Destiny 2: Shadowkeep
DLC BLASTS TO THE MOON BUT IS FAR FROM A GIANT LEAP DAVE MEIKLEHAM
PUBLISHER BUNGIE / DEVELOPER BUNGIE / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST £29.99/$34.99
squat. Sure, previous expansions like
Forsaken have to be bought with a
separate season pass, but such is
the breadth of free content on show,
only the most miserly of Guardians
would complain.Pass it along
So just how much of Shadowkeep
is accessible if you don’t buy a
pass? Well, while you can play the
opening mission, the rest of the
new campaign is off-limits. You also
can’t take part in the new Garden Of
Salvation raid, endgame Nightmare
hunts against high-level enemies,
access the debuting six-player, droid-
bashing Vex Offensive or undertake
the Leviathan’s Breath exotic quest.
Seeing as the new story content is
more filler than killer, though, missing
out on the full quest isn’t exactly a
game-ruining blow.
Shadowkeep’s campaign is
straight-up poor in places. At points, it
devolves into a teeth-gnashing grind
that recalls the absolute naughtiest
of Destiny’s past sins. Example? HowIf familiarity breeds
contempt, then
Bungie’s latest
expansion could
yet make returning
Guardians a little
hate-filled. Revisiting the original
shooter’s Hive-invested Moon and
reusing a bunch of well-worn areas
and bosses, the MMO hybrid’s new
campaign often comes across as a
shameless rehash. At the same time,
though, the overall package has never
been stronger or easier to recommend.
Talk about a Vexing situation.
The launch of Shadowkeep heralds
something of a root-and-branch
shake-up for Destiny 2. The latest DLC
is the showpiece of a much-changed
shooter, one that is now both free-to-
play and supports cross-play saves
between Xbox One, PC and PS4. Even
if you choose not to splurge £30 on
the new expansion, all of the game’s
year one content – including mainline
missions, strikes, raids and the
ever-excellent PvP Crucible – can be
accessed for the grand price of diddly
about a late mission that you can only
access after acquiring a full set of
Dreambane armour; a hoop-jumping
move straight from the playbook of the
Crota’s End-era power cap.
Going back to the Moon at first feels
warmly nostalgic, but soon it’s hard
to shake the sense Bungie has simply
been lazy when making Shadowkeep’s
campaign. Not only does the returning,
crater-filled patrol zone fail to add
enough new locations, it serves up
a conveyor belt of returning bosses,
all of whom appeared in both games’
main stories. Obsessive Guardians
who are absolutely desperate to fight
resurrected versions of Phogoth,
Omnigul and Dominus Ghaul in the
exact same battles they’ve already
blasted through are in luck. For
everyone else, you’re in for an eight-
hour journey that comes across as a
phoned-in greatest hits album.
Place Shadowkeep’s story missions
next to the brilliant Forsaken, and
it’s a night-and-day victory for the
latter expansion. Whereas Cayde-6’s
revenge tale gave you an entirely newshort
cutWHAT IS IT?
The latest expansion
of Destiny 2’s
ever-growing
universe.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
A return to the first
Destiny’s
Hive-slaughtering
Moon antics.
WHO’S IT FOR?
Hopelessly obsessed
Guardians who can’t
get enough loot.088 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE