The revolution in the home Bungie has finally begun and the separation from Activision begins to bear fruit. The second chapter of the Seattle developers' work becomes free-to-play in search of an expansion of users, while veterans welcome the new expansion that for the first time expands the story of the original Destiny. We all know, however, that revolutions are difficult and this is certainly no less.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep e Destiny 2: New Light these are the first steps of a newborn independent Bungie, free from the laws of the market strictly followed by Activision and who now has the management and fate of the franchise in her own hands.
Arriving on PC and consoles in the last quarter of 2017, the base version of Destiny 2 and the original Season Pass of the first year are freely playable by all, at no additional cost. This is the first big step in the revolution of the franchise and which takes the name of Destiny 2: New Light, the "New Light" that Bungie hopes to light up in players who have not yet tried the looter-shooter that is finally available from this October. also on Steam, as well as on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
A new light
New Light offers a truly extraordinary amount of content, it is in fact possible to freely play three game campaigns: the red war, the curse of Osiris and the Warring Mind. We could stop here and have at least twenty-five hours of gameplay available and get a precise idea of Destiny 2, but Bungie wanted to raise the bar of free-to-play games, including the possibility of facing the first raid for free "The leviathan ", take full advantage of the" Crucible "PVP mode and reach the level-cap of 960 like all other paying players.
The content aspect of New Light, therefore, makes it one of the free-to-play with more content that the market has seen arrive in recent years, but unfortunately it's not all roses. As we have said, the contents are really a lot, but almost all irrelevant and managed by the game in a very unclear way. A new Destiny 2 player, after facing the introductory mission will be catapulted into a world devoid of any tutorials, with screens and indicators for all activities not available in free-to-play mode and with the playable quests for free relegated to one of the minor NPCs located in a remote area of the Tower. The offer therefore remains extremely, but the way in which players are welcomed in the vast world protected by the Traveler should certainly be revised.
If New Light is the revolution dedicated to new players, Shadowkeep is the expansion that will dictate the future of Destiny 2 with changes that orient the game more decisively towards the MMORPG category, a category that Bungie had repeatedly declared does not belong to Destiny and that only in recent months has finally arrived on the lips of Luke Smith, game director of the game.
Shadows from the Deep
If there is one thing that should be clarified immediately is that "Shadows from the depths", this is the Italian title of the expansion, is not an expansion like "Forsaken", both in terms of content and narrative. If the previous expansion of the game had offered two new planets and several new game modes with a well-defined and in some respects self-concluding narrative, Shadowkeep offers a quite different experience that steers the game towards a living, pulsating, and totally in the making.
Each season (at least four are planned for now) will expand the Shadowkeep story and add new details to the game world. A striking example of this evolution is a new structure that is being born behind Ikora Rey at the Tower: every week a new piece is added with lots of workers at work to complete it. At the moment we do not know what it is, but the appearance is that of a Vex portal that could be linked to the raid "The Garden of Salvation".
Shadowkeep brings back in Destiny 2 an old acquaintance of the veterans of the game: Eris Morn is back to explore the Moon after feeling the awakening of a dark power, making a discovery that finally allows the story of the first chapter (and consequently of the events of " Forsaken ”) to take a first step towards what will inevitably be the discovery of the nature of the Traveler, the spherical entity that makes the world of Destiny possible.
Welcomed by a new faction of the hive, the Guardians who have entered the depths of the Moon after the call of Eris Morn will be amazed in the first mission, seeing the profile of a… let's stop here. The scene is so well orchestrated that it is really a shame to tell it in this review, just know that the one of the first mission is one of the most anticipated events by the community and very important in terms of lore.
The other three missions that make up the main campaign of this expansion struggle to find the rhythm of the first, becoming a more-of-the-same classic so dear to the franchise.
The main campaign doesn't actually end with the final story mission. In fact, this is one of the main features of the revolution in terms of narrative: the world of Destiny 2 is finally constantly evolving and every week there is a new event that adds a piece to the great puzzle designed by Bungie. The danger, however, is that not everyone will appreciate this way of handling the narrative and may label the expansion as "incomplete" or "grabbed". This is the path taken by the developers and only time will tell us if it will be successful or not.
An MMORPG
As mentioned earlier, this summer Luke Smith finally admitted that Destiny 2 belongs to the MMORPG category and that the development team is making changes to the fundamentals of the game to allow players to customize the characteristics of their characters in detail. . The Frame 2.0 in fact, they introduce a deeper system of statistics, skills and mods that allow players for the first time to create real builds to face different situations, such as activities with different modifiers or raids where a certain statistic is required rather than a 'other.
Also in this case it is a first step towards bigger changes, the Armor 2.0 in fact are still immature and still need several tweaks before we can talk about a real RPG, but the path taken is certainly the right one. However, no changes regarding the weapons if not some changes to the type of damage that can be inflicted on some special enemies. In this respect it seems that a revolution for the paraphernalia is not planned or at least it is not one of the aspects that the developers consider so important as to undergo an immediate change.
Also noteworthy is the limited amount of customization in terms of aesthetics. Bungie had stated that it would be possible to apply the look of any armor to what is worn, so as not to lose statistics in favor of aesthetics, but at the moment the applicable aspects are very few and far from satisfactory.
The addition, however, of the finishing moves (special animations that allow you to eliminate enemies with style) do not seem to add the desired depth of play with the few mods available, but only another pretext to direct players to Eververse, where it will be possible to buy new ones with real money .
Nostalgia effect
Returning to the Moon will be an experience that will bring to the minds of veterans the many memories related to the first Destiny. The Moon is just as players remembered it, but with lots of little new features and several new zones that will make exploring and discovering new secrets even more fun.
For example, we will be able to explore the Ketch of the Fallen of the secret mission for the Hammered Spindle, now crashed on the lunar surface, or try to jump the mouth of hell with your own goshawk, an activity that has become a challenge for the community of the first title.
Furthermore, the majestic Scarlet Fortress is made in a sublime way and it is truly a pleasure to explore it in search of some little secrets still to be brought to the surface.
This "new" Moon, among other things, also hosts the Nightmares, enemies of the past who come back to life thanks to a new form of corruption. It will then be possible to face Crota again, the final boss of the second raid arrived in Destiny, or Skolas, the Kell of the Taken who tried to lead a revolt in the Prison of Elders. Is it recycled content? Sure, but if they're cleverly recycled like in this case, I don't think you can really complain.
A new progression system
Bungie with this new expansion has decided to introduce the concept of in Destiny 2 Battle Pass. Each of the four seasons will offer two lines of rewards, one free and available to all Shadowkeep owners, the other Premium for those who have purchased the deluxe version or the Battle Pass for the current season.
The paid path will naturally offer greater rewards, but they should be limited to aesthetic content or small boosts in terms of experience gained.
An integration that at least for the moment seems to be well conceived and that allows everyone to earn rewards, whether one has decided to pay or not, without fragmenting the community, at least in this first season. It will be possible for us to sum up in this respect after having seen the arrival of at least the second season and the further integration of this game system.
With Shadowkeep and with the "Season of the TimelessArtifacts are back in Destiny 2 too, but in an all new version. The first "Eye of the Gatekeeper" allows us to unlock mods for weapons and armor thanks to the experience gained in the game.
These mods will be essential to build your build and better face the end-game activities that this new expansion offers.
At the end of the season, the artifact will be destroyed and players will be given a brand new one with new mods to unlock, dedicated in this case to what will be the activities to be completed with the new content.
finally matchmaking
One of the novelties of Shadowkeep is the introduction of matchmaking for the many different game activities that until now relied solely on the manual composition of the team. Thanks to this new expansion it is possible to face, for example, the Cala la Notte with a team generated with matchmaking, at least in the first two game difficulties. For the more difficult modes it will always be necessary to compose a team manually, but it seems that Bungie has finally managed to find the right compromise and balance activities with matchmaking in the most correct way.
Even new businesses like Nightmare Hunt and Vex Offensive benefit from these changes, allowing all players to quickly find a team of three or six to tackle the desired activity up to light level 920 difficulty.
USEFUL INFOI played Destiny 2: Shadowkeep on PC with an i7-8700K + RTX 2080 Ti configuration. Despite the high-level configuration, it is crystal clear that Bungie's game is one of the most optimized to ever hit the PC market. The console versions are still locked at 30fps.
Duration- The main campaign is completed in a few hours, but completing all the activities and above all getting to the new level cap can take more than 100 hours of play.
- Two new activities: Nightmare Hunt and Vex Offensive
- New matchmaking system that allows you to tackle the most demanding activities with an automatically generated team (up to level 920)
- Level cap at 960, but it is possible to continue the growth of the character thanks to the artifact to deal with the activities of level 980
- On the moon, you can find some new collectibles that will enrich the game story via the collections screen.
- Game Name: Destiny 2
- Release date: 6 September 2017
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Dubbing language: Italian
- Texts language: Italian
The return to the Black Garden
The flagship activity of Destiny always remains the raid and with Shadowkeep the guardians will be called to explore the Black Garden again, the final area of the first chapter of the series. The raid "Garden of SalvationWill once again see players battling Vex deities trying to reclaim control, adding a new linking mechanic between players. In fact, in several parts of the raid, the total collaboration between the players will be required, who will have to build physical connections between them to open doors, build points and damage the enemies who will try to pulverize them.
Important news also for the classic exotic weapon linked to the raid, which will no longer be linked to random drops. In fact, a quest will guide players through the secrets of the Black Garden and once again they will be forced to work together to obtain the powerful exotic weapon "Divinity".
final Thoughts
Evaluating Shadowkeep right now is not easy, as repeated several times the narrative is constantly expanding week after week, as well as the game modes and the development of the title itself. If you've played Destiny 2 until now, you can't help but buy this new addition and find out what the future holds for the Guardians, while if you've already quit the game once, you'd better turn your attention elsewhere. In case you've never tried the game, now is the perfect time to take advantage of the free-to-play version and find out if Destiny 2 is the MMMORPG you've been looking for.
The rating for the moment is a solid 85, but we'll be back to talk about Destiny 2: Shadowkeep probably at each new season, making the necessary changes up to a final vote at the end of the fourth season.
Review by Roberto BranniGraphics
The Moon is excellently remastered and modified, while the Scarlet Keep is truly a feast for the eyes.
90">90
SOUNDTRACK AND DOUBLE ROOM
In line with the other expansions, the Italian dubbing remains very enjoyable, while the soundtrack is always of the highest level.
90">90
GAMEPLAY
Armor 2.0 and the new finishing moves still need a lot of little tricks before they can cry out for revolution.
