Destiny 2: Lightfall (REVIEW) - A total Lightfall.

"The End of the Light and Darkness Saga is drawing near.."

Title: Destiny 2: Lightfall
Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Bungie
Release Date: Feburary 28th, 2023
Prices (may vary where you live) : Standard: $49.99 USD
 Annual Pass + Expansion: $99.99 USD, Collector's Edition: $150 USD,
$250 USD (With Annual Pass + Expansion).
Platform: PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, PC (Steam, Epic Games Store)
Date of Review: April 25th, 2023
Warning: This review may contain spoilers.

Welp, I am back once again to discuss some different things on this Expansion.
Sorry for my long hiatus, but anyways.

Destiny 2 was going really well at the start of making a founding ground with the Witch Queen story capitalizing on what Destiny should be placed at, despite the Season being very well… Ehhh, okay?
Though the final season before entering Lightfall was outstanding, it led us to a good point toward it.

Right around August 2023 (when it got announced), I was interested to see how they planned this out after the success of the Witch Queen story and itself placing a whole leading point to where the saga becomes at the reach point to an end.
Just that long wait was weird hearing nothing at some time, then we did get a relatively cool trailer at the Game Awards (excellent trailer song choice, btw.).

Now the time comes and  enter what will come next for this Light and Darkness saga's critical moment, the crucial standpoint to the beginning of an end. (Hopefully?)

Let’s take a deep dive into Lightfall and Strand, etc in this review.

 Quick Summary of the Story and Enemies you Face.

"The fall of the light is beginning, well, sorta.."

Weirdly enough, beginning the story and exploring what the art team did was incredible and such giving you that feeling of entering an 80s hero coming against a foe to take everything from you to this very moment was captured well even from the start giving you this vibe.

But the only issue is that the story writing will take its major hit through this expansion, and I mean.. Literally.
Even when exploring the Dark Legion’s ship, I loved how the Cabal finally got an additional race look like Destiny 1 did with its unique designs and tribe of the enemies having their own combat style.
However, I still miss the only cabal shields we can’t shoot through, but even with that, it still felt like the Dark Legion wasn’t that much of a threat to prepare us for the final battle until the Tormentors came in adding a big additional back up to their army.
I love the design and much work put into the Tormentors and how they intended to be intimidating, the brute you must focus the most on, or you’ll lead your team into distress and mounts of problems even in a Grandmaster difficulty Nightfall.
My main concern for Tormentors is that they didn’t get a proper actual intimidating force because Legendary Campaign takes some chunk. Normal just makes them a complete joke, and I hate how the game's enemy AI level dumbed them down unless you do a Grandmaster Nightfall to get a challenge out of them.
Major props to Bungie for making them scary when you are walking and then suddenly get grabbed by them; a funny way to see your team go “AAAAAA GET HIM OFF ME” vibes if you try to rush him, which is excellent, and I want more enemies like this and Hive Guardians instead of the champions we face in Nightfalls.
After some nonsense and being shot from a Cabal Drop (WHERE WE DROPPIN- ok, no more Fortnite jokes *sigh*), we enter this beautiful unknown city we have seen or explored on Neptune with the town named Neomuna and we become welcomed by Rohan, a Cloudstrider which are like guardians but instead protect the city of Neomuna and is one of the oldest of the bunch and a rookie named Nimbus (what why does his name remind me of Flying Nimbus in Dragon Ball?)We see they are having issues while we move through the city and see a green thread, Strand; we try this new power out and will say it’s entertaining, but it does risk some of our strength down while giving Osiris time to escape his Drop Pod.

​That’s much I will say on the Story as they both tie into this, but I will provide my feedback even after because personally, this felt more like a Strand test drive, the story, than anything else.
Now let’s get down to the gritty with Strand and much more.

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Gameplay, QoL changes, Season, etc...

"You've stranded your last haw, Neomuna" 

Some of the new changes in the game really make the game fun and exciting with the Quality of Life changes added.
Strand is quite a unique power, and I will admit a fun one for sure.
Though it wasn’t powered when Stasis came out, which is a bummer, it sure had some unique equipment to give you an action-per-minute feel throughout.

Though even if the power of the threads can’t be enough, I’d say I enjoyed every subclass made in it. 
Sadly, I think Hunter and Warlock stole the show for me in the category of Strand though Titans have that Woven Mail, and it’s amazing to run with, even if as an aspect to risk a specific stat on a Warlock or Hunter is better than nothing. 

Grappling through the city of Neomuna is lovely and gives me that Spider-Man feels and vibe to it by web-slinging your way to take out foes with an explosion is such an amazing feeling, or be goofy and just uhh, do a strand copter by hovering in the circle (OH JEEZ). 

The other grenades are fun, especially the Shackle Nade. Is it mine, but Threadling's? No, just no... Don’t use it (or if you have built for it, then I’d love to know.).

I really enjoyed many of the changes they made with this. The sandbox feels more fun to play around with stuff, except for PVP or Gambit, because they need more love than ever and a better focus right now. 

After all giving PVP one new map, which is probably a re-skin, isn’t healthy, and even Gambit getting nothing is downright criminal.

Also, Neomuna is a beautiful city, but the issue is that it can sometimes feel empty in specific areas where stuff happens; it’s like all-out warfare, which is fun, but I wish it was everywhere in particular places that are sad and hurtful to see some parts feel lifeless from this location.

The season was alright, and nice to see the Awoken and Queen Mara Sov again, but the entire story was interesting, but the ending was just what? Why is the end so rushed in Storywriting... Something tells me Bungie is putting too much pressure on the Narrative than we think, and they need more time and assistance, as they can do better if they can do the Lore Tabs right, and I believe they can hit a home run in storytelling than what we got.

Also, I want to praise the Art Team and the Folks on the Expansion’s Soundtrack. You guys did a phenomenal job; I can care less what people say, if they think it’s bad or not, because I loved every single track put into it, showing that there is a lot of detail and ideas sprung up to it, even the 80s hero feel in the OST with the Track: Battle Ready giving me the feeling of being prepared to use a new Power and prepare to take on any threat that comes my way.

Also, listen to the track Oneirophobia in the Soundtrack; it’s so good that I wanted to ascend during my final battle in the Raid for this Expansion, and hearing it out of the game makes me enjoy it more. Still, I have one thing to say to them that isn’t good despite my praising here on it:
Please, and I mean please, stop adding some of the insane parts to the game only as exclusive moments like from this Raid and many others, even missions in the game or exploration, cause it ruins the best moments of this Soundtrack as a whole.

Also to note: The New Strike changes are interesting except for Lake of Shadows... YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE... YOU SILLY, LAKE, YOU.

Also, Nimbus and Rohan deserved better in character development because it felt like we didn’t at all, and this was just painful to witness for a Campaign...
No offense or hate to the talented voice actors and characters, but Bungie...
Do better with your characters and make us feel something close to them in the storytelling because this wasn’t working.

Enough said from this. 

Let’s get to my final judgment here and with a summary.

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Overall Summary and Rating

"My final strand…."

With how everything went, I think the main point is that Lightfall didn’t have a good or great campaign but a mediocre one in general and was full of fillers that made no sense. Was this our Avengers: Infinity War? Because it didn’t feel like it.

Even around the end of the Story or its final mission, we seek the so-called Veil we have heard about for years... Like, man, isn’t that a surprise? We all assumed a new enemy of the darkness during the Collapse with Cayde-6’s drawings before he became a Robot known as an Exo and saw what they did or, even better yet, a force of what the darkness is. Then, it’s a para-casal entity that wields light and dark and is linked to the traveler (Rasputin did tell us this in his final message after dying in Season of Seraph).

 I stand there, seeing the Veil in Neomuna, Neptune, and say, “Oh wow, I wonder what the Veil is, and I am afraid to ask.”.
What sucks the most is that we still don’t know what it is yet.

But I did enjoy the third person views and perspectives on Emperor Calus and The Witness and their goals, even their plans throughout the Story through-out and what Calus is dealing with too, even though he wanted a time of peace and victory to endure and enjoy and not to interfere then realized it was the complete opposite not knowing the Witness wished to him to follow his goals and not be scared then tried to judge The Witness striking fear upon him with our Final Battle.

I enjoyed some good things with Lightfall, but it happened from Witch Queen?
Witch Queen gave you the story needed for the game and future, even if it was new or hopped back in, providing so many questions answered and delivered to you, making the player experience of the story more enjoyable to get into Destiny itself, even to how the central capture of the story leads to how Savathun and her brood gained the power known as the “Light” then with Lightfall it’s like? What went wrong?
The lack of good Storywriting in the Narrative is what happened, and the driving focus of a Subclass made it feel empty or something missing on what we needed to know.
Osiris didn’t have that emotion of knowing what the Veil is or more on his visions because what happened to him not going insane on what it is or demanding an answer?
I don’t understand why they thought most of the key points for the story were ready to be shipped out on day one.
What hurts me the most is when the Lore is phenomenal, even with the Raid giving us those things to learn of the city of Neomuna, Callus, and his Fleet, etc., then what was presented in the Campaign itself that was shown to be the key point to our big moment in the saga to our key point of an end…

I am hurt that Bungie could’ve done better with the Main Story in the Narrative, and it disappoints me that Bungie had one job and slipped with this part of the expansion completely.

With Lightfall and its Mediocre Story Narrative telling, Fun Strand, Nice QoL changes, Decent Season Story, amazing music and lore, etc.

Lightfall still couldn’t impress me well enough from what I witnessed, and it really concerns me about its future and hope they do learn from this really, cause I know they can do better.

Rating: 6.0/10
Rating Meaning: “It’s Okay..”

Do you Reccomend?:  No, not at all as of now sadly. But only do recommend picking this up on Sale and not where it is in the pricing cause that’s too much to pay for cause it's absurd.

Until.. then, GAME ON!
-Timothy Stambaugh / TimTheGamer12 (Tim).