Destiny 2: The Final Shape Review — A Fitting Finale

Destiny 2 has had its phenomenal ups and catastrophic downs in its lifetime over the last decade. Personally, I’ve jumped off and on of the hype train over the game’s many expansions as I’ve never been completely sold on where the world of Destiny was leading me. The latest and ultimate expansion, aptly named “The Final Shape” renewed my interest one last time. Introducing the new Prismatic subclass as well as a new faction of enemies and building a fantastic send-off to the tale that’s been building up since way back in 2014 — The Final Shape is the best of what Bungie has to offer its devoted fanbase..

After defending humanity from countless otherworldly threats including an Insect King and Queen along with a Wish-granting Dragon, the Guardians finally journey into The Traveler. Rife with nostalgia, The Final Shape campaign takes you through areas both fresh and familiar. Along the campaign you’ll gather up the Vanguard leaders, including a freshly reborn Cayde-6, and uncover the truth behind The Witness.

The Final Shape also gives us a first look at Keith David stepping into the role of Commander Zavala. David does an incredible job filling the unimaginably large boots of the late, great Lance Reddick (May he Rest in Peace).

The Final Shape manages to navigate through a nostalgia-heavy final lap with grace, finding solid reasoning to revisit places and people from past expansions. Each campaign mission focuses on another character, nicely tapering their story before swiftly moving onto the next. It’s a refreshingly honed campaign structure that envelops the player until the very end.

The Pale Heart as a location is equally stunning and haunting, a surrealistic playground that is shaped by those who inhabit it. As I travelled through each area, I couldn’t help but stare out at the horizon and take a frankly crazy number of screenshots. The space inside The Traveler feels endless, reinforcing the portrayal of The Traveler as an all-powerful entity. In turn, it proves just how large the stakes are if The Witness can affect The Traveler in the way it has.

Speaking of The Witness, the character’s portrayal has felt weak up since his reveal several years ago. It was unclear if there would ever be a proper through line to a finale with our Ultimate Foe. The Final Shape does a wonderful job of fleshing out The Witness throughout the story (including some gorgeous cutscenes) and tees up the final confrontation without cheapening the experience.

After discovering The Witness’ weakness and severing the being completely from The Traveler (via The Salvations Edge Raid), Guardians are ready for the final fight. Excision is unlike any previous event featured in Destiny, with an epic 12-man spectacle that feels more like a victory lap rather than just another boss fight. Players of all power levels are invited to partake, boasting low-stakes gameplay with unlimited respawns and plenty of relics to wield. It is an absolute blast to play through, one that seems fitting for the conclusion to a decade-long story.

Feeling like a natural evolution of the class system thus far, The Final Shape introduces the new ‘Prismatic’ subclass. Rife with customization, these new abilities opt for more in-depth, diverse builds rather than the large shake-ups we’ve seen in expansions prior. Prismatic allows you to take elements from each subclass and combine them, opening many new synergies for people to explore. Additionally, you can now pop a pseudo-super called “Transcendence” after dishing enough light and dark damage. While your transcendent grenade and melee abilities refresh much faster, and you’ll have buffs to both weapon damage and damage resistance, along with a new class-specific grenade that deals 2 damage types of damage simultaneously.

If you’re itching to use these newfound abilities, then “The Dread” are here for you. Destiny 2’s latest deadly faction is the first to be added for quite a while, injecting some refreshing variety into The Final Shape’s combat. Flying “Grim”, said to be the remnants of a conquered race, fly above head and overwhelm in large numbers while Husks race up close to you on the ground and if killed incorrectly, hatch flying explosive worms that similarly rush you. The larger and more domineering Subjugators and Tormentors wield Stasis and Strand powers that can mess you up if you aren’t careful. Along with this new variety of enemies is the “Bound” status. Bound mobs glow pink and can only be damaged once their shield has been broken with a shot whilst you’re transcendent.  It was exciting to see such a strong group of enemies being introduced so far into the story of Destiny 2, and it made the campaign all the better.

After completing the campaign, players are treated to a slew of things to do across The Pale Heart. Overthrow is a fun new event (replacing traditional patrols) that has you tackling several activities to build up to a final Boss encounter. There are lost ghosts to find, Visions of The Traveler to scout out, plenty of secrets to discover, and, of course, more mobs that you can shoot a hand cannon at.

While The Pale Heart is vast and full of content, the fact that The Pale Heart is a single-player experience has me sorely missing the small social interactions I used to get in other locations around the Destiny universe. Rocking up to a Patrol somewhere in the map and fighting with other players on a whim was always my favourite pastime. The requirement of ‘always online’ while remaining a Solo experience has never quite gelled with me either. My gripes withstanding, all the content is still enjoyable on your own and never too difficult. If you enjoy playing by yourself, there’s more than enough here to satisfy you.

Replacing the bounty system of old comes the new progression system in The Final Shape, Pathfinder. While much more convenient, allowing players to complete nodes on the go instead of having to constantly revisit the tower to activate more bounties, it also forces players to play in modes they may not want to. If you aren’t fond of PvP play (Me), you may find that you are unable to progress further in Pathfinder until you enter Crucible matches.

Every Destiny fan loves their loot, and thankfully The Final Shape delivers on that front, with plenty of Exotics to be sought after. My personal picks include Still Hunt: an exotic sniper with the ability to fire Golden Gun shots, and the ever unique Ergo Sum, a special ammo Sword that can roll random elements and gain perks from other Exotic Weapons. For fans that have been a part of Destiny from the beginning, The Final Shape offers the chance to obtain the iconic Khvostov Auto-Rifle from the original Destiny. The arsenal on display in Destiny’s final expansion further proves that this is the best that Bungie has to offer the player base, they really pulled out all the stops for the finale.

As for what comes after The Final Shape, Bungie has announced “Episodes”. Not dissimilar to Seasons, these 3 Episodes a year will feature regular small content drops with new and exciting weapons, as well as some extra story to keep players coming back semi-regularly.

Outside of that, the future of Destiny is unclear. Since last year, Bungie has laid off over 300 employees with nearly 200 more being moved off the development of Destiny for other projects inside of Sony Interactive Entertainment. The Final Shape feels like a fitting conclusion to what has been building over the last decade and with the content framework veering away from large content drops for the foreseeable future, it’s hard to see the Guardians going strong for another decade.