Destiny 2: Lightfall Preview – Zing

On February 28, probably the penultimate DLC for the popular (and still alive!) Online shooter Destiny 2 started. The conclusion of the story arc, which has been building for almost a decade, should be waiting for us next year, and it was Lightfall who fell on the difficult task of setting the scene and correctly arrange all the pieces to the grand finale. Successfully?

• Platform: PCPS5, Xbox Series X/S
• Publication date: 02/28/2023
• Manufacturer: Bangui
• Genre: MMO first person
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: Yes – Online + Co-op up to three players
• Data to download: 80 GB
• Game time: 6+ hours
• Price: 1249 kr (PS Store)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-7Cq7LLPr4

In the glow of neomuna

Lightfall begins with an epic battle that soon takes the player to Neptune, where a thriving human colony has been hiding for hundreds of years. As we’ve seen in the trailers, Neomuna’s city has an 80s cyberpunk feel to it, so it’s undergoing a significant change in environment.

The location is quite large, but I would compare it more with the Moon from Shadowkeep, the map from last year’s Queen of the Witches seemed to me larger and more branched. The campaign is also one of the shortest, completing it in about six hours on standard difficulty. The good news is the return of the legendary campaign that Bungie introduced us to in Witch Queen. This way, you can play through the story on a higher difficulty, which will reward you with better gear, which means you don’t have to grind as much to reach the optimal level for a new raid, for example. What’s slightly worse is the fact that, unlike the more deliberate increase in difficulty, as was the case in Witch Queen, in Lightfall only enemies have more health and the game puts more elite units in your path.

The good news is the return of the legendary campaign that Bungie introduced us to in Witch Queen.

Neomuna itself offers a set of new activities of varying difficulty, and additional quests open after completing the campaign, new merchants and players are pushed a little to discover hidden bonuses, so you definitely won’t be bored. In particular, Terminal Overload’s multi-stage activity is reminiscent of the escalation protocol from the Warmind DLC. Dozens and dozens of enemies will flock to you, and each stage has its own boss battle. This is an activity that cannot be played alone and usually involves several random players who come together for an uncoordinated collaboration.

twisted strand

One of the main innovations is the introduction of a new element called Strand. But here I ran into the first problem. The system in which you are introduced to the element is almost identical to Beyond Light and the Stasis element. So you are forced to use the element in story missions, whether you like it or not. The problem is that Beyond Light didn’t have a legendary campaign, and on hard difficulty, Strand just isn’t strong enough, especially when going into battle with a carefully tuned build that is useless with new abilities. This leads to highly disappointing moments and victories redeemed only by unwavering determination.

After completing the campaign and fully unlocking the element, Strand becomes a serious competitor to the established abilities.

However, after completing the campaign and fully unlocking the element, Strand becomes a very serious competitor to the established abilities. Attracting anchors in the air or enemies that you can still put a nice “dot” between the eyes or optics on impact is surprisingly useful, and the “ults” also make you feel like you’ve really done something special.

In full Destiny tradition, these new abilities are a bit of a game-breaker, but they’re more of a laughable and not-so-frequent enemy crash.

Same questions

So far, Lightfall is going well, but all good things come to an end. In this case, we end the story. As I wrote in the intro, there is only one more DLC coming after Lightfall, so it’s time to start unraveling the mountains of mystery and plot that Bungie has accumulated over the years. But that’s exactly what we didn’t get in Lightfall. Questions continue to be bought, we have another and brand new powerful artifact that all NPCs probably know more about than the player, and it will remain so until the end of the campaign.

Adding to the confusion is a story that takes you from devil to devil without any explanation, but under the constant threat of the apocalypse. The threat of total disaster, however, contrasts sharply with the frantic tone that repeatedly drags the script into the least expected and wholly inappropriate moments. Another nail in the coffin of the narrative is the strange decisions from Bungie. Very important information that would help the player draw at least some conclusions is given through anecdotal channels such as random radio broadcasts or special missions to obtain new exotic weapons. These are passages that not all players will hear. In addition, they will only get to the rest after completing the campaign and after listening to the Dadaistically strange closing speeches of some NPCs.

The threat of total catastrophe contrasts sharply with the frantic tone

And what’s worse, the whole campaign ends in complete trampling of your efforts and victory. After Lightfall, the player simply cannot have any sense of satisfaction or accomplishment. In addition, the uselessness is reinforced by the climax of last season, which also ended on a rather depressing note. So overall, Lightfall feels rushed and underwhelming in terms of story, which I may have never seen before in Destiny. It’s a shame because there’s not much to complain about in terms of playability, variety, and audiovisuals, but it’s not close enough to the finish line.