• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Destiny 2: The Final Shape | Launch Trailer

Wooxsvan

Member
Yeeaaaa I'm gonna wait for the reviews. I'm not getting sucked into this again like the "Lightfall" expansion, which was basically just a filler expansion. Still sour about that.
yep luckily i skipped lightfall completely. will wait for reviews but doubt anything iv seen will bring me back
 

RickMasters

Member
I’ll be jumping back in to finish things. See how it all ends….. craft my last round of weapons…. Destroy people in PVP with those weapons…. One last season…..
 

clarky

Gold Member
Looks like everyone and his dog is coming back for the last hurrah.

Good to see to be honest, its been a great game.
 

nikos

Member
Been playing for about two hours and it's already way better than Lightfall.
 
Last edited:

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
I bailed out when destiny 1 ended, never migrated to destiny 2.

That being said, I am invested in this - for better or for worse, it's the end of a narrative buildup that started what, 10 years ago?
 

TrebleShot

Member
So I played the witch king I think not sure but is it worth jumping in if you haven't played all the previous expansions?
 

j0hnnix

Member
Minor launch issues, I ran first mission and loving it but got to many disconnects while playing and don't want to redo a section. There is check points but got dc'd at end of a mission and had to do it again. So I'll patiently wait.
 

DeepSpace5D

Member
I haven't played D2 in a long time. Is there currently anything missable, such as achievements/trophies? I know that some of the missions have ended, so some gear may not be obtainable anymore? Thanks.
There are no missable trophies. Everything can still be gotten. I completed the trophy list last year.
 
it went up at 10am PST. I waited until like 2pm PST, after I'm off work, to try to hop on. didn't take me that long before being able to get in. did get booted back to orbit a few times but was able to advance the story into the 3rd mission I think. so far it's been fun. Prismatic is interesting but you only get so many choices to combo together at first. have to advance in the story to get more stuff unlock.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
Tried to start the first campaign mission. Servers are:

Austin Powers Lava GIF
 

Varteras

Member
word on the street is that this is a hit

I was watching a streamer. They were really enjoying the Prismatic subclass and the story. It seemed to be presented in the best way that Destiny ever has. The cutscenes were frequent for Destiny but impactful and didn't overstay their welcome. According to the guy playing. There were a couple twists. The raid, from what I heard, comes out in a couple days. So the actual ending to the Light and Dark Saga won't be seen until then.
 

TheShocker

Member
I don’t think I ever even finished the original Destiny 2 story. It’s probably too far along now for me to get back into.
 

Darkone

Member
I was thinking of trying Destiny 2 but I don`t even know where to start.
how do I get the story if they removed some of the content a while back?
 

Killjoy-NL

Gold Member
Tempted to get back in.

Played Destiny religiously. Quit D2 after about a month because it felt pointless outside of weekly resets.

Isn't this the expansion that allow custom class builds?
Like, we'll be able to give a Void Warlock triple-jump?
 

T-0800

Member
Tempted to get back in.

Played Destiny religiously. Quit D2 after about a month because it felt pointless outside of weekly resets.

Isn't this the expansion that allow custom class builds?
Like, we'll be able to give a Void Warlock triple-jump?
You can play the first two missions for free. Play on Legendary though. Quit after the opening the cutscene and then you'll be given the option to play the harder difficulty one you restart the mission. It is a lot more fun. I'm playing solo btw.
 

Darkone

Member
You can play the first two missions for free. Play on Legendary though. Quit after the opening the cutscene and then you'll be given the option to play the harder difficulty one you restart the mission. It is a lot more fun. I'm playing solo btw.
What content can be done solo? (except raids obviously).
 
I don’t think I ever even finished the original Destiny 2 story. It’s probably too far along now for me to get back into.
Correct.
I was thinking of trying Destiny 2 but I don`t even know where to start.
how do I get the story if they removed some of the content a while back?
You don't! Though a few months ago I did notice there's like a timeline thing from 'vaulted' content. Gives some text highlights for the various seasons. Also had like the first mission of Forsaken and the final boss fight from the original Destiny 2 campaign. I was a bit surprised as I had no idea that stuff was in there. But still, the rest of those campaigns are completely gone. The 'lore' is confusing enough even if you actually played all the content over the years.

There's this Byf dude on YouTube who does like a 10 hour recap of the story up until the latest expansion.
Tempted to get back in.
Don't
Played Destiny religiously. Quit D2 after about a month because it felt pointless outside of weekly resets.
It's in a better spot than launch D2 for sure. But lots of FOMO. I don't think it's a game that's worth playing casually. And playing it 'hardcore' isn't healthy. I go a bit in cycles where I'm on for one season, then off the next, but speed grind the season pass and whatnot at the very end of the season.
Isn't this the expansion that allow custom class builds?
Like, we'll be able to give a Void Warlock triple-jump?
Not quite. At some point they started their "3.0" system where you could make a lot of choices for your builds. In Vanilla D2 it was just the 'top tree', 'middle tree', or 'bottom tree'. So compared to that customization is very high. This newest expansion has a new subclass that picks and chooses from the other 5 subclasses.

So no, Warlocks do not get a Hunter jump. Warlocks get their usual jump choices, but you can pick a Solar grenade, pair it with the Strand melee, and use the Stasis super. But the list of things you can use in the new 'prismatic class' is curated. So, it's a relatively small subset of each subclass that's represented. But it has more choices than a standard subclass.

Hard to get a feel for how OP it will be as the new class items are time-gated to next week, and they're a big part of the build-crafting, and then the various abilities are doled out over the course of the campaign, as I only have like half of the stuff unlocked right now.

What content can be done solo? (except raids obviously).
Just about everything outside of raids can be soloed (and actually a decent number of raid encounters can be soloed, including all of Root of Nightmares, but that's expert level gameplay). I'd say Grandmaster Nightfalls you're better off playing with at least one other person, as it can already be pretty oppressive with a full fireteam of decent players, and as a solo you can't revive. And the Dungeons are better learned with a fireteam before working on getting through them solo. But they're designed to be soloable, as it's part of the final tier of "Guardian Rank" objectives for the season.

The matchmaking is goofy as well. For the easier content you generally get forced matchmaking (I use a program that messes with my Windows firewall to block me from joining other players when I want to do that content solo). For harder content you get no matchmaking and are expected to get your own people to run it with. Even though it's precisely the content that a competent player will need teammates for, whereas the lower tier content gets boring with 3 players because it's too easy and you're fighting each other over kills and to keep your gameplay loop up.

But they added an in-game LFG tool now to get people for the harder activities so it's not in the worst spot.
 

Neolombax

Member
Tried running the campaign on Legendary. Kept dying in Mission 2 despite power levels being disabled for legendary. Legendary campaign is no joke, even compared to previous legendary campaigns. Now I'm playing on regular and having a much better time. I'll come back when I get the hang of Prismatic with more fragments. Proper builds have the potential of being really powerful.

The new enemy faction is interesting to face off against. I'm happy they're not just bullet sponges like the Shadow Legion from Lightfall.

This expansion (4 missions in) is already far better than Lightfall in terms of story and content.
 

clarky

Gold Member
As a returning beta player that dropped it after beyond light, i have to say its nice to be back, even if its only for a bit.
 

T-0800

Member
Tried running the campaign on Legendary. Kept dying in Mission 2 despite power levels being disabled for legendary. Legendary campaign is no joke, even compared to previous legendary campaigns. Now I'm playing on regular and having a much better time. I'll come back when I get the hang of Prismatic with more fragments. Proper builds have the potential of being really powerful.

The new enemy faction is interesting to face off against. I'm happy they're not just bullet sponges like the Shadow Legion from Lightfall.

This expansion (4 missions in) is already far better than Lightfall in terms of story and content.
Took me well over an hour to solo Legendary first level and I keep dying at what I assume is the end of level two. I'm not going to give up though. Having a blast.
 

Darchaos

Member
So if i choose to buy this expack, will it be a full conclusion to all that Started back in D1 and i can walk away and feel fine, or is it just a expack to try and suck you in and continue playing the next story arc? I mean, is there this big banger of an end to everything that has been? I just want to feel that my 10 years of Destiny can come to an end after this campaign and walk away.
 
Last edited:

clarky

Gold Member
So if i choose to buy this expack, will it be a full conclusion to all that Started back in D1 and i can walk away and feel fine, or is it just a expack to try and suck you in and continue playing the next story arc? I mean, is there this big banger of an end to everything that has been? I just want to feel that my 10 years of Destiny can come to an end after this campaign and walk away.

i dont think every story thread will be tied up but from what im hearing the diehards seem happy enough so far. Cant comment personally as ive just finished the WQ campaign and will do lightfall tonight. Then the new stuff.
 

LordCBH

Member
So if i choose to buy this expack, will it be a full conclusion to all that Started back in D1 and i can walk away and feel fine, or is it just a expack to try and suck you in and continue playing the next story arc? I mean, is there this big banger of an end to everything that has been? I just want to feel that my 10 years of Destiny can come to an end after this campaign and walk away.

From what I gather, it should wrap up the major story that’s been going on while providing threads for the next major story in the season, which is included with the base version of the expansion.
 

Raven117

Member
No one going to make a final shape thread? Was hoping for impressions....
Well, I've been a Destiny player since release. Ebbed and flowed but played every expansion to some extent or another.

I'm three missions in and I can say that for me, this is the best Destiny campaign they have ever written. Its actually coherent. I have no idea what the endgame looks like, but I'm enjoying the ride. Definitely the best since Forsaken.
 
So if i choose to buy this expack, will it be a full conclusion to all that Started back in D1 and i can walk away and feel fine, or is it just a expack to try and suck you in and continue playing the next story arc? I mean, is there this big banger of an end to everything that has been? I just want to feel that my 10 years of Destiny can come to an end after this campaign and walk away.

i dont think every story thread will be tied up but from what im hearing the diehards seem happy enough so far. Cant comment personally as ive just finished the WQ campaign and will do lightfall tonight. Then the new stuff.

From what I gather, it should wrap up the major story that’s been going on while providing threads for the next major story in the season, which is included with the base version of the expansion.

Bungie said it's the end of the "Light and Darkness saga", so if we're gonna get anything in D2 in the future it's gonna be something not related to the Traveler, probably.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
I did legendary for the last two expansions but I’m about to switch to normal for this one.

The encounter design here is rancid dog shit.

These new enemies will spawn right on top of you, or fly over you, to kill your while you’re trying to recover in cover. This is dumbass cheap shit that I can’t “out skill” to avoid. Throw in 15 minutes until a new checkpoint and you’re throwing time down the tube repeatedly.
 
Well, I've been a Destiny player since release. Ebbed and flowed but played every expansion to some extent or another.

I'm three missions in and I can say that for me, this is the best Destiny campaign they have ever written. Its actually coherent. I have no idea what the endgame looks like, but I'm enjoying the ride. Definitely the best since Forsaken.
I think it's roughly on par with Witch Queen, maybe lagging behind slightly just because that expansion made a lot of improvements and this one just kind of feels like competent execution but not really any real step forward. As opposed to Lightfall which was incompetent execution of the same concepts.

I think the narrative was significantly better in Witch Queen as well. I don't think there were any twists or interesting narrative beats in this one. Much better than Lightfall of course, but everything played out more or less as expected. Cayde coming back could have been interesting if they didn't let us know a year ahead of time? And technically that was the end of last season as well so not sure it even counts.

The way prismatic unlocks is better than strand was, but it still kind of has the same issues in that you don't have full customization for the campaign. It's not as severely gimped as strand where I think you didn't even have a full set of fragments to start... but like hey I'm going through the Legendary campaign here... I need a degree of buildcrafting, slowly doling out customization options occasionally through an end of mission chest doesn't cut it. I also don't appreciate that some of them are 'hidden' chests in the missions... like yo, give me something on the mission launch screen that let's me know what collectibles are in there.

Collectibles are kind of fun when they are done in a way where you can actually do them yourself and not have to go to an online guide. And some of the post campaign stuff seems like it might be along those lines, with 'search areas' for the ghosts or whatever... those actually might even be a little small but I will take it over having to follow the Esoterickk video just to get it done.

So yeah even though the prismatic hunter is kind of OP even at the base build since you get basically get Assassin's Cowl Arc Hunter for free without even using your exotic slot, it's hard to beat Lucky Pants Void Hunter for the infinite burst damage and survivability while you sus out how to deal with the various combat boxes and mechanics. Plus the hunter transcendent grenade is awful.

They didn't really step up their encounter design at all for that matter. Lots of "here's a rally flag" followed by big combat encounter in kind of a tight room where you have to deal with some light mechanics, rinse and repeat.
 

Raven117

Member
I think it's roughly on par with Witch Queen, maybe lagging behind slightly just because that expansion made a lot of improvements and this one just kind of feels like competent execution but not really any real step forward. As opposed to Lightfall which was incompetent execution of the same concepts.

I think the narrative was significantly better in Witch Queen as well. I don't think there were any twists or interesting narrative beats in this one. Much better than Lightfall of course, but everything played out more or less as expected. Cayde coming back could have been interesting if they didn't let us know a year ahead of time? And technically that was the end of last season as well so not sure it even counts.

The way prismatic unlocks is better than strand was, but it still kind of has the same issues in that you don't have full customization for the campaign. It's not as severely gimped as strand where I think you didn't even have a full set of fragments to start... but like hey I'm going through the Legendary campaign here... I need a degree of buildcrafting, slowly doling out customization options occasionally through an end of mission chest doesn't cut it. I also don't appreciate that some of them are 'hidden' chests in the missions... like yo, give me something on the mission launch screen that let's me know what collectibles are in there.

Collectibles are kind of fun when they are done in a way where you can actually do them yourself and not have to go to an online guide. And some of the post campaign stuff seems like it might be along those lines, with 'search areas' for the ghosts or whatever... those actually might even be a little small but I will take it over having to follow the Esoterickk video just to get it done.

So yeah even though the prismatic hunter is kind of OP even at the base build since you get basically get Assassin's Cowl Arc Hunter for free without even using your exotic slot, it's hard to beat Lucky Pants Void Hunter for the infinite burst damage and survivability while you sus out how to deal with the various combat boxes and mechanics. Plus the hunter transcendent grenade is awful.

They didn't really step up their encounter design at all for that matter. Lots of "here's a rally flag" followed by big combat encounter in kind of a tight room where you have to deal with some light mechanics, rinse and repeat.
I tried not to read too much of this as I want to avoid spoilers.

It sure seems the witch queen team is the one that did The Final Shape. Lightfall is truly the lowest point Destiny has ever been in.

I’ll see how it all ends up, but I like TFS narrative better. Cayde plays a very important part of destiny as he acts as a foil to the “all serious all the time” other characters. When he is serious, the serious moments hit harder. (Again, no spoilers). When he jokes, those jokes make the moment lighter. It regulates the vibe better.
 

clarky

Gold Member
"Finished" The Witch Queen earlier today, really strong campaign had a mess about with the other stuff outside the campaign. Solid 8.5/10

Now on with Lightfall.

Hmm yeah i need this to end. What's with the 9ft sexual purple dudes? This doesn't feel like Destiny , at all. Fucking awful.

Edit: dropped it for the night, strong chance I'm going to be Destiny'd out before I even hit the final shape at this rate lol. Some of the checkpoints in this game are fucking ridiculous.
 
Last edited:
I tried not to read too much of this as I want to avoid spoilers.

It sure seems the witch queen team is the one that did The Final Shape. Lightfall is truly the lowest point Destiny has ever been in.

I’ll see how it all ends up, but I like TFS narrative better. Cayde plays a very important part of destiny as he acts as a foil to the “all serious all the time” other characters. When he is serious, the serious moments hit harder. (Again, no spoilers). When he jokes, those jokes make the moment lighter. It regulates the vibe better.
I don't think I really got into any story spoilers, but now worries. I will say now that I'm post campaign, that they've really stepped up how the patrol zone works. I'm actually having fun with it. Witch Queen's was fine, but kind of standard patrols. Lightfall was dreadful, red sword difficulty enemies that just weren't fun, especially for anyone who just played campaign on normal... they had to be like WTF... but threshers and tanks just randomly sneak up behind you and one-shot you.

I'm really glad they redesigned the patrol zone concept.
 

FingerBang

Member
I too wanted to jump back in after basically ignoring the last two expansions. I haven't been able to log in once 😂
 
I figured I’d try this out today annnnnd, servers are down at 9:15 am. Guess I should’ve given it another week or so.
 

Dynasty8

Member
Campaign on Legendary was amazing. Have to do it on Legendary...Normal is no where near as fun. Also, the "final boss" was awesome and challenging.
 

Killjoy-NL

Gold Member
Well, I've been a Destiny player since release. Ebbed and flowed but played every expansion to some extent or another.

I'm three missions in and I can say that for me, this is the best Destiny campaign they have ever written. Its actually coherent. I have no idea what the endgame looks like, but I'm enjoying the ride. Definitely the best since Forsaken.
The biggest question for me:

Is it better than D1 Taken King?
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom