The Final Shape, eh? It’s pretty good, right? All jokes aside,Destiny 2: The Final Shapeis genuinely solid. And that’s coming from someone who was deeply disappointed with the priorLightfallDLC and, in particular, its seasonal offerings. So, has Bungie kickstarted a renaissance ofDestiny 2?
To explain where this is all coming from, it helps to be aware of the leadup toThe Final Shape‘s release, and of the general history of Bungie’sDestiny 2offerings. Two things to talk about before we get to discussing the very crux of the issue, then. You’ll thank me later!
The Final Shape and the problems that helped shape it
The Final Shapeis, in many ways, an all-encompassing response to issues thatDestiny 2had been having well in advance of its release. A few weeks ahead of the expansion pack’s release, I wrote abouthow strangely at ease the community waswith what Bungie’s been doing as of late. In hindsight, it feels obvious that the players might not haveactuallybeen at ease, but silently anxious about whetherThe Final Shapereally would be the slam dunk that Bungie needed it to be.
Certainly, the timely release ofthe freeInto The Lightcontent drophelped a lot in tiding people over, but it’s difficult to overstate just how poorly the year ofLightfallwas rolled out. Not only wasLightfallitself rather middlingin the grand scheme of things, but there were a number of other disastrous events preceding the release ofInto The Light:
There was more, mind – these are just the most troubling reports we caught a whiff of in time. Overall, though, in and out of the game, Destiny 2 has gone through one of its roughest patches yet, and Bungie had lost almost all the goodwill it had managed to claw back after the grand sunsetting event of theBeyond LightDLC.
Looking back further still, it’s easy to forget thatThe Final Shapewas originally supposed to be released a year before it actually came out: theLightfallDLC was envisioned as a stop-gap for Bungie to have more time to getThe Final Shapeout of the door in a presentable state. This helps explain some of the DLC’s faults, of course, but it also contextualizes the situation Bungie found itself in while setting upThe Final Shape.
Remember:back in 2020, Bungie announced theBeyond Light,Witch Queen, and theLightfallDLCs as the up-and-coming chapters in the Light and Dark saga ofDestiny 2.TheFinal ShapeDLC was revealed two full years later, as theactualgrand finale.Lightfallwas, in the interim,relegatedto the status of a kind-of-sort-of interlude ahead of the real deal.
One might argue, then, that the problems that came about during the year of theLightfallDLC had been years in the making. It’s a gross oversimplification, yes, but it’s not hard to imagine the butterfly effect of separating the conclusion of the Light and Dark saga into two mostly standalone DLCs might lead to problems for Bungie down the line. Indeed, that’s precisely what happened as we cruised along towardsThe Final Shape.
Thankfully, the team over atBungie turned things around in time. Will it stay that way, though? Well, that’s the bit I’m interested in, myself.
The history of Destiny at large
Now that we’ve gone over the microcosm of problems that led to the release ofThe Final Shape, it’s time to look at the broader picture ofDestiny‘s history with Bungie.
It’s a bit of a meme in the community by now that the franchise simplycannotgo through a full DLC cycle without having one good expansion pack followed up with one bad or, at best, middling DLC. This “rule” is played with loosely, to be sure, but you may see aroughpattern if you look at the franchise’s history. Here’s the timeline:
So, generally speaking, on the “good” side of things we’ve gotThe Final Shape,Witch Queen,Forsaken,Rise of Iron, andThe Taken King. Everything else is either middling or an acquired taste, in a broad sense. Two things to keep in mind here, then:
Indeed,The Taken King,Rise of Iron,Forsaken, andWitch Queen– just off the top of my head – have all felt like the pinnacle ofDestinyin some key ways. Most of these, then, were followed up on with something lesser and, in some ways, wholly disappointing. Is that what awaits us next?
The new Frontiers
Here’s the thing: I’m absolutely enjoyingDestinyat this time. I also remember very vividly being able to say the same thing time and again over the years, only for the feeling to fall off as Bungie fumbles things time and again.
Personally, the last time everything felt this good was back in theShadowkeepera,justbefore a humongous chunk of the game got permanently taken out of the equation with the release ofBeyond Light. Yes, Iamstill salty about Black Armory content being spliced out of the game, and yes, I most certainlyamstill using the old, sunset Ringing Nail I kept around for nostalgia’s sake.
My point, then, is thatThe Final Shapeisn’t necessarily a sign that all is well inDestinyland. We’ve been here before, time and again. And do keep in mind that even theLigthfallDLC feltmostlyfine early on. It wasn’t until the upcoming seasons that Bungie drove home all of its problems, and something similar may well happen toThe Final Shape, too.
More importantly, we’ve got precisely no idea what to expect out ofthe mysterious “Codename: Frontiers” project that’s slated for 2025. My advice? EnjoyDestiny 2for what it is in this moment in time, but keep its history in mind. Y’know, just in case.
