After a three-month delay, the time has come: Bungie has released the final DLC of the Light and Darkness Saga, The Final Shape. The Witness has entered the Traveler and, with its minions, is doing everything it can to reshape the universe according to its will. As Guardians, we are trying to stop it. I’ll tell you here whether the conclusion to the saga is a success and how the new mechanics play.

I’ll get straight to the point. The campaign is a success, and the battle for the universe comes to an exciting and well-crafted conclusion, for now. Many threads from the last 10 years of Destiny are still unresolved and will hopefully be tied up in the Episodes (formerly Seasons) called Echoes. Compared to Lightfall, however, The Final Shape is significantly better and has been a lot of fun so far!

Enough with the preface, let’s get into more detail. Let’s start with the campaign. Unsurprisingly, it takes place inside the Traveler. We followed the Witness there across the bridge created by Crow (Uldren Sov) and Mara Sov. The missions are varied in terms of mechanics, narrative, and environments. Sure, Destiny 2 is a loot-shooter and not a story game, but Bungie has managed to make sure no mission feels useless or like filler. The story always progresses, and every mission has its purpose and message. It’s also easily doable solo on normal mode; I still have to tackle it on Legendary. I was busy for a good six hours, including the well-made cutscenes.

But the campaign isn’t the end of the expansion, just the beginning. Once you’re through with it, the mission areas are unlocked as a single, connected open-world area. The individual zones are fantastic and varied, and the overall impression is just great. You can see from one end of the map to the other. It’s also exciting that you can see your fireteam members in their respective areas when you’re on high ground. So, from the Tower, you can look down on the areas and see where your comrades are. If you’re without a fireteam, however, the areas are unfortunately empty. There’s no automatic matchmaking yet to fill the area with other players. It’s a shame, as it prevents spontaneous group activities from happening. Maybe that will be added later. For now, though, I feel quite lonely.

But there’s a lot to do. I played a lot this week and was busy the entire time. You search for lost Ghosts, you earn Fragments, and of course, new loot is waiting to be unlocked. Both the Lost Sectors and the public events are integrated into these tasks. The Lost Sectors are well-made, but as before, they quickly stop being a challenge on normal difficulty. The public events, on the other hand, are very well done. They are no longer insignificant individual events but contribute to a zone-wide status. This has four tiers, which you progress through by collecting points from completing events and all other actions. At the fourth tier, you defeat a boss and get an extra reward, which you can use to unlock a temporary buff (lasting 27 hours) within the Pale Heart. The structure is like the Altars of Sorrow on the Moon, but much more varied. They are completely new event types that you have to figure out first. No recycling, which is very good.

For the new weapons and armor, there’s a special questline, the Ghost hunt mentioned earlier. This sends you not only through the Pale Heart but across the entire solar system and through activities from recent years. However, the story is always adapted, so while the activity is the same, the narrative is adjusted. It’s kind of a look back. I liked it, but those who have done it all a hundred times might be annoyed. I like the loot. The armor is okay, but I find some of the weapons to be quite well-designed. They are all craftable once you’ve collected enough. The Call is my new main weapon. All items have been brought to Power Level 1900, with 1940 being the soft cap and 1990 the hard cap. From there, you can only reach 2000 through pinnacle activities. After one week, and without focusing on power level, I’m at around 1960. With the first episode, that will probably go up quickly.

As a final point, I want to talk about the new Prismatic subclass. It’s a wild mix of all the other subclasses. Bungie has put together a good combination of skills, Aspects, and Fragments. Everything can be freely chosen, though a balanced mix of Light and Darkness is useful, either through skills or weapons. Any damage with one of the two alignments charges a corresponding bar. When both are full, you can enter a prismatic mode, which gives you a different grenade, reduces cooldowns, and allows you to fight prismatic enemies. The latter cannot be defeated without prismatic mode, as they are protected by a prismatic shield. Since I only unlocked all the Fragments last night, I haven’t looked into the possible builds in detail yet, but so far, the subclass is a lot of fun. It’s also not as overpowered as I feared.

Let’s get to the verdict: I think the three-month delay was worth it. Bungie has delivered across the board, releasing a great expansion both visually, narratively, and in terms of gameplay. I was busy all week and have by no means explored and discovered everything yet. Plus, the first episode starts today. If it’s even half as good as the first week, I’ll be satisfied. I can only recommend the expansion to every Destiny fan, especially since all other expansions except Lightfall are now free-to-play. Veterans will love The Final Shape, and for newcomers, it’s the ideal time to start the game and experience the complete story (apart from the content that was vaulted). From me, it’s a definite recommendation.