Destiny 2: The 5 Hardest Strikes The 5 Easiest

The Witch Queen expansion seal ranks nearly among the highest in terms of expansions, simply because of two things: it requires players to kill champions in the Throne World , which implies players need to engage in endgame PVE content, and it also requires the completion of a Legendary campaign miss

Let’s not mince words here, the Destiny community was in this exact situation three years ago in the months leading up the release of The Taken King. It was to be sold for a price of $40 and required the installation of all previous DLC, even though House of Wolves did not require the Dark Below. Players at the time were outraged at both the price tag and the need to purchase a DLC that was seemingly only required because Bungie said so. One would think the developer would learn a lesson from this, and they did; it was just the wrong one. We are now approaching the second year of Destiny 2 and Bungie is showing us exactly what they’ve learned: that they can get away with it. Curse of Osiris is almost universally panned as being unworthy of players’ time and money. It isn’t required to play Warmind, offers hardly any mechanical changes and yet Bungie, without offering any explanation, says it will be required for Forsaken all the same. This would be bad enough by itself, but Bungie isn’t content to stop there; no, they’ve decided that they need to milk their players even more than they already are, and they’re going to do it with the "Annual Pass."

Destiny campaigns have always been mind-numbing thanks to heavy-handed writing and mission design that overly relies on mundane busywork. The stories nearly always end up being vague, open-ended and unsatisfying. Forsaken changed that by making the story more personal and finding new and engaging ways to push that narrative forward. Shadowkeep, on the other hand, is content with regressing all that hard work. Aside from strong opening and closing missions, Shadowkeep barely delivers any meaningful revelations or character development. You, Eris Morn and the remainder of the Vanguard remain blank slates with surface-level characterizations. With the most emotive member of the cast, Cayde-6, dead, Destiny desperately needs NPCs with some personality. Unfortunately, that isn't found anywhere in Shadowkeep.

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep's greatest strength is what's kept Destiny 2 news so popular all these years: the gameplay. The blend of shooting and looting remains as addictive and satisfying as ever, even if we're still firing at the same enemies we've been fighting since 2014. Bungie has done a solid job altering and perfecting the formula over the years and Shadowkeep represents the next big step in its refinement, Armor 2.0.

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.

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep takes the idea of Forsaken’s Annual Pass and splits it up into different chunks. Year 3 of Destiny 2 is spread across four Seasons that players must purchase to enjoy Seasonal Activities, exclusive cosmetics and special Exotic quests. Each season will set you back $9.99, though the first season, Season of the Undying, is free for everyone who purchases Shadowkeep.

As a fan of Halo-era Bungie and of Destiny in general, it sucks having to point this out now that Bungie has finally shown some signs of passion for Destiny. Forsaken has all the hallmarks of a product that’s had some real love and care put into it, and the team behind it deserves all the praise and kudos that they’re currently enjoying for it. If it manages to meet the sky-high expectations this past week’s reveal has no doubt inspired in the Destiny community, then they’ll deserve even more. Forsaken and it’s team aren’t the issue here, but rather Destiny in general and specifically Bungie’s incessant need to squeeze its player base for all they’re worth. It can be done better. It is being done better by several others. So what exactly is Bungie’s excuse for treating their fans like a bunch of simpletons with bottomless wallets? Do they even think they need one? Hopefully they’re not that far-gone, but since they’ve been employing these same practices for almost three years now and are now escalating even further, refuting such an impression is difficult to say the least.

Now that guardians have to directly pay for this content too, how exactly is there any justification whatsoever for keeping the Eververse around? As it currently stands: there isn’t. The Eververse now exists for the sole purpose of extracting extra money from eager players. This isn’t a free to play game like Fortnite. It’s a $60 premium AAA experience game. That price goes up to ~$170 for those who bought Destiny 2, its individual expansions, and who will buy both the $40 Forsaken and Bungie’s $30 Annual Pass. No matter how one slices it, that same old scumminess is still very present.