Destiny 2: Shadowkeep

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.