Review: Destiny 2: Shadowkeep

Silver is Destiny 2’s premium currency that can only be purchased with real-world money. Meanwhile, Bright Dust was introduced as an in-game currency that would allow players to earn Eververse items without Silver. With Shadowkeep, however, Bungie has significantly neutered what players can buy all while increasing the amount of Bright Dust players can earn. Items purchasable with Bright Dust are hidden away in a less-than-stellar menu. Only a few items are available at a time with new ones rotating in every few hours.

Clocking in at four-to-five hours, Shadowkeep's campaign generally overstays its welcome despite such a short completion time. The campaign doesn't offer anything interesting in the way of revelations or mission design. Instead, it spends most of its length tasking players with mindless busywork. After that, it ends on an interesting yet unsatisfying cliffhanger that likely won't be addressed until the inevitable Destiny 3. The campaign never approaches the awful Dark Below or Curse of Osiris , but it's a severe drop in quality from Forsaken.

Since the release of Destiny 2, monetization has been a thorn in all player's sides. Though Bungie tweaked it to be fairer, players still resented the idea that Bungie was selling a $49.99 Season Pass with microtransactions on top of it all while asking players to pay up front to get the game. Anyone hoping things would get better after Bungie's split from Activision isn't going to be happy to hear what's happening in Shadowkeep.

Microtransactions were a considerable problem in Destiny 2 with end-game items like Sparrows, ships and shaders tied to the game’s version of Loot Boxes. While not as invasive in Destiny 2: Forsaken, it still feels like large amounts of items are held hostage behind the system. Ships, Sparrows, weapon ornaments and shaders are found in the wild, but many remain tied to Eververse. Considering Destiny 2's costs add upwards of $140 at this point, it's annoying that the microtransactions remain (the abysmal Curse of Osiris and Warmind DLCs are required to play Forsaken).

Before the shift to this platform expansion model, new content in Destiny 2 usually felt a bit disconnected from the "main" narrative of the story. Each of the different non-mainline expansions, including Curse of Osiris, Black Armory , etc., contained their own well-packaged story that was launched at the beginning of the season and then (sometimes) brought to a relative close near the end. These days, that approach has changed. Seasons are no longer unique stories, but instead more like chapters in a longer narrative. The conclusion of one season quite literally causes the events of the following sea

Those hoping that the Bungie-Activision split would result in decreased monetization are in for a rude awakening. Destiny 2 pushed things too far, but Forsaken managed to make things a bit fairer. With the release of New Light and Shadowkeep , however, monetization in Destiny 2 has been taken to a new, confusing level.

Over the past two years, Bungie has done good work slowly removing some of the more disturbing aspects from the Eververse store. Gameplay-focused items like armor, sparrows and Ghost shells have been moved out of the store and are, like in Destiny, offered as in-game rewards. At this point in time, the Eververse store purely sells cosmetic items, including weapon ornaments, emotes and finishers.

Uldren Sov serves as a passable antagonist but ultimately suffers from a lack of interaction with your Guardian. Outside of a handful of cutscenes from Destiny and a brief interaction at the start of Forsaken, Uldren hasn’t had much impact on your story. Much of the animus you’ll hold for him lies solely on whether you like Cayde-6. It doesn't help that a random final boss appears out of nowhere to rob Uldren of his spotlight.


As an example, consider Destiny 2 ’s recent Season of Dawn . Fresh off the laurels of Season of Undying , Guardians had just slain an epic time-jumping Vex Mind known creatively as "The Undying Mind." However, this creature’s death caused ripples in the fabric of time, ripples that allowed the mysterious Osiris to activate a powerful machine called the Sundial. With it, Guardians were able to travel through the Corridors of Time which gave them the ability to not only meet but save their long lost hero Saint-XIV. Saving Saint eventually led to the creation of the Lighthouse, which was the basis of the long-awaited return of Trials of Osiris a season later in Season of the Wort

Destiny 2: New Light comes with all content and activities associated with Years 1 of Destiny 2. That includes Destiny 2, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind. New players can access these campaigns by visiting Amanda Holliday in the Tower’s hangar.


While players don’t yet have a clear picture of how deep Halo Infinite is going to go down the Destiny 2 Weapons road, it’s obvious that they will need to introduce activities that keep players engaged outside of just PvP and re-runs of the story missions. 343 Industries should absolutely be looking to satisfy their PvE-focused audience with challenging, repeatable, and rewarding endgame activities that respect the player’s time and provide a meaningful loop for players to engage