The first week in the new DLC Destiny 2: Lightfall is almost over. Players were able to not only assess the story campaign but also explore the new content extensively. However, enthusiasm has only been felt by a few so far. Bungie’s “Beginning of the End” has instead been met with a lot of discontent regarding all aspects of the game. The DLC slogan was almost prophetic.
How is the new Lightfall DLC being received by players? The hype for Destiny 2: Lightfall was already cautious in advance. Some players preferred to wait and see how Lightfall performs after the many announcements from Bungie and the issues at the end of the last DLC.
The trailers were cool and interviews at Bungie tried to dispel the last doubts. Still, in 2023, unlike the last DLC “The Witch Queen”, there was no hype.
Almost a week has passed now. Players have been able to extensively test everything and experience the story. But their feedback is currently devastating for Bungie’s “Beginning of the End” of the great saga of Light and Darkness. The disappointment in the DLC is greater than ever.
- The Lightfall expansion of Destiny 2 has a rating of “Mostly Negative” on Steam.
- At the time of this article, 2,930 Lightfall players on Steam had written a review for the standard version of the DLC – only 29% positive ratings.
- The Deluxe Edition with the annual pass, which will offer more content and connect to the cliffhanger story, is also not faring well. Of 1085 players, only 31% rate it positively.
- The Destiny 2 community on MeinMMO is also quite critical and criticizes much about Lightfall.
With trailers like “The Witch Queen,” Destiny 2 hyped its players in 2022. It is considered the best DLC so far since Forsaken:
Lightfall disappoints even hardcore fans
Destiny 2 seems unable to meet the expectations of its players with Lightfall. Neither the new Cloudstrider NPCs nor the new location Neomuna could engage the majority of players. While there were positive voices, they were somewhat subdued.
And at the end of the story, there were even more questions left unanswered, leaving the guardians puzzled.
This criticism is directed at Lightfall: Bungie has also created a campaign in Lightfall that relies on cutscenes. However, unlike “The Witch Queen,” the main antagonist, the Witness, is not really at the center. Players rarely felt during the campaign that it was about everything or nothing, as the great space battle and the apocalyptic atmosphere before the announcements and trailers suggested.
This is the criticism from DelishNightmarePie on Steam: Too short, too compressed, too few explanations, and no fun. Everything feels so inconsequential, it seems the Witness simply does what the Witness wants, and the rest has to be picked up again in “The Final Shape,” the last DLC in 2024 about the Light and Darkness saga, at an extra cost.
These are the negative reviews from the community
Bungie disappoints even its most loyal fans: The mood in the community is accordingly subdued. There seems to be a consensus. Even lore experts from Destiny 2, “MyNameisByf” or “AndyEdition,” are left disappointed after the Lightfall story and express this openly.
Initial impression … I hate it” – “To the Bungie storytelling team: I hope my feedback has been received as such […]. In any case, it is time to listen, and I know you will listen.
writes Destiny lore expert Byf after his harsh story criticism on YouTube via Twitter
And even the German Destiny 2 chronicler AndyEdition rates it briefly: “I am disappointed with the Lightfall campaign. […]”.
This mood from Lightfall is also present on Steam and is reflected in a large number of reviews.
- Thus, Tonimann reviews via Steam: “The story is unfortunately completely inconsequential from start to finish. […] The city Neomuna simply feels completely dead. […] The entire character [of the Cloudstrider Nimbus] can be summarized in the following dialogue: “Hey, who are you? Are you enemies? Here is an invasion!” […] and the entire subclass could have been saved, and instead, “Clinging” could have been introduced as an extra ability.”
- Loky feels similarly and writes on Steam in his review: “In my opinion, the most disappointing DLC in Destiny 2 so far. In the story, nothing is explained and one relies solely on a few cutscenes. All NPCs know what’s going on but simply don’t elaborate. Very much in the spirit of “do this because it’s important, and it’s important because I say so.” Strand is fun in some moments, but takes on an overall too prominent role, without explaining why, how, or what for. Now, one might say, well, there will be a raid and some quests outside the campaign, but with a full-price expansion, the central part (the campaign) cannot be this bad.”
This is what MeinMMO readers say
The Destiny 2 community on MeinMMO has also formed an opinion on the new DLC and commented on our site.
Our reader Millerntorian makes some insightful points:
For me, this DLC is a significant deterioration in gameplay quality. Is it trending downwards? […] Where has the more dystopian mood gone that Destiny has always carried and was excellently conveyed in the Witch Queen campaign? […]
via MeinMMO
And Destiny 2 players Chris and CandyAndyDE, also long-time Destiny veterans, leave their opinions in our comments.
Just the end [of the campaign in Lightfall] leaves you with a “Is that it now? O.o” I think some things are really not bad. But especially the end is quite unsatisfactory. Bungie said back then that they would split the finale into 2 parts (Lightfall and Final Shape) and that is exactly how Lightfall feels. It feels like the story was suddenly interrupted right in the middle. […] With Lightfall, Bungie will first have to make many corrections before we can even talk about Final Shape.
writes Chris in the MeinMMO comments
Overall, I am disappointed with the DLC. I expected more. It was announced so grandly and then poof. It is inconsequential and feels like a filler. Much is not explained or makes no sense.
writes CandyAndyDE on MeinMMO
Even though some players cannot fully understand this criticism and still find something good in Lightfall here and there, the Destiny 2 community seems to be in agreement that this DLC is so far not a masterpiece from Bungie.
The Steam record launch was still the relatively best thing the DLC could give its developer so far, alongside a lot of criticism after the release. Bungie has already commented on the current situation. But whether players will be pacified by this, especially in light of the high costs of the respective DLC editions, remains to be seen.
What do you think about the future of Destiny 2? Did Bungie hit the last nail in the coffin with Lightfall? Or do you think it can still be rectified somehow? Feel free to leave us your opinion in the comment section.
If you are still playing Lightfall: This exotic quest rewards you with a powerful machine gun that also has a catalyst:
