Let’s talk Destiny 2’s latest expansion Shadowkeep for a bit seeing how it launched just over a week ago and the community is quite busy with its current activities. Shadowkeep hit the market with one goal in mind and that was to make its place known it was a place for the hardcore community that’s been with the franchise for years.

Bungie came in with some extremely important changes to the sandbox and made heavy focus around customization, the MMO/RPG mechanics, high-end loot, and giving you more control over building that perfect killing machine.  Shadowkeep is doing so many things right and moving Destiny 2 in the absolute right direction and setting the bar high for the future of the game. We’ve seen a massive change in the game over the last few years especially with expansions like Forsaken, as Bungie seems determined to set things right and produce the game they really wanted and Shadowkeep is by no means an exception to that.

Everything this time around is super complex with the new customization system they’ve introduced for your Guardian.  Bungie has made a ton of tweaks on everything that has helped streamline the end experience on things such as armor, the menus and quest tab, the additional progression systems and how they provide more rewards and the customization options for those hardcore Guardians. For us veterans of the game who truly enjoy the “GRIND” of improving our Guardian and chasing that end game loot and experience then I’d say Bungie nailed it.

That’s not to say there aren’t still hurdles and walls to climb because there are and on of the biggest is for new players entering the game for the first time, or even a returning player who has been out for some time.  The amount of material that has been given for someone new in the game to learn and process is absolutely overwhelming such as the leveling systems, upgrade methods, power grinds, currencies and all the tidbits in between. Shadowkeep ultimately is the right direction for the game but only makes that problem of where do I start if I’m a new person worse…..I’ve been an avid passionate player of Destiny since the alpha days of Destiny 1’s launch so I’ve grabbed a hold of this crazy train and won’t be letting go anytime soon.  But for a new player, I can see where it would be harder to jump in at this point and time and know where to begin or what to do.

Destiny’s new armor system is absolutely amazing from a customization standpoint and downright almost MMORPG like in a way.  It ultimately gives us gun-slinging, alien killing, nerds another level to geek out on while making the perfect killing machine of a Guardian.  The new armor system brings a level of accomplishment and satisfaction the game has been missing for a long time but also has a level of complication to it, but not all additions in Shadowkeep make the game feel more complicated.  Take the new finishers that were added which are just a fun way to execute an enemy and give it some flare.  Finishers also provide a nice tactical benefit like damage resistance during the animation and the ability to instantly kill enemies at a distance, since most finishers have a large range.

When I jumped in for Shadowkeep’s campaign I instantly fell in love with the story as we get to walk alongside an old veteran of the game, Eris Morn.  The story has us visiting Earth’s moon once again to stop a terrible evil that has been unleashed which turns into a story of suspense, and some extremely action-packed moments.  With the moon being Shadowkeep’s main setting most of us veterans should feel right at home, but things definitely don’t look the same since the last time our Guardians were on the lunar surface.  We first spawn in to see massive gray craters that have been split open, revealing these green ominous lights and rocky hills that have formed all over the surface.  Along with the Hive doing their evil magic tricks around the moon, we now have ghostly phantoms located in every corner looming around and even calling out to you for missions which brings a fresh vibe to the new/old zones we all fell in love with from Destiny 1.

Though Shadowkeep’s story has some amazing chapters and great moments that engage you as a player, Bungie is setting everything up for the much larger story still to come.  We have a couple different story timelines all happening at once which honestly is a great change for me personally as you have the main overarching campaign with Eris and the Darkness, but you also have the Season of Undying storyline with Ikora at the heart of things along with an old enemy friend the Undying Mind. I’m still hoping some of the planned upcoming content like the new dungeon will pull some loose plot ends together a little tighter. Bungie has definitely made a great position for themselves to unveil this huge overall story plot across multiple years and I hope we keep getting content just like Shadowkeep through it all.

Shadowkeep also has a massive endgame list of activities to be had as well along with the new raid Garden of Salvation that just launched a few days ago, and the Vex Offensive which is one of the best events Bungo has ever made. Bungie has definitely narrowed the available sources of “powerful drops,” which dropped like candy before Shadowkeep and helped you level up, but now the systems are more focused on new content and the staples of Destiny which are Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit and that true endgame content. The new artifact system is a great addition that also makes understanding that endgame goal and power level just a bit more hardcore and confusing in a way.  Again, Bungie is adding all this content in for a true RPG experience and honestly has done a fantastic job bringing the new systems into place.

Shadowkeep truly is all about the “GRIND” so for the faint-hearted who don’t enjoy repeating activities or chasing that endgame, this expansion is going to be a rough place for you to have enjoyment.  The good news here is that the content Shadowkeep does add is largely great, even if it feels like there’s too little of it, and Bungie has a content calendar that promises more coming in the future, all of which is built into the $30 cost of this expansion.

The new raid, Garden of Salvation sends us back on a quest to take on the Vex once again and it looks to be packed full of new mechanics, puzzles, secrets and more. Along with the raid we now have a new Vex themed event called the Vex Offensive that I became a huge fan of.  It’s a new arena-style event that is quick, fast-paced, and a decent loot grind for a team of six guardians looking to have some fun killing the milk infused aliens. Shadowkeep as a whole has done a ton to improve Destiny 2 and has given it’s fans a massive taste of what’s coming in future expansions and content updates.  There is a massive grind at the end of that campaign and story so get ready to pull out those big boy pants and grind that endgame content.  This will make things a bit tougher for those new Guardians coming in for the first time because of the added complexity that truly caters to the hardcore Guardians that like the grind game. I’m excited for the direction Bungie has brought things and has set the story up to develop over the next few years.  I truly am excited to see where and how Bungie can continue to roll this crazy train out and what they have in store for all the Guardians out there.