Destiny 2 Beyond Light

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Beyond Light is Destiny 2’s second expansion following Bungie’s amicable breakup with Activision in 2019.

After a relatively bumpy year with the Shadowkeep expansion and the “seasonal” content model receiving mixed reviews, Beyond Light promises to blow a “new wind” for Destiny 2 with many important changes, resolving longtime player dissatisfaction, as well as other value additions.

So is Beyond Light up to Destiny 2 player expectations?

How will the new paradigm of the game affect the experience of new players?

The Beyond Light expansion begins with a short cutscene explaining the events of Season of Arrival, the “springboard” to Beyond Light, with characters familiar to any player already attached to the game. Destiny from the first game, then quickly cut through our “Guardian,” has now set foot on the cold moon Europa, and then players are free to explore a whole new place with this Destiny 2 franchise.

After a somewhat monotonous and boring Moon of Shadowkeep, Europa really “blows away” the writer by the pristine and harsh beauty of this place.

Mountains, snow-covered plains are silent, interspersed with square blocks of rock rising from the ground that anyone will recognize as the hands of the Vex cliques.

To the dark caves illuminated by mysterious red lights in the giant blocks of ice. Or are the huge, modern complexes of the Bray corporation now abandoned with an air of fear and gloom.

The all-new Europa makes exploration more fun than ever!

The Beyond Light expansion not only brings Europa to players but the Cosmodrome in Destiny 1 returns, for all of its memorable value, now shimmering like never before with newly introduced lighting technology applied from this expansion.

One of Beyond Light’s most important changes is the removal of the first three campaigns – Red War, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind, somewhat “lighter” for those who want access to Destiny 2.

Players will immediately familiarize themselves with the game’s simple PvE mechanics through a short quest sequence.

Unlike New Light 1.0, when players feel that they are “forced” to play through a series of forgettable tasks, now “holding the way,” you will be the lovely and dedicated Shaw Han, leading the way. It would help to overcome the dangers awaiting the Cosmodrome to become an official Guardian of Vanguard.

Not only that, after completing Shaw Han’s storyline, you will be instructed to receive a very interesting Exotic gun named “Riskrunner,” making the New Light experience for new players more friendly than ever.

Perhaps the most valuable addition to this Beyond Light expansion is a completely new set of skills for all three classes: Stasis.

As far as the plot goes, Stasis is a new power given to you by the main villain of the entire Destiny franchise – The Darkness – and Stasis is a truly great addition to Destiny 2’s gameplay.

With a heavy focus on slowing and controlling enemies and being equally competitive in maximizing damage dealt, this icy dark power is a refreshing addition to Destiny 2. As the writer feels, I find Stasis in all three classes fun because of their uniqueness and significance in gameplay.

And this Stasis power is even more attractive because players can upgrade them by completing Exo Stranger’s “Born In Darkness” quest series and receiving weekly quests from her to “unlock” more. Darkness Aspect – make your dark powers now strong, even stronger – with flexible and fun combinations.

What would Destiny be without “Raids” – tough PvE activities that require up to 6 players to work closely together to overcome “challenges” with complex and challenging mechanics, as well as expanding on the massive story Destiny is telling.

As is tradition, Beyond Light’s Raid – Deep Stone Crypt – launches more than a week after the expansion so that teams can prepare for the race for a world championship.

The first time the writer joined the raid on the first day was an exhausting but enjoyable experience, especially since this raid is not too long but has very nerve-wracking mechanics!

The mechanics of Deep Stone Crypt mostly revolve around players taking on a fixed role, soberly interacting with the environment, and always communicating thoroughly with those with the rest of the roles.

All raid “stages” require players to juggle these roles flexibly.

Deep Stone Crypt requires faster, more precise, and flexible communication than many of Destiny’s previous raids.

Raid encounters are fluid and energetic, and the main mechanics revolve around players having to flexibly adapt to their roles as needed, requiring everyone on Fireteam to stay awake at all times and be willing to learn new roles.

It is interesting in gameplay, but Deep Stone Crypt is also a beautiful raid and full of fun in its story.

You’ll go up and down between that deep catacomb and Clovis Bray’s massive space station, and there’s always a pause for players to pause to admire Europa’s almost metaphysical beauty.

Through that, the raid tells the story of a genius but crazy and evil Clovis Bray, expanding on Destiny 2’s massive storyline, especially the flourishing Golden Age!

The ending raid also opens up a lot of other interesting activities on Europa, such as “unlocking” the Empire Hunts quests and adding a special “zone” on Europa called the Eclipse Zone.

The raid rewards are also varied and exciting. The powerful Eyes of Tomorrow “golden” rocket launcher is reminiscent of the legendary Gjallarhorn of Destiny 1, giving players an extra incentive to complete the raid.

The raid’s “purple” rewards are also a treat, with three brand new 3 class armors with stunning designs, as well as unique weapon looks and a fresh perk system.

The main storyline allows players to meet familiar characters like Varkis and Exo Stranger and stop Eramis – a powerful Fallen leader pursuing the power of darkness.

Beyond Light’s campaign is billed as an important step forward in Destiny 2’s story. Still, like Shadowkeep, it is just a “stepping stone” to a larger, important story more that Destiny players have been eager to experience since season one.

Eramis would have been an interesting villain if her lines suddenly became ridiculously silly in the second half of the game, and the motivation for character development kept disappearing over time.

Besides Exo Stranger, The Drifter, and Eris Morn, the two shadow control characters are also promised to play an important role in the plot. Still, they only appear once in… cut scenes and then disappear, not even bothering to say a word!

Although the volume of storyline added to Beyond Light is enormous, again, because of the weakness in the narrative, it leads nowhere and leaves the player… baffled!

Not only that, approaching the evil Darkness for the first time in 7 years brings many predictions about a new plot approach for Destiny, evoking whole new conflicts about morality, honor, and humanity for Destiny. Destiny universe – even confirmed by the plot pages in the game itself, but all that is just text on the screen.

Beyond Light is the first Destiny 2 expansion where Bungie applies a “retirement” mechanic to content and gear.

Many previous locations and activities are removed from the map, and many items will have their power points locked, rendering them completely useless in PvE content and some PvP activities.

In theory, this is a good idea, as constantly getting players to change their gear and playstyle will motivate them to chase more interesting items instead of holding on to the weapons from the season far away. Making it more difficult to balance PvP and PvE.

However, Bungie has given too much “retirement” and added too little news.

The equipment of the original Beyond Light and the Season of the Hunt, although many and varied, cannot make up for the huge hole left by other equipment.

Especially with this “retirement” mechanism, Bungie has made the equipment “reward” from other interesting activities of the game such as Blind Well, (Forsaken) Altar of Sorrows, Nightmare Hunts (Shadowkeep) as well as the rewards from 2 currently useless “dungeons.”

Similar to the content, Beyond Light only added two new Strikes without adding any Crucible or Gambit maps.

Compared to the number of strikes “disappearing” from the game, this seems unacceptable.

where can you get a Destiny 2 Beyond Light online

Destiny 2: Beyond Light Deluxe – Pre-Purchase, Xbox Series X [Digital Code]: Buy it now

Destiny 2: Beyond Light Standard – Pre-Purchase, Xbox Series X [Digital Code]: Buy it now