Review: Destiny 2: Shadowkeep

Unlike Forsaken, Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is a direct sequel to Destiny 2 . Eris Morn has uncovered something deadly on the Moon and accidentally unleashes the Nightmares, ghostly versions of past enemies. With a new threat emerging, the Vanguard quickly dispatches its army of Guardians to put down the Nightmares and discover their dark source.

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.

If there’s one problem with the Dreaming City, it’s the Blind Well. Working like the Court of Oryx and Archon Forge, players make sacrifices to draw out powerful enemies and, hopefully, earn powerful rewards. As in The Taken King, it’s an excellent idea for a mode that’s unfortunately executed poorly. As Fireteams can only hold three players outside of Crucible and Raids, who else you’ll get, if anyone else, is up to chance. It’s possible six other players with high-level gear will show up. It’s also possible for under-leveled players to hop in or even no extra players at all. The problem started with The Taken King and it’s disappointing Bungie hasn't addressed all these years later.
Despite all the regression with the campaign and monetization and the rehashing of older content, Destiny 2 still looks quite good. The Moon is an atmospheric place to visit and traversing the caverns the Hive call home produces a sense of dread that other locations in the Destiny 2 experience can't provide. Meanwhile, the short visits into the Black Garden are gorgeous thanks to all the colors and lush jungle mixed with Vex machinery. Destiny 2 may be two years old now, but it's still looking good.

When Destiny 2 launched, it was arguably a shell of the original. Sure the story was a little more cinematic, but much of what had made Destiny fun and compelling was now strangely absent. Customizable class builds were gone, replaced by ones pre-made by Bungie. Randomly-rolled loot was gone too; now all one had to do was get a gun once and that was it. No more chasing godrolls. Supers were toned-down and put on an excessively long timer; the other abilities were too. There was "more" to do in the hub-worlds too, but it all somehow came-off as even more shallow than the activities available in the original. Throw an over-emphasized Eververse and a merely "okay" raid (with disappointing loot) on top of that and the recipe for a disastrous launch period is complete.


Aiding players greatly is its White Nail, an Exotic Perk that not only grants this weapon high precision damage at the base but also refills the magazine when landing three quick precision hits. As such, Whisper of the Worm becomes an incentivizing weapon for snipers who don't want to reposition often and can take advantage of its extra sh

Bungie's history with Destiny has been something akin to whiplash. First they release a lackluster base game (Destiny, Destiny 2) and then they release two awful expansions. Finally, when players are at their lowest, Bungie releases an enormous expansion ( The Taken King , Forsaken ) that fundamentally changes the game. It's a high Bungie achieved last year with Forsaken, which ushered in the best mission design, sandbox activities and post-launch content since The Taken King. But can that streak continue? Destiny 2: Shadowkeep aims to build on Forsaken's success with a new campaign, a restructured Armor system and more ways to earn loot. Does Destiny 2: Shadowkeep scare up enough quality content, or should it have remain buried on the Moon?

Destiny 2’s fourth expansion, Shadowkeep, and its most recent seasons have kept the positive momentum going. With the release of Shadowkeep, Guardians got to return to The Moon to take on nightmarish versions of many defeated foes. The main content additions also included two new strikes, one new Crucible map, two new-ish Crucible Maps and the "Garden of Salvation" raid. Shadowkeep also brought with it the reorganization of the Crucible and the launch of "Armor 2.0."


The popularity of the Hand Cannon ebbs and flows with the changing stats and enemy Shield mechanics in the game. Those that are truly dedicated will ignore the constant flip-flopping of effective weapons and hone their skills on the battlefield instead of the stat board. To save players time, here's a look at the best hand cannons Destiny 2 off

Fatebringer , a Legendary Kinetic Hand Cannon, easily boasts some of the best handling of its weapon type. Its Adaptive Frame gives a well-grounded grip and easier maneuvering. The biggest boon of this weapon is that, with the correct perk combo, it can essentially roll with the benefits of three perks. This comes from the fact that it rolls Firefly in its second column, which is like a combination of Outlaw and Dragonfly, and this is without considering the first col