on February 28th Bungie released lightfall the latest expansion in the now long-running destiny franchise the reaction to lightfall has been kind of all over the map from community members and critics alike depending on what they're focusing on but the one thing that remains fairly constant throughout all the reviews is this the campaign from a pure storytelling perspective leaves a metric butt ton to be desired but even with the bizarre minimal explanation Campaign which believe me I will not hold back on I feel that reviewing the expansion purely on story alone at least for a lot of people might be a mistake what up you nerds my name is Fallout and today I'm going to share a few of my thoughts on Destiny 2 lightfall as a whole I hope you enjoy half Warning by the way there will technically be spoilers in today's video regarding the story I do say half warning because I don't know I mean the game barely tells you what's going on so what really am I gonna ruin for you you know and with that very blunt introduction why don't we chat about the lightfall campaign here is an undeniable inescapable truth that I wish wasn't so you if you care about lore and storytelling in the world of Destiny above all else lightfall will undoubtedly be a letdown to you coming from the witch Queen to life fall narrative wise is like going from a perfectly cooked Steakhouse rib eye to half-eaten freezer gristle holy sh how spoiled we were with the witch queen that story very much drew me in and historically I've only started to really care about the story and narrative in Destiny kinda recently the mystery of sabathune and her stealing of the light all leading up to the big reveal of how she actually came to receive her powers it did raise questions but they were more philosophical questions are we really not the Traveler's preferred children after all what is the Traveler's true end game what does the whole Saga with sabathune mean for the future of not only us but any potential light wielders out there and their intentions it really made you wonder but about what we had believed to be true and what the future might hold for us in any future potential wielders of the light and then you have the story in lightfall what the while Bungie's art team continues to knock it out of the park visually I can only sigh at what we were given story-wise we start off pretty strong with our ever looming big bad the witness rolling into town and causing a bunch of Mayhem but that hype quickly gets muddled as we're suddenly redirected to Neptune and are told that the only thing that now matters is the veil which is of supreme importance however not once not once is it really ever fully explained what the veil actually is the entire time I felt like I was crawling through a desert of mystery dying of thirst for just one sip of explanation which I was sure would come but I never got Instead The Campaign spends most of its time trying to explain and justify strand which kind of comes entirely out of left field and is awkwardly shoehorned into the story I've heard this take a lot on Twitter but lifefall really does seem like a strand tutorial stretched into a story while the background noise is what we really want more of but never quite get we get a few new characters but no one really seems to be in agreement on that front God loved the you the proud the Nimbus stands but the vast majority of people I've talked to find Nimbus unbearably annoying to the point where they're now being referred to as the Jar Jar Binks of the franchise quick side note by the way and again spoiler warning regarding the death of Rohan were we supposed to feel anything when that character died not to sound like a heartless robot but I don't know we barely just met the character a few minutes ago and then it feels like we're supposed to really be bent out of shape by their death I just feel like we had no real time to form any kind of attachment in order to be upset by that death moving on at the end of the witch Queen campaign I think we all had a collective moment of holy while at the end of The lightfall Campaign most of us had a collective moment of uh what we just don't know what really happens or why it matters while the witch queen left us with more of an existential Vibe of things to think about lightfall leaves us with straight up questions about the story we just played what the is the veil why is it important why did the witness just enter The Travelers hoo-ha why is everyone at the tower saying The Travelers confirmed dead and gone when it's clearly still floating around not too far away the witness kind of just go into it you made a door into the traveler or something and while I'm sure that isn't good why is it not good and if the traveler is dead by the way how the hell are Savala and ikora not losing their minds back at the tower yeah they do react sadly when you first head back to the tower but good Lord does anyone remember icora during the red war that girl was a straight mess and at that point The Traveler had really only been hit up with some new age cabal bondage but now it's apparently all over for the cosmic beach ball and all we get from both characters is just a little one minute speech to the vibe of oh well time to move forward I swear to God there is a light at the end of the tunnel coming but on that note I know this is more tied to seasonal content which is kind of its own thing but does anyone else think it's kind of hilarious that we're already confirmed throwing another Guardian Games event in the near future it's like well our God was watched over and protected our planet just got murdered in broad daylight but oh well what the hell Guardian Games baby again not a real critique of course it just hit me kind of funny anyway looking back season of The Haunted and the witch Queen have both easily proven that even multi-year veteran players who know next to Dick about the characters of Destiny can actually become invested in the lore which by the way if you're a brand new Destiny player or if you're here watching but have never touched Destiny before you might be flat out scratching your head at the idea of somebody being a day one destiny 1 player who's still playing and yet knows extremely little about the story but the truth is there's a ton of players like that out there how is that even possible well let me put it this way highlighting a completely different game for a quick moment when I first played at The Last of Us years ago with my fiance I was so captivated and sucked in by the characters the world and the story even if the game had purely dog mechanics it didn't by the way but even if it did the storytelling to me was the main selling point and it did a great job of entertaining me on that particular front to me and probably a lot of other people out there Destiny's main selling point has always been the mechanics and feel I've played a ton of Shooters over the years and while Destiny admittedly has had repeated stretches of time where some random weapon ability or strategy has become an annoying thorn in the pause of the player base at the very core it's one of the best feeling shooter games I've ever played the subclass designs are fun the abilities are wild and interesting and most importantly the weapon Play Feels Good there is nothing worse than a clunky shooter and thankfully that's a problem I've never really felt mechanically with Destiny thinking back years ago to when Destiny 1 launched and people Dove right in the story was an absolute mess so little was explained and the game was getting horribly bashed by critics for being overly vague but again and I'll only speak for me I was pulled in by the feel of the game and the fun factor of playing it with other people that's where it really shined to me and that's where IMO it still does even though the lightfall story is weaker than SpongeBob lifting two marshmallows at the beach the quality of life improvements brought along with lightfall together with enjoyment brought by strand are awesome although we've really only just gotten our hands in the dough strand is the most fun subclass to me by a mile it's not even close there are already a ton of wacky Clips on Twitter showing what can be done with Strand and it's opened a door in a way that I can't wait to see what the community continues to come up with using that new power but with that being said I fully understand that for many players quality of life changes alone a good expansion does not make there's probably a lot of people out there who quit D2 for one reason or another and are cautiously peering through the window right now to gauge if they should return for lightfall or not and there's no solid blanket answer that I or anyone else can give because everyone's reason for wanting to play or not play are personal to them and them alone but I would be willing to bet a fair amount of money that for the majority of people who have stepped away from D2 a new subclass and quality of life changes just aren't going to be enough to bring them back and that's fair while the new changes and additions are definitely enough to keep someone like me entertained my experience and opinions sure as hell ain't everybody else's and even with with my current enjoyment of The Game's new toys and features I for sure still have that sense of longing that I absolutely did not have after beating the witch Queen between you and me I'm really hoping the new raid brings the noise both in the fun department and hopefully with the continuation of the current story as well to me the unfortunate truth about lightfall is that if you're the type of person who cares about storytelling above all else in your video games this expansion will undoubtedly be a letdown to you while I personally do look forward to learning more and more about the story between now and the final shape in 2024 it's not going to be as enjoyable to a lot of people who won't appreciate being spoon-fed little chunks of story week after week in seasonal content which by the way I totally get however if you're the type of person who enjoys the mechanics the flow and the feel of Destiny and maybe the wild Community the game is made up of I honestly think that you will enjoy it story vagueness completely aside I'm really enjoying everything else that lifefall has brought to the table I do want to be clear Bungie if you are listening I'm so glad that the mechanics and fun Factor are still enough to draw big player numbers on Steam that's your main selling point right now IMO and good to know we can still Flex that muscle pretty damn hard but that being said I also agree with so many other content creators out there we've seen what is possible with season of The Haunted we've seen what is possible with the witch Queen focus on what went right there focus on what has finally been drawing some players into the story who have until recently only cared about the in-game fun Factor because then we'll really have something special and that's the truth let me know down in the comments section what you think about lightfall either about the campaign strand the new weapons the sandbox changes the quality of life the upcoming raid whatever you want thank you very much for watching hope you enjoyed.
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