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Blog entry by Bridgette Lair

Review: Destiny 2: Forsaken

Review: Destiny 2: Forsaken

Once the Majestic set has been fully completed, Guardians can again upgrade their armor to the Magnificent versions with the highest stats and ornamentation. This Magnificent set also has one final set of tasks to complete, some of which are extra challenging. It is this final step that applies the fabulous white glow to each pi

Probably one of the more daunting challenges is breaking down the differences between New Light and the two major expansions: Forsaken and Shadowkeep. The new free-to-play experience is meant to get players on the sidelines in the door for the first time. Despite this, this free experience actually comes with a lot of content.

Destiny 2: The Final Shape - PixelPraatIf 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, Paracausal Shot perk 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.

In addition to the monumental effort required to simply afford the ornaments, players are also upset about one specific task required to activate the glow on their shiny new armor. Once players have earned their Magnificent sets, one of the tasks necessary for the glow is to achieve seven wins in Trials of Osiris . This high-intensity PvP mode is widely considered to be the most skillful form of Crucible in Destiny 2 . Many lower-skill players tend to avoid it entirely due to the time and ability required to achieve the best rewards. While Bungie may be trying to bolster the population of the mode to improve matchmaking balance, Trials contains a myriad of other problems as well. In the past, Bungie has responded to negative player feedback like this with on-the-fly changes to make the goals easier, so that may happen this year as w

Destiny 2: Forsaken takes place sometime after the events of the base game. You and Cayde-6 fly to the Prison of Elders to help an old friend, Petra Venj, put down a prison riot, but the trio quickly learns that the riot was orchestrated to cover up the breakout of eight Scorn barons. Rescued by the long-missing Prince Uldren Sov, the nine successfully escape the prison, but not before killing Cayde-6. Fleeing into the Reef, you pursue them to exact your revenge.

Though short at 5-6 hours, the campaign provides enough thrills and excitement thanks to the great barons. Each of the eight barons offers a unique boss fight that keeps players on their toes. The Rider forces you to fight from aboard a Pike, the Trickster rigs ammo to explode and the Rifleman summons decoys to trip you up. Not all were created equal, like the Machinist whose single identifiable trait is firing a few missiles. Then, there are some like the Fanatic who make up for lack of personality by throwing hordes of enemies at you. Still, the boss design is a huge step up from previous Destiny experiences.

Starting on Io, speak to Asher Mir again. He will need some tasks completed before he’s willing to leave the planet. The player will need to complete his four quests: Observer Effect, Into the Pyramidion, Double Blind, and Fleischman-Aschheim Axiom. They can speak with him to turn in the quests when they’re done. Players will receive the Silicon Neuroma Sniper Rifle.

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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.

In the stream following the reveal of Forsaken, Bungie’s representatives took some time to do fans a "favor" and better explain what exactly will be included in the Annual Pass. Put simply, it will consist of new challenges, new gear, new lore, new challenges and new events. It all sounds good doesn’t it; as if they’ve finally found a way to keep new content coming outside the major expansions? Except that just about all of this is content that, even as recently as this past April, was all offered free of charge. To some this change might not seem like a big deal, their likely reasoning being that Bungie shouldn’t have to work for free. That’s true. They shouldn’t and they never have been. They’ve always been paid for it through the microtransactions offered through the Eververse cash shop. What’s more, acquiring funding for these "free" updates was and is the entire justification for having the Eververse in the first place .

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