Destiny 2: Beyond Light Reviews
Destiny 2 breaks new ground with Beyond Light, while other parts remain frozen in time.
Beyond Light is a fun campaign on a beautiful and expansive new world, but Destiny 2 is still some way from being the best version of itself.
One of Destiny 2's best expansions thus far, providing an assured roadmap for the series to move into. It is just more Destiny though.
Beyond Light delivers one of the best raids in Destiny history and some of the best story moments in Destiny 2, and that's more than enough to make up for a few disappointing gaps.
An engaging story feels like a turning point in the canon, but the game feels diminished after stripping away roughly half of the locations, activities, and other core content
With Beyond Light, Destiny 2 can still get cyclical and repetitious, but its new abilities and improved storytelling make it feel much more alive.
The best part about Beyond Light is that it looks and feels like a sequel without needing to start from scratch. A new power set like this isn’t something I expected to see out of an expansion. In that way, Beyond Light answers a question that’s given me serious doubts as a fan: how much can Bungie change Destiny 2 without moving to a new game entirely? For the first time, Beyond Light feels like Destiny 2 is truly putty in Bungie’s hands, rather than a titanic ship that takes eons to turn.
But it’s also undeniable that much of the rest of the game outside that experience is in shambles or has disappeared entirely. At the end of last season Destiny 2 told me to go to Europa to find an ancient power, and I have. The only problem now is that I don’t know where else to go with it.
With the release of Beyond Light, Destiny 2 struggles to give players to continue investing time into it. Any content you buy or items you earn in the game are subject to removal at Bungie’s whim; we’re just buying a license to play the content, not the content itself.
My advice? Wait to see how the next-gen upgrade of Destiny 2 shakes out if you're either on the fence about returning, or jumping in for the first time. Come December 8, it should be a drastically different experience, as the lessened load times and sharper visuals (and performance) should help smooth over some of Destiny 2's shortcomings. It still has many.
Beyond Light isn't going to change anyone's mind about Destiny 2. Either you love the weekly grind, the increasingly complex lore, and pushing your mates off a ledge in a Raid, or you don't. For those who do, there's a lot to discover and plenty to grind for with the added benefit of the reworked game engine. They, like myself, will no doubt be sinking hundreds of hours into this over the next year. A solid, well executed update to Destiny 2, with even more content on the horizon.
Beyond Light is a great expansion that shines thanks to the introduction of the stasis, a new and fun power that promises to changes everything. If you also love the lore and want to know a lot more about the Destiny universe, this expansion is for you.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
It's been six years since the original Destiny was released and every year it feels like we're getting closer to finally facing off against the Darkness. Every year, however, we're told it'll happen later.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light is a slimmer offering than fans might have hoped for thanks to its disappointing campaign, but there’s still enough intrigue beneath Europa’s surface to warrant a return to orbit. The new stasis subclasses freshen up years-old experiences and make parts of the game feel new again, even if the honeymoon feeling melts away in a few weeks.
Suffice to say that Bungie is recapturing the magic that Destiny has always had at its core. It's exploring concepts and story ideas that fans have been speculating about for years. And it's focusing on developing a game for the players who love Destiny, not trying desperately to change things to get new players on board. As a living world, iterative in design with an evolving narrative and constantly updated content, Destiny 2 changes persistently, but Beyond Light feels like a whole new foundation rooted in the kind of space magic and vision that has made Destiny special all along. I can't wait to see what comes next.
Beyond Light has an excellent campaign and Europa is an awesome patrol zone, but the lack of new loot and the terrible Stasis balancing make the expansion difficult to recommend.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light is a negative net sum, with so much content vaulted in favor of a meager campaign set in Europa. So much is teased and promised to bring the original Destiny vision together with Destiny 2 that we can't hope but be excited to see what Bungie is promising in seasons to come. However, what's available right now is less than the exotic content that players might've hyped themselves up for.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light is not a revolution in the gameplay department and world of Destiny 2, but it can pleasantly entertain you for a while – basic shooter formula of the game still works perfectly.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Destiny 2: Beyond Light is worth the investment for existing fans of the genre and franchise. Otherwise, the best way to experience this expansion is through Game Pass on Xbox or PC.