Review: Destiny 2 – Expansion I: Curse of Osiris

Much of the gameplay changes lie under the hood. Primary, Special and Heavy weapon classifications have been replaced with Kinetic, Energy and Power weapon classifications. While many may lament the fact that Sniper Rifles, Fusion Rifles and Shotguns have been moved to the Power Weapon slot, the changes made to the classifications are ultimately smart. Players now have more viable weapons to choose from, making it easier to melt enemy shields with Energy Weapons, pound unshielded enemies with Kinectic Weaponry and better control crowds with Power Weapons. New gun types like the submachine gun and grenade launcher are thrown in to add more variety and are quite fun to use.

While including a loot box that doesn’t award duplicates is better than only having completely random loot boxes, doing so doesn’t take away from the fact that Bungie’s game is still highly encouraging its players to engage with loot boxes instead of actually earning loot. It also doesn’t take away from the fact that they’re still pushing random microtransactions in a game with a sixty dollars price tag and paid DLC. What’s more, they don’t appear to see anything wrong with this.

Now let’s talk about the changes to the PC version. Overall, not a lot has been added in terms of content. Like the original release, players will need to wait a little bit before jumping into the Leviathan Raid and Trials of the Nine, which is a little disappointing for those transferring over, but it makes sense in the overall timeline. It’s up to Bungie to bridge the gap between PC and console updates moving forward, though. The mouse and keyboard controls are a welcome addition to the formula as Destiny almost feels perfect for the twitch-based shooting. Granted, this can be said about almost every first-person shooter, but Destiny feels even more attuned for keyboard and mouse controls than say Halo. I’m still unsure why Q was assigned to grenade when G is wide open, but thankfully you’re able to completely remap your commands to better suit your style.

With Destiny 2 though, it feels like the opposite is true. They’ve been caught lying multiple times, have made little effort to improve their communications with fans and what improvements they do deliver are hampered by the likes of the Prismatic Matrix. Destiny 2 is in deep trouble right now, but that doesn’t seem to matter to Bungie so long as they can keep the remaining players just happy enough to keep buying loot those boxes.

The story campaign has more missions and cinematics than you’ve ever seen in a Destiny game. The player experience has more variety, more types of activities, and more ways for you to enjoy the experience by yourself, or with other players. It is, in terms of the action you’ll enjoy, a more diverse experience than any Bungie game ever.

Curse of Osiris begins after the events of Destiny 2. The mysterious Warlock Osiris has vanished, and a new Vex threat has surfaced on Mercury. Pushed by Ikora Rey to investigate, you and your Ghost set your sights on the planet closest to the Sun in the hopes of saving Osiris and defeating this new threat. The Vex have always been the most interesting of Destiny’s five alien species. Unlike the others, we don’t know what motivates them to convert planets and who their allegiance belongs too. Likewise, the character of Osiris has been hyped up over the past three years through the Grimoire and Brother Vance, which means that there should be an interesting story here. Unfortunately, there isn’t. In fact, Curse of Osiris’ storytelling is a regression back to Vanilla Destiny.

Seeing as so many Destiny players invested time and money into The Taken King and Rise of Iron, it’s understandable that they’d want to see some of that content return. Luckily, The Taken King is well represented in Destiny 2. Rise of Iron? Not so much.

«Outside of the Prismatic Matrix, players may continue to earn Bright Engrams each time they level up, and they can still purchase these engrams if they want a chance to get everything from the Season 3 catalog. Additionally, we’re increasing the number of items available from Tess each week with Bright Dust, from 14 to 18 items.

Destiny 2 walkthrough 2 astounds with its fantastic art direction, presenting worlds that are bigger and more detailed, and it’s taken up a notch on PC. The European Dead Zone and Nessus, in particular, are meticulously crafted worlds filled with wild vegetation, towering trees, and flowing rivers. Effects, lighting, and animation work are also top-notch, helping to make the world of Destiny feel like a real place. The writing and voice acting is mostly okay. There are still some cheesy lines, but there’s nothing as wacky as, «that wizard came from the moon.» While the majority of voice actors deliver fine performances, it’s Joy Osmanski’s Failsafe that ultimately steals the show. With excellent comedic timing, Osmanski delivers the best quips of the game and makes Nessus the most fun location to visit.