In our review of Shadowkeep’s campaign and new armor system, we talked about how Destiny is changing the way they release content this year. Shadowkeep is a much smaller expansion than Forsaken was, but Forsaken also represented a time of major course correction for Destiny 2. Now that the game is more or less on the right track (and Bungie has admitted they can’t keep up with the development cycle of year two), Shadowkeep is in a position to refine the game into the MMO that the core player base has always wanted it to be.
This past Saturday, Bungie delivered our first taste of what seasonal content will look like this year with the Vex Offensive activity and the Garden of Salvation raid. Both activities are indicative of the scope and quality we can expect Destiny 2 to have this year. With the Vex Offensive, we now know we will be getting grindable high-reward activities that are shallow, but short-lived, and with the raid (and the raid exotic quest for Divinity) we know we will be getting intense pinnacle activities that reward the most dedicated players.
Vex Offensive
Season of the Undying officially started with the launch of Shadowkeep, given that players could immediately start engaging with the seasonal level track, the artifact item (more on that later), and collecting season gear. The Vex Offensive activity, however, is what will live on to define the Season of the Undying and represents how Destiny will be handling both seasonal activities and moving the narrative forward.
The Vex Offensive is a multi-stage activity for up to six guardians (an incredibly welcome feature) that tasks players with moving between three different areas, killing hordes and hordes of Vex, and engaging with some light mechanics. It’s a fun, short activity that has replayability, not in variety, but in rewards.
The activity has its own loot pool of weapons and armor which they’ve made incredibly easy to farm for perfect rolls for because there are just so many rewarded during each run. On top of that, specific weapons can be targeted using quests sold by Ikora, so while the activity may not have a lot of variety, it’s definitely worth the grind. If not for perfect rolls, then at least for XP, weekly powerfuls (from the activity itself AND from Ikora), and legendary shards.
What Do Seasons Look Like Now
The roadmap for Season of the Undying shows a ton of new and returning activities we can look forward to happening just about every week. Just this month, we have the Iron Banner starting next Tuesday, Nightmare hunts of increasing difficulty (and presumably increasing rewards), Festival of the Lost event, a new dungeon, new exotic quests, and even a change to the Vex Offensive called, Final Assault.
This steady stream of content and rewards is exactly what Destiny needs to keep players engaged and playing. We don’t have a major new activity to grind like Gambit, Forges, or the Menagerie, and even Vex Offensive itself will be going away permanently at the end of the season (though it’s gear pool will be transferred into other activities so players aren’t totally missing out). Adding something to pursue every week or even every other week may end up putting Destiny in a healthier position than Forsaken, which offered season-long pursuits that players could dedicate themselves to, grind to death, and burn out on.
The purpose of the season artifact has started to reveal itself with the raid, high-level Nightfall: The Ordeal missions, and the Vex Offensive. Those barrier and overcharge mods are essential for more difficult encounters, meaning there is more thought that needs to be put into loadouts to accommodate weapons that can take the mod. Between weapon types, energy matching, and now the new mod system, theory crafting and loadout building is the best it’s ever been.
As always, there are some strange oversights. The Vex Offensive weapons don’t have the slot for the seasonal mods, making them slightly less attractive to grind. Exotics don’t take the mod either, which makes exotics less valuable overall. These may have been deliberate decisions so as not to make the seasonal mods compulsory, but it seems like it just makes weapons that can’t use them less useful.
Destiny Storytelling Still Needs Some Work
Part of becoming the MMO Destiny is meant to be means evolving the world through narrative. The Shadowkeep story cliffhanger was pretty startling, but Bungie assured us that the story would continue this weekend with the raid and Vex Offensive. But did it? There is obviously a story connection between the raid and the Vex Offensive, but how any of it ties into what happened at the end of Shadowkeep’s campaign is pretty unclear.
Destiny has always had a problem with expansion content being too episodic. The world of Destiny is incredibly deep and engaging for those who seek out the expanded stories found in lore items and supplemental material, but the story that is told through the campaigns is typically self-contained arcs that tend to be confusing. I have high hopes that this year, Destiny will have an arc that evolves with each new content update, but in this one specific case, it’s up to Bungie to prove they’ve changed their ways, because so far what we’ve seen continues to be disjointed and doesn’t take into account the events of the past. Where, for example, is Osiris during this massive Vex invasion? Why wasn’t Eris told about Cayde-6? What does the Vex Invasion mean in the context of Shadowkeep’s events? Only time will tell.
New Light may not exactly be the most welcoming experience for new players, but Shadowkeep is giving Destiny players almost everything they’ve ever wanted. If Bungie can continue to deliver content throughout the year, I’ll definitely be sticking around longer than I ever have before, and I think that may be the case for a lot of Destiny players.
4.5 Out Of 5 Stars
A review copy of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep was provided to TheGamer by the developers for this review. Shadowkeep is available now on PS4, Xbox One, Steam, and next month, Stadia.
