DESTINY 2: BEYOND LIGHT Review...As Of Now
The delayed and long-awaited expansion for Destiny 2, Beyond Light is here. This will be a review of the campaign, the weapons/armor from Europa as a whole, and a bit of the post-campaign content, and obviously Stasis. This will contain some very minor spoilers, but no more than were already shown in the trailers and previews.
To be frank, I was surprised at how short the main campaign was. I grinded it pretty hard, played all day, and focused on finishing it above anything else, so it makes sense that I finished it in a day. It would take about 5-8 hours for most players, depending on how much a player chases weapons, armor, or power grinds between missions. I liked a lot about it — the bosses, the level design, the challenge, and the slow and steady inclusion of Stasis. Even though it was short, I kind of liked it that way. I was able to get an epic story and a heavy dose of Destiny lore in a well-made package. And now I can focus on the post-campaign content, which might be just as long or longer than the campaign. It certainly has some good missions and includes some really engaging lore.
The content after the main campaign includes hunting down various Fallen groups that are still causing trouble, replaying missions with variants, quests for armor and weapons, Legendary Lost Sectors, and unlocking more and more of Stasis. I LOVE all this. Yes, there are flaws, grindy quests, and the pickings for weapons and armor is a little slim. However, I LOVE that I get to take this all at my own pace. Now that the rush and need to finish the campaign is over, I can just unlock all these things on my own time, not having to finish all these quests for armor and weapons before finishing the campaign. Also, all the lore and interactions between characters in these later quests are just as informative and interesting as the main campaign. As for the armor and weapons, I don’t have everything just yet, but the things I have are great, and I’m excited to chase the other things. I really would have loved at least one Stasis specific Exotic armor piece for each class (feels like an obvious thing to have), but the other exotic weapons and armor pieces are great additions.
The last thing to address is Stasis. A new element, a new subclass, a new way to interact with every activity, enemy, and place in Destiny. As good as the campaign and gear are, Stasis is what is going to really keep players coming back for a while. I currently only unlocked everything for the Warlock; it has been a busy week. But if the Hunter and the Titan are anywhere as much fun and crazy cool as the Warlock’s subclass, then people will be basically using them from now until the other subclasses get customization (if they do). The abilities to freeze, slow, and shatter bring a new strategy to how, when, and where to attack enemies. It is just as exciting now to use my super as it was when I first popped it this season. It is so refreshing to have new supers, melee attacks, and more. But the most important thing is customization. It feels so good, and Bungie has done a good job of allowing player freedom with the Stasis subclass, but not all at once. We will be able to unlock all the fragments and aspects eventually, but even now there are some great choices that can really impact your Stasis gameplay.
Overall, Beyond Light has been a pretty good expansion, even if it was different than we expected. With a shorter story and a little less gear than we wanted, there are some levels of disappointment. That being said, the missions had some really great design, difficulty, the smaller pool of gear is worth chasing, and Stasis is incredible. After the raid and more time in Europa and Stasis, we’ll do a full review, but as of now, we’ll score it to our best assessments.
