CLOUDED

After the highs of The Witch Queen, DESTINY 2: LIGHTFALL doesn’t stick the landing

- Phil Savage

After a year of power creep letting us chew through enemies, Lightfall is here to bring some challenge back to Destiny 2. Abilities take longer to recharge, enemies hit harder and tank more damage, and it’s no longer possible to out-level certain activities. We’ve spent a year gorging on ice cream, and now Destiny 2’s newest expansion wants to remind us that, no, we also have to eat our broccoli. In this analogy, the broccoli is machine guns.

This was always going to be a hard sell. Destiny 2 feels different now – less approachable and quicker to punish a mistake. While many of its changes were necessary, I’m not surprised that players aren’t as hyped about what Lightfall brings.

It doesn’t help that there isn’t even a great campaign to distract from the disempowerment fantasy. After The Witch Queen showed Bungie at its best, in Lightfall what we get is a mess. The story is an infuriating speedrun through vague ideas, none given the time and space they need to develop. What is the Radial Mast? What will happen if Calus connects it to the Veil? What is the Veil? Throughout, Lightfall does a terrible job of setting the stakes of our missions, making them feel inconsequential. Outside of the first and last cutscene, everything here feels like a disposable sidequest.