Review: Destiny 2: Shadowkeep

Every year, the event coordinator of Destiny 2 Raid guide 2 ’s Tower, Eva Levante, returns with a smile on her face and a task at hand. The Solstice and its rewards are generally tied to two main factors: the Magnificent Armor, and the European Aerial Zone (E


A comprehensive ranking of Crucible maps is highly subjective and depends on what a player's playstyle is. Moreover, maps will perform differently depending on whether the game mode is 6v6 Control, 3v3 like Trials, or even something like Mayhem. For the sake of simplicity, only 6v6 Control and 3v3 Trials are considered for this ranking. Players who don't find their favorite map here need not worry—this isn't a definitive best of the best, but simply one perspective among many on the most enjoyable m


Not all video game missions are made equally. Some are just naturally harder than others for a multitude of different reasons. Destiny 2 personifies this belief in that some strikes are mind-numbingly easy while others will leave fans pulling their hair


As with most purchases put in front of Guardians, the ornaments can be bought with Bright Dust, a currency earned in-game, or Silver, the premium currency bought with real cash. The set costs either 6000 Bright Dust or 1500 Silver. For a straight comparison, 1500 silver is about $12-$15 depending on the silver bundle size purchased. Keep in mind, access to the entire Destiny 2 season of content and battle pass is 1000 silver. Bright Dust is a little trickier. The majority of players use a single Guardian as their only character in the game. A single character has the ability to earn 1200 Bright Dust per week if they complete all of the proper bounties. That means for one guardian to acquire their one set of armor, they’ll need to complete every available bounty for five straight weeks. If players want the armor on all three characters, it will require triple that effort. This is a lot of work or a lot of money to ask of players for a set of cosmetic orname


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


The Summoner probably has the most flexible perk pool on this list, sporting a myriad of reload perks as well as add-clear and single-target damage perks. Rolls like Subsistence and Overflow combined with Incandescent allow you to dish out Solar explosions and Scorch over a longer period of time, and perks like Heal Clip will allow you to heal yourself and allies after reloading. On the PvP side, The Summoner sports Zen Moment, Perpetual Motion, and Target Lock. Heal Clip is also good for proccing certain Solar Keywords, which can be made easier by perks like Onslaught, which will make you kill and reload faster than the gun's intended base st

It's lucky that the rest of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is quite good, though familiar. The Moon, a vanilla Destiny location, never got its fair shake back in 2014. Unlike the other areas in the game, it was easy to finish off the Moon sections and then never come back. In Shadowkeep, Bungie has made it a location players will want to keep visiting. Though the design is familiar, the studio has done quite a bit to make it more visually appealing. Giant chasms have torn the landscape asunder, new caves have opened up never-before-seen locations and an enormous Hive citadel looms large over the horizon. Adding to the spookiness of the locale are Nightmares of fallen Guardians, whose silhouettes replace the standard Patrol Beacons. It's clear a lot of compassion went into bringing back the Moon and transforming it into a place players want to visit.

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.

"Our plan is to use these new items to bolster the service provided by our live team for another full year, as they grow and create more robust and engaging events that we’ll announce later this year. It has been, and continues to be, our goal to deliver updates to the game. Going forward, our live team is also looking to grow beyond vital updates and improvements to focus on world events, experiences, and feature requests."