After many years of Bungie’s work with the Halo franchise, it was very clear that they wanted to explore other projects. After much deliberation held behind closed doors, they did the impossible: Bungie broke away from Microsoft, becoming independent from the behemoth. Equipped with half their staff, their studio, and a partnership with Activision, we were given Destiny.
The Final Shape is the last installment of the “Light vs Darkness Saga,” with promises to end this story once and for all. I can say with my full chest that Bungie delivered their best campaign, learning all of their lessons from the past and focusing in on moments that made Destiny shine like diamonds. From the story beats to the new prismatic subclass, to even new enemies, Bungie seems to be firing on all cylinders once again, and I am here to see this ride till the very end.
“Eyes Up Guardian.”
I felt the welling in my chest when I started The Final Shape and saw the moments just before my ghost found my body laying amongst the rusted cars in Russia. After ten years, it all comes down to this moment where we go into the Traveler, defeat the Witness, and return the Black Fleet to oblivion.
The Final Shape does make use of its time as best as it could, with a rather short and straightforward campaign that is kind of daunting thanks to the amount of groundwork that needs to be covered in order to wrap everything up in a neat little bow. This allowed Bungie to hone in and focus on concluding this story while making considerations in the realm of clarity. If you weren’t a Destiny player before or didn’t listen to Byf’s 10-hour long lore video, then you would be walking into this with more questions than answers, which I will touch on later.
I did appreciate the appearance of a few characters who come into frame during the story, some of which express their vulnerabilities as they gaze upon their old friend. We forget that it’s been six years of absence. Seeing Cayde-6 and hearing Nathan Fillion’s warm voice welcome us to this world was an emotional moment that works so well within the narrative. My concern was that Cayde would become a tool, nostalgia bait, if you will, as a way to make us buy into the expansion or at least appeal to a certain crowd. For a lack of better words, his implementation within the story was properly executed and actually made sense. After all, how could you celebrate this monumental occasion without Cayde-6 himself?
Oh, and narratively speaking, I love how everything really came around full circle in terms of presenting concepts and slowly crafting the backstory to every element, seeing how it all came together. Everything we saw and every monster we slew had a place within the grand scheme, creating that lived-in world with a rich and impressive history. There were even small moments with new characters that made me curious, and while Bungie didn’t have time to explain why they didn’t have time to explain, I am sure we will see more of this particular character in the future.
“Get Your Rock Off My Map.”
Destiny’s art team has always been known to bring a unique sense of style to the series. Each expansion thus far features a strong theme when it comes to the core design. Whether you are traveling through the various throne worlds of the hive gods or meandering through the overgrown ruins of the EDZ, Destiny has flavor in everything. The Final Shape builds upon this with a dream-like area of the Pale Heart.
It is a mixture of our past experiences, taking elements from our adventures all throughout the galaxy, mixing them up, and then tossing them into a wide, playable area that is both welcoming and dreadful. It’s like being a stranger in your own town, where things look just slightly different, except, in this case, everything is different.
Hands are scattered throughout the landscape, reaching to the skies like antennae. It is disturbing, along with the various rock formations that resemble faces screaming for salvation. All of these odd elements stand as a corruption against the green hills and gorgeous skybox. Off in the distance, you see the large plots of land jetting out into the abyss, far beyond our reach. Within the various lost sectors, we have an amalgamation of body parts vivisected to match the Witness’ signature motif. It is daunting, dreadful, and miserable, setting the perfect tone. Even more impactful is the triangular wound that oversees our actions.
This meshes well with the secluded areas where we are adventuring throughout the story path. Dark cathedrals of woe inhabited by the new horrors of the Witness eagerly await our arrival. We embrace darkness as we travel through the various portals into barren lands, only to be spat out into an alien world. The further I go into the campaign, the more it all changes. Molds from the armory adorn the walls and even create a series of steps that bring me to one of the more frustrating parts of Destiny. It is the little details that really pay off here.
“Fight On; You’re Still Breathing.”
I have complained in the past that Bungie doesn’t know how to properly balance an encounter, and The Final Shape reinforces that. I gave Legendary difficulty a shot, and I found it to be incredibly difficult, as it rightfully should be. Taken knights were blasting me across the map with pinpoint accuracy, like a million-dollar NFL player. These attacks forced me to adjust my tactics on the fly, which was interesting, making for some engaging gameplay, but it came at a cost in the fun element for me.
There is an odd mechanical system built into the game where, if you are trying to use the tactics given to you, the game adjusts to it’s own internal flowchart of solutions. Enemies are killing me in close distances, so I adjust and use a sniper rifle only to see the enemies duck behind cover. I revert to using a grenade to flush them out only for them to pop a bubble shield to avoid any damage. So I have to get close, but not too close.
My anger rises even further when I realize the mechanical concepts of some boss fights. Before me stands a huge boss with an invulnerability shield that must be dismantled. To do this, you must take out two groups of enemies to hit a structure that lowers another shield so you can jump into the portal. In that portal is a darkened room where a slew of enemies reside, including two mini-bosses that must be killed to reveal two glyphs. From there, you memorize the glyphs and hit two portals that match the glyphs. You can’t hit the wrong portal, or you need to restart this process. Once the correct glyphs are chosen, it unlocks the shield which you can then use to break down the boss’ shield. It isn’t necessarily awful, but you need to do this twice, and it is a no respawn zone. This means that if you fail at any point, you must do it all over again, even on the base difficulty.
It isn’t that easy as this entire battle takes place on a platform and incorporates the implementation of enemies that push you off. With no way to really recover, I can say that my frustration hit an all-time peak. I have no problem with implementing advanced mechanics in a game, but the more that is added to this experience, the less fun it becomes. You can switch as many abilities around as you want, but this core experience makes me want to run away for a bit and find fun in other areas. Since this is a straight-shot narrative experience, I did get a warning that I shouldn’t venture into other aspects of the game until I finished the story in its entirety, which is understandable.
This is where I need to reel it back a bit and come to a weird realization: not every class is treated the same. As a Titan main during my first run of the campaign, I realized that there is very little to that class as a whole, especially with the prismatic subclass. Most of the abilities given to the titans lack a sense of synergy and rely a ton on close-quarters mechanics. But, when every major enemy has an area-of-effect pushback ability that throws you off the map, it becomes incredibly frustrating to play.
I did my due diligence and played the first few missions (as of writing this) as a Warlock, and it was a massive difference, practically day and night. I found the Warlock to have greater synergy and a higher affluence to distributing massive damage across the battlefield. It was more consistent and reliable. I found myself running through mobs that gave me a difficult time before. This clearly makes the classes a bit unbalanced, which isn’t great for players who want a more tanky character, which is a shame.
“Some Terrors You Defeat. Some, You become.”
It wouldn’t be a new Destiny expansion if there wasn’t some adjustment to the subclasses, and prismatic seems to be the one to shake things up this time. Unlike Lightfall’s poor approach to obtaining strand, The Final Shape barely wastes your time. You are slowly introduced to the power and gain additional aspects and fragments as you go through the story.
Prismatic borrows concepts and ideas from other subclasses, allowing you to kit out your character in a variety of fun and interesting ways. Some enemies will be covered in a glossy shield that resembles an oil puddle outside your local Walmart. The only way to break this shield is to use the prismatic-based transcendence ability.
Transcendence is built up naturally over time by using certain abilities or shooting enemies who have the prismatic shield around them. Upon the dark and light side of the bar filling up, you can engage in transcendence to boost your prowess. It is great in execution, but when you have enemies that can only be defeated using this ability, it makes the core design a little odd. This is due to the bars filling up quite slowly, but, luckily, there are typically pools all around the various arenas to accelerate the process. This creates a rather monotonous experience of running in, hitting the Jiffy Lube spill, using transcendence, and hopefully getting loot.
Playing as my Titan felt like a taxing experience since I felt like some abilities lacked a specific synergy that played well to my liking. On the other hand, I felt right at home on the Warlock thanks to the void abilities that I typically used when not running outside the prismatic subclass. It worked naturally with my build and even had a bunch of surprises I really enjoyed. I feel like Titans need a bit more love in terms of balancing and abilities, but I guess the Traveler gives his toughest challenges to his toughest light bearers.
Hunters are pretty fine because of course they are.
“That Wizard Came from the Moon.”
A new area means new inhabitants with the Dread faction. A slew of new darkness-infused enemies are scattered throughout the realm. There are only a handful of new ones, as enemies of the past are mostly what you’ll be fighting. Small, winged enemies, called the Grim, are sprinkled into each combat encounter, adding a sense of variety. They have a devastating and disorienting ability that also suppresses your abilities temporarily. There isn’t much to fret as a well placed shot can take them down quickly, even the elite ones. They are far from annoying as I thought they would be.
Additionally, there are skirmishers, called the Husk, who are quick and can easily overwhelm you if you’re not careful to dispatch them quickly. Even if you do, they expel a creature that hunts you down and explodes as a final stand ability. So you have to be swift to eliminate these foes.
As I said, most of the enemies you will fight are going to be mixes of the Cabal, the Taken, and Savathun’s Lucent Hive. I saw a handful of Vex and Fallen during my adventures, but not so many where it becomes overplayed and annoying. If anything, the appearance of the Taken sends dread down my spine with their bubble shields and balls of blinding.
Of course, there are Subjugators all over the place, but I found them to be better used here than in Lightfall’s campaign where they were just annoying to deal with and felt like filler. I really enjoyed the mix of enemies, which is something I don’t normally say about Destiny’s enemy composition. Even the annoyance of the Hive Wizards and Shriekers don’t feel as aggravating to manage. I feel like I always have something to complain about when it comes to enemy density, but there is a well struck balance here.
“Yours…Not mine.”
Playing under all of the blasting of lasers and elemental explosions is the wonderful soundtrack which adds depth to all the moments of Destiny. The dreaded horn-based tracks added that sense of dread whenever you traversed back and forth through the various plains of light and darkness. As every good soundtrack should do, it elevated various combat moments and helped get that emotional rise, especially in the game’s final main campaign moments where I felt as powerful as I ever could be. There are even a few ties to the original Music of the Spheres project, which is a nice touch.
I guess I’ll touch on audio here as it was key to me beating that final campaign mission. To set the scene, an enemy floated overhead, summoning blades which would strike me down and deal massive damage. I had to rely on the audio cues to know when I should pop in and out of cover. While it is nice for me as a fully able-bodied person, I can only see this being an issue for those hard of hearing.
Other than that, I think one of the reasons why I love playing as the Warlock is because of the sound of the void bomb ultimate, from the moment I activate it till the moment it hits the ground and explodes in a glorious eruption of purple and black with the sound of a low sizzle as bulbs spread throughout my foes.
I must also touch on the voice acting here, as each character goes through their own trials and tribulations, bringing each character to life. After the untimely passing of the great Lance Riddick, Keith David (a wonderful voice actor in his own right) took up the reins of Commander Zavala. I can say that he did a wonderful job with the role and brought that energy that he is best known for. There is a wonderful moment within one of the beginning missions where Mara Junot expresses Ikora’s complete frustration with everything that has transpired over the years. As someone who gets frustrated when their food order is incorrect, this really resonated with me, and it felt real.
Of course, I can’t help but also give a huge standing ovation to Brett Dalton, who voices The Witness. With an array of effects, he was absolutely chilling, being calm, collected, and hitting extreme levels of intensity after the main campaign concludes. There is this eruption of anger that rises out of him that feels impactful, like seeing a silent character deliver a rabid outburst, or seeing your calm aunt finally break during the backyard BBQ. It’s not overly dramatic; it is dreadful.
“… And Now The Traveler has Left Me with Just One Life, and I am Afraid to Lose It.”
So, when I initially approached this review, I knew that this was not a game meant for the casual audience. Sure, it will pique the interests of players who dropped off after Lightfall. But, besides that, those who wanted to play and see how this saga ends have already purchased it, poured many hours into it, and are eagerly awaiting the next major seasonal drop. My words here mean absolutely nothing in the grand scheme, and that is absolutely fine. Despite that, there is a lot to enjoy, and post-campaign activities are vast. You’ll be busy for a while. It is an easy time sink to accept if you are a fan of the series.
Ten years ago, Bungie went out and sunk their banner into unclaimed territory with a sense of wonder, ambition, and hope. Their journey was tough and reflected the tide of their real-life situation. When things were tough in the game, they were tougher in real life. By all rights, Destiny, as a franchise, should have died a long time ago.
It inspired many others to try to plant their own flags, only to be swept away by the alternating currents. No one else has seemed to capture the lightning in a bottle that Bungie was able to. They tried; they listened to fans and attempted to deliver something within the live gaming realm, but nothing worked. Worst of all, everything that had any sort of PvE element was automatically compared to Destiny. Down went Anthem, Suicide Squad is bleeding out, and even Marvel’s Avengers couldn’t deliver on a massive scale like Bungie.
The difference between all of these games and Destiny was perspective. Many companies tried to make their games appealing to everyone while Bungie discovered their fanbase and started to craft content specifically with them in mind. This is why The Final Shape succeeds. They embraced their audience and moved away from everything bearing room clears to having actual mechanics, practically training their players for events like the raid. As the saying goes, a game for everyone is a game for no one.
The Final Shape is an absolute success in every facet of the word. Developers worked tirelessly to deliver a game that felt great to play, was rewarding, and even pulled us in with massive lore bits to nibble on while we weren’t playing. Most of all, the developers of past and present who worked on this game should be proud of themselves as many players like myself wouldn’t hold this so near and dear to them if it wasn’t for their efforts. Here is to another ten years!
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