Destiny 2's Lightfall expansion was released a week ago and I've slowly been dabbling in it. I finished the campaign today! And now I feel the need to babble. 😆
As ever, I have absolutely no clue when it comes to the story of this game. When I first started playing it during the Witch Queen expansion, my partner tried to introduce me to the lore with several hour-long Youtubes talking about the story. It all just zipped over my head.
in the end, it doesn't even matter 🎵🎶 because for this kind of game, I don't find story to be an integral aspect. I'm being bombarded by cutscenes that look interesting, and I'll watch them because they're there, but they mean nothing to me.
For me, in this type of game, it's the gameplay that matters and in this expansion I find the gameplay just as fun as ever. ESPECIALLY the new subclass they've added to the game called Strand.
Throughout the latest campaign, we have landed on Neptune to stop the Cabal from reaching the Veil which is apparently needed for the Witness to get the Traveler, or something — as I said, it's all convoluted to me and I don't really care — and our conventional powers are constantly being disabled to thwart us. By some miracle we come across a new power that the enemy hasn't bargained for, and we learn to use it.
Strand is difficult to get used to at first, but becomes easier as you play with it more. You can use it to grapple around and swing yourself from A to B. If you grapple yourself into enemies, you can unleash a powerful melee attack that instantly kills everything around you and gives you an orb you can pick up and heave at another enemy in the distance. It's fast paced and really fun!
I don't like the Ultimate though, for the Hunter anyway. My partner plays a Warlock and the Strand Ultimate for a Warlock looks much better. For a Hunter, you're running around with a whip basically and just... whipping things into submission. It's powerful!! But dangerous as hell depending on the enemy you're fighting.
A new enemy at the moment are Tormentors... and you do NOT want to get into melee range with those things.
Neomuna, the secret hidden city on Neptune that we find ourselves in, is vast and beautiful. And also difficult to drive in. I've died more from falling to my doom than I have to enemies.
There are no people in Neomuna, for they all live virtually in a Cloud type of system.
Which, of course, means there are Vex about!
I thought this was quite cool, to be honest. In the first dungeon strike, you're tasked with going into the Cloud and stopping the Vex from hacking into it.
It's all technological and Tron-like and the music is catchy. I thought it was really well done.
There's also another Tron-like area where you hone your ability to use the Strand power, and it's just as awesome. Vex here, Vex there, grapple this with green, throw green at that, grapple over here, zoom around, then run around a giant-arse area with a wall of fire chasing you as you zip and zoom around and clear an arena with your newfound powers.
It's really spiffy, eye-catching, and fun to go through.
The last boss of the arena was mental, I'll admit. I ended up having to find a guide to cheese the thing because my Hunter's Strand ultimate is absolutely useless against things I should -not- be in close range for.
When you finish the campaign, you unlock Strand for good and can spec into it as any other Subclass.
While I enjoy Strand, the Ultimate of a subclass is an important part of the decision as far as I'm concerned, and so, I'm thinking of keeping my Hunter as a Void Hunter instead. As fun as Strand is, there's no point in using it if I don't like the Ultimate and I loooove the Void Ultimate for my Hunter.
I will try and mix and match a few abilities with Strand and see if I can make it something I like, Ultimate included, but at the moment I think Void is better for me.
Once you finish the Campaign, it's back to doing what you normally do in this game to empower yourself: anything with Pinnacle Gear as a reward and all the Bounties you can handle.
As always, when you've bought a Season Pass you get access to an activity only available for those who've bought in... I've only done the first one so far that unlocks it in your HELM base. But it seemed pretty interesting from what I saw. Once completed, you can give commendations to your squad-mates too. I'm not sure if they give you anything of note... but I thought it was good I could slap an MVP on someone.
They returned my MVP with a "bringer of joy" commendation... which was probably because I died so many times and brought them joy with my deaths. xD
Anyway. So far Lightfall is enjoyable, for me and I imagine for most normal people who simply enjoy a game for what it is.
Proper reviewers and those who critique videogames for a living are calling it the worst expansion in a long time. For me, though: the new ability is fun and the gameplay is fun and that's really all that matters. I only wish that more people were playing... it seems a bit empty compared to last expansion.
Cheers. 🍻
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 
