Destiny 2's newest expansion Lightfall has arrived with an action-packed campaign storyline. This year's campaign missions take the guardian to the planet of Neptune, into a city known as Neomuna, where Calus and the Witness have arrived for reasons the players must discover.

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After the release of Witch Queen last year and the tremendous praise that Destiny 2 received for its incredible campaign focused on Savathun and her Throne World, expectations for Lightfall's campaign were high. So, after Year 5 of Destiny 2, how did the Lightfall campaign live up to the game's previous legacy? Here's where the campaign manages to shine and innovate, and where it sadly falls short.

Warning! Destiny 2: Lightfall campaign spoilers ahead!

8 Best: Neomuna As A Location

Destiny 2 Arriving On Neomuna-1

Although Neomuna as a location isn't as massive as something like Europa, there's no question about the fact that this new area is absolutely gorgeous and filled with incredible details. It's unlike any other Destiny 2 location, which makes it particularly magical for players to discover both during the campaign missions and on patrol.

With Neomuna comes all of its rich lore of course, which changes a lot of what players used to know about humanity's history within the Destiny 2 universe. This technologically advanced place is almost a direct opposite to the Last City in shambles guardians are very familiar with, which is why it made such a nice backdrop to the campaign and a true joy to walk through.

7 Worst: Weak Writing And Characters

Destiny 2 Nimbus

The Lightfall campaign features mainly Osiris and the Cloud Striders as the main characters the player interacts with. Nimbus and Rohan are the locals that the guardians will first come across as they touch down on Neomuna, but sadly, their characters remain shallow throughout the campaign despite how much potential they held.

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Due to this, noteworthy moments such as Rohan's sacrifice don't feel quite as heavy to players who have had barely any time to get to know the Cloud Striders—and Nimbus almost seems to brush off this event despite Rohan's importance to him as a mentor figure. It's events like these that could have given the plot and its characters more weight, especially in a situation as dire as an open war on Neomuna against the Shadow Legion.

6 Best: Tormentors Pose A Real Challenge

Destiny 2 Encountering Tormentor

Tormentors were the highly anticipated new addition to the game. These are challenging enemies that slowly lumber around when they spawn with scythe-like weapons, but will suddenly rush or jump at the player with top speed to suppress them or grab them. They have two weak spots on their shoulders that players must shoot before damaging them—and even after this, Tormentors are very spongy, taking critical damage only to their chest.

Destiny 2 could always use more challenge, especially after a year where power creep ran rampant and most endgame PVE felt trivialized. As such, the Tormentors are a cool and terrifying addition, both in terms of lore and gameplay, even though at times they feel like bullet sponges that players must simply dance around.

5 Worst: A Rushed And Superficial Storyline

Destiny 2 Lightfall Campaign Caiatl

Not only were Lightfall's characters weak, but the entire storyline of the campaign has also already received a lot of criticism for being too shallow compared to Witch Queen. The missions were quite rushed, and the introduction of certain new aspects like the Veil was skimmed over quite hastily, ultimately left as loose ends at the end of the story. This alone isn't terrible, but it makes the end of the campaign feel somewhat unrewarding and confusing.

The last stand against Calus is a nice challenge, but it also feels somewhat anticlimactic. This enemy has been in the making for a while now, and compared to Savathun's boss fight, Calus is almost a walk in the park, even on Legendary difficulty. While it's understandable that the campaign is fast-paced due to open war, it could have benefited from slower moments and missions that were more cerebral to balance out the neverending horde killing.

4 Best: Abundance Of Cutscenes

Destiny 2 Calus

Cutscenes, on the other hand, came in what felt like a nice abundance in Lightfall. Even if some of the dialogue felt awkward or out of place for something as serious as the war against the Shadow Legion, there's no denying Bungie excels in the epicness of delivering stories visually.

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Better yet, hearing the guardian finally speak more than just a few lines was easily something a lot of players had waited for, and to actually see it happen was incredibly satisfying. It gives the guardian a bit more personality and agency, especially during the scene when a final stand must be prepared against Calus and his Shadow Legion.

3 Worst: Lack Of Mission Variety

Destiny 2 Osiris Training Mission In Lightfall

As already briefly mentioned in a previous part, the missions in Lightfall are packed with the action of fighting against Calus' Shadow Legion. While it's to be expected and Bungie heavily teased the nature of Lightfall well beforehand, it feels like the missions aren't as unique from one another as how they were during the Witch Queen campaign.

Managing a horse of Cabal or Vex enemies along with Tormentors does feel cool, but when every mission is roughly the same without much mystery or slowness, or attention to mechanics, it can make the whole gameplay feel like a slog. And that's definitely how Lightfall's campaign begins to feel towards the end, even with Strand on the player's side.

2 Best: Introduction Of Strand

Destiny 2 Strand Node (1)

Speaking of Strand, the newest green subclass added to Destiny 2 was perhaps the most exciting part of Lightfall's campaign. This unique power encourages a different, quicker pace of gameplay with tons of mobility, which will feel like a breath of fresh air for many players.

The introduction of Strand early in the campaign, where interacting with a node of Strand allows the player access to a "full" loadout of Strand, is a highlight moment. Using the grappling hook to move around, as well as the new ultimates, is a true treat—though comes to an end far too soon especially early on in missions, where players likely would prefer to play around with Strand for longer periods. Nevertheless, the actual moment that players begin to wield Strand was well designed.

1 Worst: Use Of Strand In Missions

Destiny 2 Headlong Mission Final Boss

The tough part about Strand is its cooldowns later on in missions where players are practically forced to use it. Without all the aspects and fragments, and after a year of being used to ability spam thanks to 3.0 subclasses, being forced on Strand against spongy enemies was definitely a low point in the Lightfall campaign. There were several moments when it made the mission more difficult (likely, as intended) rather than enjoyable and fluid.

The second last mission is a great example of it, as Osiris sends the guardian(s) into a Vex network to train their abilities. The final boss in this area drags along for a while if players don't utilize their Strand abilities wisely and have good weapons at hand, a real change of pace after being able to use Strand on low cooldown during previous missions.

Destiny 2: Lightfall is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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