What Lightfall Really Tells Us About Destiny 2 

Deep sight mechanic is totally strand! It makes a lot of sense. Deep sight is generally around platforming, and the explanation of strand as connection fits with deep site memory prior existence etc. And witch queen was green...

Honestly this is... probably the best I've seen in terms of an honest review.

It's why I advocate for 3, 4 month seasons instead of 4, 3 month seasons to just give them that much time each cycle to both make more fulfilling seasons and time to work on the annual expansion

It honestly feels like the Witch Queen campaign was the best but the gameplay changes weren't that good (still dealing with champions and weapon crafting launch being terrible), where Lightfall's campaign was disappointing but the gameplay and systems in place now make the game feel so much better.

I like this review, it’s not cynical. You’re willing to acknowledged the good things as well as the bad things of the subject, instead of tearing it to pieces.

Yes, Neomuna really is empty. Not of enemies, but of other players. Something has to be wrong with populating the place. I am constantly loaded into an area by myself and have to reload it several times to find other players to do the new activities.

Time crunch was definitely real this expansion. Just look at the Hand Cannon thats ON THE COVERART for Lightfall and has now been announced for next season. About secret missions: There is actually quite a good one this season, and it was actually "secret" with a little puzzle required to first launch it.

I think this is the most valid take that I've seen anyone give. Honestly, if this is the case, then my perspective on Lightfall has shifted quite a bit.

Impressive to have this exceptionally well edited and concise review with footage of beating the raid added in within 24 hours. You must have been working hard to get this review out.

Finally someone talking some sense in this community

Im a simple man. I see marco and Destiny and i click

To the point about the buildings looking similar: in the deeper parts of the lore, it is established that the Ishtar Collective fled in a colony ship that essentially hid out on Neptune. The Ishtar Collective collaborates heavily with Braytech, being the two foremost scientific entities in the Golden Age - Maya Sundaresh especially shows up in Clovis Bray's journals and on Europa pre-Collapse multiple times. The story is muddled, but I feel the implication is that Neomuna uses the Veil and Vex Fluid to power their city and the Cloud Ark, similar to how Clovis used Clarity and Vex Fluid to create Exos. So to an extent, I believe a lot of the similarities are intended. However, way too many assets are reused sort of freely. For instance, in the "gardening" Lost Sector where you clear out one of Neomuna's underground farms, the water piping uses the same assets as Clovis Bray's Exo Fluid throughout the Deep Stone Crypt. Which you definitely wouldn't want to water your plants with. Overall, there is *intent* in the assets used, but certainly a bulk of the interior spaces rely a little too much on assets we've already seen elsewhere.

D1 day one veteran here. Everybody's using the "not enough time" or the "they just tried new things that didn't work out" card but I don't believe those anymore. Here's the thing, Bungie has been doing this for 10 YEARS now and it''s ALLWAYS the same pattern. They release something lack luster and then, just before everyone jumps ship and the game loses its relevance, they get people hooked again with actually decent content. Here's the timeline: •D1 / The Dark Below / House of Wolves - The Taken King •Rise of Iron/Destiny 2 - Forsaken •Shadowkeep / Beyond Light - Witchqueen Again, because people don't give those words their adequate gravity, Bungie has been at this for 10 YEARS! I don't think this is them beeing incompetent because despite what it seems like, this method has made Destiny into the biggest and arguebly only game of its kind out there. And there have been A LOT of games that tried to get a piece of it. And yer each and every one has failed. Let that sink in. Not some of them Not a lot of them Not most of them All of them. There definetly has been some luck on Bungies side throughout the games lifespan. But at some point you have to ask yourself if this is really incompetence/lacking ressources on their part, or if it's their business practice.

This might be offtopic, but your video editing is SMOOTH AF! Well done! I appreciate all the little details and going the extra mile

I agree with this. I think the original plan was to have Stasis, Strand, and another darkness subclass launch back to back consecutively. So when Strand wasn't ready for Witch Queen, they had to add another intermediate DLC to avoid launching two subclasses at the same time. Another point that could be made that the DLC was rushed is that they are going to be adding more missions to Lightfall throughout the next year to answer the big questions left by the main campaign. The only other game I can think that did something similar is Monster Hunter Rise, which was also pushed out on a deadline.

The biggest clue I've seen so far that strand was cut content is in the journey tab. When you highlight the guardian rank 7 task to stun barrier champs, unraveling rounds are referred to as *infested* rounds

Also I just want to say, congrats on getting this video out Marco. I know you've talked a lot in the past about the pressures of churning out videos. Not only did you absolutely nail this one, but you got it out there at the height of the release cycle. I'm not saying I want you to put yourself on the fire for content. I'm just saying, I'm sure you really pushed to release this, and I want to acknowledge what an effort that must have been.

17:14 That loadout, I'm like 90% sure thats The Recluse, Mountaintop and Anarchy? god what a messy time that was when those three were meta God i miss The Whisper so much, such a good exotic quest

I had a theory that we were getting a new subclass in with queen way back in season 16 based on a small detail in the roadmap the seasons we're labeled by color each corresponding to the 3.0 subclass that was being released and the final season which didn't have one..was green and all the thing with savathun using threads to seal the traveler away and using "thread cutter" to kill her and set it free.

I hear what you're saying about developmental difficulty and time crunch. They seem too often to have trouble managing resources properly though. Still, if they would have communicated honestly beforehand the intention for making Final Shape a certain way and then properly priced LF, it may have been accepted better.

And also, the fact that IF you bought the game 1 day after the extensions release, you can’t have the new exotic Quick Silver, which is a very good weapons with strand.

Hey Marco, I'm not sure if you'll see this, but I've been watching your content since division 1 and just wanted to say I love your work!! Especially that comp video you did from about 3 years ago I've rewatched that entire video 5 times over🤣

Wonderful and well thought out video. I to have the same complaints as you about story and price but that’s not going to turn me away from the fact that i’m having so much fun with this dlc.

Best video on Lightfall. Thank you for taking the time to make this! Great job.

The biggest problem with Destiny, is us, the community, we keep paying absurd prices for 3hrs of content(7hrs with raid maybe) and we still play it and will pay for the next robbery of a DLC or season pass, Bungie lost the respect towards it’s playerbase, but that’s on us

Thought this would end up in a overly negative review but it was well made in hitting the pain points but not forgetting how hard it can be to keep a live service game alive. Really enjoyed it.

Very solid review. You succinctly communicated the pitfalls in a very fair way while not ignoring the highlights of the good gains made. Well done.

Marco is back! Missed this kind of review and feedback. Welcome dude

Honestly I agree with these theories. What makes me upset with this “filler content” is the price. This is the most expensive expansion that we’ve had. $99 dollars for this. I think it would be fair to have this for like $30 max. Bungie hyped up the dlc so much that people were convinced that it was going to blow the story out of the water, so they spent the $99 without question. This must be really disappointing for fans, and that’s why I wait before I purchase a game. Thanks Marco for these videos. I love your content.

Nothing will ever top forsaken

This here is by far so precise conductive and spot on! After all the reactions and topic vids on the matter .... thx u!

Best review ive heard so far, we miss ya bro!!!!

Ok, so, the reason Neo Muna looks close to how a lot of Clovis facilities look is because, in the spire dungeon, it’s explicitly stated that a Clovis Era submind for Rasputin that used vex-esque tech, found that the darkness was coming and launched a pod filled with exo and embryos into Neptune before deleting all data of the pod from Clovis servers. It’s a dual project between Braytech and the Ishtar Collecive, hence why there are braytech architectural influences. Mind you that’s just the lore reason, the real reason was absolutely for the sake of time and cost saving.

Given the raid ending cutscene I think they have a plan for this year, possible bringing back planets in seasons, but I mean, the overall fact is, lightfall is not bad, but it is definitely a weird expansion, I have a feeling that unlike previous years, this stuff is gonna be drip fed. The hunter in some lightfall posters is holding the hand cannon that, in a recent twab, is gonna be a quest reward in season of the deep. Maybe the plan is to give us content in a longer timeframe, more through the year instead of all at once. It’s not the worst idea. But I don’t work for John bungo, so idk

This is honestly a very well thought out and informative review. I honestly hope other developers and companies take this knowledge and information to heart as it will help increase the quality of any and all life service games or just any games in general that they plan to make by a lot.

You do awesome videos man. The amount of work is wild I’m sure Your division 1 content was the best on RU-vid. Your still working your space magic

A little note on the building style of Neomuna: it actually makes perfect sense for the buildings to look like they were made by Braytech. The people that founded the city arrived on Neptune aboard a rogue ECHO pod, a vessel meant for out-of-Sol colonisation. This colonisation project was co-managed by Braytech and the Ishtar Collective. Neomuna is literally a Braytech colony, simply on the wrong planet. The reason people didn't know about Neomuna is because the pod was not meant to be launched. A submind of the AI Soteria launched it after she predicted the Collapse and went rogue, and the Collapse happened almost immediately afterwards. They didn't have time to figure out what happened with the pod. So in short, Soteria predicted the Collapse, went rogue, launched the pod, and the Collapse happened before it even reached Neptune. If you want more details, you should watch Byf's video on the Watcher.

I would honestly be ok with 2 year intervals between major expansions IF the interim was as consistent as it is now with maybe a handful of hidden juicy content mixed in. (Secret missions a La whisper, etc) Also, with that 2 year period, obviously I’d expect Forsaken/taken king sized expansions. I just really really loathe what they did to the story with this expansion. Calus has always been a goofball…but that’s because in the past, he was in a position that being a goofball was ok because he was never truly in danger of the guardians. The stakes were much higher for calus in this dlc and he was still just as goofy and reckless. I just don’t think it fit for a character who had been through so much, who had amassed such power, wealth and infinite ability to wage war. Nimrod wouldn’t have bothered me so much if the story of the campaign was better. But good lord the fist bump attempt to Caitl seconds after her father was killed…holy shit what we’re they thinking. Btw…any Veil knowers out there?? I’m almost to the point that I don’t think Bungie knows what the veil is. I want the darker side of Destiny back.

Great review!!! This is probably the best review of Lightfall that I have seen and points out the issues of the game while still appreciating the recent changes.

Marco I love ur voice everytime I see one of ur videos pop up ur boy is clicking ur the man never stop being you and making content!

I mean it when I say this, this is honestly not just one of your highest quality videos, but I think it’s also one of the highest quality Destiny related videos out there. This review felt so good to watch and you had one of the most rational and fair takes I’ve ever seen regarding this game. 10/10

Umm actually *pushes up glasses* neomuna was built off old Ishtar Collective tech that was brought over from earth so that's why it shares some architectural design with other planets. Had to flex that lore BUT this is a really interesting theory. One I know they would never confirm but I wish they would just say "hey we need more time to give you the expansion you want". Sure some people would be upset (they're gamers after all) but building nearly all of witch queen remotely had to be hard.

What a great video Marco. Good job!

Marco, love your new documentary and essay like videos. Nice transition

I would like Bungie to add the percentages on exotic weapons and exotic armor to let us know how much are the buffs and debuffs and DR or just give us a tab where we can go and see our stats or a place in the tower where we can go stack our buffs and debuffs on a dummy guardian or Dummy boss.

Finally someone making sense

I have dropped d2 a long time ago but ur video has draggde me back. And btw amazing edeting in the video and how its put together

Nice big picture, balanced review. Looking forward to anything further in this space.

Finally a destiny 2 video

Best review I've seen on this expansion to date. Even things I don't neccessarily agree with (I love the return of the Splicer style), its constructed clearly so I understand where the differences lie. Besides that, the last bit about Zero Hour is brings up a good point. Destiny players are just getting better and just know what to do. We're not new lights anymore, some people have been with Destiny for almost a decade. I imagine it makes it very hard for Bungie to produce challenging content. The day one raid passed and I've seen a lot of people talk on how easy it was, meanwhile I spent 14 hours doing the raid and only got the 3rd encounter complete. I'm no slouch, I've got 2000 hours and multiple solo flawless dungeon runs, but that shit was hard and people were saying it was easy, they nuked the final boss. Just shows the huge varience in how difficulty can be measured and how difficult it must be to balance it.

Marco's analysis videos just never miss. This is an actual "honest" review in the sense of not being biased one way or the other.

MarcoStyle has been the man when it comes to honest reviews and seeing things clearly since he started in the Division 1. I was pumped when he finally moved on from that game to Destiny because Destiny needs his honesty!

Hot take. Lightfall is the most fun gameplay in destiny's history. The story does suck though. Okay gonna watch the video now

Really good analysis. The editing being so awesome also help. Hoping for more content, youre on a roll lately man.

I quit destiny two years ago but God damnit I will always watch a marco video about it.

This was a great, fair review. Always appreciate your perspective.

Everything alright bro? Another video in just a short 3 week span? Did your channel get hacked again?

I think destiny is in a really good state right now. The gameplay feels great as making builds is easier then ever. Crafting still feels rewarding. The game might be too easy right now, but the gameplay optimizations are good.

This was a fantastic review Marco.

Good to see you still play d2 and still somewhat enjoy it. Keep it up a great review

The reason I stopped playing since the original Destiny Vault of Glass is because I realised that Bungie tricks people through hope, hype, and cut content. Im too wise to the game for me to ever enjoy this franchise again....

Destiny 2: The Asset Reusing It's a fuking joke.

I love your video, and your review. Thanks for that.

I actually kinda like this style of videos Marco’s been pumping out, keep it up man, loving the content👍🏾

To me, it is interesting to see how the story along, which is probably the least important factor in keeping player retention, can cause such huge negative receptions among the fans when it is sub par. I've lost interest in D2's gameplay loop a long time a go and a good story certainly won't drive me back in. But it just shows that a large proportion of the playerbase is already not very content with D2's current gameplay model and it just takes another element of the game being terrible for them to break the silence.

This is the most spot on review I've seen so far. The story feels very much like a rushed "filler episode" just to somehow introduce us to strand while moving the main plot as little as possible. My personal theory is that strand was meant to be released with the witch queen but something prevented them from getting strand completed by the time witch queen was ready to ship. Whether that's because of covid or because of them having to rework the light subclasses we might never know but I'm certain that strand would have released with the witch queen. What this results in is that now bungie needs to fill up a whole year of content and story with stuff that's ultimately irrelevant to the main plot. I also suspect that a couple of the seasons were made to be fillers, season of plunder especially feels like a filler season. The timeline of it's release also lines up, bungie operates on development 2 seasons ahead of the current live game. Plunder would've started development just as witch queen went live, they might have initially planned for it to be the warmind season but the realisation of needing another expantion in order to ship out strand would've prompted them to create a filler season so that the story doesn't progress too quickly. This would mean that season of the risen (the current season) would've shipped just before the major expansion which I think would've made for a much more exciting leadup to the expansion which would've been the final chapter in the light and darkness storyline (and i'm speculating a lot here but I imagine this would be where we defeat the witness and master the power of the darkness itself), with the season's following that expansion dealing with the aftermath and cleaning up any loose ends with the other enemy races (probably something with the vex and hive)

From makin funny videos and now this damn Marco your illustration is sick boy. Awesome.

bro ur edits on the irl recordings are insane

I'm calling it Neonuma now also yay we got another daily upload this tear woo, thanks for an actual review and not just saying "Lightfall bad" as everyone else Godspeed gamers...

I still hate champions. And the one time I actually saw the six boss event the damn game crashed on bosses 5/6. I was furious.

This was really well thought out. I've seen too many initial reaction videos that don't focus on the why this expansion feels so bad. It was nice to finally see a review that talks about why, even if it is just speculation.

Bro please keep on doing these videos ❤❤

Agree on just about everything here. I do want to point out that all the QoL updates/changes we got are NOT part of the Lightfall expansion. While most of them are good, they shouldn’t be used to try and offset the overall failure Lightfall is since they aren’t what you pay to get out of the expansion

I'm really hoping that final shape gets delayed in order for it to be fully realized into a witch queen level story/dlc. at least the qol things are great

i miss your division build vids. D1 was golden

I appreciate this; thank you.

this actual gives me hope for final shape being the best expansion ever

IT'S N E O M U N A

Great review.

this is such a good review and breakdown of the current state of D2. Put into words exactly how I feel about lightfall, and some things I didn't even realise I was feeling about it. Bravo!

Lightfall is where ive returned to D2 properly for the first time since Warmind. And ive honestly really enjoyed it, season seems a lot less complicated and tedious than Beyond Light and Shadowkeep. Yeah the campaign is lacklustre but i like Neomuna and grinding is engaging for me

My main problem so far with Lightfall has been less story related. I've played every season for the past for seasons to completion and I've been regularly playing since the Red War. However, I am limited in my skill level because of neurological conditions, so Lightfall to me has felt like the biggest slog since the early days of Activition-Blizzard. I've seen many people also complain about this issue but mostly they get ignored with responses of "skill issue", but not everybody can be a young adult in their prime. I finished the campaign, I maxxed my rank with Nimbus, and I fully unlocked an honestly busted Strand Hunter build with Assassin's Cowl; but still in content like the Vexcalibur mission, I struggle for three hours before ragequitting on the final boss because it's practically three boss fights all within one checkpoint. Last season, we had the mod that increased solo player damage and that was a godsend. I was finally able to complete Legendary content solo and grind out most of the exotic armor pieces I'd long wanted. But now it feels like they pulled a full 180 on that decision. They didn't bring the mod back for this season and now solo content is harder than ever.

i really appreciated this review

I really enjoy the new content direction 💪

I just dont understand how they ended up at " secret High tech city of pitch shifted metrosexual black people" it doesnt fit at all with the the the themeing of Destiny. Its such an unclear concept. I dont understand it at all

Classic case of Bungo under-delivering, although I hope it is due to them trying to OVERdeliver on Final Shape. Or at least do well over the course of this year. Raid was nice tho.

This is by far the best explanation of what all went right and wrong with Lightfall. No rants, no insulting people who disagree, but not overhyping the game either. Very mature take. Sub well earned👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

another banger video from marcostyle

Destiny fans when they get scammed for the 5th time in a row: 😱😱😱

Incredible take. I thought it was incredibly unfair that people criticized the campaign (rightfully so) but used that to criticize the entire DLC. There are very few things I can personally complain about (Guardian ranks resetting is a huge bummer) but other than the campaign and the storytelling for it. I got nothin🤷‍♀️

Excellent analysis!!!

The $50 price is insane for this expansion, it’s the same size as beyond light.

Literally the only bad thing about this expansion is the story everything else is solid

Just liked and subbed!

This video is by far the best summary of what went wrong with Lightfall. Thanks, Great video!

Marco, have you read Bungie's 2022 GDC? Also I recommend watching their 2013 "Brave New World" panel showing concept arts, presented by Joseph Staten.

I wish they'd get back to D1 where it actually felt like things were dire and we were all that's standing between humanity and oblivion. Too many jokes and goofy moments trying to imitate the MCU really makes the tension fade.

Amazing review

i really miss your " The Division " content. was always watching your stuff backthen on TD1. U had some great content, funny stuff too👍

So you just completely blamed sony for everything bad about lightfall. (complete speculation) Then you randomly start praising the qol updates instead of talking about the actual dlc. People aren't paying for the qol updates. Everyone who has destiny gets that. Are you not reviewing the dlc? Hilarious to see destiny fanboys call this the most objective review. The circlejerk continues... 1st it was all activisions fault, now sony. I wonder who's fault it will be next?