“We aimed to evolve the formula rather than change it”.
It has been five long years since the release of Square Enix’s fantastic, multi-pronged RPG Octopath Traveler on Switch. Starting as a console exclusive on Switch before branching out onto other platforms, the game gave us eight different storylines to dive into, a range of protagonists to fall in love with, and even kicked off the HD-2D art wave that we have since seen in titles such as Triangle Strategy and Live A Live.
Nintendo’s Switch is now entering its seventh year, and while it’s obvious that the company will be carefully planning the reveal of its next generation of hardware in the next year or two, Switch remains in uncommonly rude health for a console of its age.
Since 2017, the system has attracted an enviable and enormous software lineup comprised of totally new, bespoke experiences alongside impressive third-party ports and re-releases of beloved classics from earlier eras. There seems to be a new boom in retro collections, in fact, and we’re 100% here for it. Video games are still a comparatively young medium, but Spacewar! turned 60 in 2022. Pong turned 50. And we turned into dusty husks muttering “wha—,” “b-b-ut how?” and other nonsensical half-phrases as we tried to comprehend Mother Time’s ways by counting decades on our withered fingers.
It’s been another reasonably busy week here at Nintendo LIfe. We started off with a Pokémon Presents showcase which, according to you fine people, wasn’t all that good. The biggest highlight was undoubtedly the announcement of the Scarlet and Violet DLC, which will come in two parts and is officially called ‘The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero’.
Formula 1 is back for another year but, while pundits fruitlessly flail with trying to parse meaning from pre-season testing times ahead of the Bahrain GP, let’s consider what Codemasters has been doing with this year’s inevitable F1 23.
Back in 2021, amid the continuing gloom of a global pandemic, Codemasters introduced a fully-fledged story mode – dubbed Braking Point – into its long-running Formula 1 series for the first time. Threading an original story through the real sport, Braking Point told the story of a fictional rookie’s rise through the ranks via a series of curated racing challenges.
This fresh-faced driver was Aiden Jackson, a talented Brit who lacked experience on the big stage. Jackson was initially placed at odds with his veteran Dutch teammate Casper Akkerman, but (spoiler alert) the two eventually repaired their prickly relationship and joined forces to subvert their Machiavellian rival Devon Butler – Braking Point’s token slimeball.
One particularly interesting element of Braking Point was that it didn’t introduce a custom team for Jackson and Akkerman; the drivers actually raced for one of five real teams based on the player’s choice – Williams, Haas, Alfa Romeo, Alpha Tauri, and Racing Point (which became Aston Martin during the story, as it spanned the years that branding change occurred in the real championship). Another driver from one of the four remaining selectable teams was replaced with Butler. The storytelling didn’t really push the boat out but overall it was an earnest effort well executed, and it was neat that real teams had been convinced to sideline either one (or both) of their actual drivers for the purposes of the story (which, at one stage, even involved their team cars being depicted getting embarrassingly tangled up on track).
It was neat that real teams had been convinced to sideline either one (or both) of their actual drivers for the purposes of the story.
The work this supplementary story mode required has reportedly placed it in a two-year development cadence. This means that, while the next chapter of Braking Point skipped last year’s game, it should arrive as part of this year’s F1 23.
However, this places Codemasters in a bit of a tricky spot, because how on Earth do you fashion a fictional F1 drama that could possibly compete with what we saw last season?
Forget the overall outcome, which was kind of an anticlimax – and I’m not talking about the rain-shortened Japanese GP that decided the championship in such inelegant circumstances that not even Max Verstappen himself knew he’d locked it up. Rather I’m referring to what was described as the widest set of rule changes the sport had seen in four decades, and the same car and driver combination from 2021 wins the whole shebang again? Yawn. Yes, I know the RB18 isn’t the same car as the RB16B, but you know what I mean. And sure, F1 is not a spec series – and F1 fans are more than accustomed to seeing the fastest cars dominate over consecutive seasons – but I don’t think you can hold it against those of us who were hopeful the drastic technical overhaul and a grid full of brand-new cars would produce a different result. Or, at least, some more interesting results. That is, instead of the same car winning more races in a single season than any other in the history of the championship. Let’s face it: 2022 wasn’t exactly a seesawing contest for the ages. Hell, in 2021 there were 10 podium performances from drivers outside of the big three teams of Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes. In 2022, there was one. One solitary podium from outside the top three teams, when Lando Norris grabbed a cheeky third at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
No, I’m actually talking about all the controversy, scandals, and surprises along the way. Like I said, I do remember being genuinely impressed that real world racing teams were content with having their actual, contracted drivers step aside for fictional characters in F1 2021’s story mode, and even seeing their team cars colliding for added drama. I do, however, find myself wondering how far real F1 racing teams could be pushed for dramatic purposes. Indeed, how would these same teams react to a Braking Point follow-up featuring some of the shenanigans that went on last season?
Would any real F1 teams ever truly consider signing on the dotted line for a narrative that would see them cast asa bunch of wankers? A candid docuseries they’ve agreed to be observed for like Netflix’s Drive to Survive is one thing; a video game is another thing entirely.
Would McLaren ever consider approving a storyline where they would find themselves sacking one of their drivers with a year left to run on his contract, taking a huge and public financial kick-in-the-balls in the process?
Would Alpine dream of saying yes to a sequence where they would lose a former world champion and their next big thing within moments of one another over a set of contract debacles of their own?
Would Mercedes have approved the idea of having Lewis Hamilton going a complete season without a win or pole for the first time in his astonishing F1 career?
And would Red Bull be happy with copping an enormous fine for a budget rules breach, then dealing with a civil war between its drivers that culminates in their established champ petulantly refusing to help his teammate for the world to hear?
Now I could be completely wrong. Perhaps the required parties are better sports about this sort of thing than I’m giving them credit for. After all, Codemasters has been on the scene in and around F1 for over a decade now. But I don’t know; something about it all feels… pretty unlikely. Despite the fact they all occurred I’m guessing story beats such as these would’ve been laughed off the desks of every department in every F1 team. And who could blame them, really?
So where does Codemasters take the next chapter of Braking Point? How bold can it get? That’s a challenge I leave up to them, and its one I expect the studio is deep into tackling. I do look forward to seeing it, though. I’d be disappointed to learn it’d fallen by the wayside, but I expect it hasn’t.
After all, if it works in F1, maybe Codemasters can eventually roll it out in the superior motorsport: rally.
Yeah, I went there.
I’m not afraid to get dirty.
Luke is Games Editor at IGN’s Sydney office. You can chat to him on Twitter @MrLukeReilly.
It’s been six years since Nintendo launched its hybrid device known as the Switch. While many fans of the system remember the launch for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, there were some other unique offerings available.
One of these other titles was Super Bomberman R. Konami at the time launched the game exclusively on Nintendo’s system. Now as part of the six-year anniversary celebrations, the third-party Japanese developer has taken a moment to acknowledge this particular entry while also teasing how there’s “more in store” for the Bomberman series.
EA Sports PGA Tour has been delayed a couple of weeks from its March 24 release date and will now launch during the week of the Masters Tournament on April 7, 2023.
EA shared the news in a blog, confirming that this “small shift in release date allows us to add a few final touches to the game that we are very excited to deliver to all of you, including updates to some favorite courses to reflect 2023 designs.”
While the worldwide launch is set for Friday, April 7, early access for the title will begin on Tuesday, April 4, for those that purchase the deluxe edition or choose to try it out on EA Play Pro.
EA Sports PGA Tour will be EA’s first new golf game since 2015’s Rory McIlroy PGA Tour. In our review, we said it was “solid enough out on the course but it’s just lacking too many of the series’ fundamentals to make it worthwhile for golf fans.”
In our review of PGA Tour 2K23, we said, “there’s not much to be excited about” as the game features “poorly presented golfing on second-tier courses. It’s fiercely accurate to the real sport but lacks personality and variety.”
While EA Sports PGA Tour won’t include Tiger Woods, it will have 30 courses at launch, a new Pure Strike shot system, and much more.
Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
March marks the month of the 3DS eShop shutdown and as part of this, The Pokémon Company previously announced it would be making its Pokémon Bank service on Nintendo’s handheld device entirely free.
Serebii.net webmaster Joe Merrick has now highlighted one of the changes that will be made on the software side as part of the “free to use” process. Instead of showing the amount of “days remaining” until your Bank subscription ends, as of this next update, the app will now just cycle through continually. Here’s a look:
God of War’s duology of Norse-set masterpieces has cemented it as one of PlayStation’s most iconic franchises. Born during the PS2 era, God of War made a name for itself with excellent action gameplay, an intriguing tale of divine revenge, and a memorable lead in the Spartan demigod Kratos. 18 years later, God of War has grown into gaming’s seminal action-adventure series, blending that increasingly fine-tuned action with deeper lore and a stronger narrative hook, anchored by an older, more empathic Kratos.
With God of War Ragnarok having earned its place in the pantheon of all-time greats, we’ve created this chronology of the series for those interested in playing (or replaying) it from the start.
Sony has released 10 God of War games — six on home consoles, two on portable consoles, one on mobile, and one text-adventure on Facebook Messenger.
We’re excluding its second mobile release, God of War: Mimir’s Vision, as this AR game doesn’t add to the ongoing narrative but instead provides players with background lore from the world of God of War. We’re also excluding PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale in this chronology, despite its comical inclusion in the God of War canon.
There are several God of War stories told through novels and comics as well, though this list only includes games.
God of War Games in Chronological Order
These blurbs contain mild spoilers for each game, including characters, settings, and story beats.
1. God of War: Ascension (2013)
Ascension, the seventh God of War game by release date but the first chronologically, is a revenge tale that explores the early days of Kratos’s transformation from a Spartan demigod into the God of War.
Ascension takes place months after Kratos was manipulated into killing his wife and daughter by the Greek God of War Ares (more on this under the original God of War section below). Kratos, traumatized by the killings, refuses to honor the oath he swore to Ares, setting into motion the story of Ascension. Ares seeks revenge through the game’s antagonistic Furies, three beings tasked with punishing betrayal, whom Kratos must kill in order to free himself from his oath. The story ends with Kratos leaving his Spartan home behind, still tormented by his grief.
2. God of War: Chains of Olympus (2008)
Kratos’s next adventure is told in the PSP game aptly named God of War: Chains of Olympus. Olympus takes place halfway through Kratos’s ten-year servitude to the gods (five years before God of War) — a servitude that, once completed, will free him from the torturous visions of his past.
The main plot tasks Kratos with rescuing Helios, the Titan God of the Sun, from the underworld at the behest of Athena. There, he encounters the game’s primary antagonist Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. Persephone presents Kratos with an opportunity to reunite with his daughter, and Kratos wrestles with the apocalyptic repercussions of that reunion and his promise to return Helios to the gods.
3. God of War (2005)
Set roughly 10 years after Ascension, the first God of War game begins with Kratos succumbing to his grief and jumping off a cliff into the Aegean Sea. Before he hits the water, we flash back three weeks to discover what led the Spartan off the brink.
Kratos, nearing the end of his servitude to the gods, is given one final task by Athena: defeat Ares and save the city of Athens from his siege. With the promise of forgiveness for his past atrocites as his reward, Kratos sets out to obtain Pandora’s Box and kill Ares. The task takes him to hell and back, with Kratos ultimately facing off against the God of War. Victorious yet no less troubled by his past, Kratos jump off the bluff as we saw in the game’s opening. Athena pulls him from the water and offers him a throne on Olympus, completing his 10-year ascension to becoming the God of War.
Throughout the game, a narrator provides crucial backstory about Kratos’s life through cut scenes. Kratos once served as a revered captain in the Spartan army. On the verge of death and defeat against a massive force of barbarians, he offered himself to Ares in exchange for victory. Ares answered the call, defeated the barbarians, and claimed Kratos as his servant, fusing his arms with the Blades of Chaos.
4. God of War: Ghost of Sparta (2010)
Ghost of Sparta, the series’ second PSP game, takes place between God of War and God of War 2. The subtitle references the nickname given to Kratos due to his pale-white appearance, the result of an oracle’s curse that fastened the ashes of his wife and child to his skin.
Ghost of Sparta provides closure to two familial narrative threads: Kratos travels to Atlantis where he encounters both his mortal mother and his long-lost brother Deimos, who was kidnapped by the gods during childhood to prevent the fulfillment of Olympus’s prophesized demise.
The climax sees Kratos and his brother reunited, doing battle with the Greek God of Death, Thanatos. Despite victory, it’s another unhappy ending for Kratos. By the time the credits roll, Kratos has grown even wearier and more furious with the other Olympians.
5. God of War: Betrayal (2007)
This mobile 2D sidescroller is officially part of the God of War canon, according to Sony Santa Monica animation director Bruno Velazquez. The gods, displeased with Kratos’s bloodlust, attempt to stop his latest conquest with Argos, a many-eyed giant that serves Hera, Queen of the Gods. Kratos is framed for the killing of Argos by an unidentified assassin in an attempt to further fracture his relationship with Olympus. Later, Zeus sends a messenger to put an end to Kratos’s continued destruction. Kratos responds with violence, once again defying the other gods. Betrayal leaves players with this message, setting up the events to come in God of War 2: “Soon, the fury of Zeus would rain down upon [Kratos].”
God of War: Betrayal was released in 2007, before the rise of smartphones, and isn’t available on modern mobile storefronts. It can be skipped without consequence, but those who want to play it will have to access it via a Java emulator.
6. God of War 2 (2007)
God of War 2 pits Kratos against Zeus, the King of Olympus. Kratos, already ostracized due to his yearslong rampage, rejects Athena’s plea for peace and continues wreaking havoc throughout Greece. It’s the final straw for Olympus; Zeus descends to the battlefield and kills Kratos.
Kratos finds a new ally in Gaia, the mother of Titans and Earth. She provides Kratos with a way to rewrite the past and save his own life. After a trip to the Underworld, Kratos follows Gaia’s instructions, leading him to the Sisters of Fate. After more bloodshed, Kratos takes control of the Loom of Fate and returns to the scene of his death. Kratos’s plan to kill Zeus is thwarted when another Olympian steps in front of his blade. It’s here that we (and Kratos) learn about his true parentage. Kratos uses the power of the Loom to recruit the Titans of the past to his future war. Back in the present, Kratos leads the Titans in an assault on Mount Olympus, setting up God of War 3.
7. God of War 3 (2010)
Taking place directly after the previous game, God of War 3 concludes Kratos’ Greecian saga and resolves his war with Zeus and the Olympians.
Kratos and the Titans battle with the Olympians to catastrophic effect. Kratos (once again) has his trust betrayed and (once again) descends into the Underworld. There, Kratos teams up with an old ally to take down Zeus once and for all. Back on Earth, Kratos faces the wrath of Titans and Gods alike, leading him on an epic killing spree toward a final showdown with Zeus.
Kratos declares an end to his vengeance, and with the world in ruin, makes a sacrifice to release hope to mankind.
8. God of War: A Call from the Wilds (2018)
God of War: A Call from the Wids is a Facebook Messenger text-adventure released ahead of 2018’s God of War. The ~30-minute story introduces Kratos’s son Atreus and provides background on the character’s extrasensory abilities, while adding a bit of flavor to his relationships with Kratos and his mother, Faye. The story is set sometime before God of War 2018 when Faye is still alive.
A Call from the Wilds seems to no longer be playable, though like God of War: Betrayal, this is a story that can ultimately be skipped. Those who want to experience it can find complete playthroughs on YouTube.
9. God of War (2018)
Set many years after God of War 3, 2018’s God of War transports Kratos from Greece to the Norse realm of Midgard, where Kratos now resides with his son, Atreus. Kratos and Atreus plan to fulfill Faye’s dying wish: to have her ashes spread from the top of the highest peak in the Nine Realms.
Their journey is no straightforward hike; the duo travel through multiple realms, encountering friends and foes from Norse mythology, including Baldur, Freya, Thor’s sons Magni and Modi, the last living giant Jörmungandr, and Mimir. Along the way, Kratos struggles with fatherhood and the truths he keeps hidden from Atreus — about his past and Atreus’s identity.
Following their adventure, the Nine Realms enter Fimbulwinter, a three-year-long precursor to Ragnarök, the end of the world.
10. God of War Ragnarok (2022)
Given the recency of Ragnarok’s release, this plot synopsis is especially vague to avoid spoilers.
God of War: Ragnarok, the most recent and story-rich God of War game, is set three years after 2018’s God of War, as the Nine Realms near the end of Fimbulwinter and the beginning of Ragnarök.
Many characters return from 2018, alongside newcomers such as the All-Father Odin and his son Thor, but it remains focused on the adventures of Kratos and Atreus with a greater emphasis on the latter, who explores his newly discovered identities and powers. As Kratos and Atreus, you’ll traverse all nine realms and the Realm Between Realms on personal quests of identity and a greater quest to defeat the Asgards and survive Ragnarok.
We won’t spoil the journey, but Ragnarok leaves the door open for future God of War stories to be told.
How to Play the God of War Games By Release Date
God of War (2005)
God of War 2 (2007)
God of War: Betrayal (2007)
God of War: Chains of Olympus (2008)
God of War 3 (2010)
God of War: Ghost of Sparta (2010)
God of War: Ascension (2013)
God of War: A Call from the Wilds (2018)
God of War (2018)
God of War Ragnarok (2022)
What’s Next for God of War?
Sony has yet to announce another God of War game, though given the critical and commercial success of God of War (2018) and Ragnarok, we expect there to be future entries.
What has been announced is a God of War TV series. The live-action show, in development for Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service, will adapt the story of 2018’s God of War. Game director Cory Barlog serves as an executive producer; Rafe Judkins (The Wheel of Time) is the showrunner.
Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.
On the chitin-covered heels of the impressive Witch Queen expansion and a relatively strong year of live-service support overall, it seemed like Destiny 2 was finally gaining momentum as it headed toward the conclusion of its epic saga. Sadly, my optimism for a game I’ve spent thousands of hours playing has come crashing down like a Cabal drop pod after just a couple dozen with Destiny’s latest expansion, Lightfall. The story is so shockingly incoherent that even someone who has spent countless hours reading Destiny’ lore like I have couldn’t understand its nonsense, the new destination on Neptune feels as lifeless as the real planet, and the endgame/seasonal activities have so few surprises to offer (at least so far) that they give me deja vu in the worst possible way. Thankfully, a number of Lightfall’s activities are challenging enough to warrant me leaning forward in my seat, the new Strand subclass is a nice addition to Destiny’s sandbox, and the most recent batch of quality-of-life improvements largely succeed at making my time shooting space rhinos in the face a less bumpy ride. I still have a little more to do and the eventual raid ahead of me, but so far even Lightfall’s best parts haven’t been able to wash the overwhelming taste of disappointment out of my mouth.
The opening moments of Lightfall are some of its best, as Destiny’s long-awaited final villain, The Witness, arrives in our solar system to deal a blow against humanity and our allies. But any excitement is quickly swept into the vacuum of space as you’re bizarrely and inexplicably redirected from the action to take part in a seemingly unrelated sidequest in the Neptunian city of Neomuna. Not only is the story a decidedly low stakes diversion that draws you away from the real conflict happening on Earth, but it flatout does not make sense. That’s not just me saying that, either; some of the Destiny community’s greatest lore minds have been completely stumped by the utter nonsense of Lightfalls’s story.
The events on Neomuna surround a macguffin called The Veil, a mysterious artifact that you’re told is super important, but nobody ever, ever tells you what it is or its purpose, even a little bit – ever. Your enemy is Calus, a stack of pancakes cosplaying as an air fryer, who serves as the least intimidating antagonist in Destiny’s history. As you wage war against an incompetent moron for control of an artifact you know nothing about, you’ll also discover the dark powers of Strand, a green elemental subclass our heroes spend half of the campaign trying to figure out how to use in a process so dull they literally skip over some of it by giving you a Rocky-style training montage at one point. Yikes.
Along the way, you also meet the Cloud Striders, Nimbus and Rohan, who are 12-foot tall cybernetically infused humanoids with personalities that were apparently drawn randomly from a basket of cliches. Rohan is an elderly Cloud Strider who all-but stares directly into the camera to tell you he’s a day away from retirement (I wonder what will happen to him), while Nimbus is a young surfer dude who makes cringey jokes as humanity’s holocaust unfolds. Staying on brand with the rest of the campaign, the writing for these two is so extraordinarily bad it makes interacting with them a painful chore, especially Nimbus, who manages to make the low stakes of Lightfall’s story feel even more laughable with his irritating adolescent hijinks.
This story slams the brakes on any momentum from The Witch Queen.
Just as quickly as it began, the story wraps up a mere 8 hours later while resolving none of its greater questions and kicking the can down the road for any actual story developments to be dealt with at a later date, neatly putting all the pieces back exactly where they were at the beginning. The storytelling is so dreadful it makes me nostalgic for the days of the infamous “I don’t have time to explain why I don’t have time to explain” line uttered in vanilla Destiny – but worse than that, it undermines the approaching finale by trivializing the arrival of The Witness and slamming the brakes on any momentum or goodwill Destiny gained from The Witch Queen’s excellent writing. As a longtime Destiny fan, I was utterly heartbroken by both the disappointing whiplash in quality and all the wasted story potential by the time I finished Lightfall’s campaign.
It’s not just the plot that disappoints, either. The levels themselves feel decidedly less unique or memorable than The Witch Queen. The interesting puzzles and diet raid mechanics featured in last year’s campaign have been replaced with irritating battles taking place in an arena where you’re often running in circles to survive, stopping to take shots here and there while you can. Instead of fighting interesting new enemies like the light-bearing Hive, Lightfall has you mostly fighting the same burly Cabal that we’ve been at war with for nine years, which have always been one of Destiny’s less engaging adversaries.
Strand does at least help ease the monotony of the campaign’s action, representing the biggest shakeup to Destiny’s sandbox in a long while. The powers themselves aren’t revolutionary to Destiny: you get a new melee ability, new supers for each class that deal huge DPS, and some new buffs and debuffs to play with – like Suspend, which lifts enemies off the ground and entangles them briefly, or Sever, which causes the enemy’s damage output to become significantly reduced. Admittedly, these additions aren’t hugely different from what we’ve seen in Destiny over the years. For example, Suspend effectively does the same thing as the freezing powers of Stasis that we got with Beyond Light. And casting Strand supers to take out large groups of enemies works more-or-less identically to other subclasses but with a different color.
But that’s not to say Strand has nothing unique to offer! The main reason to pick it over other classes is in its unmatched mobility, since the subclass replaces your Guardian’s grenade with a grapple hook that allows you to swing around the environment and pull yourself towards enemies to follow up with a devastating melee hit – both of which are a lot of fun. It’s definitely an interesting tradeoff since gaining access to a grapple hook is rarely worth losing a grenade over, but it still adds some much-needed diversity to the sandbox and is a great option to help navigate the vertical nature of Neomuna’s skyscrapers.
The neon-soaked streets of Neomuna feel barren and lifeless.
You’ll be spending most of your time on the neon-soaked streets of Neomuna, a city that’s been peculiarly hidden from the rest of the galaxy until now, yet houses massive buildings and technology that surpasses even that of Guardians during the golden age. Unfortunately, this setting is as flimsy as its lore, and is barren and lifeless despite supposedly thriving up until the recent Cabal invasion. Each area of Neomuna contains a handful of featureless buildings and plenty of Cabal and Vex enemies to battle, but little else to engage with aside from the standard fare of patrols and public events that we’ve seen in every Destiny location since 2014.
You might be thinking: “but shouldn’t this thriving city on Neptune be full of people to talk to?” Of course it should, right? It’d be crazy to make the whole thing look like a derelict corporate park with no intelligent life in sight. Well, as you’re conveniently told early in your visit, all of Neomuna’s citizens have been uploaded to a virtual network to achieve immortality, so they only appear around the city as blurry, ghostlike outlines. The only physical beings occupying the meat space of Neomuna are our duo of Cloud Strikers, who apparently follow the Sith’s rule of two so there’s no chance of you meeting a third, maybe more interesting character even by accident.
Luckily there’s at least one exciting new enemy for you to fight along that way, as Lightfall introduces the Tormentor, a warrior of the darkness who chases you around with a scythe, takes away your abilities with suppression powers, and can nearly one-shot you with his terrifying grapple attack. As the first true footsoldier of the darkness we’ve faced after years of speculation that their pyramid ships would be filled with new horrors for us to confront, the Tormentor serves as a glimmer of hope for what I imagine will be a fully realized enemy faction once we finally face The Witness head-on. But for now they’re one of the only things to occasionally inject some desperately needed freshness into Lightfall’s otherwise stale sandbox. They may be a bit overused in the campaign for that reason, but they are at least a genuinely fun new obstacle to overcome.
Quality of life tweaks have at least made Destiny 2 a smoother ride.
A less thrilling addition is that Cabal enemies, now infused with the wicked powers of darkness, will frequently drop a shard upon death that grants an overshield to their allies for a long time unless it’s destroyed. While it’s at least a new challenge to contend with, it mostly just causes the flow of combat to grind to a halt every couple of seconds as you’re forced to remove overshields from the enemy before proceeding, only for another shard to drop the next time you kill something.
Once you’ve completed Lightfall’s campaign, you’ll be greeted by the usual post-game quests and busywork that have followed all of Destiny’s recent campaigns. There’s nothing bad about the postgame stuff I’ve played so far, but there’s also nothing super exciting about it. You’ll learn a little more about Neomuna and go on an odyssey to obtain a new exotic weapon, or maybe even grind out some more customization options for the Strand subclass, but nothing I’ve played has made me particularly motivated about continuing to traipse around Neptune.
I still have some quests to check off my list before finalizing this review, and am hopeful the raid that debuts on March 10 will prove more entertaining than the rest of my adventure so far. But as of right now, things are looking pretty dire for a game that’s been close to my heart for many years. No doubt Lightfall’s shortcomings are made more painful by immediately following The Witch Queen and its strong post-launch updates, which felt like Destiny 2 had finally overcome its storytelling woes and charted out a strong future for itself. After playing Lightfall, perhaps too fittingly given its name, that future doesn’t look quite as bright.
