, it was delivered with a bang – which presumably emanated from the servers as they exploded on launch night.

Destiny 2 has never felt, looked, or been in a better spot than it is with Shadowkeep. This is not only the most accessible Destiny has ever been, but with the introduction of New Light, it is also more in-depth than ever with a new focus on hardcore players. Shadowkeep is an elegant blend of nostalgia mixed with the discovery of a new direction for the universe of Destiny. If you have ever been on the fence about Destiny, it's a perfect time to try.

Shadowkeep isn’t cheap however and how much you put into it will determine how much you want to and will get out of it. The base game is $54.95 which for a stand alone expansion isn’t exactly cheap. The most value for money, based on what you can get out of it is actually the digital deluxe edition at $99.95. I think Destiny 2 is on the right path now that they’ve split from Activision. And I’ll be keenly watching their progress.

Shadowkeep levels up Destiny to its best. It isn’t perfect, but there is more content than ever before and more options to enjoy it, and gameplay-wise still has no rival.

Shadowkeep sounds like a love letter to the fans. Lots of plot revelations, a beautiful moon to explore and many new challenges, this expansion has many qualities, despite a very short campaign.

A good expansions that shines in its most difficult activities, but that does not offer enough content to keep the community engaged for a very long time. The new path taken by Bungie is very promising, though.

Shadowkeep is taking its first steps in a newly focused Destiny that might not offer a lot, but strongly delivers on what it does. While it's hard to say whether Bungie can maintain this promised trajectory for the course of the expansion, the signs so far are encouraging.

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is another solid expansion for Bungie's addictive looter shooter. It's a mixed bag, building on the solid foundations of Destiny 2: Forsaken with some ideas working better than others. This is a new era for Bungie though, with an ambitious vision of a game that's constantly evolving from week to week, and the first glimpses of this already giving me real optimism for its future.

This expansion marks a sea change for the series, from one that keeps players begging for scraps to one that sets players up for a feast.

Where Shadowkeep’s story will take us remains to be seen, but the inclusion of Destiny’s core mechanics in a brilliantly revamped location has reinvigorated Destiny 2 just as it was starting to get a little stale.

Shadowkeep represents a shift in the fundamentals of Destiny 2, and that has only improved the game. Returning to the moon is full of spooky fun, and while Shadowkeep might not be as huge as Forsaken, it still provides some impressive additions to the world that will take time to fully explore. More meaningful choices in Shadowkeep are pushing me to think beyond just packing my most powerful guns and shooting everything in my path. These are improvements that represent a giant leap forward for Destiny 2.

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep pulled me back in after two years away from my guardian with the promise of ever-evolving seasons and new content to play once more. The initial offering was very light on story and loot but I can only hope to see more content come in subsequent Shadowkeep seasons.

There's certainly enough new content here to keep fans interested. Shadowkeep's lunar surface is no Dreaming City, but it holds enough new surprises to make it worth checking out.

Shadowkeep drags out the well-known instead of delivering new impulses.

With the start of this new Destiny season, almost the entire game has been redesigned. That results in the most promising Destiny in years. Shadowkeep is primarily a content injection. Unfortunately, that content leans a little too much on recognizable Destiny missions and enemies.

The militancy that the now independent Bungie shows with Shadowkeep is promising for the future of Destiny 2. The new locations look beautiful as always and although the story of the expansion ends abruptly, Bungie shows that there is a clear vision for the next few years.

Shadowkeep is an expansion that’s brimming with potential that it’s actually poised to capitalize on. Its campaign may be a lukewarm retread through the franchise’s history, but the endgame loop is feeling more robust than ever. If the game’s first post-launch update is any indication, Shadowkeep promises a compelling reason to return to Destiny 2, putting more emphasis on world discovery than an endless loot grind.

As of right now, Shadowkeep is a mix of hits and misses and feels a bit incomplete in certain areas. It does just enough though to keep the dedicated player invested while they wait for more content to trickle out throughout the year.

Forsaken had a fantastic campaign that Shadowkeep doesn't quite match, but all of the enhancements for Year 3 of Destiny 2 help balance it all out.

Bungie’s new DLC falls flat due to its rehashed Moon setting, yet there are still moments of brilliance here. The season pass price is hard to justify, but the free-to-play main game gives us hope. [Issue#169, p.94]

Seen as an expansion, Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is good but not great. Most of the new content is enjoyable, but the gameplay loop falls into familiar routines surprisingly fast. However, if you see the expansion as a part of a complete package, the overall improvements have transformed Destiny 2 to one of the best action games this console generation. If you haven’t tried it yet, there hasn’t been a better time to start than now.

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is the same satisfying Destiny 2 you've been playing (or not playing) all along. The combat feels good, the art direction's stunning, the lore is mysterious in all the right ways. But it also fumbles in a lot of areas: its campaign is among Destiny's weakest, there isn't a lot of new loot, and its newly introduced systems are so convoluted that I found myself wishing there was a tutorial buried in a menu somewhere. Still, it's a promising start for the future of Destiny 2, which is really what this expansion seems to be as a whole: the baby steps for something bigger, with no end in sight.

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep isn’t bad, but it also feels wholly unnecessary when most of its selling points (Strikes, the Moon, Armor 2.0) can be played without owning it. This is one nightmare we didn’t need to have.

Destiny Shadowkeep adds a poor solo campaign to the main base game, too short and too straightforward. Only the Destiny addicts would enjoy the hours of grinding needed to open the doors of the new raid.

A disappointingly backwards-looking expansion that rather than signal a new era for Destiny and Bungie is just more of the same empty teases and recycled content.