DALTON’S FIRST THOUGHTS ON BEYOND LIGHT
NOVEMBER 22, 2020
Dalton Leone
Nearly three weeks ago, the long-awaited “Beyond Light” expansion for Destiny 2 finally arrived. With it came troves of new features; new armor, weapons, locations, a campaign, and, most importantly, the new ice-themed Stasis subclass. Does Beyond Light live up to the hype though? Was it worth the forty bucks minimum, or is your money better spent getting ten four-for-fours at Wendy’s?
Also, anything beyond this point is fair game for spoilers. You have been warned.
The first thing that stands out to me are the new locations. It was big news when Bungie announced that with Beyond Light, we would be losing several planets to make room for Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, as well as the iconic Cosmodrome from Destiny 1. And I have to say, Europa is one of my favorite locations we have access to currently. Europa is massive, and Bungie made sure to make it feel that way; beyond massive tundras, players are also able to explore a lot of unique locations, such as a Clovis Bray research station, an entire Fallen city, and beautiful Lost Sectors that blow anything from Year 1 of D2 out of the water.
As for the Cosmodrome, it’s… alright. From what I understand, the New Light quest that has been introduced for new players just beginning their Destiny journey is pretty decent. But as of right now, it just feels like there isn’t much to do there. Besides one or two quest steps for the Beyond Light, there isn’t really anything to do there. I think that it will be used in the future, however. Bungie wouldn’t add an entire map with the intents to only use it for New Light.
Now, for the campaign. It’s pretty good. One of my favorite storytelling techniques is playing around with morality, and I think the inner conflict of harnessing the powers of darkness from the pyramids is done incredibly well here. My only major complaint with the campaign is that it feels a bit redundant at times. Towards the later stages of the campaign, I found myself getting a bit tired of the same old format, but it was still a primarily enjoyable experience. The postgame was also pretty fun. The quest where your Ghost does his best Drifter impression is possibly my favorite quest yet; Nolan North really kills it with that performance.
Stasis, in my opinion, is the most unique subclass that has come to Destiny yet. The ability to freeze enemies is incredibly powerful (thankfully, it's already been slightly nerfed in the Crucible), but beyond just freezing opponents, all of the new abilities have such interesting applications in the game. Take the Glacier Grenade for example, which projects an ice wall wherever it is thrown. While something like the Voidwall Grenade or one of the Spike Grenades can function similarly in blocking off pathways, none work as well as the Glacier Grenade, which blocks off paths completely, even to gunfire. While it’s difficult to damage opponents with it, the Glacier Grenade can be used to shut down Sniper Lanes, give you a chance to recover health, or even make a quick getaway. Another aspect of Stasis I like is that of customizability. All of the other subclasses feel somewhat rigid in comparison to Stasis.
My only real gripe with Beyond Light’s introduction is the lack of activities for new or free-to-play players. While Destiny 2 was not born as a free-to-play game, Bungie has had no problem advertising that fact that their game is free. With the removal of Red War, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind, however, players that can’t afford to, or don’t want to, spend money on the game are stuck with very little to do in the game. One of Destiny’s most drawing features is their raids, but with no free raids remaining, it can be discouraging for players to continue without paying. Just a small nitpick, though.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Beyond Light. I think the story was relatively smooth, the new Stasis abilities are a lot of fun, and the world design is on point. I’m looking forward to where Bungie take us in the future with the Darkness and Europa.
