Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Rapid Review

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Fast Facts

Title: Destiny 2: Shadowkeep
Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Bungie
Website: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/Destiny/Shadowkeep
Genre: Shooter, Action & Adventure
Platform: PS4
Age Rating: PEGI 16
Release Date: 16/10/2019
Price: £29.99 – Rapid Reviews was very kindly provided with a review code for this title.

Another year, another Destiny 2 expansion, something that depending on how you feel about Destiny, in general, will come with Glee or a loud audible sigh. I’m in the former camp, I’ve taken down Cayde’s killers, forged many exotic weapons and have been called a snitch from the Drifter more times than I can count. So let’s take a look at how it stacks up this year.

Destiny is an open-world looter shooter akin to an MMO. At its core, the story of destiny is good vs evil or more to be more specific humanity vs the darkness. Still, with each year there are diversions from this story. This year’s focus looks to be a look into the unknown, Spooky and mysterious Eris Morn has come back into the fold. We last saw her in the first Destiny game, so she is a nice callback for destiny fans. However, wherever Eris is, the Hive is not far behind, so it looks like the theme is set around them this season.

The Moon is also back from Destiny, giving us another area to explore. Her past is haunting Eris; she is shadowed by her old fireteam who had fallen by Crota. The main question is, where did these nightmares come from and why are they stalking her. Here is where our guardian comes in. We are tasked with finding out why this is happening, is there any relevance with the darkness that has been an ominous presence over the years.

I’ll give a quick refresher for those who haven’t played Destiny before. When starting a destiny game from the beginning, you create your character (guardian) out of 3 character classes, each with their skillset.

If we are to go by MMO terms Hunters are swift and agile like the thief/ninja class; they have a dodge that will either reload their weapon or melee ability. Titans are strong, almost impenetrable like a wall; I would compare them to the tank class. They can put up a barrier block enemy fire or half barrier which you can peek out of and reload your weapon. Warlocks are like the mage class they put down an area of energy called the rift, which can either heal you or make you do more damage.

Each has their choice of different energy classes with three different supers that are different and unique. You have ones that damage enemies (Titan hammers, Warlock Void bombs and hunter Golden guns) or support fellow guardians (Titan Bubble, Warlock radiance well and Hunter).

Destiny is split into two types of play, PVP and PVE.

With PVP this is ingame multiplayer against other people……to be honest if I have to break it down its just variations of deathmatch see these modes. For example, Rumble is standard deathmatch, control is team deathmatch with territories, and survival is an elimination team deathmatch. There are differences, but they are negligible at best.

PVE is where you can party up with your buddies and take on computer AI content.

General free roam is where you can travel to planets and take on weekly objectives and patrols. Strikes are one-off missions you take; there is a weekly playlist with easy modifiers that affect gameplay that can benefit or hurt your game. If you want a challenging version of a strike that is where Nightfalls come in, they are strikes with added difficulty and modifiers cranked up to your choosing. At this time being only the creme la creme can do the grandmaster nightfalls. However, those that do get some of the top rewards in the game, such as exotics and material shards.

The main goal of the game is to get loot and a high power level as it is essential for end game content which is The Raid. The loot is the weapons and armour pieces you collect. Weapons are split into various types and three categories Kinetic, Energy and Heavy. Kinetic is the primary weapon in the first slot, energy is similar to kinetic, but they have special energy tied to it (the same as subclasses that the guardian can use), and heavy is power weapon slot that are weapons that are almost one-hit kills for most lower adds

The Raid in Destiny is almost like an event on its own. I’d like it to be the world cup that happens every week. It’s a particular time that brings the whole community together. If I were to describe them, it is everything PVE wise you have done put together into one extended strike. You have puzzles, bosses and loot to contend with, in which you will be rewarded if you complete.

There is another mode Called Gambit that merges the two types into one and is dubbed by Bungie calling it PVEVP. It is a mode where you race against another set of guardians to take down an enemy boss. However, you get an opportunity to invade the other side and disrupt them from getting to and defeating the boss. The mode is ok but does feel unfair at times, especially as people could have the highest power levels and weapons that make a big difference and affect how you play.

First thing I will say is that this is the first season where Bungie is independent and sadly I think this is where most of the core problems come from. Bungie broke away from Activision and now are self-publishing and developing the game before they had other teams such as Vicarious Visions giving them a helping hand.

I am in two minds about the game. I love the gameplay I feel nothing comes close to the gunplay and the satisfying feeling you get when you kill a shoulder charging titan (#Hunter4life……sorry). However, with each expansion, I feel the fact that it’s a Games as a service with seasons type of game, means that it has a Fear of missing out factor. This means a lot of the cool stuff is held back for Eververse kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Rapid Reviews Rating

You can purchase Destiny 2: Shadowkeep from the PlayStation Store on the following link, https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP0002-CUSA06172_00-D2SHADOWKEEP0001