As a Destiny player since the very beginnings of the game back in 2014, I have seen and done it all in the franchise in the 11 years since.
I've run Strikes for hours on end, grinded the Crucible and Trials of Osiris, got stuck on Raid encounters into the wee hours of the morning, and built friendships with people all around the world for over a decade. But even with all of that prior knowledge and experience, Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate found a way to surprise me.
It's no secret that I, along with many other players, have strayed away from Destiny over the years after originally fostering a habitual relationship with the looter shooter. I used to play the game literally every day for four-plus hours a day, but over the past year or so, that interest heavily waned.
After the events of The Final Shape, which felt like an endpoint to many, I was convinced that The Edge of Fate wouldn't be all that interesting or find a way to engage me in the universe again. And boy, oh boy, was I wrong. Some story spoilers are to follow, so back out to orbit if you wish to avoid them.
The campaign was incredibly well done, which is not a surprise. But what is a surprise to me is how much I'm so back into the new direction after defeating The Witness in The Final Shape. Everything from the revelations of the past (The Nine have been controlling fate for some time, to the extent of killing a woman to have her become a Guardian named Ikora Rey), to the wonderful new character Lodi and his excellent performance (huge props to actor Brian Villalobos for bringing him to life), to how the stage has been set for the next story beats in the saga has me so excited again.
The rest of the DLC? Eh, not so much. Kepler is likely the worst destination added to the game thus far, Matterspark is an annoying and cumbersome gameplay mechanic, and having to yet again re-learn new systems for weapons and armor is tiresome. And it's for these reasons and others that I don't play the game as often as I used to.
Matterspark really was just disastrous to me. I didn't have as much of an issue with the Relocator or Mattermorph as mechanics, but the incessant switching into a little electric ball to navigate around the area or kill enemies was a drag. It feels like Bungie took the game's MetroidVania inspiration and took it literally by saying "hey, we want to roll around in a ball just like Samus, no matter what." It's brutal.
And Kepler itself is quite maze-like, to its overall detriment. I found myself getting lost frequently especially in sections where there were no objective markers, which seems to be a design decision to make the game feel less linear, but the environment of Kepler wasn't fun to explore in either way.
But man, they got me again with the story. And just like that, we have a whole new saga to look forward to. With III's instructions to "bind The Nine" and "prevent extinction," whatever that means, we have a solid direction for whatever is to come next. A lot of that is shrouded in secrecy, but I'm all in again.
I likely won't be playing Destiny 2 every single day ever again, but for now, I will once again be looking forward to weekly story beats, quests, new exotic missions, and new expansions, just like I have been since 2014.
For me, that makes this franchise special, and I hope it continues on for the foreseeable future. But with Bungie's current uncertainty surrounding Marathon, that's another story entirely.
The post Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate DLC surprised me, an 11-year series veteran, in both good and bad ways appeared first on Destructoid.
