Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate is an action-adventure FPS from the long-standing company, Bungie. The Edge of Fate is the ninth expansion, which has you literally dealing with the Nine. For those who don’t know the lore of Destiny 2, or hasn’t been playing Destiny since 2014 I’ll explain. The Nine is a group consisting of cosmic beings that have an unimaginable amount of power that makes armies look like ants. I would recommend listening to the lore videos on mynameisbyf‘s YouTube channel.
While investigating the EDZ, Ikora comes across this weird signal that she checks out with her Hidden beside her. Moments from getting the transmission, a train appears out of nowhere and clearly leaves behind what seems an invitation. This leads her to the actual edge of the universe to land on Kepler, blanketed in dark matter. Besides this planet, we discover this long-lost civilization known as the Aionian. Their neighbours, the Fallen from the House of Exile, have some extreme upgrades to their arsenals.
That being the only tidbit of information I’m willing to give to start this review, let’s gear up and aim for the stars! And like always, Eyes Up Guardian!
Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate, with special guest, Maya the Conductor! Wait … how is she not dead yet?!!
Gameplay
Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate took away a lot of things from our normal system, but added a lot to boot. I want to start with overall changes I experienced before moving to combat. The first thing I noticed after taking about a month hiatus from the game was Portal. Portal is the newly structured map that seems to have condensed everything. Basically, only planets you can access are visible, the game modes are just next to one another. Additionally, they created two tabs for the Seasonal Hub and the Tower, with a small window for options on what to do next.
Going into the tower, my eyes went straight to the one thing every Destiny 2 player has wanted for years. Basically, a shooting range that tracks our DPS, while getting to swap out our choice of enemy. We can even choose the option to either have those enemies stand still or attack us. Even though it took over seven years, I can sort of say better late than never. It’s leagues better than whatever we had back in Mars.
My experience with the campaign was placed on Legendary on purpose, but was done completely solo. With that in mind, I’m going to cover the new gimmicks this expansion has to offer. Despite us reaching our pinnacle class with the Prismatic class, we now have some toys to play with. Basically, we’re playing with the toys the Fallen have and use it to traverse Kepler, just like they do.
Gadgets
The fact that I can turn into an electric ball, and use a Kell rocket launcher to doubles as a teleporter, is honestly genius. I love getting to stun enemies as a ball and not just be a defenseless ball that charges batteries while having the state of the form depend on a health bar or time limit of one minute. Then there’s the void Kell rocket launcher that has infinite ammo, which I abuse the heck out of before using it for its actual use.
Lastly, I want to cover the changes done to not only our light levels, but to our armour as well. Starting with the way light levels work now is good in a sense, but going straight to one every year is crazy. I can understand not wanting to always put a higher level cap every expansion, but knocking us back to one is brutal every year. It doesn’t help that the raid race is literally a five days away to need to grind, but to knee cap us from our usual method is even more brutal. Albeit, the raid itself while being the most unique one since Last Wish. It was also the cruellest one to date.
The reason I make this statement is that the bosses are actual damage sponges. But, that’s only contest mode, so I didn’t get to try it in normal mode as of writing this. Now onto the new armour set addition to the game. It honestly gave me gatcha games feels by having two sets, or five sets, or the armour gives you a new benefit. I wish I had more time to experiment with different combos of armour set. However, this now complicates things like getting a high stat roll on the armour and hoping it’s part of the set, making everything even more maddening.
Graphics and Audio
So, it seems Bungie might have up their game when it comes to some weapons and map design. But, the cutscenes alone had me questioning what I was looking at. For example, when Lodi explains how he got to Kepler alone made me wonder if that was CGI or live action. They actually went gave this man pores, stubbles, the works to throw my eyeballs for a dimensional loop. Likewise, that scene alone is the mix of horror and fantasy that reminds me of Control for a similar style.
The upgrade to the UI seems more prominent with the new Portal section on the menu. Yet, the only things that seem to have got a makeover was the Tower’s map because of the shooting range being added. Meanwhile, there are a few new enemy designs and weapons. For the Fallen, they got a new flying unit that isn’t just shanks and weapons. They have Strand and Statis on them as well. The Vex have the one addition that has my whole attention, being the Imp Swarm. Which, mind you, I learned to kill the smaller ones first and not the main head to avoid kamikaze attacks.
Lastly, there’s the addition of the text bubbles we get when talking to NPCs. I do enjoy the fact that I get to talk to the NPC. And it’s not just a single line being said over and over again. However, the language the Aionian speak when I interact with them sounds either Latin or Italian from the sounds of it. Speaking of voice lines, the voice actors this time around are pretty impressive. I especially love the choices for Lodi’s voice, while enjoying the return of Orin with their brain scrambled.
Finally, the OST felt a little hit-and-miss. During parts of the campaign, the only time I honestly felt motivated or engaged was either a boss fight or after battle cutscenes. Especially the conversation with Lodi and Ikora after beating the Gate Lord had me sympatric for Lodi. Being forced into a place where he’ll have no way back to see his family again. Just the execution of the lines had my heart tighten and eyes well up with the thought if that was me.
Longevity
With Destiny 2 being a live-service MMO FPS that’s also a looter shooter will have you grinding for hours. Maybe even days trying to get certain gear, god rolls on guns and materials to upgrade those things. Luckily, if you have an ungodly amount of enhancement cores, it should be easy for you to level up your equipment. Other than that, without a good fireteam or clan to motivate you to continue playing, you’ll honestly play until you’ve either done everything and wait until the next episode.
Final Thoughts
Playing Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate was enjoyable since I watched the trailer for this expansion. I literally let out a death scream and said, “I can’t believe Bungie pulled me back in!” I’m excited to see what the Renegade part of the expansion is going to be like. Yet, I don’t know if the story is going to be canon in the Star Wars universe or not. Wait … is the Force going to be considered a subclass at this point? Only time will tell.
The the only question I have to ask is, will this new overhaul on the original system make or break this franchise.
I give Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate the Thumb Culture Gold Award
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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