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.

You don't even need to own Shadowkeep to enjoy a lot of the expansion's content. The opening mission, the Moon patrol space, the new two new Strikes and the three Crucible maps are available as part of Destiny 2 missions 2: New Light, the free-to-play version of the game. While the Raid and campaign are sectioned off, there's a lot you can do without owning Shadowkeep (the Seasonal Activities require you own the Season Pass).

Bungie is now quadruple-dipping with Season Passes, loot boxes (via Engrams), direct cosmetic purchases and a Battle Pass. The Battle Pass in particular is annoying by adding an additional layer of time-consuming grind to a game that already requires a lot of grind. The scummiest part of the whole system, though, is that Bungie has built the Eververse store straight into the Director menu. Previously, monetization could be ignored entirely because it was secluded to the Eververse Store at the Tower. Now, Bungie has made sure that it follows players everywhere they go. It's sad to see such regression after Forsaken made Destiny 2's monetization feel fairer to players.

Hive Shriekers serve as large turrets that defend the Hive locations. What makes them so powerful and difficult to defeat is their protective shell, which only opens if a Guardian comes close enough. Shriekers fire Void totems that can quickly harm a user's health unless they defeat them immediat

Everything you do in Destiny 2 earns progress towards the next tier, though the rewards don’t seem worth it. Asides from the occasional armor piece or weapon, the 100 tiers of rewards are mostly lackluster. Both Battle Passes contain too many modifiers, currencies, and other useless content meant to keep the grind going. Though earning tiers isn’t based off of time-played, progress in the Battle Passes still feels like a grind. As of publication, it’s not possible to buy tiers.

Probably the biggest albatross hanging over the entire expansion, however, is the lack of anything new. Despite some additional areas to explore and a fresh coat of paint, this is a map players already paid $60 to explore back in 2014. Nightmares are just reskinned versions of enemies we've already fought and they don't behave any differently. Two of the three new Crucible maps are remasters of old maps. The new Nightmare activities are against bosses that players have already fought hundreds of times. The new Strikes and Raid are excellent additions, but you don't even need to own Shadowkeep to play the Strikes. For $34.99, players should expect more and Bungie should have provided plenty of new content rather than rehashing older material.

It has been nearly a year since Bungie shifted towards their evolving world, and things haven’t been perfect. However, there are absolutely a few things that 343 Industries should pay attention to when thinking about how they make Halo Infinite a platform instead of an iterat

Malfeasance is the best single-target damage Hand Cannon in the game. This weapon's main trait, Explosive Shadow , acts similarly to Halo's Needler, causing targets to explode when imbued with enough rounds. This makes the weapon excellent at higher difficulties where single-target damage is a necessity for both weaker enemies and Champions; which this weapon decima

With Armor 2.0, Bungie is fully embracing the RPG potential of its franchise. New weapon and armor mods allow players to mess around with different elements and stats to build a character that fits their play style. Players can not only tweak little things like Resilience but also stats like how fast your abilities recharge. It's an exciting system that hardcore players will love tinkering with. It's also available for every player, regardless of whether or not you purchased Shadowkeep.

In addition to the new dungeon, Bungie also upped the rewards on their punishingly difficult Grandmaster Nightfall Ordeals. Players who get to the end of these mega-challenge missions in Destiny 2 are guaranteed to earn Ascendant Shards, the most coveted currency in the game. Bungie has shown that they want to encourage players to challenge themselves and are finally handing out the loot to justify the eff

On top of the Supremacy triumphs, there are other event-related activities, such as the Vanguard strike and Nightfall completion that are required to gild the title. The Nightfall one will be tough for any players who typically enjoy the game solo, even with the new in-game LFG opt