Recently, the new expansion Beyond Light for Destiny 2 has launched. But how is it being received so far? What do the players say? We summarize the mood around Beyond Light after the first few days.
What’s the deal with Beyond Light? Beyond Light is the new expansion for Destiny 2, which started on November 10.
This expansion was highly anticipated, as it brings a new story, fresh gear, a new location, and cool new powers for the Guardians.
Now that many Guardians have fought through the new content and formed their first impressions of Beyond Light, the addon is being discussed vigorously.
How is Beyond Light being received after the first few days?
This is the mood: Generally, many see the new expansion as divided; there is certainly praise, but also much criticism.
The general tone that resonates is: Beyond Light is a good expansion in itself, but it does have some poor or at least questionable design decisions that ruin the experience for many.
What is being praised: Many aspects of the new expansion are well received by the players.
- The new Exotics are cool. The ones that have been able to be played so far are well received.
- The new Stasis powers offer numerous new possibilities and are a lot of fun – at least in PvE. More on PvP later.
- The new soundtrack is well received
- The new icy location Europa with its snowstorms and mysteries is considered fantastic by many
- New enemy units bring a breath of fresh air
- Many find the story itself quite exciting
- The new beginning for fresh players is well executed and better than the chaotic entry before.
Here comes the criticism: However, there is also criticism – and unfortunately quite a lot of it. At the start, many were still in the honeymoon phase, but as one fights through the new content and spends time in Destiny, many negative points become increasingly evident.
- Even though the launch was successful, it was also extremely bumpy.
- On PC, many players are still complaining about performance issues after release
- The effects of sunsetting, i.e., the so-called weapon sunset, are now really noticeable. This made a large part of the previous firearms useless for the new content, yet there is simply too little new to compensate for this circumstance. While it may improve in the future with new gear, many consider the current state untenable.
- In general, the diversity of new weapons is criticized. Forsaken reportedly brought 98 legendary/exotic weapons into the game, while Beyond Light has only brought 31 so far.
- Apart from armor pieces, there was no update of the vendors, whereby the respective new armors are only reskins of each other.
- Legendaries that drop regularly in the game world are essentially the same as last season
- In general, Destiny 2 currently offers just too little new loot as a looter shooter.
- While the new powers are well received in PvE, Stasis breaks PvP and currently ruins the experience entirely for many players.
- The Forsaken and Shadowkeep expansions still cost extra, yet essentially all of their gear, except for the raids, has been affected by sunsetting. The gear obtained in regular activities there can no longer be effectively utilized in the new content or pinnacle activities.
- The free-to-play experience now offers a good starting point, but has hardly any noteworthy content. With the release of Beyond Light, New Light lost a significant portion of its content.
- Once one is through Beyond Light, many players feel that Destiny 2 currently offers too few content for an action MMO. And while the content is indeed good – for how long will it last?
In short: As good as Beyond Light is in many of its new contents, some design decisions dampen the fun for many and currently overshadow even some of the positive aspects that the new expansion brings. Especially the omission of many contents, sunsetting, and not enough new in return – many experienced players seem to be struggling with this. For new players, however, this is less of a problem.
The mood may improve in the coming days and weeks. After all, Season 12 only really starts next week and is likely to bring additional variety – although it does not belong to Beyond Light. Additionally, next week, the new raid in the Deep Stone Crypt starts, which will also bring some new weapons or armor pieces.
In general, the current mood is: Beyond Light brings a lot of good but also some bad, with the bad overshadowing the positives for some, if not outweighing them. They certainly delivered. But whether and for how long that will be enough – remains to be seen. Shortly after launch, certainly not everyone is happy.
Guardians, now it’s your turn
What do you say? How do you view the new expansion after the first few days? Has it convinced you and are you having fun with it? Are you still unsure about what to think? Are you disappointed and possibly regretting the purchase?
Participate in our small survey and let us know. Keep in mind that you only have one answer option. Thank you for your time and participation.
Feel free to share your detailed opinion with us and the readers of MeinMMO in the comments.
By the way, the coming days and weeks may be important for Destiny 2. For many, Destiny 2 stands or falls with its new expansion Beyond Light. It will be exciting to see whether it can convince players in the long run.
Also, our chief editor Gerd Schuhmann has already addressed this topic: Destiny 2 has promised us the future for 6 years – it needs to come now, otherwise it’s over.
