Quick Look: Destiny 2: Shadowkeep

git gud brad

Huh, now that I have it on PC, this is actually pretty appealing. I haven't played since Destiny 2 came out, which was decent but lost steam at the end. This looks prettttty good, though.

Bradokeep!

As a PS4 player, those PC load times are blowing my damn mind.

Brad suffers from Instant Reload Syndrome - he'll put a partial mag into an enemy, only to reload when they're not yet dead and still firing back at him.

Empty your mag as you seek cover, reload - only when fully reloaded, come out from cover! We love you, Brad. :)

a brad was pulled.

Wait, he's playing it on PC using a controller? What fresh FPS hell is this?

Expansion looks cool though, might be time to get back into it. :o

@brad Those hive tablets that were dropping are for a exotic quest line for the Drifter in Forsaken, you probably had that quest on your Warlock.

I keep forgetting that I played Destiny 2. It was fun, but it looks so jam-packed at this point.

If the next consoles come and they launch this thing as one giant package open for expansion, I'd be so on board. As excited as I am for Halo: Infinite, even 343 would have a hard time catching up to everything here (assumining Infinite is an open shooter along these lines).

Brad, are you playing...solo?

Also this game does look good.

Welcome to PC gaming Brad.

Wait, he's using a controller?

:|

Shoutout to Fobwashed asking Brad for ISP advice in chat 18mins in unaware that Brad's recording a QL (at least nothing personal was included)

Rant : seems like destiny gets by alot just saying well were sci fi and all this stuff is used to do blah blah. death stranding did the same thing without calling it ancient magic armor or something it gets labeled the WEIRDEST that only a genius like kojima could think of

What's this, only 14 minutes and 30 seconds before ''throwing shade'' at Borderlands?!
GBW, you're getting slow.

Brad rocking dual primaries like it's vanilla D2

Ah, I only started Shadowkeep way after the server meltdown so I had to do the starting mission by myself as well. It was a neat and tough challenge for my Warlock, but I'm a bit bummed that I didn't get that multi-Guardian warfare experience.

I hope a lot of new stuff happens after the raid because there is not a whole lot new here after you beat the story stuff. It's back to the same old level grind but even that is worse because they significantly cut down the number of powerful gear opportunities this season. I don't want to do the same flashpoints, strikes, crucible, gambit loop that I have been doing for over a year now. I really like destiny but I want new stuff, and this expansion just hasn't offered enough new for me.
I understand that this year of D2 needed to happen because of the divorce, but I really don't want them to keep expanding on D2. The unclear wording on the future of Destiny has me worried. Just put D2 in the ground and make the best D3 you can. D2 has too many issues at the base level that prevent it from growing to what it could be with D3.

This game looks really good but i wish the anti aliasing was better.

I put hundreds of hours into destiny and destiny 2 and I never knew the scorch cannon could be charged like that....

The reveal at the end of that first mission got me yelling "OH FUCK" out loud - I'm so here for this, if this expansion is basically the precursor to whatever is going down for D3 then I'm fully on board.

I didn't end up playing Forsaken, but J might have to jump back on board for this one.

I feel like Destiny 2 is only amazing in the context of its competition. It's *miles* beyond Borderlands, but people fawning over Destiny for even teasing a new enemy type is pretty rough, when people rightfully dumped all over it when it launched with the same enemies as the previous game.

Destiny's gameplay is so good. I just wish I didn't feel completely lost sometimes.

Something about the way the quest and presentation of the game always confuses me for a bit.

@brad All of the year 1 in Destiny 2 is free. I got it for free on Battlenet last year, but didn't buy Forsaken on PC, only on PS4.
I jumped in on the steam version, and only the year 1 content was available. All of the Forsaken, and of course the Shadowkeep, missions are locked.

Ha! All the jerks questioning the use of a controller just because he's on PC.

Keyboards are for JOBS! Controllers are for Videogames, Dammit!

(Play however you like)

There's too many systems, currencies, and checklists in Destiny now. I'm just not into it. The game feels like a data entry job that you interface with by shooting stuff in the face. Not to mention they recycle so much content. They're not even being coy about it anymore, one of the main premises of Shadowkeep is "relive glorious moments of the past and fight old foes!" They've repurposed the Moon from Destiny 1, et cetera. Like, come on! Taken King and Rise of Iron were Destiny at their peak. Just the right amount of content, none of the bloat.

And that's not to mention that now the game has even more F2P monetization and they're charging more for Shadowkeep than they did for Rise of Iron. I think the new business model sucks, in general. And to think they're free from the big bad influence of Activision now. So much for that scapegoat.

Used to be a huge Destiny player, but I just can't be bothered anymore. The pricing model and the price/content ratio is getting worse and worse, and they've filled in all the gaps with endless busy work instead of meaningful content (largely to appease their ravenous full-time Destiny streamers and people who want to only play one game). Granted, there is still some meaningful content, but it's so smothered by the bloat.

I'm not sure I've ever loved a game franchise as much as Brad loves Destiny.

Desinty story, Ha

Wait, wait, wait. Did he actually say he’s going to spoil “a big a story reveal as there as ever been in Destiny”...in a quick look?? Cool, guess as much as I was interested in watching this DLC I’m more interested in enjoying this DLC for myself, so I’m shutting this off. Love ya B, but you’re the worst one on staff when it comes to avoiding spoilers.

Totally. The only way around it is brute force resolution scaling. Bummer.

Get an external SSD (or an internal with an enclosure for cheaper). It costs around the same as a new AAA game, and it will change your life when it comes to console gaming.

I said the exact same thing as Ben maybe 2 minutes into playing Shadowkeep. Destiny 2 gameplay feels so much better than BL3, it's going to be extremely hard when I return to BL3 in months to finish the campaign.

I've gotta say, I'm not as big a fan of having the same Moon back as Brad is. It was a pretty nice reveal of the Darkness, however.

I would like to state here that I would enjoy more Destiny 2 content on this website.

(I also think you should do all the raids)

@brad two helpful Season-related tips from a deep, horribly involved Destiny dork:

1) This model of the season pass is the first time they've done this direct battle pass approach. Previous seasons gave you access to new activities (Black Armory's Forges, Drifter's Reckoning and Gambit Prime, Opulence's Menagerie), but this season also has the usual Battle Pass "hey hit this level, get this thing" mechanic baked into it.

2) You can claim that first box on the Premium track once on each character! All of the other stuff, as far as I can tell, is once per account.

@sekou: He is referring to the opening mission of the DLC. It's fine to not want to see it and turn it off, but he said it was upcoming and it's completely expected to play the opening to a new expansion.

So, is the "You're all 750 light" thing opt in? I've had Destiny 2 on PC for a while, but fell off it. I'd like to still do the whole progression thing if possible if/when I come back.

OK, glad to know it's not just me. As overwhelmingly better as the game is on PC in every other way, I'm amazed how bad the aliasing is, even when I run 1080p w/ 150% scaling. The AA is miles better even in the PS4 version. So there's nothing to be done about it?

Yeah, Destiny is so opaque that it gets incredibly frustrating. I jumped back in 2 days ago (haven't bought Shadowkeep yet), and there's just so much shit going on. I looked at my quest log and had no idea how to even do half of them. I looked at my inventory and I have a million thingamajigs and doohickeys with enigmatic descriptions, so naturally I have no idea what the hell any of them are even used for.

And I have so many random resources and have no idea if I'm actually supposed to use them. Do I just go turn in all of my tokens, or is that wasting them? Are bounties "worth doing"?

I ended up just doing an objective for a quest that actually made sense to me (complete a lost sector on the EDZ). I feel like I need a wiki up whenever I touch this game.

(rant over, lol.)

This seems really confusing for new players. I played a little bit of destiny 2 on pc and it started with some sort of attack where you meet the bad guy etc. This starts with the intro to destiny 1, and then your in some new place? Huh?

Like a couple of people have said, I really didn't like the seemingly dozens of currencies and other shit I had to deal with, as well as the quests being kind all-over. It just makes me feel very lost.

I guess I necessarily don't have to care, because hey, the base game's free now so whatever. I can just go shoot things in their faces, except it's much faster and better-looking than it was on PS4.

It is not.

@brad: FXAA looks better than the SMAA option. but both are not not amazing

@sekou: It's the first mission of the DLC and literally all of the DLC campaign is hinged on knowing what that opening reveal is. It's less a spoiler and more of a surprise, and while it is cool to see for yourself, it's not that big of a deal. There is literally no way to show this DLC off without mentioning the surprise, it's got nothing to do with Brad.

Brad. You were probably told already but, to get the campaign you have to get it from Holiday, she gives you, base, warmind and the other osiris shitty dlc

@the_nubster: It's got everything to do with Brad when he literally says it's the biggest spoiler (not 'more of a surprise')in the entire series, that was being hinted at even before the 1rst game launched. When a staffer warns like that, it's usually a smart bet to shut off the quicklook/podcast if you don't want that thing spoiled, right? Were it not for replies like yours of those who kept watching, I'd not have gone back to watch as like I said, Brad is the WORST staffer when it comes to spoiling reveals.