Destiny is approaching its tenth year as a franchise. Way back in 2014 the original game launched in a not-so-great state, but became a huge part of my life.
I’ve made lifelong friends from the journey, and even though it had it’s problems it was always a good time, thanks to the top-tier combat and build variety that it provided. Even today nothing quite matches the core shooting mechanics. Now Destiny 2: The Final Shape marks the conclusion of a decade-long saga.
I dropped off Destiny over the years. Whilst The Witch Queen was a great expansion, it’s year was missing something, and when Lightfall came out I was shocked at just how bad things had gotten. The storytelling and game design was enough to make me uninstall the game until now. Thankfully, The Final Shape lives up to expectations and delivers a finale, but can it bring me back in for the long run?
Witness the end
Set after the event of Lightfall and the subsequent seasons, the Witness is one step closer to accomplishing his goal: activating The Veil and making his way inside the traveller. The Coalition, made up of Ikora, Zavalla, The Crow, and the Guardian (you), initiate their plan to follow The Witness and stop him from starting The Final Shape.
What The Final Shape finally does incredibly well is give Destiny the depth that it needs. Every single character that appears here is well-developed. Zavalla sees a lot of the spotlight as a conflicted warrior of light. Over the years we’ve seen a prideful Guardian begin to lose faith in the traveller, and we see a really satisfying conclusion to this storyline.
Unfortunately, with Lance Reddick’s tragic death the mantle has had to move over to Keith David, who does an absolutely amazing job picking up the pieces. It’s a tough spot to fill, but it was done so with magnificently, managing to bring his own twist onto the character whilst keeping that iconic commanding voice. Even so, Lance’s passing is going to be felt for a while, as he didn’t just play a character, he was part of the community, and this is shown with none of his old voice lines being removed or replaced.
Ikora sees the least development, staying pretty dull throughout the whole expansion and not really getting a chance to shine. It’s the return of Cayde-6 that steals the show; the quippy, sarcastic hunter vanguard returns after his death by the hands of a corrupted Uldren. I won’t spoil just how Cayde returns, but it’s well justified in the story and gives some of the best moments the series has had narratively. The interactions with Cayde and Uldren carry a lot of weight and it’s really nice to see this finally get some payoff years later. Nathan Fillion returns and brings that much-needed nuance, cracking the occasional joke without undercutting the drama (looking at you, Silver Surfer). I am actually impressed by the level of restraint shown here.
We also have a pretty engaging villain in the form of The Witness, who is much more present in the story than pretty much any other villain in Destiny. He constantly mocks you and tries to turn you and your allies into his own disciples. Unfortunately, whilst I did enjoy the Witness’ presence, I didn’t find him as engaging or interesting as the likes of The Witch Queen herself, Savathun, who still stands as Destiny’s best antagonist. This is due in fact to having some really disappointing boss encounters outside of the raids.
As a whole, The Final Shape is an excellently well-told story that ends a ten-year story with grace. A lot of the major lingering questions have been answered and the end result is surprisingly satisfying. That’s not an easy thing to do, but much like Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, they managed to pull it off, yet it leaves enough open to continue on. An almost perfect blend of nostalgia in bringing Cayde back and really focusing on these characters that have been with us since the very start.
Bungie’s legendary campaign
The Pale Heart of the Traveller is where you will be spending pretty much all of the campaign. This is a place created from the memories of its inhabitants and twisted by the darkness. You will see things that look recognisable, but with a dark, almost horror-like twist to them, from the very first spot you wake up in, to the Dreaming City, and many more surprise destinations. It all familiar, yet off-putting at the same time. Faces of the lost and ghosts are morphed into the environment and it often feels like something out of Hellblade II. The Bungie art team does a phenomenal job of delivering some of the most compelling environments.
It’s also what Bungie calls Destiny‘s first “linear patrol”, which may seem confusing at first, but the way The Final Shape is structured is wonderful. Instead of a singular large zone, you will progress further into the Pale Heart, unlocking larger zones as you move along, whilst keeping basically the entire story missions explorable. This is easily the biggest and best patrol zone Bungie has created. It feels like there’s genuine purpose behind it.
Much like the previous two expansions, the campaign here has a Legendary mode, which I would very much recommend as the default experience. I played it solo and it took me around seven hours to complete, without really optimising or maxing out my build potential. I just went with the flow and used what I found fun, and outside a few rough encounters, I didn’t see much trouble. Some light puzzle-solving mechanics will get newer players used to how some of Destiny‘s higher-end content will work, whilst interesting combat encounters keep things feeling fresh.
The levels themselves are pretty well designed, with a good combination of challenging boss fights, puzzle-like encounters, and some of that platforming you will either love or hate. This is among probably the widest variety in terms of level design we’ve seen. Unfortunately, there’s also no truly big moments that really drive home the epic final battle. Anytime an NPC joins the fight they kind of just sit around and do nothing. Clearly a symptom of the aging Destiny 2 engine as the AI just struggles.
While there isn’t a new species to deal with, there are new enemy types. While these are fun enough to fight, after years of teasing the Black Fleet, it’s incredibly disappointing we didn’t get a massive new threat to deal with. Known as the Dread, these new foes include some of the most different enemy types in the game. I genuinely had a blast fighting them. They might not be game-changing, but are solid additions to the sandbox, regardless. A couple of them are pretty much reskins, but are differentiated enough that I can give them a pass on that.
There’s also a new subclass, not a new element like everyone was expecting. Known as Prismatic, the guardian now wields both light and dark energy in a fully modular class system. As a Hunter, it’s amazing being able to bring the void bow for big DPS, a grappling hook, and a stasis melee ability. It creates a lot of flexibility with your builds, but these will be at a reduced effectiveness than a dedicated subclass, being able to take ultimates from one subclass, and grenades from another. On top of this, each class has a new super ability for one of their subclasses.
Prismatic sits at the very core of The Final Shape, unlocking towards the back end of the first mission. This is much better than the glorified Strand tutorial moments in Lightfall, where it feels like the game was teasing these abilities more than letting you have fun with them. But Prismatic isn’t fully unlocked at the start, and fragments, abilities, etc. will be unlocked throughout the campaign. It’s a neat idea that makes you feel more powerful as you go, being able to experiment a bit in the process.
Unfortunately, while the Legendary campaign was almost Witch Queen tier, I did find myself disappointed with the final mission of the Legendary campaign. The final boss was rather weak and it didn’t feel like the grand encounter that it should have been. Thankfully, it is very much not the ending of the campaign as that bleeds into the post-campaign content, but I was still hoping for a bigger encounter here. But don’t worry, this is far from the end.
Post-Campaign
Note: Whilst this review is spoiler-free, I will be discussing endgame activities which will be close to spoiler territory.
After the 7th mission, the scope of the expansion’s content reveals itself as the Pale Heart truly opens up as a patrol zone. Complete with its own progression system in the form of Pale Heart Pathfinder, as well as Overthrow, which is the strongest public event offering to date.
A bulk of the progression is reserved for the two exotic quests. Completing these are crucial for story progression. Once done, the endgame truly begins. Salvation’s Edge is the latest raid that ties directly into the end of the main story. After a grueling nineteen hour marathon, the first team that cleared the raid became Legends as they unlocked the final chapter for the rest of the community. I didn’t take part in the raid at all and don’t really intend to, but some of the weapons and gear look incredible. I did end up jumping in and out of streams and followed the brutal journey the guardians took, and even looking from the outside in it was truly epic.
As for the mission itself, Destiny‘s first 12-player PvE activity was the capstone to this entire sage. The big moment that unlocked the final ending. I can’t spoil the specifics here, but it is by far one of the best moments in gaming this year and possibly in the entire franchise. A truly epic final battle that was perfectly well done, leading to a surprisingly emotional final cutscene. If there’s one thing this expansion will be remembered for, it’s that its final chapter was perfect in its execution.
Finally, once done collecting Lost Ghosts, Overthrow is a fantastic patrol zone event that is almost always active with a very small cooldown after it’s completed. Although, I do wish there was a way to just enter the Patrol Zone and for it to be filled with other players. The isolated feeling of the Pale Heart loses its effect after completing the story, and I want to see other players. You can matchmake into Overthrow events, but only in one of the zones per day. A weird limitation.
Just about every bit of new content in The Final Shape feels like Bungie is back on form. The exotics are incredible, the level design is top-tier, and for the first time since The Witch Queen‘s initial release, I was simply having fun playing it. It’s just unfortunate that no strides have been made to really innovate or change the formula. Destiny 2 is still clearly struggling here, and if it didn’t happen here it probably won’t ever see big changes again.
Bounties for PvP, Gambit, and Vanguard have been removed and replaced with the new Ritual Pathfinder system. Whilst this is there to encourage going into different activities and try different playstyles, the reality is that it becomes miserable to play. To progress through these modes you will often be forced to compete with your teammates. It was a problem before, but Pathfinder makes it worse. The concept behind Pathfinder isn’t inherently bad and a few tweaks could make it a way better system.
Same Old Monetisation and Seasonal Content
Of course, being Destiny, it’s time to complain about the aggressive monetisation, and unfortunately, there’s been absolutely no changes here. As the prices of the expansion goes up, it feels like less is being offered. Cosmetic items that could be a great showcase for your in-game achievements are often dropped into the Eververse store. Either on a rotation system costing Bright Dust, or dumped into the store requiring real world money to achieve. It often feels like doing something big just isn’t rewarded.
Once again, dungeons are separated from the £40/$50 expansion and £7/$10 seasons (Note: The Final Shape does come with a season, but it’s still shady to cut content out). The dungeons themselves aren’t out yet, but the principle behind it is still the same and old dungeons still cost a lot. The price of Destiny has ramped up and the community is often accepting of it, sometimes even deflecting any criticism for some strange reason. We already have what could have been amazing cosmetic rewards pushed to the storefront, so, why the need to do the same with actual gameplay content on top of this?
Bungie are even charging up to £16 for trimmed-down versions of old content that doesn’t even include the campaigns because nothing major has really left the “content vault”, which is still one of Destiny‘s biggest blunders. Red War, the one that shall not be named, Warmind, Forsaken, and all the seasonal content are still missing. This means the entry point to the narrative is still Shadowkeep, which is an awful entry point. A new player getting into Destiny in 2024 must be an absolutely miserable experience.
Now known as Episodes, this year of Destiny will launch with only three of them, one less than the typical four. And that’s about all the changes to seasons. One less year, and you will still be doing the same mind-numbingly boring and repetitive seasonal active. Not to mention the same dull methods of storytelling, as well as a drip feed of content that will go on longer than usual. It’s incredibly disappointing that the quality of these doesn’t seem to be increasing, it feels just like another season, and the in-game UI thinks so as well. The seasonal page calls it a season more often than it does an episode. I guess they still don’t want to overdeliver. Despite issues with the content itself, I am fine with the concept of seasons. It’s the execution that’s poor.
Another huge negative is once again the Battle Pass; a tedious XP grind that doesn’t feel satisfying to progress through. There are the usual array of cosmetic items that are actually really well-designed, padded out with some weapons and dozens of resources you will get through gameplay anyway. It’s a tired and dull format that feels like it doesn’t add any value. They have also been stretched out to 200 levels, which is being time-gated for the next few months. Again, it’s too early to tell if this is the right move, but from what we’ve seen, this is horrible.
Is it Worth it?
Regardless of my thoughts on the seasonal content, I would still highly recommend picking up The Final Shape. Especially if you want to see the game through to its conclusion. It’s an excellently paced adventure with plenty to do and see. Delving back into Destiny has been a blast, but sadly it’s not enough to bring me back in for the long run. I’ll likely be dropping this game again until the next expansion and just hope that the quality lives up. But any long-time Destiny player knows the cycle about now.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape sticks the landing on a rocky saga. Just as all hope was lost with the disastrous Lightfall expansion, Bungie somehow turned it around. A heartfelt and epic story that brings a ten-year narrative to its conclusion. It’s not perfect and it certainly falls into the trappings that have plagued the franchise since it first released in 2014, but it is a good time.
- Destiny 2: The Final Shape is available now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.
- Reviewed on PlayStation 5.