“Destiny 2: Lightfall” is the seventh DLC in the series that was released Feb, 28, 2023. “Lightfall” takes place on Neomuna, a secret city on Neptune where Calus, Disciple of The Witness has begun to attack, searching for a relic that will get The Witness one step closer to his goal, whatever it may be. Guardians have a lot to look forward to with this expansion such as the new seasonal rewards, exotic weapons and armor from new activities. With “Lightfall” also comes many changes to the state of play with certain abilities being adjusted and mods receiving a massive overhaul. With the introduction of new abilities via strand and new weapons to create builds Guardians have a lot of new build crafting potential. Then, Guardians should hop into the new story mode and activities that come with Season of Defiance to test their new builds and earn new rewards. However, first I would like to touch on the quality of these updates.

One of the big things Guardians can look forward to in “Lightfall” is the introduction of strand. Strand uses darkness powers to manipulate the threads of life, allowing the Guardian to pull on the strings of reality to rival power with Emperor Calus and his new Shadow Legion. This will be the newest addition to a Guardians power, with the latest super having come out Nov. 20, 2020 in the form of stasis. Strand offers many new abilities, some exclusive to classes but many put the focus into movement abilities. Every guardian with strand will be able to swing around Neomuna using the strand grapple grenade, which is a vital part to every strand move. Being able to grapple onto almost anything, and even nothing but air. This has led to many guardians becoming very creative with their grapple. Guardians are now exploring the world by grappling to enemies, other players, or even rockets making for some extremely quick travel. This ability alone has made exploration and travel much more fun and engaging, especially while exploring Neomuna.

“Lightfall’s” main campaign, while extremely fun and enjoyable, felt quite lackluster in the story department. After waiting for more than 3 years, the main campaign felt more like a side quest to obtain strand, rather than this being the final standoff against the witness. The campaign only raised more questions about everything and the ending just didn’t do the amazing yet subtle storytelling that “Destiny” is known for justice. The main story just feels like a step down from the amazing story we got with Witch Queen last year. 

As for the actual gameplay of the campaign, I found it to be very enjoyable. It was easy just to turn my brain off and have fun. Emperor Calus’s shadow legion may not be a new enemy race, but their designs along with darkness powers given to them by the witness make for a really fun enemy to fight. I really enjoyed the Tormentors that were introduced. Tormentors are heralds of the darkness, who work directly under the witness. Tormentors feel like a strong enemy, and are very comparable to the Hive Guardian’s we fought back in Witch Queen. That same sense of panic and stress is perfectly recreated here with Tormentors. I played both through on Normal for my first run, and again a second time on Legendary difficulty,  which were both extremely fun. While “Lightfall’s” legendary mode may have felt a little easier than Witch Queen, I feel a lot of the sandbox changes made to the game are a factor in that.

“Destiny 2” has changed a lot with “Lightfall’s” release, bringing a new and improved armor 2.0 system, which changed many mods. This change has made a lot of older builds much weaker, while giving birth to many new creative and fun ways to play, some of which may just even be stronger than the previous. The DLC also brings many new weapons, quests, and activities to earn loot from. There are a plethora of items players will want to get their hands on.

With all of these new changes, there has never been a better time for new players and returning veterans to dive back into the game. There are still many new things to uncover, and every player is trying to regain their foothold on understanding the new changes that have been made to the sandbox and creating new builds for their Guardians. However, with such a lackluster story that has been hyped up for a while now, I can’t help but feel like we’ve merely been teased with a real story rather than experiencing it. With that being said, I give “Lightfall” a 6.5/10.