‘Destiny 2: Lightfall’ Evaluation: Destiny at Its Best—Most of the Time

Strand is truthfully so good and so enjoyable to make use of, it type of makes the older subclasses really feel a bit missing by comparability. Even in case you swap out the Grapple for one of the different two grenade choices—one spawns little creatures known as threadlings, my infants, and the different is a crowd-control choice that catches enemies in a glowy inexperienced internet—you’re nonetheless going to be having such a superb time you may neglect the different lessons even exist for some time. Granted that’s type of been the case for any new subclass Destiny 2 has launched in the previous, however this one feels totally different, since you’re not simply given a number of tweaked mechanics, you’re given a bunch of brand-new mechanics and a brand new strategy to traverse the worlds of Destiny 2. 

Cloudy With a Chance of Darkness

Let’s speak about Rohan and Nimbus, the Cloudstriders, the protectors of Neomuna. There are at all times two of them, they usually solely stay for 10 years, a consequence of the heavy nano-augmentation they bear once they volunteer to turn into Cloudstriders. We spend the most time with Nimbus, the youthful counterpart to grim and grizzled Rohan, and each minute of it’s a blast. 

Destiny 2 has no scarcity of grizzled, stoic males and haunted, traumatized ladies. Nimbus is a breath of contemporary air, as a result of they’re none of this stuff. They’re shiny, bubbly, and nonbinary. They’re endearing and enthusiastic, with a way of youthful (and delightfully immature) humor that we simply don’t get sufficient of in Destiny 2. Voiced by sequence newcomer Marin Miller, Nimbus is the beating coronary heart of the Lightfall marketing campaign. 

Too usually we solely get the narrowest slices of story growth for Destiny 2’s supporting solid. But that’s one of the issues Lightfall excels at. We get so much of time with Nimbus. Over the course of the marketing campaign, we begin to notice that Nimbus’ exuberance isn’t just a few protection mechanism or immaturity. It’s a alternative. 

In the face of cosmic horrors, Nimbus protects that youthful enthusiasm from the simple cynicism that comes with grief and loss. They have 10 years to stay, they usually’re going to stay each final one to the fullest. It’s a nuanced and compassionate efficiency, and even when issues get extra severe and grounded in the post-campaign story, it is nonetheless refreshing. I can’t wait to see extra Nimbus in the seasons to come back. 

A Few Loose Ends

Despite every little thing I beloved about Lightfall, ending up the marketing campaign felt like a reduction. By the finish, it felt like I’d executed the identical missions a number of occasions over. Go shield the factor, get to the factor earlier than the dangerous man. The most fascinating parts of Lightfall are sadly not the issues we spend the most time exploring. 

What is the Veil (past a justification to ship us to Neptune?) How did Neomuna get there? What’s the take care of Strand? What does the Witness really need? Spending time with Nimbus and exploring the new Strand powers was tremendous enjoyable, however each time I completed a mission I felt myself wanting off at the horizon the place the actual battle was taking place, wishing I used to be there as a substitute. 

Thankfully, after you end the marketing campaign in Lightfall you do get to go take part in that larger battle, and that is what the Season of Defiance is constructed round. Queen Mara of the Space Elves (oops, I imply the Awoken) wants your assist to free prisoners from the (most likely well-manicured) palms of the Witness, and these missions are a blast. They’re thrilling, difficult, type of spooky. Awesome. It’s like in case you needed to play via the Dreaming City earlier than you ever touched the storyline for Forsaken. No matter how good the Season of Defiance and Lightfall tales are, there’s an urgency hole between them which makes for some awkward pacing.