Destiny 2: Beyond Light has made some radical changes to the core DNA of the Destiny franchise. Gear sunsetting has been added to vary up the meta, Stasis has fundamentally changed the way Guardians engage in combat, and the icy landscape of Europa has made for one of the most memorable settings in franchise history.
With all of that said, there is no denying that Beyond Light has its share of issues. An overall mixed reception amongst fans of the franchise is warranted with how some changes were handled by Bungie. While the expansion itself is solid, the changes surrounding the DLC have a lot to be desired. Here are the five best and worst aspects of Destiny 2: Beyond Light.
10 Love: Campaign Difficulty
While the reception of Beyond Light’s campaign is mixed amongst the community, the difficulty of the campaign itself was perfect. Jumping straight into the campaign will impose quite a challenge on Guardians since they will be vastly underleveled.
New enemies such as Vex Wyverns and Fallen Brigs also force players to be more aggressive than ever, something the franchise has needed for years now. Those that have complained that Destiny has been too easy for too long will likely enjoy the difficulty spike here.
9 Hate: Busywork Quest Steps
Destiny has always struggled with making bounties and quests not feel like busywork. While Beyond Light doesn’t feel as monotonous as Shadowkeep did, this expansion still has a plethora of busywork quests that are wholly underwhelming.
Most of the post-campaign content involves completing bounties for Variks and unlocking Stasis features through quests. Objectives range from killing certain enemies with Stasis damage or completing various strikes. Due to the lack of a major content refresh for core activities, most of these quests just feel bad to embark on. The true pinnacle of frustrating quest design comes from the Fragment quests the Exo Stranger gives, requiring players to obtain hundreds of Stasis kills despite Stasis’ focus on crowd control.
8 Love: New Light Overhaul
New players can finally jump into Destiny 2 and not be immediately confused. Replacing Shadowkeep’s New Light experience is a new quest chain that takes Guardians through the Cosmodrome with the help of Shaw Han. Shaw is arguably the most generic character in the Destiny franchise, but he serves as a great mentor for teaching new players how the game works.
7 Hate: Leveling
Leveling in Destiny 2 has not fundamentally changed since Forsaken released over two years ago. Besides the new Artifact Power Level boost, the only means of leveling a character is by completing milestones on the Director.
While this sounds great in theory, the lack of a proper content refresh for core activities makes this process much more monotonous than it should be. Worse, this system forces players to either complete every activity on the Director regardless if they like it or slam back-to-back games of Glory-enabled Crucible to earn powerful gear at a rapid pace. Something needs to be done about leveling in the next expansion to let players level however they please.
6 Love: Europa
Europa is one of Beyond Light’s greatest accomplishments. The sheer scope of this location triumphs over every other zone in Destiny’s history. Multiple zones that vary from icy plains to abandoned Fallen buildings make for a breathtaking landscape to explore.
Exploration is also a major plus this time around thanks to a plethora of secrets to uncover. Entropic Shards, Exo bodies, and penguins are just a few things players have found already. Based on datamined triumphs, Europa seems to be taking inspiration from the Dreaming City with weekly changes to the planet. If the changes are as radical as players saw in Forsaken, Europa could easily become the best planet in franchise history.
5 Hate: The Crucible
PvP has been fundamentally changed with the release of Stasis. Crowd control is now a common sight inside of the Crucible. It is great that Stasis has reigned in the lethality of Shotgun rushers and Supers, yet it came at the cost of PvP game flow.
Shadebinders are the best example of this issue. This single Subclass is capable of flying dozens of feet in the air with Glacier Grenades, has the ability to freeze multiple enemies at once with their ranged melee skill, and they have a Super that ignores cover. The other two Subclasses are mostly fine, but the ability to freeze Guardians is all too easy to pull off currently. Breaking out of Stasis needs to be faster as well.
4 Love: New Loot Pursuits
If players can get past the lackluster leveling process, they can expect a few engaging loot pursuits to embark on. Empire Hunts are an enjoyable activity that mimick the Baron fights from Forsaken and grant new loot.
What surprised most players was the return of Season of the Worthy’s Legendary Lost Sector system. Every day, one Lost Sector on Europa and the Cosmodrome is selected as a Master variant. Completing these Lost Sectors solo will yield a high chance at an Exotic armor piece for a specific slot, allowing solo players to target farm Exotics they want. These types of loot pursuits are fantastic for the game’s health and should be the gold standard for future DLCs.
3 Hate: No Vendor Refresh
A major reason why the core activity playlists feel so lackluster this expansion is the lack of a proper vendor refresh. Every core activity got one new gun—Crucible got the Stars in Shadow Pulse Rifle, Vanguard strikes received the Xenoclast IV Shotgun, and Gambit received the Crowd Pleaser Grenade Launcher.
Besides those three new weapons, one new Ritual weapon was added. Only one new armor set was added that isn’t tied to Beyond Light or Season of the Hunt. Considering this is the first expansion that incorporated sunsetting into the game, bringing more loot that last season seemed like an obvious decision. Sadly, Bungie failed to update the loot pool in any meaningful way.
2 Love: Stasis
Stasis is such a radical shift in Destiny’s combat loop that it could have easily been held back for a future sequel. Wielding the Darkness feels as alien and powerful as it should, allowing players to manipulate the environment with Stasis crystals and use those crystals to set up devastating combos.
Furthering this radical shift in gameplay is the reintroduction of Subclass customization. The new Aspect and Fragment system allows Guardians to finally build craft by deciding which passive buffs and abilities they want. While the selection of Aspects is quite limited, this system is likely to be expanded in the future to include new options. Every Subclass in Destiny 2 needs to migrate to this system in the future.
1 Hate: Sunsetting
Gear sunsetting made its debut in Destiny 2: Beyond Light after months of debates amongst the community. All weapons and armor from Shadowkeep and previous expansions have received an infusion cap of 1,060. Bungie promised that sunset weapons would still be usable in core activities such as strikes.
This isn’t true. The core Power Level of most activities has been raised above the sunset cap for these items, meaning that these weapons are unusable in most of the game’s activities like Nightmare Hunts. Paradoxically, using the Dreambane armor from Shadowkeep makes you weaker in Nightmare Hunts than armor not specialized in that activity.
More important than those strange scenarios, the lack of a loot refresh coupled with sunsetting meant that Beyond Light removed nearly 80% of its weapon roster. Many weapon archetypes are left unfilled thanks to sunsetting. Sunsetting also didn’t impact PvP much at all, with the likes of Mountaintop still running unchecked in Valor-based Crucible. Sunsetting might not be a bad idea on its own, but its execution in Beyond Light is nothing short of a catastrophe.
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