Destiny 2: Beyond Light

 Xbox Series X
User Score
6.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 42 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 42
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 42
  3. Negative: 15 out of 42

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  1. ggh4212
    Nov 18, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. (End of BL Campaign Spoilers) I'm going to go out of my way to make my opinion heard to hopefully bring about real change with Bungie and the way that things have been going on since their split with Activision and the previous two expansions. Firstly, would I recommend Destiny 2 as a whole? Yes, since Forsaken the game has gotten so much better than it was at launch and now it is free completely to pick up. However, with the vaulting of content in Beyond Light, almost all of the free content has been wiped out of the game. It's worth noting I have many, many hours in both Destiny games because I love the gameplay, loot, raid experience, etc. that Bungie RARELY fails to deliver on. This is sadly not so true here. In this DLC we have lost so much content, and it hasn't been replaced with content that is fun. The story to Beyond Light, definitely solid and a little weaker than Forsaken and Taken King, but it is not at all as poorly told as Shadowkeep. Things end on a cohesive and somewhat tragic note as we see Eramis betrayed by both the light and the dark. It's honestly sad and I hope that in the upcoming raid, she has some part to play. The one thing that I've always hated about Destiny expansions is the fact that in D2, most antagonists in the DLC's stories, aren't in the raids. Why is this? Moving on from story. Gameplay is still very good and the main reason I constantly come back to Destiny after all these years. The thing that needs the most improvement by far, is stasis. I played through the story solo and there is some shameless story length padding when the power level of every mission will be higher than you unless you want to grind powerful drops in order to hope to be close enough to do the mission. Now, back to my problems with stasis. Considering almost every mission excluding Glassway as I was not too underleveled to do that) is incredibly higher power level than you, getting hit with stasis, to put it bluntly, **** sucks. If you get frozen then you have to hold a button to get out of it, but it damages you. WTF? I'm already frozen and being shot at, meaning I'm taking damage. How are you going to go and make me take more damage from trying to be granted the ability to move again? Remove this please, Bungie. All that aside, my first playthrough was **** miserable, as I played on launch day, struggled on the missions, as mentioned, hated using the same Forsaken blues that didn't change, etc. In conclusion, Bungie, bring back the **** you vaulted. Optimize the game better for consoles instead of removing content as a way to fix it. Clean up the code. Add more strikes, more crucible maps, more gambit maps, and no more of these high power level missions that excede mine by a **** load. The loot pool is just as boring as it usually is for me in D2 because, quite simply, and factually so this can't be debated by fanboys and girls alike, the pool is just older weapons and the 30 new weapons. Almost 3/4 of your guns and armor have been removed and it was not a good idea. You've been able to pull this off in the past because there were so many weapons and it wasn't a permanent and consistent plan to remove people's guns that they spend time grinding for. The lack of planets is very hard to avoid noticing. This content may not have been your greatest, but it was ours. WE **** PAID FOR IT. We never payed for it to be removed and replaced with quite simply, not enough content. You should not remove 4 planets from the game and replace it with 2 reskinned ones from D1 and 1 new planet. There isn't enough content there to replace that which we lost. Same with the raids. Please Bungie, bring back all of the planets, raids, strikes, weapons, armor, and quests. I still love you guys and this game as it was apart of my childhood and is apart of me now. 6.5/10. Here are all the points listed in terms of how I came up with this score.
    1- The soundtrack is **** incredible as always.
    2- Europa and it's weather is also **** incredible. I loved experiencing it the first time around.
    3- The campaign was very close to the lore and I felt hardly any disconnects.
    4- The stasis abilities are amazing and I can't wait to get the new aspects and fragments for it to make them even more fleshed out.
    5- The Salvation's Grip and its associated exotic quest were such a blast to go through and the weapon is so much fun to use.
    6- A bonus point to hopefully encourage Bungie to get rid of sunsetting, and make Witch Queen and Lightfall the best expansions that Destiny fans and devs alike have ever seen.
    .5- This would be 7 points if it weren't for the fact that they removed over $40 of content and replaced it with what is $20 and sold it as $40. Also, the season pass and microtransactions that are half-assed and don't even look good until an event comes around.
    PS: Please, people, be reasonable. This DLC is not a 0. Present your argument in a clear and concise manner and don't review bomb a game because it isn't 10/10.    … Expand
  2. nrogers17
    Nov 18, 2020
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Yes, this will be a long review. Also, IHE, if you see this, put it in the video.

    If you play destiny 2 a lot, you know that Activision split from the destiny franchise, so this is one of the first expansions made entirely by Bungie. Going in with expectations that were set by Bungie themselves. Before it released, they said it would not be as big as forsaken, but bigger than Shadowkeep. Going in with that expectation, I was pleasantly surprised at the new expansion. Let’s go over the story.

    Just like most expansions, they heavily rely on you knowing the lore to know what is going on and who the bad guys are. Because I played and know that, I was able to keep up with the story. You start on Europa, which we will go over later, after hearing a distress call from Variks, an old character that had an unseen, but we’ll known role in Forsaken. You go rescue him for Eramis and is hinted that they were once friends and that the darkness has corrupted Eramis. Later, you have to kill her lieutenants. If that sounds similar to forsaken, the you are correct. However, unlike forsaken, the fights were fun. Why? Because they are challenging. When I did it solo, it took me a long time to get to the final damage phase where it lets you be almost infinitely supercharged with stars until you defeat the boss. One fight had me for an hour, trying at the boss fight until I figured out how to win. Eventually, you find out where Eramis is and kill her. The boss is not that hard, but has a really good feel to it and leads to the endgame. The endgame in this expansion has been the best for the destiny franchise in my opinion. After the campaign, you permanently unlock your stasis subclass. Then, you can get an extra story quest where a dark priestess tries to resurrect Eramis, or you can do the other quests of unlocking aspects of your stasis abilities, giving them upgrade and bonuses. So now we have gone over the story, let’s go over the core activities. Crucible has the perfect weapon sandbox. It feels the most balanced it has been so far, with the exception of the stasis abilities. Although really good, they are not game breaking and will only freeze you a couple times a match unless you get unlucky. Gambit, has now been mad e not one game mode instead of 2. It has aspects of both modes, making it something that the gambit tryhards will like, because, let’s be honest. Most everyone that plays destiny hates gambit. Finally, strikes. Although a lot were removed, I feel like most of the good strikes are still I the game, and have not changed much. Now, let’s talk about Europa. It is hands down, the best planet ever to be in the destiny universe, including the dreadnaught. It has 3 cycles of weather that will constantly change and will affect you when you play. It is truly a next generation destination. Finally, the elephant in the room, sunsetting. Many people are mad that a lot of the planets and activities are gone and most of their weapons cannot be upgraded past a certain point. However, I think it is good for the game. It allows Bungie to make new content instead of having to update old planets and frees a lot of space for them to do more things. They do not have to worry about tuning things as much now, because they can leave it in for longer and know that it will even and inevitably be sunset. This allows them to make more weapons and items that are really good so players can have more fun. Regarding the destinations, that frees a lot of space on my Xbox console. Destiny 2 is a big game, and this frees up a lot of space so I can play more games (even though I won’t want to). Not only that, but the destinations that are gone will come back. Bungie said that they wanted it make improvements and cycle them back in so you will still be able to experience it, even a better version of it. Overall, Destiny 2 has improved a lot with Beyond Light. I was not able to talk about the quality of life changes, even really good things inside crucible and gambit that protect you when you join mid game or someone leaves your team. Beyond Light has been one of the best expansions of Destiny 2, and I hope it will only go up from here.    … Expand
  3. FORMAL_0
    Dec 2, 2020
    4
    -poor and short campaign
    -no creative content
    -the game should have a greater challenge for players like clan wars. Crucible isn't enough
    -These dlcs doesn't worth to buy. The only reason that destiny 2 is still alive are your fans but bungie doesn't want to receive money for great content.He want's to get a lot of money for no hard-worked content which makes me angry.
  4. Rocharox
    Nov 14, 2020
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Really horrible expansion. It's obvious that the developers tought that the new classes would justify the $60 price tag (it doesn't).
    - PVP got no new maps/Arenas;
    - PVE lost 65% of it's content, and 2 of the current destinations, introduced in the 2 latest expansions (Forsaken and Shadowkeep) are next to useless, since all it's gear are now obsoleted.
    - People playing on X-Box couldn't open their vaults
    - incredible boring new campain that had it's time artificially increased by placing the teleport point in one edge of the map and forcing you to run to the other edge to execute said quests.
    -The Darkness, which finally came to our system and is on the move, get a barely mention in this. We saw more darkness in the last season pass (Season of Arrivals) than we did on this full expansion.

    - Reused content list;
    - Aside from 1 new Vex unit, "EVERY SINGLE ENEMY" is just a Reskin of know enemies. I mean, they did exactly that on Shadowkeep too but we had a lot of content on that expansion;;;
    - Open Map events are ALL REUSED, some from the original Destiny 2 (vex plates)
    - Cosmodrome from D1
    - Lot's of indoor areas.

    This is just a minimal work on new maps and new classes with a full expansion price tag.    … Expand
  5. shadic3158
    Nov 14, 2020
    10
    I’ve been with Destiny for all of its lifespan and I’m planning on being with it for the rest. The new powers of stasis is a blast to use and the new destination Europa is has a beautiful scenery and aspect. I understand why some things were vaulted yet I don’t understand the backlash of lack of content. It’s only been a few days so they don’t have a reason to complain. I ALSO understandI’ve been with Destiny for all of its lifespan and I’m planning on being with it for the rest. The new powers of stasis is a blast to use and the new destination Europa is has a beautiful scenery and aspect. I understand why some things were vaulted yet I don’t understand the backlash of lack of content. It’s only been a few days so they don’t have a reason to complain. I ALSO understand that they haven’t had the most resources from home due to Covid-19 yet they still made more content than Shadowkeep. The game is still fun and it always has been my go-to FPS. This release I feel has been a good step in the right direction and it gives me hope to see Bungie return as a leading game developer.… Expand
  6. rpgcrash
    Nov 12, 2020
    2
    I have been playing video games since the 90s and this is without a shadow of a doubt the worst expansion for any game I have had the opportunity to play.

    Finally delving into questions and characters the playerbase has been very excited for, and Bungie has teased themselves, in turns out the villains in this $60 expansion are, once again, reskins. Approx. 3/4 of the already existing    I have been playing video games since the 90s and this is without a shadow of a doubt the worst expansion for any game I have had the opportunity to play.

    Finally delving into questions and characters the playerbase has been very excited for, and Bungie has teased themselves, in turns out the villains in this $60 expansion are, once again, reskins.

    Approx. 3/4 of the already existing content, content players have payed hundreds of dollars for, has been removed, with no way to get it back. There is nothing in the expansion to make up for this.

    All in all, it seems like this was just to get an influx of money into the game, but the loss of goodwill and hope probably won't pay off in the best way.    … Expand
  7. TheRedSpy
    Nov 19, 2020
    10
    Its crazy to me how many people are blatantly lying and giving this DLC a 1/10. The issues that many people have are with the changes made to the base game, not this DLC in itself. The base game (which is free might I add) has indeed gone through negative changes in my opinion, but those negative reviews of the base game shouldn't be tacked onto the new DLC. So I wont be saying much on theIts crazy to me how many people are blatantly lying and giving this DLC a 1/10. The issues that many people have are with the changes made to the base game, not this DLC in itself. The base game (which is free might I add) has indeed gone through negative changes in my opinion, but those negative reviews of the base game shouldn't be tacked onto the new DLC. So I wont be saying much on the base game, you can find someone else to do that for you. That being said let me clear up a few lies you may have heard and why this DLC is generally fantastic. 1 lie I've seen going around is that the DLC is not 60$, it is 40$, or 10$ if you just want the new Seasons Activities, weapons etc.

    The Story - The story is actually fantastic, I would say its just under Forsaken on quality Many people are saying that the story is way too hard. I don't know what kind of Game Journalist playing skills these people must have (and believe me I'm no pro, just a casual guy) but I played through the entire thing in 6 hours while being below light by 10. I took my time, and didn't really rush through it, just tried to have fun. The story captivates you all the way through, not requiring you to know any deep lore to like it.

    Subclasses - Stasis is the newest damage type and subclass in Destiny's arsenal. Its incredibly accessible, and customizable. Very impressive and adds to the power fantasy of the game. that being said, they can be extremely annoying in PVP. And I mean INCREDIBLY annoying. However Bungie has already demonstrated that they tune things within a week of hearing community feedback.

    Gameplay - The Gameplay is always great. The Gunplay is always a 10/10, and the new weapons feel absolutely amazing. Furthermore Europa (the new destination) is incredible. Its a truly next gen-location. With dynamic weather and beautiful skyboxes and graphics. Really a fantastic location. Furthermore the quick bug fixes, and sandbox tuning that Bungie has been able to do with the size reduction of the game have been very noticeable.    … Expand
  8. Madnesswhooves
    Dec 2, 2020
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Juste beautiful, a lot of good stuff I really love it, I don't know why people hate this game… Expand
  9. Lohshun
    Dec 8, 2020
    9
    Beyond Light is a fantastic expansion that has kept me entertained every day for weeks following the launch.

    The campaign itself, while somewhat concise, is well-written, and delivers some satisfying peeks into a new layer of the Destiny universe. Stasis is a blast and, PVP balance aside (which I don't find troubling personally), is incredibly fun to play and represent some of the    Beyond Light is a fantastic expansion that has kept me entertained every day for weeks following the launch.

    The campaign itself, while somewhat concise, is well-written, and delivers some satisfying peeks into a new layer of the Destiny universe.

    Stasis is a blast and, PVP balance aside (which I don't find troubling personally), is incredibly fun to play and represent some of the best class design we've seen in Destiny. New subclass progression systems introduced here seem really promising should they be taken to the light subclasses!

    Deep Stone Crypt is fun, but not quite as challenging as I'd hoped. Some very memorable moments though.

    On the topic of guns- this expansion has definitely failed to fill the newly-created void following sunsetting, but I'm hopeful that we'll see improvements in the coming months. A few extra armor sets were definitely missed.

    Overall, I'd recommend this expansion to anybody looking for more gun grind, new toys to play with and new lore to sink your teeth into. If the negatives others have shared are a red flag to you, please pass on this one and take your salt with you ;)    … Expand
  10. Jukko
    Nov 16, 2020
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I've been playing Destiny since D1 and have completed all raids, reached legend in Comp, and have gone Flawless in Trials. I'm telling you so that you understand that I'm a veteran player and my opinion is based on having played D2 for 3 years.

    Good things: Europa is a gorgeous location, the new story campaign is interesting, and Gambit is now the shortest playlist activity. Some exotic drops are tied to solo Master difficulty Lost Sectors so you can get aspirational gear without a team. The new subclass customization is a good change. Great game IF you're new to it and you don't know what you're missing.

    Bad things: Besides the raid (maybe, since I haven't played it yet), the end-game is lacking, by a lot. The Empire Hunts are basically recycled Nightmare Hunts from Shadowkeep which were just recycled Barron Hunts from Forsaken. Most of the loot was sunset and next to nothing new was added to replace it. I have no idea why Bungie is charging people money to Shadowkeep and Forsaken since you can't get any relevant gear from those locations and no powerful drops to add to your light level at all. Buy those expansions if you want to play the story (I highly recommend Forsaken) The armor and weapon design is lazy. For example, the "new" sniper rifle Adored is exactly the same as a sunset rifle called Beloved... but with a sash over it. This will continue to be a problem since now every season will see gear being added and gear being sunset. The loot pool will not expand but will either stay the same or shrink. Most of the armor for this season is just a reskin of itself, as if we couldn't do that with shaders. The Stasis subclass is the worst thing to happen to Crucible. If you like being frozen and shot without being able to do anything, then yeah, jump in. It makes you want to keep away from other players which doesn't makes sense for an FPS. Lastly... the bugs. Everything is broken. Emotes don't work; Progression is blocked in some Strikes; Other strikes take your Super energy away; The new Subclass melts raid bosses; Exotics are being removed from the game temporarily because of an "issue"; Trials is pushed back by two weeks because of another "issue"; A Strike is temporarily removed for yet another "issue"; the list goes on and on....

    Destiny is a GREAT game but it isn't going in the great direction for veteran players.    … Expand
  11. AlexInAbyss
    Dec 3, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This expansion has been rather lacking the content added has been disappointing. the story is just another by the books Destiny story with a handful of uninteresting small boss fights before the big bad which in this case being Aramis which has yet again been a forgettable encounter.

    New loot hasn't done a good job of filling in the massive whole that sunsetting has created it only highlighted the lack of new loot introduced.

    PVP has been woefully thrown into chaos due to the new abilities being significantly better than the old and Trials of Osiris (PVP endgame) has been disabled since BL release due to issues brought on by Stasis and player exploitation which has only fuelled speculation that Bungie are reluctant or unwilling to put in the effort to balance out the state of PVP.

    Ultimately the expansion has done very little to improve the game and has so far only highlighted the deeper issues of the game.    … Expand
  12. Keitha313
    Dec 31, 2020
    5
    Lets keep this review brief

    Strengths - Story narrative ties in with D1 lore Improved story telling Improved super structure (although there is a flaw to the new super) Weaknesses More of the same old content Big price point for less content i.e. Taken King provided more content Sun setting of weapons without proving enough new weapons Only 1 new strike No new gambit modes or    Lets keep this review brief

    Strengths -
    Story narrative ties in with D1 lore
    Improved story telling
    Improved super structure (although there is a flaw to the new super)

    Weaknesses
    More of the same old content
    Big price point for less content i.e. Taken King provided more content
    Sun setting of weapons without proving enough new weapons
    Only 1 new strike
    No new gambit modes or maps
    No new PPV maps
    Raid is forgettable and very easy
    No returning incentive since no difficult modes of raids or strikes is added
    Stasis is problematic, not many people want to be frozen still for several seconds
    Balancing issue with PVP mode makes any lure to returning to this mode null and void a mode built around sweats who play it several hours per day
    No incentive towards strikes, gambit or PVP since all gear is rehashed

    Unfortunately the game just lacks big time, it stinks of being overpriced I feel like I've been ripped off and sadly this is a common trend with gaming. I would tell anyone considering a purchase of this game to maybe watch some gameplay and decide if you really think its worth it, gameplay in my opinion is padded out with a boring grind like most games nowadays a cheap and rather pathetic means to make a game feel more longer than it actually is.    … Expand
  13. HeartStrong07
    Dec 15, 2020
    3
    Beautiful to look at but simply not fun. More grinding for fewer weapons, on fewer planets, and maps for more money. I would not recommend this game to other people.
  14. Foxtrot117
    May 10, 2021
    9
    Easily my second favorite expansion, second only to Forsaken. Campaign is fantastic, and has an interesting story that the urgency is only increased if you're up to date on lore. Great parallels if you know anything about the game at all.

    The loot is fine. The raid loot is the best the game has ever had, with each weapon filling a role previously unfulfilled or being best in class. The    Easily my second favorite expansion, second only to Forsaken. Campaign is fantastic, and has an interesting story that the urgency is only increased if you're up to date on lore. Great parallels if you know anything about the game at all.

    The loot is fine. The raid loot is the best the game has ever had, with each weapon filling a role previously unfulfilled or being best in class. The Europa weapons are fine. The raid is by far my favorite in all of Destiny, with an amazing soundtrack and great visuals.    … Expand
  15. Ratzu
    Dec 28, 2020
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. After putting many hours in the game, it is a waste of time. The new raid was good, and solo legendary lost sectors was a good addition, outside of that every thing else was either poorly made or ruined the game. If you like pvp, dont bother, stasis made sure to make that not fun to play anymore. Seasonal event, is just a crap version of monster hunter. If I wanted to play monster hunter, I would go play the good version of it, not bungies crappy version of it. Sunsetting was not implemented correctly, game still has a flood of issues. Wasted my time getting adept weapons, when they are a joke. Game is just the definition of good ideas, just the dev team decided to not care to implement those good ideas with any effort.… Expand
  16. Trevaskisschar
    Aug 6, 2021
    8
    Good expansion and story mission design is top notch the raid is amazing and the soundtrack is unmatched but stasis completely ruined PvP for a long time

Awards & Rankings

15
#15 Best Xbox Series X Game of 2020
12
#12 Most Discussed Xbox Series X Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. CD-Action
    Jun 9, 2021
    75
    Jupiter’s icy moon of Europa failed to make a good first impression on me, but the longer I played, the more I enjoyed the new map. I do not miss Mars or Mercury anymore. Returning players may not be happy about Bungie getting rid of some content and making a substantial part of old gear obsolete, but I understand the need to do some cleaning up before evolving the game. At its core Destiny 2 remains the same thing you loved (or hated) and its shooting mechanics are still among the best you can experience. [01/2021, p.78]
  2. Jeuxvideo.com
    Dec 17, 2020
    75
    In the end, we are very happy with the experience, but it is less striking than that of Bastion des Ombres or Renegades.
    Read full review
  3. Power Unlimited
    Nov 29, 2020
    65
    Are you crazy about Destiny lore and do you think Destiny 2 is fine as it is? Then Beyond Light will suit you just fine! However, if you're expecting some substantial changes from Bungie by now and aren't exactly excited to get back into the grind, you might want to focus on the next-gen version and wait for Destiny 2 to release its December update.
    Read full review
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