Destiny 2: The Final Form the review of the final expansion of the Light and Dark saga
Bungie packs the best Destiny 2 expansion to date, projecting its MMO towards a solid future: is it just Lights, or is there still some shadow lurking?
After 10 years of whirlwind highs and just as many lows, Destiny 2’s Light and Darkness saga has come to an end , projecting Bungie’s shooter/MMO towards a less defined, but certainly more promising future. This is because with The Ultimate Form, this is the name of the latest expansion, Destiny 2 seems to reach its maximum potential on which, hopefully, to restart not only narratively, but also structurally.
This is because with Destiny 2: The Final Form Bungie sublimates everything that made Destiny and its sequel true box-office hits, while pretending not to see everything that has always limited its greatness and which in 2024, with the various Helldivers 2 and all the other games as a service, is even more evident.
It is therefore the best expression of Destiny ever created , but it remains 100% Destiny, with all that this entails.
The final showdown
The name of the expansion reminds us that we have finally arrived at the final battle, at least as far as this first saga of Light and Darkness is concerned. After defeating all of his puppets we find ourselves faced with the Witness, that is, the one who is really threatening the existence not only of the Traveler, but of the entire universe. The Guardians therefore have no choice but to set off on yet another desperate mission , this time inside the Pale Heart of the Traveler, to prevent the Witness from reshaping the universe in its Ultimate Form.
Destiny 2: The Final Form – Launch Trailer
Unlike the past, the story told in this expansion is more compact, spectacular, designed to be played and enjoyed all at once , so much so that the game itself suggests not to tackle other modes before reaching the final battle; which can be enjoyed by everyone, given that it has not been delegated to the classic Incursion, although present and of very high quality, but to the first 12-player mission in the history of Destiny 2. In this way, anyone will be able to set off on the final assault, surrounded by many other guardians who will accompany them to the intense final cinematic, the true culmination of this journey that lasted 10 years.
Inside the Traveler’s Pale Heart there is all the best of Destiny 2 : there are extremely varied levels and each mission is characterized by unique mechanics. There is the involvement of the many supporting characters, from Zavala to the revived Cayde-6, all more or less with a well-defined role on the chessboard, despite some forcing. There are many computer graphics videos of excellent workmanship, able to underline the most important moments, also thanks to the excellent dubbing in Italian. There are just as many new weapons, many of which are very fun to use and available with many different upgrades, which will force you to redo some activities just to look for the preferred variant.
Above all, there are the Terrors, the brand new faction serving the Witness. A finally original army, the first in about 6 years, that not only does not mix the archetypes seen in the past, but fights differently thanks to the use of powers that block and hinder the Guardians, forcing them, therefore, to fight – finally – in a different way from the one codified for too long now.
Exploring the Traveler’s Pale Heart allows you to both admire the design work and variety of this setting, as well as experience new activities designed to entertain Guardians, such as Reversal , an increasingly difficult encounter that replaces the simple public winds.
The prismatic classes
To further shake things up, two features are added. The first is the debut of the Prismatic classes . After having explored all or almost all of the possibilities offered by the Light and Dark classes, Bungie has decided to give the possibility of mixing these abilities in one place. This is not a “free for all”, since some of the most characterizing abilities have remained priorities of the specific class, but it is a way to combine different powers, so as to find the combination that best serves a specific activity or simply has fun.
The second is Transcendence , a sort of trance that prismatic subclasses can enter during which it is possible to fight more frenetically, resist greater damage and above all take down enemies with the pink shield, another new feature of the expansion. This mechanic mainly characterizes the missions inside the Pale Heart of the Traveler, where it is also possible to find particular strategically placed pools in which to quickly recharge the Transcendence.
Also interesting is the debut of the Traveler’s Blessings , special upgrades to activate at will that can make the Guardians even more powerful and give them an edge in certain activities.
What we can see is that Bungie has done a good job of keeping the specialized classes meaningful while still providing great flexibility to the Prismatic classes. Freedom that will need to be explored in the future, especially in the context of player-versus-player balance.
Among the changes in this expansion are the Discovery Tool , a new system designed to replace all Vanguard, Crucible, and Gambit bounties. It is an ever-present tool that avoids bouncing between various destinations to accumulate bounties and tasks and which, to be completed, requires you to perform certain actions. All very interesting, except that to complete the research, actions are often required to be carried out in PvP, an activity that not everyone is willing to do.
The Incursion
Despite no longer being the ultimate goal for players, Bungie has preferred to delegate the end of the expansion to the Excision mission, the Raid remains the most prized and anticipated element of the entire package. And in this case Bungie has not disappointed expectations. The raid takes players deep into the Pale Heart of the Traveler to face the Witness. This setting is an amalgamation of light and darkness, creating an evocative and dangerous environment that reflects the ongoing battle between the forces of good and evil and that becomes progressively more twisted the deeper you delve into its bowels.
Like the best experiences of its genre, Edge of Salvation is divided into different phases that require the commitment, collaboration and collaboration of each team member both to keep the hordes of enemies that incessantly appear at bay and to solve the mind-blowing puzzles that dot the experience.
Getting to the end, therefore, will not be a joke, also due to an average duration longer than that of the other incursions, which makes it more complex to carry inefficient Guardians with you, despite the new light level balancing mechanics, designed to allow heterogeneous groups of players to collaborate with each other.
The rewards for these efforts, however, will as always be very tasty and designed to take advantage of the new Prismatic subclass.
Great Destiny, same Destiny
After having enthusiastically talked about everything that makes Final Form the best expansion ever created for Destiny 2, we must necessarily return to the initial statement, that is, that it is still Destiny 2 , a game that is always exciting to see and above all to play, but which brings with it some Byzantine elements that appear increasingly out of date.
It is true that the Discovery Tool tries to make the accumulation of experience and the management of activities and bounties more linear and direct, but the Destiny 2 interface still remains confusing , full of indicators and apparently things to do, which however do not it is clear whether it is possible to start them or not, also due to Bungie’s management of the contents. Those who have followed Destiny 2 from the beginning and have not missed an expansion will probably find themselves at home and cry for the epic ending, while the others will not only have a few videos that are not particularly clear to understand what happened up until that point moment, but they won’t even be able to decide to relive the entire epic of the Guardians from the beginning, other than a few missions extrapolated from the most important. Indeed, absurdly, it could happen that, even if you have not finished the campaign of The Ultima Forma, you will be catapulted into the introductory mission of the new episodes, with related spoilers.
Added to this is the other age-old question: why not introduce a banal matchmaking system for the campaign as well? It would be much simpler, since “find a team” does not guarantee that you will meet valuable companions and seems like a simple form of manual research.
With the latest experiences in the universe of games as a service, a structure as regimented as that of Bungie, made of confusing interfaces, questionable content policies, slow updates, restricted play areas connected by corridors, 12-player activities that struggle to have stability, takes us back in time, even if the many qualities of Destiny 2: The Final Form manage to enchant today perhaps even more than then.
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