Destiny 2: Lightfall

[Kevvy Metal]

As some one who's not yet played Beyond Light and Witch Queen, it feels quite nice just jumpin in now to play them, with the game now having a new lick of paint.

I'm tempted to buy the mega-bucks new campaign, for the season progression... but that's probably a waste. 

[Uncle Mike]

Playing the Strand sections as a Solar Titan still wearing the cheat mode safety helmet was a great best of both worlds, I found. You're still hard to kill, but you can suspend and tangle people usefully.

[Janski]

3 hours ago, Uncle Mike said:

Finished the main Campaign missions last night. It's quite the mess, isn't it? More so than normal, I reckon. Obviously, the overall expansion might be good - we've got post-Campaign stuff, Strand might be really good once it's properly opened up, the Raid etc - but the Campaign on its own seems like a duffer?

 

Yeah, it's a bit of a mess overall and nothing really like what the trailers/hype led up to.

 

It's was like a condensed series of tutorial missions either side of the intro/outro cutscene (were Zavala & Ikora just staring at the shutters the whole time?!)

 

Looks to be some decent post-game stuff and the new Wellspring type activity seems fun but definitely More Beyond Light than Witch Queen.

[Hexx]

6 minutes ago, Janski said:

It's was like a condensed series of tutorial missions either side of the intro/outro cutscene (were Zavala & Ikora just staring at the shutters the whole time?!

 

Someone pointed out that you can edit the opening cutscenes and ending cutscenes together nearly seamlessly.

 

[Janski]

The seasonal stuff looks interesting though. The new Battlegrounds mission is the best one they've done yet with a more interesting boss mechanic and the ramp up in difficulty. 

 

Less weapon crafting, red bars, dishwasher upgrades, resources, doohickeys and thingybobs is very welcomed. Though I'm now getting low on glimmer fairly regularly.

[Hexx]

Partition is fun - can't believe they lock it to one completion a week

 

Got an add killer Strand build but survivability still feels horrid.

 

What do people think of new Exotic heavy?

[Nate Dogg III]

22 minutes ago, Hexx said:

What do people think of new Exotic heavy?

Only got it this afternoon but the mag feels a bit on the small side. Lovely SFX though. 

[Hexx]

Yeah it seems "fine" but the mag feels low for what it's trying to do and while it's ok, I can't see it taking a coveted Exotic slot.

 

[mikeyl]

Yeah, I’m sure when The Numbers come out I’ll be totally wrong but seems with it’s weaken effect it’s an easy debuff for bosses, and the Divinity geeks can stay at home.

 

(and reloading is never an issue if you play the correct class with the reload dodge)

[McFly]

I can't help but think of "Silver Cops" from Solar Opposites when I see Nimbus et al

 

 

 

[Qazimod]

I'm only at what I assume is the campaign's final encounter at the moment and I'm dying. A lot. I can kind of see what it wants from me but getting hit with

 

Spoiler

Suppression

 

whilst getting

 

Spoiler

punted off the arena

 

gets old pretty fast. I know I should be

 

Spoiler

reacting with the grapple thing and swinging back, or just not allowing myself to get touched in the first place

 

but it feels like you're allowed to make one or two mistakes and that ruins your attempt.

 

As an aside, one thing I do like with the Berserker is that regular Tormentors are susceptible to Drengr's Lash (the barrier ensnaring thing), so you can try to optimise ways to kill them off in one "sequence" - explode shoulder, explode shoulder, Drengr's Lash, shoot, finisher.  

 

EDIT: making progress:

 

Spoiler

The second lifebar feels a bit squishier if you can get a super out, but you still need to survive a bit...

 

[McFly]

Getting punted off the sides, like first boss in Prophecy dungeonnis so bloody annoying it's unreal. I'm on Downfall iirc and am enjoyingbthe campaign so far but this final.bossnspunds tough/annoying.

[Hexx]

https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/lightfall-twab-03-02-23

 

All Strand fragments will unlock today - you'll still to buy for the currency

 

[Qazimod]

2 hours ago, Qazimod said:

I'm only at what I assume is the campaign's final encounter at the moment and I'm dying. A lot.

Done it!

 

Spoiler

Might have kited it in circles a bit whilst waiting for another super  (not throughout the entirety of that phase, of course - that would take forever)

 

[Janski]

12 hours ago, Hexx said:

https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/Article/lightfall-twab-03-02-23

 

All Strand fragments will unlock today - you'll still to buy for the currency

 

 

They know they've done goofed with the Strand unlocks.

 

Starting to see Strand builds online now where hunters can get the Spidey-swing back in like 10 seconds.

[pledge]

You have to do 5 vanguard ops for a pinnacle now rather than 3? Ugh.

[Nate Dogg III]

Turns out you can leave the area and return after completing Terminal Overload and open the free chest up to two more times before it despawns. YouTubers now suggesting you endlessly re-instance until you get into an Overload on phase three for speed's sake. Get on it before a) they patch it or b) there are no more phase three Overloads because the entire community is trying to cheese it.

 

Apparently gold patrols have a high chance of red border drops too.

 

 

[Thor]

Hmmm, that's hasn't worked for me. 

[pinholestar]

This is clearly a filler expansion riddled with reskins and made to give themselves more time to develop The Final Shape (which was originally going to be Lightfall). It's a real shame that they've dropped the ball narratively at such a dramatically critical juncture of the overarching story. It's also plainly apparent that the Strand subclass was thematically and visually designed to be congruent with The Witch Queen too, but they didn't have it ready in time, so it's been rather awkwardly shoehorned into this a year later.

 

With that said, after an 18 month hiatus (apart from playing The Witch Queen campaign when it was free for a week) and having pretty much put Destiny to bed for good, I bought Lightfall on impulse (effectively for free as I used MS Rewards points) and enjoyed playing through the campaign solo on Legendary. The story is one of the worst MacGuffin chases they've ever done and the Neomuna characters are annoying as fuck, but it remains by a country mile the best playing FPS around. Aside from the raids, my favourite part of expansions has always been the post-campaign quests and exotic chases and that stuff's pretty good in this one. Doing the first Partition solo was great fun.

 

I know that a lot of people for whom Destiny is pretty much all they play are lamenting the changes to the mod system and build-crafting but I quite like what they've done with it and you can still make some really nice builds with a bit of thought. We've been through this cycle several times now where they add a load of tools to the game, the power creep gets out of control, the playerbase min-maxes the shit out of it and ends up trivialising most of the content, and so Bungie then have to hammer the nails down to make it a level playing field again. The increased challenge across the board with Lightfall is noticeable and in my opinion very welcome.

 

Although having said that, Strand suspend is ridiculously powerful and will likely be nerfed before long. Couldn't believe it when I came up with a Hunter build that gave me pretty much permanent suspend capability and I realised that it completely nullified Champions. They just dangle there like helpless dickheads while you calmly walk up to them and obliterate them with a shotgun. 

 

I can't be arsed with the greedy seasonal grind model they've settled on and doubt I'll be raiding this time round either, but settling back into the sublime core gameplay loop, even if for a short time, is like slipping back into a comfy pair of old slippers. So glad they've finally ditched elemental armour too because that was a massive pain in the arse.

 

[KartoffelKopf]

Headlong is one of the shittiest levels in Destiny, ever. 

[Hexx]

I'm guessing suspend will get adjusted. It's just so strong right now and you can take out rooms without a great deal of risk - they''ll certainly change it's interaction with yellow bars/champs i'm guessing

 

If the rhythm breaks (at least on warlocks) you can be in trouble. 

[Nate Dogg III]

13 hours ago, Thor said:

Hmmm, that's hasn't worked for me. 

 

Was working for me last night, though I only got to open the chest twice as I didn't know the quickest route out at first. For clarity, you have to go out and back in on a sparrow, fast travelling doesn't work.

 

Agree Suspend seems a bit overtuned, enemies should be falling out of it much sooner as it completely trivialises champions in particular. I mean I like winning as much as the next guy but it's a pretty boring way of doing it. 

[pledge]

There's a pretty lame cheese on the final boss. If anyone is looking for an easy solo before they prevent it.

 

Spoiler

Below where you have the flag before it begins you can go underneath and shoot through the stairs. Takes a fair while but nothing can hit you. Then you pop up for the final phase, which you have loads of power ammo left for. Takes a while but pretty fool proof.

 

[Qazimod]

I finally got to try Partition today. I'm too squishy to complete a successful run right now... but I think I like the idea, and it at least has checkpoints so you get to do the tricky bit once and then move on.

 

On 02/03/2023 at 21:14, Qazimod said:

As an aside, one thing I do like with the Berserker is that regular Tormentors are susceptible to Drengr's Lash (the barrier ensnaring thing), so you can try to optimise ways to kill them off in one "sequence" - explode shoulder, explode shoulder, Drengr's Lash, shoot, finisher.  

 

13 hours ago, Nate Dogg III said:

Agree Suspend seems a bit overtuned, enemies should be falling out of it much sooner

nate i only just discovered this tech  

[Thor]

10 hours ago, Nate Dogg III said:

Was working for me last night, though I only got to open the chest twice as I didn't know the quickest route out at first. For clarity, you have to go out and back in on a sparrow, fast travelling doesn't work.

Yeah I didn't quite go far enough (to see the name of the new area pop up) did it today and looted the chest two more times.

[Sumire]

I thought this would be a neon HDR colourfest, but sadly it looks really washed out on my screen. 

[pledge]

39 minutes ago, Sumire said:

I thought this would be a neon HDR colourfest, but sadly it looks really washed out on my screen. 

Same. The trailers made me expect it to be much more like the harsh billboards on Titan were. This is much more of a pastel look, very soft.

[Nate Dogg III]

Got the exotic glaive earlier and it seems… wild? Projectile does an aoe freeze and melee swings proc slow as long as there’s ammo in the mag. Aztecross tried it with a Synthoceps Titan and it was doing 60k per swing at zero ammo cost. 
 

Been experimenting with Strand a bit more now the fragments are unlocked and while I’m not quite into the rhythm of it on warlock yet it’s very strong and quite spectacular when it works. Got the quest for the other exotic weapon too, sounds intriguing. 
 

I understand why everyone is down on the story but there’s some cool cool shit in this expansion imo, campaign aside. Certainly like it much more than Beyond Light, which I couldn’t stand. 

[Uncle Mike]

I didn't have much fun with Beyond Light either, although I didn't play it when it was super fresh (coming along multiple season late.) Nor Shadowkeep. And I've had more fun than that with Lightfall already. The Legendary campaign is a great time on its own, as a gameplay time.

 

I'm incredibly disappointed with how they've fumbled the story, especially given the pivotal point we're supposedly at in it (this is supposed to be our ending-of Empire Strikes Back part, right? Things are dark, but there's still hope? I don't really feel like they've achieved any kind of story moment at all) but the game itself seems in good shape. And yeah, Strand is a good time for sure.

[moosegrinder]

Only fucking Bungie could implement something like a loadout system and then not give you the ability to name it yourself. How does that get last any kind of QA? Or even anyone who just goes "Hang on, some people like naming their loadouts depending on specific activity or function or element or a combination thereof any one of a million other permutations." Of course this can be easily got around by GIVING THEM THE ABILITY TO NAME IT THEM FUCKING SELVES."

 

God fucking damn it. Sticking with Little Light and DIM it is.