With the long-awaited release of Destiny 2’s latest expansion pack, Destiny 2: Lightfall, players all over the world are rushing to see what Bungie has in store for us this expansion. After a long night of grinding out the legendary campaign and doing some early quests, we here at GameDrudge have some early first impressions for those who are on the fence about jumping into Bungie’s latest adventure. So if you haven’t already checked out Lightfall, get out your favorite exotic and make sure your super is charged. These are my initial thoughts on Destiny 2: Lightfall.
Intros are important. Lets Get Some Stuff Out of The Way Quick
Lets get some credentials out of the way first, since it seems like that’s so important in the Destiny community nowadays; I’ve been playing this franchise since it released back in 2014 pretty consistently with some breaks here and there, notably during the first year of Destiny 2. I’ve been through all of the highs and lows this franchise has thrown at the community and have come out the other side as a healthy fan who can still criticize the Destiny 2 without being overtly negative, and who can enjoy it without veering into blind Fanboyism. Lightfall definitely has some stuff that has me playing into both sides of the spectrum. Lets get into some first impressions on the gameplay of Destiny 2: Lightfall.
Destiny 2: Lightfall- Gameplay Overview
Coming off of the back of Witch Queen’s great story campaign was never going to be easy, but on the gameplay side of things Lightfall does succeed… mostly. If you’re REALLY sensitive to spoilers, I’m going to be dropping some mild gameplay segment spoilers here, but nothing on the story for now; you’ve been warned.
I’ve always been a proponent that Destiny has some of, if not the, best gunplay in video games. That’s no exaggeration; The same way it feels inherently good to do something simple in any great game. Like jumping in a Mario game, it just feels so right to pull the trigger in Destiny. Luckily, that hasn’t changed in Lightfall. Every new weapon I’ve gotten to use has great feedback and punchy weight to it, no matter what’s on the other end of the scope. The campaign also consistently delivers on that classic Bungie arena-to-arena gameplay. There wasn’t a ton of rooms where I came out of it saying “well that just wasn’t fun to fight in” or “that didn’t work at all”.
Destiny 2: Lightfall- Campaign Difficulty
Comparing it to the Witch Queen campaign, its definitely less difficult both from a combat and puzzle standpoint. In fact, I don’t think I can recall a single real “puzzle” in Lightfall’s campaign. To contrast, Witch Queen which had at least 3 that were required to progess. The only arena that really gave me a run for my money as well was the final boss fight and an arena in the final mission leading up to it. So not as challenging on that front. The final level in particular is a big highlight, culminating in a dramatic last stand that almost reminded me of the old Halo games, and anything that reminds me of the old Halo games is definitely a good thing.
I also really like the new enemy, the Tormenters. Definitely step up from the Hive Guardians of Witch Queen in terms of difficulty and design, and were a fun challenge and priority target whenever they popped up. Great design, cool moves, good difficulty. Great enemy overall.
The Legendary campaign is once again great. Not only for getting double loot, but its also a really solid challenge as well, both solo and in a group. Definitely recommend playing the Legendary difficulty for the campaign, even if its your first time. You won’t regret it.
Destiny 2: Lightfall- Concerning Strand
The big gameplay selling point for Lightfall was the Strand subclass and element type, and, thankfully, it doesn’t disappoint… for the most part. Strand is, without a doubt, insanely fun to use and a welcome addition to Destiny’s subclasses. I was grinning ear to ear the first time I was allowed to use the grapple shot, and laughing maniacally when I discovered you could use it to latch onto Cabal dropships and go for a ride.
I know that its very early, and we’ve barely even scratched the surface of buildcrafting for Strand right now, but I think its going to struggle to find a place in endgame content. At the least the Titan class, Berserker, might struggle for a few months. For being a subclass that encourages you to be mobile and play as a raging lunatic, cooldowns seem unnecessarily long. In particular the cooldown for grapple and melee on Titan are wayyyy too long in my opinion. With 5 years of buildcrafting done for some of the subclasses, it might struggle to find a place in high-level content starting out.
Destiny 2: Lightfall-Story Review
Now we get to the story, and if you care about spoilers, this is your stop. Without saying too much, I am pretty disappointed in the story overall, to be honest. Anything more is going to be spoilers, so skip ahead to end now if you value a surprise!
Here we go.
Lightfall SPOILERS Begin!
Destiny 2: Lightfall was hyped up as the “Empire Strikes Back” or the “Infinity War” of the Destiny universe. When I think of those classic “the bad guys win” movies, they all had one thing in common. A compelling villain is absolutely neccessary for this type of story. Lightfall was the chance to really shed some light on our main threat, The Witness, a villain who’s been teased for close to 10 years. Keeping The Witness and the Black Fleet vague WAS a good thing. A mysterious, dangerous threat who we know no capabilities or motivation is a great way to build tension and intrigue. But now that The Witness and The Black Fleet is breaking down the door, I think it would be better to shed some light on them.
Let me put it this way; Imagine Infinity War, but Thanos doesn’t really do anything for 95% of the time and we don’t really know his motivations. He would turn into just some big purple freak running around, sending his lackeys to do his dirty work. Or maybe if Darth Vader wasn’t revealed until halfway through Empire Strikes Back. Sure, he’s still mysterious and imposing to an extent, but not really engaging.
For an expansion about the villains winning, we don’t really know a whole lot about any of them besides Calus. We don’t even really know how The Witness wins; we’re just told that they do! Thankfully, Calus remains as boisterous and enjoyable as always. He always has been a great villain, even if he does bite it in a bit of an underwhelming way.
Lightfall SPOILERS- Concerning New Characters
I also think its a really bad decision to try and shoehorn in more characters this late in Destiny’s story. Rohan and Nimbus the Cloudstriders seem fine, but their plot doesn’t really go anywhere, at least not yet. I get it, its to try and get us to care about the new planet we’re on. But with how many pieces on the board are already set up on both sides of the Light and Dark spectrum and The Witness at the gates, introducing new characters amidst all the chaos and expecting us to care when one of them dies comes off as very rushed.
Also, Nimbus’ dialogue is really, really bad. I get it, they’re supposed to be the young, naive rookie who rushes headlong into every engagement. But damn man, fighting all-out war when you’re on the losing side, and you’re cracking bad jokes and quipping? I know I compared this story to something akin to Infinity War earlier, but some dialouge comes off as especially Marvel-y. Unfortunately, its not really in a good way. Even Marvel movies used to know when to shut up when the enemy is at the gates. I would’ve gladly traded Nimbus and Rohan for more time with Caitl, Calus and Osiris any day of the week.
Also, god damn get Osiris a therapist already. Dude has been a total bummer to be around for like a year now. Getting kind of tired of his constant bumming.
Lightfall Spoilers: Final thoughts
Obviously, Destiny is a live service game, so a lot of this will probably be revealed with time. However, its still a bit frustrating to wait for so long in the dark, and at the end of Lightfall still be left with more questions than answers. Last thing, there are way too many Macguffins in this plot, with the Radial Mast, The Veil and the CloudArk. Even worse, I don’t even really know why the Radial Mast and The Veil are so important, just that they are. And the CloudArk is just an advanced Mark Zuckerberg VR scheme; not really too interested in that unfortunately.
Lightfall SPOILERS End Here
Alright, spoilers over.
On a positive note, the story does start off strong with a great cutscene. And the new destination, the city of Neomuna on Neptune, is fantastically well designed. While the story felt like filler in the lead up to The Final Shape next year, I’m still enjoying Lightfall. These are just some first impressions with Destiny 2: Lightfall. I’ll probably have some more complete thoughts once I do the new raid, slated to launch on March 10th, and get some more sweet loot to play around with. For now, Lightfall’s first impression is certainly good. Maybe not all the community was hoping for though, and certainty let me down in a few areas.
Be on the lookout for more Lightfall content in the coming weeks and months. Watch this space for some guides and impressions as more of Destiny 2: Lightfall is discovered! Apart from that, get out there, Guardian.
