It’s been over a month since Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate launched and you may be wondering where our review is. The simple answer is we did not get a review code, and judging by Metacritic, no one else did either – there are just 12 reviews for the PS5 version, most for lesser known sites, and eight reviews on PC. Normally, this would not matter as I am a huge Destiny 2 fan, and so obviously I would buy the new expansion even if Bungie did not provide code for review… except that I didn’t.
When Bungie started flinging around terms like Metroidvania I immediately got worried, that does not sound like Destiny 2 at all. I have played the first mission from The Edge of Fate (and you can too, everyone gets it for free ) and I was less than impressed, so I decided that, for the first time in almost twelve years, I would skip a Destiny 2 expansion.
However, we do have some die-hard fans in the TSA Destiny 2 clan, so I asked them for their thoughts on The Edge of Fate and the state of the game,
TC: Bungie’s storytelling has improved considerably over the years, it had a bit of a wobble post The Final Shape but I think things had picked up by Heresy. So, what did you make of the new story?
Andy: Normally, I’d finish the DLC within a few days, but it’s been over a month now and I’ve still not completed it. I enjoyed what I have seen of the story so far, the budget seems a bit higher seeing as there are more cinematic cutscenes, and the use of the holograms displayed via your Ghost ‘on comms’ to diverge information and mission beats is quite cool, seems a direct progression of the hologram npc/chat mechanic that came in with the HELM. I’m unsure about how ‘contrived’ some of the story beats are written and how some of the characters directly link together in the past, even though we’ve known them for a decade and there hasn’t been a hint of that before, even with the copious amounts of lore and backstory the game drops.
Jack: I agree with the needless ties to new backstories. I enjoyed the new elements and characters of the story – finally, a bit of freshness rather than the same old characters.
Simon: I quite liked playing through the story at the time, particularly the flashback cutscene, but to be honest, I remember very little about it now it’s done, or the relevance of the new fella.
Lee: The campaign itself I found a little complicated to follow. It felt a little disjointed and I was not sure if I was supposed to be doing side missions in order to make it make more sense.
Simon: I agree with Lee about the side missions – it wasn’t clear why they were there, if they had to be done in a specific order and if they related in any way to the main story.
TC: Rather than give you a new Super, The Edge of Fate gave Guardians powers that only worked on Kepler, the new location. Guardians could change in a ball of electricity and roll about, and also manipulate Dark Matter to rearrange objects and create new pathways. I found the ball to be horrendous to play and control and the exact opposite of what Destiny 2 is meant to be. I want to be a death-dealing tank that throws flaming axes, not a sparkling marble that hides in drainpipes. What did everyone else think?
Jack : All of the puzzle mechanics were utterly stupid, unnecessary, and not fun.
Steve: Agreed. It is if someone suggested Metroidvania and instead of doing actually good gear gating and back tracking, they just played a Metroid game, saw you became a ball, and went with that.
Simon: The ball mechanic was pointless and not really very enjoyable, but easy enough to get used to. But it did just feel like something they decided to chuck in just to have something different.
Lee: In typical Bungie fashion they drip fed the Dark Matter feature to us a bit at a time. It was rubbish until the feature was complete, then it became more fun to blitz around doing different mechanics.
Adam: It has a steep learning curve, I think once things came together it was much more enjoyable, especially the last mission where you had access to all of the Dark Matter abilities. I enjoyed that.
TC: Kepler has one group activity, The Sieve, which occurs every 1hr 44 minutes, much less frequently than Public Events in other locations. What do you think of The Sieve?
Lee: Only played it once. Meh, it’s fine.
Simon: Played it because I had to, to get the gun. Nothing about it made me want to play it again.
Chris: I second this.
Andrew: Wait, it has a group activity? I thought it was just barren!
Simon: It has a baffling timed lockout system à la mobile games, which would be annoying if it was any good – but it isn’t.
Jack: It’s alright, although absurd it’s on such a sucky cooldown. It would make far more sense if it was one of the activities we should be grinding for power, based solely on the fact of it being new..
TC: Did anyone else feel a bit miffed that Bungie reset everyone’s progress levels, effectively wiping over ten years of progress?
Simon: No, not at all. A welcome refresh, with the ease of levelling up better than before too
Steve: Yeah, essentially just cutting a few zeroes off the level seeing as almost everyone was at 2020, since they gave out 2020 gear for free during Return of the Nine.
Chris: I was more upset about the reset of Guardian ranks – doesn’t mean much or affect the gameplay, but having just defeated the Witness after playing for 10+ years, only to be reset to the same rank as a newbie just felt cheap
Steve Yeah same, I liked that it matters more now, but resetting rather than keeping it at your highest level from previous season was whack.
Adam: Not effectively communicating that the rank of your rewards (Tier 5 Weapons etc.) was directly affected by your Guardian rank was a bit annoying.
TC: As Adam mentioned it, how are you finding the new weapon system and Armour 3.0?
Simon: Really great. Quick and easy, and the fact that Master stuff is matchmade helps lots with that too.
Adam: I don’t like that some of my best picks for slots are effectively vetoed if I want to play avant-garde or get maximum benefit for systems. The “selected weapons” and “selected armour” for the season unnecessarily limits buildcrafting. It took ages to get some Exotics in previous expansions and now using them is effectively a damage penalty.
Steve: Love the Tier system, great way to improve loot and soft sunset old gear. The enforcement of using new gear sucks though, I’d rather just incentivise the new stuff by making it strong or having good artefact synergies, rather than just banning old stuff in some playlists.
Andrew: I’m still just playing with my old stuff; nothing they’ve introduced that’s dropped for me feels better so far. I had to massively change my load out to make the guns work with a different type of subclass and playstyle that I liked, so it didn’t synergise well with what I already enjoyed and had built to rely on over a long period of time. Some of the guns I probably would have used if I could craft them to get a roll I wanted that worked with my build, but I’ve played a reasonable amount and had terrible RNG so I stopped caring and went back to using my favourites.
TC: What should Bungie do to bring back lapsed players like myself?
Andy: Meaningful choices in every piece of content, make the whole game matter as opposed to just the new DLC. Why launch half baked mechanics that barely play competently whilst also making everything else not work/count anymore, and funnelling you into playing their half baked ideas to progress?
Adam: “Half baked” is a good point to make. This expansion feels like it’s half baked.
Jack: I definitely kinda want to play D2 right now, but also at the same time, what do I play? And what’s the point?
Simon: Where’s a global pandemic and enforced lockdown when you need it?
TC: And finally, what would you score The Edge of Fate out of ten, and why?
Lee: The Edge of Fate brings some much needed freshness to what was a rather stale set of systems, but it is missing some of what you’d expect from a yearly expansion. The campaign was really good with links to historical events while also setting up the future, but that does very much feel like a set up, a block to build on. A solid mystery with plenty to look forward to.
6/10
Chris: Pros: Good story, great new character in Lodi, armour changes should be positive in the long run, custom difficulties for Portal activities allow more variety even when repeating the same things.
Cons: Kepler is a reasonably unexciting destination, with bland environments, reused textures and lack of Lost Sectors and public events. Mythic difficulty in Kepler is just straight up infuriating.
Also the portal is also somewhat bland in its presentation, but nothing some UI changes can’t improve. Better backwards compatibility with the armour changes would be appreciated.
6/10
Steve: It has a good campaign and new systems have promise but need refinement. Some small improvements will go a long way such as adding Dungeon and Raid stuff to Portal.
7/10
Andy: Needs more time in the oven to be playable. It ruined more of the game than it improved.
4/10
Jack: Solid campaign, not enough new stuff. All the resetting and changes are attainable without the expansion.
4/10
Adam: I really enjoyed the campaign – it’s still Destiny. The Portal is underutilised and I feel boredom creeping in much faster doing the same six activities on solo ops – we know there are so many things in the game now, and the file size is bigger than it’s ever been, so the DCV (Destiny Content Vault) thing doesn’t really hold water. I like the weapons and armour changes for the most part, but I am frustrated by the arbitrary limitations placed on player choice, much the same way I was with the introduction of champions way back when… but it’s just more of the same. I am enjoying the post campaign stuff on Kepler, which is actually more fun now that the story beats have subsided. It’s a step down after the glory of The Final Shape but I’m still enjoying it and continuing to play it, despite my gripes.
7/10
TC: Thank you everyone!
So there we go, I make that an average score of 5.6, which is distinctly, well, average. Destiny 2 is not dead in the water yet, and it’s a game that has been through many ups and downs and could return to glory with the right content. Bungie have already stated that they are going to change a lot of things and update 9.1.0, and while this does not have a release date, it will include “new activities and rewards in both The Edge of Fate and the Core Game.”
I am also intrigued by the Star Wars ‘inspired’ expansion, Renegades, which will launch this Christmas, but Bungie are going to have to pull something really special out of the bag to bring back players. Perhaps even more than ever, as the days of leaning on Star Wars for an instant win, as proven by Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws, are in the past.