Destiny 2: The Final Shape Campaign Review, With Spoilers

[Music] all right I am back with the destiny 2 video I didn't make one yesterday because I could only play a little bit and I wanted to wait to get fully into the expansion before relaying my thoughts uh I have beaten the base Campaign which is all the available campaign missions before the raid comes out and then we know that there is uh a last mission after that I don't know if that's right away or at reset or what but that is Technically when the campaign will be over um instead I am now working my way through the post campaign missions which there seem to be a lot of and I'll touch on that later on but I wanted to kind of give my thoughts about the campaign in general and if Bungie kind of met the very high bar I think we all had for this I think they had for themselves management and Sony had for it uh a lot of pressure lot of pressure on this um let's just move past the errors it sucked it was a scrap day one kind of um it may end up breaking its alltime record this weekend but uh it didn't yesterday because of those errors which is a bummer the good news is uh the final shape is awesome I really really have enjoyed what I've played so far um which includes this you know early campaign string of missions in addition to to them threading in a uh strike and some lost sectors in there and some little bit of exploration of the pale heart um this combines a number of things to make this campaign work really well I think this is easily the best story campaign that we've had from the series uh you know we all have very fond memories of of something like forsaken although that at its core was just you know kill these couple of different bosses is in the Tangled Shore and um it was a little more straightforward Mission design was pretty straightforward uh the witch Queen that's when things kind of really started to kick into high gear with the legendary campaign um I do not think that anything can ever for me top the story moments of uh savathun um you know prostrating herself before the traveler and getting resurrected that was an alltime um though on the whole I think the story is is probably better start to finish and then I very much think the actual content of the missions the structure gameplay is better than anything we've seen um bar nut unlike my written review I am going to get into spoilers here uh I you know try to be pretty vague in that written review but if you're all the way here and want to watch a full video about the final shape I'm going to talk about spoilers um you don't have to watch it if you don't want to but uh the only footage I'm showing here is of lost sector so it's not really spoilery footage per say but um just in case you wanted to get a heads up on that up front I would suggest just not really watching anything just playing through the campaign yourself it's pretty long um granted I was playing on legendary which you know it's somewhat easy to die there from time to time and if you do you may have to redo an entire 20 minute encounter uh if you got kind of near the end there and uh legendary I think as ever is something I recommend to at least sort of peteran players as it's enough of a challenge to feel like something but it's not like oh I got to freaking match with Champions and burns and whatever it's just it's just a little bit harder and it is very hard at some parts the last mission in particular is uh extremely difficult I'll get get to that in a little bit um I was not like super enamored with with things right when they started and I think that's because it takes a while to build sort of on all fronts uh you get to you know the first part of the traveler it's kind of black garden you know stuff and and we've kind of seen this a bit before we have the reassemble the team missions where we got to go find Crow we got to find aora we got to find Zavala Crow and Zavala are being tempted by you know Crow is being tempted with power the old P power Aldren used to have and more zala is being tempted with the resurrection of his family and I'm like didn't we didn't we do this already in season of The Haunted like where they dealt with this trauma and kind of came to terms with it it it felt like a little bit of a retread um similarly you unlock Prismatic early on but it's such kind of limited options at first you're like kind of scrambling to figure out what to do with it and uh you're you're not really quite sure how you're supposed to be building into it although it does feel somewhat necessary given the nature of the campaign and these bound enemies that are immune except a prismatic uh you can however walk around in little pools of lights and just get Prismatic that way in order to get past those parts um so everything was like pretty good and then then things really started to kind of kick into high gear Around Mission maybe four I'd say um the environment design of this starts to go just absolutely nuts and by the end you're just I I took so many screenshots just screenshot screenshot screenshot time and time again of these insane environments they've designed uh it goes from you know the beauty of the traveler and like oh let's relive some old zones and blah blah blah to just the wildest kind of architecture you've you've ever seen um I it's hard to even find anything to compare it to it's like sci-fi horror at a level that I I can't remember seeing in games outside of like it's not like gross aliens and blood it's just these like deeply unsettling hands and fingers and like you know SLI sliced up Cube faces everywhere and they just went kind of absolutely crazy with the environment design in the final shape to the point where it's it's definitely the best designed environment uh I I think I've seen I'm not sure about how it like how functional it is is a patrol space I think some of the post campaign missions are indicating uh I'm going to be doing some things to unlock more fast travel points or something but um it's it's pretty linear so that's that's uh different but far in way I think the thing I am most impressed with with the entire campaign and I guess the expansion so far is is the environment design I we we saw glimpses of it in the trailers and things but actually going through it experiencing it like I just kept turning corners and just stopping and staring at things and not just like oh it's a pretty sky boox it's like the stuff on the ground like the creativity that has gone into that is really unparalleled and like this is a game that's known for pretty beautiful environments in a lot of ways uh and they really went and kind of topped themselves here um things start to escalate storywise I would say when Crow confirms what we suspected that he has aamar wished Cade back to life uh he there is a lore card and a ship about that except uh thankfully he just sort of spells it out in a kind of cute scene with him um and us and Cade sitting on the side of a frozen Cliff where he sort of explains to Cade what happened and how you know as he was making the wish to get here he also sort of wished that he had not done what he did to Cade so Kade is here and he's made up of like lights and he doesn't have a ghost but it's actually Kade and he spoilers survives oh this whole thing spoilers I'm not going to spoiler tag anymore he survives the events of um The Campaign and he's just sort of hanging around now uh and kade's back I so I I I really do buy the explan they give for bringing him back I think this was a good way to do it and then in in terms of just him being there Nathan fing coming back it's great I I I was a little skeptical about this because it felt like oh Bungie wants people to come back for the final shape so here's Cade uh it felt a little cheap and like gimmicky and and sort of desperate but in practice the reason for him coming back the actual what it feels like to have him back it's it's great I can't say it's anything but great and I'm I'm happy to see it uh the he gamed us some really interesting stuff with zala in that of everyone zala is the most tempted by the witness in the darkness and kind of goes off the deep ends uh the the longer we go into the game uh this this may seem sort of out of character for Zavala but if you've been keeping up with seasonal content you know that like zala has become increasingly disillusioned with the traveler who like as as he says in the campaign takes and takes and takes and just wants to take more and gives nothing in return just silent that was sort of the whole thing the witness did where you know the witness of civilization didn't like the traveler because it gave them power but it never gave them any direction or guidance so zala is kind of going through a similar crisis um it ends with him being so tempted by the witness that he's like absorbed by the darkness but then his ghost um tge I don't know uh comes in and stands up to the witness the witness of course grabs him and crushes him and blows him up so now in addition to Kade not having a ghost Osiris not having a ghost AIS not having a ghost uh we now have zala who also does not have a ghost zala is now moral which he's not super pleased about the good news is that sort of snaps him out of it and after that he's not like super evil zala or something like Zavala is not the final boss fights of this campaign the way some thought it might be uh that would be pretty insane but that is not what happened um but that was a it was a good Arc for for zala it is very very sad that Lance reic was not uh here to be able to voice that given what a significant expansion this is for um Zavala but Keith David subbing in did a really good job I I don't know how he could have done a better job in the circumstances that we have so um that is certainly something that uh panned out pretty well the mission design is excellent they have all these raid light mechanics that make combat encounters more interesting interesting than just clear three waves of enemies there's you know death air breathing that you have to like trigger a certain thing to to avoid there's depositing uh dark Moes and then using the Aegis to uh kill things and deposit light modes there's using the Aegis to blow up immune Shields there's using the Aegis to protect yourself from damage the AIS is pretty pretty Central as a focus of of mechanics here but there are a good amount of these and then they all sort of combine uh into the last mission the just the design the the areas these missions will take you to it's it's in combination with it's fun to play but also you know it's just it's gorgeous to look at and that that's why I think there's nothing like this it also helps I think that there's a lot of enemy diversity here CU When you think about most of these campaigns it's like they pick two enemy races and you're like okay well that's that's pretty much done and you know but here we have all of the forces that are aligned with the w you know uh taken scorn eventually even a hive house salvation um I think there's some red war cabal in there too somewhere it's it's you know Soul device of XEX it it's all of them you fight all the races including uh The Dread The Dread is the new enemy race and I like them uh it is a little they do feel like 90% Scions like just the way they look the way they're zipping around and like I know they're sort of modified Scions um the only really new enemy feels like the the the flying bat guy um even the blade hand guys sort of feel like Marauders from the Fallen um this feels like this this could have been a race that had more time in development rather than something like oh [ __ ] we got to make the final shape more appealing let's make a new race um that said they are very dangerous uh they are probably the most dangerous enemy faction based on their powers especially I don't know all their names yet but like we have you know we already have tormentors tormentors are plenty dangerous and you fight a good amount of them in the campaign but these uh subjugators the ones that are larger and tankier and have lightness and dark powers like tormentors you essentially can barely damage them unless you're hitting their crit spot which in this case is their face but that really does not work well for my you know preferred rocket sidearm method of shooting things so you want more Precision damage um the stasis one will spawn a bunch of stasis crystals around you and then snap and explode and they will kill you some of the time at least on Legend the uh the large subjugator can actually the Strand one can actually suspend you not great being suspended in PVE with you know eight guys surrounding you and nuking you um both of these uh you know essentially two of these were the final boss of uh the campaign where you're fighting the witness but the witness is kind of immune and just shooting you with shards of pyramid where the things you're actually trying to kill are these two subjugators of each element and they are tanky and they will potentially One-Shot you uh depending on what you're doing um that final fight was extraordinarily difficult I thought on Legend until I kind of got a strategy down probably took me an hour I I'm sure I could do it in less time now that I know sort of all the phases but that was very very difficult which I appreciate um and you know even though I knew we weren't going to be killing the witness I think that was a worthy uh finale there there are a number of just very incredible cut scenes here they spend a ton of money on on full CG cutcenes which are super expensive in addition to their usual sort of in engine story things like standing around in game to to see things and then they're like sort of um black and white animated cut scenes they use all of them but they they did a lot of really great CG cutcenes um and those even continue into the post campaign missions I just saw an amazing uh one with Cade and Crow and that is a really really long kind of mission string where in the end uh Kade offers Crow the ability to be the uh Hunter Vanguard which he says he'll think about this is after a really awesome cut scene with the two of them working together really really touching moment it wasn't even in the main campaign but it was I think one of the best moments so far sabath shows up uh after the campaign is over to mess with us of course um I kind of wish she was in the main campaign given how important she is to the story I've not gone very deep into her quest line yet I think I just did the first step or so but I'm glad she's here and doing something because I really think she needed to uh um what else oh Prismatic yes so Prismatic is something I'm still sort of working on uh there it seems like it's going to be very fun it's just that I'm I'm so new to it I have 30% of you know the aspects and fragments unlocked that I don't know exactly you know what builds I'm going to be doing um just quite yet I haven't you know really sat down to strategize about it I really like the new hunter or sorry new warlock super the song of flame With superpowered Grenades and melee that's a lot of fun I love the new solar mortar turret which just does really big damage and scorches enemies uh so so at least that addition on warlock is very strong I know there's like some crazy quadruple Bleak Watcher build or something but I I think Prismatic is really going to work you know after a couple of weeks here once everyone you know fully like fully unlocks everything starts farming those double perk class items I think you're you're going to get some nuts build it's just that you're not really going to see those insane builds uh you know by the end of the campaign or something um it's just not really possible yet I'm not super enamored with the idea of like oh you got to do light and dark damage to like build up your thing and it just that's a little awkward um I I get that they kind of want you to use both sides of the power but it's it's just an odd way to sort of power up find kinetic is pretty good because kinetic levels both up the grenade is interesting it's like a mini super sort of the Warlock one is is really good cuz it's a void field and a um shatter ice field uh I heard the hunter one is not very good but um it's it's fine and you still have access to like one of your real supers too so uh that aspect of it I'm like not super high on but I think the the you are going to be be able to make a crazy amount of synergies with this that much is clear and um even if I'm not like you know head over heelal for right now I I can easily see this being you know really excellent in the future so I'm not like dismissing it out of hand it's also way better introduced than strand was there's no like Prismatic tutorial that's like multiple missions like three or four missions in lightfall were just strand tutorials it's like here's how to use strand here's this power blah blah blah they give you Prismatic like at the end of like a mission and a half and you will unlock um aspects and fragments along the way which I think is a good way to distribute them other than some stupid currency grind I think the rest are like hidden in the map or something I've already found a few hidden ones uh which is I think is a cool way to distribute them um the post campaign stuff is has been really interesting so far there's a lot of it um I'm only kind of just getting started I started the sabath quest line I started the Cade and Crow quest line which apparently leads into the new constellation system so I got to do some normal grinding after the really long uh actual Mission we did there it seems like they have a lot of stuff here for post launch I've not even gone to the war table to start whatever the hell the episode one content is so I got to do that too um Bungie really needs this to be a hit and it has become increasingly obvious to me that you know there's always a lot of hype around bunge releases but like the amount of Bungee employees that have like been like we threw our entire selves into this like we went so hard on this like they left it all on the field I I I don't know what else really they could have done at this point to make the final shape more appealing they wanted to deliver their best ever campaign that was like a a really big thing that was reported that like this this can't just be forsaken like this has to be you know this has to be better than taken King has to be better than forsaken um in the context of the game like you could say oh well the taken King was more transformative from base Destiny one or uh forsaken was more transformative from base Destiny 2 and like well that may be true this also speaks to like Destiny 2 has improved over the course of many expansions so like this is not a totally new game from a year or two ago but pound-for-pound this is is the best expansion in in a number of different aspects even if here or there I might like this thing or that thing more uh it is definitely what I would consider the best expansion I guess we can get a little further away and and you know Overlook recency bias and stuff and I am also saying this uh before the raid before the final mission but like I don't really know how you would design a campaign like that and just totally fumble The Raid or fumble the last mission that doesn't seem likely to me but this is why I'm I'm sort of doing a part one here and not uh you know doing a scored review or something yet which I might probably do down the line but I thought this was excellent I am very impressed um I got a little bit off to a slow start but that was kind of interpers with a lot of frustration about servers and errors and stuff so maybe I was not in the best head space for that in the first place but I they did it I I think they accomplished what they set out to with this campaign and they should be very proud of this uh I think that most people are going to really enjoy this I think this is um a great sort of final light and darkness chapter here we'll we'll see where things go from here I hope there's not some sort of insane player drop off as everyone just sort of moves on from the series because I do want to keep playing but um in terms of what this is the culmination of 10 years of Destiny I think they did a great job I I think they really nailed it and I'm happy to see that anyway it'll be lots more to talk about let me know your own thoughts about the expansion at least from what you played so far um probably only hearing from people who actually beat the whole thing since I this is my spoiler review but yeah so anyway uh I'll talk to you soon take care

Channel: Paul Tassi

Views: 57,462

Keywords:

Id: iGNcg150aSY

Length: 21min 12sec (1272 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 05 2024