Destiny: The Dark Below

 PlayStation 4
User Score
3.1

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 281 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 43 out of 281
  2. Mixed: 43 out of 281
  3. Negative: 195 out of 281

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  1. Jaidenbrkl1
    May 8, 2023
    7
    Now you may be wondering why I didn’t count Expansions 1 and 2 for Destiny and that is because it is just a Destiny update with more new weapons.
  2. DestinyDoer
    Jul 4, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Although I disagree with what multiple but not all other people say about this game, this DLC is not the best. Still four types of enemies? The story is way too short.… Expand
  3. gdmatt
    Oct 5, 2017
    3
    Destiny: The Dark Below, the first DLC for Destiny is a criminally disappointing and lackluster mess that only seeks to push the remaining Destiny players away from the game.
    Apart from an OK raid, The Dark Below offers nothing new the Destiny experience and essentially ignores the last 3 months of progress made by players.
  4. BlakDak666
    Jul 26, 2017
    3
    Destiny's base game struggled with delivering content to the players and had some of the most tedious systems to maneuver through, so seeing the Dark Below and how Bungie claimed it would fix the issues of the first game was practically a full blown lie that hurts the game's legacy and solidify the first few months of Destiny with anger, disappointment and shame. Having three missions, aDestiny's base game struggled with delivering content to the players and had some of the most tedious systems to maneuver through, so seeing the Dark Below and how Bungie claimed it would fix the issues of the first game was practically a full blown lie that hurts the game's legacy and solidify the first few months of Destiny with anger, disappointment and shame. Having three missions, a handful of weapons and armor and a raid is not an expansion, it would be something players should have had for free and as an incentive to keep playing awhile longer. It's no wonder many left after the new year started. Out of the four DLCs that Destiny had, The Dark Below is the worst one of them and deserves only scorn.… Expand
  5. KukistajA
    Nov 11, 2015
    6
    The Dark Below was fairly decent DLC, adding enough content for the price. It doesn't change the fundamentals though, so if you enjoyed the grindfest this is more of the same, if you didn't, this DLC won't make you like it.
  6. TheDude-
    Sep 17, 2015
    5
    while the loot is excellent and the raid is very creative there is pretty much nothing to the story and the raid while creative is extremely easy and often leaves with nothing to do not to mention the story missions feel lazily put together.
  7. The_Garays
    Sep 4, 2015
    3
    This might be a joke... 20€ for a Raid and about 5 new missions? Really poor back story.

    Bungie hasn't solved any problems the main game had, they even made them worse.

    if you don't own this DLC: DON'T BUY IT!
  8. LuckySevens_7
    Jun 11, 2015
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I know im going to get a lot of hate for this but im not the type to really give a flying toast about it.

    This might not come to you as a surprise to you guys but all you see on this forum all day, everyday, all the god damn time is someone whining, complaining,crying,hating or telling everyone that their leaving destiny forever. So I decided to make this post of appreciation.

    I like Destiny, Im 25 years old, married, no children. I paid about 100$ for this game(including both dlcs), and I have over 1000 combined hours of play time and entertainment from it, I would be an ungrateful brat if I said that I didn't get my moneys worth. Destiny allows me to burn free time with enjoyment. I like the thrill you get when you finally obtain the exotic that you've been waiting for. I like to open chests and find undiscovered presents. I love the fact that no matter how bad Bungie Fcks up, I keep coming back for more. I like the fact that this game entertains me enough that I don't have to spend more dough on other games(for the meanwhile). I love the fact that unlike COD, team tactics are actually essential and necessary to beat the competition. I love the fact that you have so many different things to do every week, all you have to do is chose(Poe/ToO/Nightfalls/Crota raid/Vog raid/Crucible/Farming/Bounties/Strikes). i love the fact that (LFG) allows you to meet new people, and play together from all over the world(diversity is awesome), conversating with them, making new gaming friends, have some laughs about Bungies mistakes, and knocking Skolas on his arse. I love the sense of accomplishment that you feel when you first beat a new raid, or the first time you get 9-0 in ToO, The first time you get that Darn GJallarhorn(although some of you havnt gotten it yet, it will come).

    I know that some of you will hate
    Some of you will be teachers, and correct my spelling mistakes
    Some of you will insult or degrade
    Some of you will dispute that this game is actually pretty good
    Haters gona hate, ainters gona aint...you hate us cuz you ainus
    But that has nothing to do with this post.

    All im saying, is that we should appreciate destiny for what it is. A fun, sometimes rewarding, addicting, very social, visually stunning and enticing game. If it wasn't, people wouldn't have hundreds of hours invested into it.

    Sincerely,
    A satisfied casual gamer    … Expand
  9. buggy226
    May 30, 2015
    2
    The Dark Below makes the exact same mistakes as Destiny, only with poorer production values. The one good thing about The Dark Below is the inclusion of a second raid. Crota's End is not as fun as The Vault of Glass, but it does provide some variety in 6 player PVE.
  10. commando41
    May 27, 2015
    4
    /sigh I wanted HoW to be a turning point for me but in the direction that justified my love for this game. The moment I did the first mission and found myself in Venus going the opposite direction of the skiff map (the map where you fight the Archon Priest) I was just utterly disgusted and disappointed. I will say that Bungie did an excellent job with the armor and weapon upgrades...but/sigh I wanted HoW to be a turning point for me but in the direction that justified my love for this game. The moment I did the first mission and found myself in Venus going the opposite direction of the skiff map (the map where you fight the Archon Priest) I was just utterly disgusted and disappointed. I will say that Bungie did an excellent job with the armor and weapon upgrades...but having also deleted my VoG raid gear awhile back made it all that more painful. In any event the Weapons and Armor upgrade path is awesome, I am sure the new PVP maps are as well..albeit the Trials of Osirus being very unbalanced i.e. Warlocks definitely get more than one life due to their talent tree...in any event a huge let down all around in regards to the PVE aspect. Destiny just feels like someone just painted my car on my driveway and is trying to sale it to me as if it's a brand new car...all the while i can still see the wrappings from the cheeseburger I ate sitting in the passenger seat. All in all if someone coming into this game for the first time will find both DLC's fun (albeit no Raid in HoW) but for me, who has played this game for the last 8 months, I am all but done with this bait and switch game that is called Destiny.… Expand
  11. SillyRukus
    Apr 20, 2015
    10
    From a fan: The reason I enjoy The Dark Below is because during the "Raid" it teaches players how to work together by using time, teamwork and firepower. It's all about timing! Omnigul is a mean b**ch! The added story is all good in my book. Thank you Bungie and Activision for this incredible game. I actually saved so much $ because I haven't bought a game since the release and the seasonFrom a fan: The reason I enjoy The Dark Below is because during the "Raid" it teaches players how to work together by using time, teamwork and firepower. It's all about timing! Omnigul is a mean b**ch! The added story is all good in my book. Thank you Bungie and Activision for this incredible game. I actually saved so much $ because I haven't bought a game since the release and the season pass.

    For the haters: If you don't like the game because it doesn't have enough story well Destiny will have plenty of story in a 10 year span. Quit and play something else if you don't like Destiny, it's that f'n simple.
    P.S. stop being cry babies.

    Thanks.    … Expand
  12. Asentha
    Apr 5, 2015
    8
    Between being a father and a husband and being in the Navy this review is more on Destiny as a whole more then The Dark Below.

    I have been able to play this game for a solid two months and have had nothing but enjoyment the whole time. The game offers a lot to do when you first start to get into, a lot of action, great story if you actually care of pay attention to it, the force of    Between being a father and a husband and being in the Navy this review is more on Destiny as a whole more then The Dark Below.

    I have been able to play this game for a solid two months and have had nothing but enjoyment the whole time. The game offers a lot to do when you first start to get into, a lot of action, great story if you actually care of pay attention to it, the force of having to make friends to complete your strikes and raids. Also the tease of seeing new equipment to force the feeling of want for that new item.

    As for The Dark Below, I didn't see much improvement from the regular game to the Expansion. Two new vendors, one of which doesn't sell much other then banners to make your character look flashy and some mats to increase Hive weapons. Then you have Xur the weekend seller of Exotic Weapons/Armor. I think they could have done a better job, as far as making a more in depth MMO. I do look forward to the House of Wolves release, but if they are just going to take the formula for The Dark Below and just make small changes that only add a higher level cap a single new raid and no other real reason to continue past just being able to beat the raid on what I will assume to be on Hard, I feel that they will surely lose a lot of players because not many will tolerate a simple map hack and a couple of quick mission strings.    … Expand
  13. brigitte1357
    Mar 11, 2015
    0
    its just some new campaign and few other things. nothing which worth the money we paid.
    it has no story like the main game. same enemies and even the bosses are nothing very different from main game
  14. ToatzMcGoatz
    Mar 8, 2015
    3
    To me, this seems to be merely content that was purposely left out of the finished game in order to stretch the revenue. There were two distinct flags that led me to this conclusion. First, this came out exactly 3 months to after the initial launch. This just screams withheld content. Second, there is a early plot point regarding Rasputin that is introduced in the original game, butTo me, this seems to be merely content that was purposely left out of the finished game in order to stretch the revenue. There were two distinct flags that led me to this conclusion. First, this came out exactly 3 months to after the initial launch. This just screams withheld content. Second, there is a early plot point regarding Rasputin that is introduced in the original game, but IMMEDIATELY forgotten. In the expansion you actually find out what Rasputin is in a level where you have to defend it from waves of monsters.

    Even if that is the only point of withheld content, the overall content is mostly more of the same. While the new NPC's (Eris) quests deviate in style slightly, they ultimately come back around to feeling the same. And don't you worry, there is still a massive amount of grinding with Eris with a small reservoir of bounties ensuring you can do the same exact tedious game play over and over and over. If you want to take advantage of some of the best new weapons, it is mandatory to level your respect since upgrading some of the new weapons requires specific items only obtainable by her at higher levels.

    I have not yet tried the raid and don't plan to since I don't have the patience to grind anymore. Not worth the money and time    … Expand
  15. Jordanrosser13
    Mar 6, 2015
    5
    This add on adds a very minimal amount of content and does it very poorly in some respects. The new strike (or strikes on Playstations) are decent additions to the playlists and the new raid is a blast. However, things such as the three story missions and the limiting of certain in game options (i.e the nightfall and weekly requiring this $20 purchase in order to play them) is veryThis add on adds a very minimal amount of content and does it very poorly in some respects. The new strike (or strikes on Playstations) are decent additions to the playlists and the new raid is a blast. However, things such as the three story missions and the limiting of certain in game options (i.e the nightfall and weekly requiring this $20 purchase in order to play them) is very uninteresting, greedy, and flat out absurd at $20. You will gain a cool sparrow and 2 extra possible levels which is ok I suppose but honestly only two levels to the cap is not a very cool thing to do considering that now, four months down the road we still don't have the follow up DLC so the game is now just as monotonous as it was in November. If you were angered by Destiny's anemic amount of content but still want to play it, buy this. If you hate Destiny's guts, this will not sweeten the deal.… Expand
  16. Jyykson
    Feb 24, 2015
    0
    This does not deserve to be called an Expansion, and it does not deserve to cost more than $5. This is an embarrassment to the term Expansion, and even an embarrassment to DLC. A low point for the Destiny franchise. More wasted potential.
  17. milero91
    Feb 20, 2015
    3
    Very little content for £20 and although there are new story mission, they are in the same locations as the others. This expansions add very little and users without it will have difficulty playing the "end game" content without it as the Weekly, daily and nightfall missions are often only available for The Dark Below owners. There is about 2 - 3 hours of story content within this and aVery little content for £20 and although there are new story mission, they are in the same locations as the others. This expansions add very little and users without it will have difficulty playing the "end game" content without it as the Weekly, daily and nightfall missions are often only available for The Dark Below owners. There is about 2 - 3 hours of story content within this and a raid which is about 2 hours… Expand
  18. SportsareCrap
    Feb 16, 2015
    1
    Don't Buy DLC or Don't Buy Season Pass.
    This is Pay to Unlock since Fileszie is less then 200MB Really under 10mb.
    Skip this also all others one coming for Destiny.
  19. cod4isthebest
    Feb 12, 2015
    1
    3 story missions that take 10-15 minutes each. a raid that is a complete downgrade from vault of glass. raid weapons + gear that are copy pasted from vog. same animation and models with hive bones overtop and only three unique perks which are completely situational to knights and wizards and highlighting enemies which is not as useful as it sounds. 3 crucible maps that are pretty generic.3 story missions that take 10-15 minutes each. a raid that is a complete downgrade from vault of glass. raid weapons + gear that are copy pasted from vog. same animation and models with hive bones overtop and only three unique perks which are completely situational to knights and wizards and highlighting enemies which is not as useful as it sounds. 3 crucible maps that are pretty generic. tons of grinding that is not fun. 4 decent armor exotics. about 5/6 garbage exotic armor including boots. 3/4 garbage exotic weapons that are not even really fun to use if you ignore the fact they are outclassed. no new enemy types or anything like that. one cutscene that was just the trailer. no story progression that is explained or makes sense (you stop crota's soul in story and then fight him in raid anyway). boring and repetitive bounties to grind a new reputation system. i thought the base game was flawed, but still had enough fun to warrant a purchase. this dlc feels lazy...the new missions only contain like 2-3 rooms + hallways of new content each. the worst part is you can find all these locations were discovered in the pre-release beta version of the game fully rendered only missing enemies being spawned in... I have all the gear in the game only missed 1 exotic armor and own every single exotic weapon and all raid gear for all classes. i have over 10 days played and most of it was grinding. i regret wasting time investing into this game because bad players and new players are given shortcuts to catch up and none of my gear feels rare because it is all buyable from xur (save necrochasm which is garbage). RNG is the dumbest mechanic ever to hit a FPS game. Just like the base game you don't get enough content to warrant purchase. I bought the limited edition so I'm stuck with Destiny for one more DLC.… Expand
  20. XxNotSatisfiedx
    Feb 8, 2015
    1
    GO THROW YOU'RE MONEY IN THE TOILET THAN SUPPORTING BUNGIE , 20 EURO FOR THIS CRAP !
    People asked for this when they buyed the first paid dlc . Now we are happy if game have nice marketing . wtf is this zombie land ? Where zombies work like zombies ! maybe I expected more than rebuying cut content , I dont know ... YES YES GO WATCH ANGRY JOE REVIEW OF DESTINY !
  21. afreeman25
    Jan 29, 2015
    0
    Truly dissapointing. Loved destiny and bought this hoping the experience would keep up. Worse dlc ever.
    i believe destiny can bounce back from this, but only if the house of wolves is awesome.
    Do not spend your money on this. there are a few good crucicble maps and thats it. It is a total grind and yoy are buying grind time. Bungie couldnt have done worse. There is unanimous consent    Truly dissapointing. Loved destiny and bought this hoping the experience would keep up. Worse dlc ever.
    i believe destiny can bounce back from this, but only if the house of wolves is awesome.

    Do not spend your money on this.
    there are a few good crucicble maps and thats it. It is a total grind and yoy are buying grind time.
    Bungie couldnt have done worse.
    There is unanimous consent that this is a steaming pile. Dont know why so many critics would give it such a great review.

    Save your money guys.    … Expand
  22. Clond
    Jan 20, 2015
    2
    This expansion DLC is nothing more than re-used content, 3 short "story" missions, and little more that is not worth the ridiculous price of 19£... Bungie lost it respect for the fans. Shame on you Bungie.
  23. Xug
    Jan 9, 2015
    0
    Dear Bungie. I can only assume a best selling game doesn't pay enough these days, as I can think of no other reason to charge loyal customers additional money so that they can keep playing the game together. I actually feel embarrassed that I convinced my friends to buy this game now, as they can't play with me!

    You've actually slashed at your own game prior to release, and then    Dear Bungie. I can only assume a best selling game doesn't pay enough these days, as I can think of no other reason to charge loyal customers additional money so that they can keep playing the game together. I actually feel embarrassed that I convinced my friends to buy this game now, as they can't play with me!

    You've actually slashed at your own game prior to release, and then released and charged for content that was already there, just to make a few extra dollars. It's obvious your heart was initially in the right place as the story now lies in tatters, but you must have lost your way when the accountants drew an extra zero on the white board.

    So how about some good will guys? Release the next expansion as a combined pack. If you bought TDB, you should get the next expansion for free. If you didn't get TDB, you should get both for the same price as TDB.

    As for the issues - not being able to play with friends, no fix to joining parties, pre-nerfed guns, a poor upgrade system, an ongoing atrocious story line and an overall lack of content for the additional price.

    Sigh. What a disappointment.    … Expand
  24. jedi5diah
    Jan 6, 2015
    5
    4 points for interesting raid and
    1 point for some excellent design for weapons (husk of pits)
    minus 3 for all the rest of repetitiveness.
    minus 2 for breaking original gear effectiveness, they are useless upon the release of dlc
  25. Kataklyste
    Jan 2, 2015
    1
    missed opportunity.. all way long..
    no new story, the "lore" is 12 sentences long, no insight, no explanation, just "Eris Morn", an old guardian that tells you again where to go and who to shoot.. no decisions needed, just go there shoot this..
    reskinned weapons, or weapon handles with new poop on top.. reskinned armor , old armor and legendaries obsolete, if you arent hardcore into    missed opportunity.. all way long..
    no new story, the "lore" is 12 sentences long, no insight, no explanation, just "Eris Morn", an old guardian that tells you again where to go and who to shoot.. no decisions needed, just go there shoot this..

    reskinned weapons, or weapon handles with new poop on top.. reskinned armor , old armor and legendaries obsolete, if you arent hardcore into PvP like bungie aparently is, still no matchmaking in raids. still dependend on out of game websites to actually play the game.. no new enemies, just bigger versions of the old ones, and the raid is a joke, soloable and full of bugs and exploits.. took the hardcore gamer a puny two weeks to get to the new level cap.. lame bad design and NO they arent listening to the players, they ignore it best they can..

    and still no improvement on the basic faults, still no exploration, still no customization, still nothing "new"..

    sad.. and with the new release leak of the coming dlc /"Comet" release, this is unlikely to change until the users vote with their wallet.. -.-    … Expand
  26. Thegodfatherson
    Dec 30, 2014
    0
    This is the DLC that Bungie shoved plot holes in? Well it's WAY worse than the game itself, the characters are boring and it's the same old bad RPG everyone knew months ago. The Dark Below claims the title for the worst DLC of the year or of the history. IAM not spending more money on this stupid game!
  27. Mojodog360
    Dec 30, 2014
    0
    One of the most blatant money grabs in gaming history. Almost no new content. This DLC basically sends you back to parts of the game that you've already played. You're mostly paying for some new guns and a very short raid that can now be beaten solo. Not even worth your time, let alone your money.
  28. felasi
    Dec 28, 2014
    7
    Only by the Dark Below if your are hungry for more, and feel like Crota (the new raid boss) needs to die.

    Playing this, it seemed that bungie took onboard feedback from the community on destiny and made some changes. The few missions that come with the expansion had some good fights. However, all those hours I put in the vault of glass (previous raid) to reach level 30 seem for naught,    Only by the Dark Below if your are hungry for more, and feel like Crota (the new raid boss) needs to die.

    Playing this, it seemed that bungie took onboard feedback from the community on destiny and made some changes. The few missions that come with the expansion had some good fights. However, all those hours I put in the vault of glass (previous raid) to reach level 30 seem for naught, as now I can just go buy armor from a vendor to reach level 31.

    The expansion really is more of the same and if your interested in taking on the new raid (which seems alot shorter than the VOG raid) and using your exotic weapons in PVP or PVE, then you should get this expansion.

    For those of you who weren't impressed with destiny in the beginning then there really isnt a need to get this. For an expansion, its OK.    … Expand
  29. capthavic
    Dec 24, 2014
    0
    Destiny is the biggest bait-and-switch in a long time and this sad excuse of an expansion is just salt on the wound. There is no reason to pay money for this or even play it if you weren't already suckered into buying the season pass at launch like me. It adds nothing worthwhile to the game, just more of the same locations, same enemies, same mindless missions, same barely-there expositionDestiny is the biggest bait-and-switch in a long time and this sad excuse of an expansion is just salt on the wound. There is no reason to pay money for this or even play it if you weren't already suckered into buying the season pass at launch like me. It adds nothing worthwhile to the game, just more of the same locations, same enemies, same mindless missions, same barely-there exposition and story....you are just paying $20 for more of the same repetitive grind fest. Blatantly lazy cash grab that no one can excuse. Save you money and time and don't waste it on this scam.

    PS i heard that they had improved the loot/engram system but I didn't notice any difference during my short time back. Engram drop rates felt exactly the same and I got nothing but junk from both them and the RNG loot drops at the end of missions. This expansion gave me two things, jack and **** and a renewed hatred for Bungie/Activision. So there is that.    … Expand
  30. j_obediah
    Dec 23, 2014
    4
    The Dark Below misleads in a lot of ways.

    3 Story missions? False. You will be rehashing and treading familiar ground with the same enemies and a different narrative. If you count new missions as a new reason to do the same thing you've already been doing. Sure, but if you're expecting new content. Then really you get less than 1 mission's worth of actually new areas, since, as stated,    The Dark Below misleads in a lot of ways.

    3 Story missions? False. You will be rehashing and treading familiar ground with the same enemies and a different narrative. If you count new missions as a new reason to do the same thing you've already been doing. Sure, but if you're expecting new content. Then really you get less than 1 mission's worth of actually new areas, since, as stated, all the enemies are the same, and the only thing that really changes is the narrator and reason for treading.

    Strike? Same situation as the missions. You are not getting a new strike. You are getting half of a new strike.

    The only two things that are worth while about this DLC are the multiplayer maps, which people shell out $15 for on a regular basis anyway. (Some people like to get ripped off) and the raid, which many people who bought The Dark Below will never play anyway.

    Oh and if you don't buy the DLC, then you will lose out on certain portions of the game from time to time. Bungie's really sorry, I'm sure.

    Verdict: Nothing really new that I'm saying that hasn't already been said. I'm just cementing it. This DLC is not very expansive compared to other RPGs and MMOs, but more than generous when considering most FPSs (not including Borderlands). So if you haven't bought it already, choose your path based on the reason you played it in the first place. But the stufff they did give isn't all that great. That's why I give it the score I did.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

37
#37 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
63

Mixed or average reviews - based on 41 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 41
  2. Mixed: 29 out of 41
  3. Negative: 3 out of 41
  1. Games Master UK
    Feb 22, 2015
    79
    An extension of Destiny's triumphs and flaws that ultimately wins us over with its new raid. [Mar 2015, p.68]
  2. GameOver.gr
    Feb 10, 2015
    60
    Once again Bungie has failed to deliver what was expected by most of its following. This DLC's additions to the main game are almost superficial with the repetition, the main flaw of Destiny's design, being its bane.
    Read full review
  3. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    Feb 7, 2015
    80
    The Dark Below doesn't revolutionise Destiny's addictive endgame, but the superb new missions and the lure of new gear should tide you over 'til the House of Wolves. [Feb 2015, p.91]
See all critic reviews »