Green Room Review| Destiny 2: The Final Shape

 

Image Credit: TheGamer.com

Destiny 2: The Final Shape a expansion ten years in the making closing out Destiny's first "Saga". For the past decade bungie has slowly been leading us to this specific moment in the series our darkest moment. The witness has opened the heart of the traveler and is using its power to create what it calls the Final Shape; a calcification of the universe so there will be no suffering, no failure, and no purpose. So how is the culmination of ten years of games? Does it have a satisfying ending? Finally is the raid good? Lets dive into this review! (Reviewed on Xbox Series X on a 4k TV)

The story of Destiny 2: The Final Shape picks up after the season of the wish finale that ended the year of Lightfall content with your guardian finally going through the portal opened by the witness into the traveler trying to track down Crow who went into forge a path for the vanguard. As the story progresses you must battle the Witnesses temptation's while learning how to harness the power of prismatic a combination of all your subclasses into one subclass. This expansion is the most linear and classic Bungie campaign as it is one hundred percent linear starting at the portal into the pale heart and slowly pushes forward till you reach the Witness' monolith where they plan to enact the Final Shape by controlling the Traveler's power to Calcify the universe. In total there are eight missions if you include the Excision activity and many side quests to help make the stand against the witness. The biggest upside to this expansion I'll give it in comparison to others it the Excision mission making it to where the true ending is accessible to all instead of just those who raid. I'm not going to dive too far into the story as there are some great surprises that many players should experience for themselves and for those who enjoy reading the lore and learning about it are definitely in for a good time.

Gameplay is more Destiny 2 if you have played this game before you will know exactly what to expect; gunplay focused on builds and earning more impressive loot as you go along. Prismatic does shake it up as you now have the Transcendence ability a small boost that gives you a special grenade and ups your melee and grenade recharge rates for a short time. The legendary campaign feels really good to playthrough with a friend and the introduction of the co-op focused missions after you beat the game adds some fun mechanics and brings some back from old sunset content. The raid is one of the best raids in my opinion comparable to both "The Last Wish" and "Kings Fall" which are my favorite raids personally. This game continues what many players feel similar on is when Bungie has its back to the way they cook it truly feels like a callback to the best DLCs and is greatest hits leading to our Avenger's moment. From the new subclasses to new weapon types to shake up gameplay the exotics that feel like some of the best; Khvostov feels like the ad clear king, Microcosm can deal amazing damage, and ergo sum having so many possible combinations it is amazing what the developers could do to vary gameplay and keep players hooked to the grind.

Finally the soundtrack by Michael Salvatori truly elevated this game from the introspective somber moments, the triumphant highs, and the moment to moment gameplay Michael Salvatori's music will be missed going forward in destiny. Aside from the music the weapons other environmental noise really pull you into the world. The new enemies known as the Dread have unique soundscapes that help to identify them apart from other enemies. Aside from the other sounds we have to talk about the acting, after the passing of Lance Reddick many players wondered who would be able to fill his shoes and bring that massive character Zavala forward. Keith David is the answer his ability to voice Zavala and still keep the feeling of Lance Reddick's portrayal but make the performance his own shows his ability as an actor. Another returning actor is Cayde 6's original actor Nathan Fillion. The voice cast do an amazing job as the story progresses bringing the vanguard to the status quo as we move into the next saga of the destiny universe.

This DLC truly brings a satisfying ending to the light and dark saga as it sets up many new arcs for the future of Destiny and I truly believe keeping the series alive. This game combines the well refined gameplay, amazing soundtrack, and probably one of the best stories in the series to bring us to the conclusion and the hopefully the bright new future of the series. This DLC earns a 4/5 from me as it wraps up story that has been built for the past decade in satisfying way and keeps the waters open for future exploration into this expansive universe. Thank You For Reading! What's your favorite Destiny DLC or season? Let me know in the comments!