Recent reviews by dyhp

*WARNING: TFS SPOILERS* (written prior to any seasonal content releasing in TFS in the first weekend of the expansion. I am still ~mildly curious about where that will take us, but this review is written as a snapshot of where we are at right at this moment).

With the launch of The Final Shape we got a culmination of the Light vs. Darkness saga. The finale to a storyline about a decade in the making. A friend returned. The Traveler was opened up and we got to explore an absolutely gorgeous environment, a mashup of all the best bits from the entire Destiny universe. Truly stunning artwork. The same goes with all the cutscenes and animations that were delivered. So much story, new enemies, cool new subclass. Baby skreebs are back, a personal favorite. Chef's kiss. Job absolutely well done.

However..

The storyline, the raid, the closure. It leaves to be desired, to put it mildly. Let's go back to older campaigns, expansions that were all released in the build-up to this very expansion. Some good, some a little less. Much was compensated in seasonal content and story delivery. Let's quickly recap a tiny bit. Shadowkeep showed us a Pyramid ship on the Moon and let Eris make first contact with Stasis (in the campaign). Beyond Light gave us the ability to wield Stasis, took away some destinations and introduced us to Savathun (in seasons building upon the campaign towards TWQ). The Witch Queen itself showed us the Witness and a caked up disciple, had us form alliances, confronted us with some hefty trauma and left us on the brink of total calamity (in the seasons leading up to Lightfall).

Most recently, Lightfall. The campaign was easily trumped by the seasonal content. The Witness found & entered the Traveler, we killed the big angry hot tub frog-man and every season was, in some way, intertwined in our preparation for the endgame. The seasonal content compensated for the void left by the campaign and was beyond necessary. But it was good. Activities were fun and lengthy and the rewards were on par. Onslaught and the return of the absolute gems that were Whisper and Zero Hour were a pretty sizeable W.

The Final Shape.

Well, well, well. What is there to say. Cayde is back! Oh wait, I guess I mean was (again). Five (!) days that took. This has been so much of a focus feature of this entire release in the marketing. Having only started my Destiny journey with Shadowkeep, when the game released on Steam, I still absolutely loved playing Forsaken and the quality banter and cutscenes that featured Cayde-6. Players who started after the big Sunsetting never really got to experience what he meant to the game, outside of some strike dialogue and the Timeline TL;DP mission.

We have entered the Traveler, following the trail that Smokey left us. All this build-up to confront the ultimate big bad, literally years of anticipation. It was done after the raid, in the first week of the whole gaiat damn expansion. No seasonal content to be released yet. Apparently we figured out what to do and how to deal with this cutler figure. What. The. Actual.

This doesn't feel like a strategic approach. Not like "let's weaken this geezer's hold over our beloved golf ball. Let's figure out how to gain some terrain, how to deal with his fleet. How to back him into a corner where we could actually confront him. We could do it alongside our alliances. Get him to feel concerned, maybe? Perhaps not literally knock on his front door and be like "housekeeping" in the first freaking week. Take the entire expansion from zero to one hundred before the first reset has even taken place. Didn't even reach the pinnacle cap or unlock all there is to Prismatic. The Traveler patrol area is generally weaker than Neomuna was, how? We didn't even get to really re-form the bond we once had with Cayde over some significant timespan. All we got was a little banter seemingly lacking the sense of any urgency. Muh big juice box, anyone?

The whole expansion feels like we just did Avengers: Endgame without ever really taking part in Infinity War.

Who needs HALO: Infinite when you can be a gravitationally challenged space marble-frisbee hybrid?

If only this would have BR...

Game used to be fun
Then we got BR

Proving once more that game devs these days don't do any QA testing

Edit: Now we have a new map for DZ with "respawn" ability. The problem is, it takes 0 effort. You could even teleport across the map abusing this mechanic. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Volvo