The comparison between Destiny 2: Lightfall and Avengers: Infinity War is immediate from the opening moments of Bungie’s latest expansion. There is no more exposition to get through; the Witness, a mythical villain that represents the root of the Darkness that Guardians have fought against for close to a decade, is here, and the Traveler who has given our heroes the Light and their god-like abilities is under direct threat.
High stakes, no consequences It’s hard to avoid spoilers here, so consider this your warning, but that’s the main problem with Lightfall. Very little actually changes by the end of the story. You’re sent around a new location, Neomuna, and it feels like there’s momentum. But the final moments of Lightfall haven’t changed much about how the Destiny universe works compared to the end of The Witch Queen era.
This is even more problematic considering the end of Season of the Seraph, the last season in The Witch Queen era. The story caps off with the Traveler leaving before being chased back by The Black Fleet, cornered with nowhere else to run. There was a sense of loss; the Traveler was abandoning us.
Struggling with Strand Pacing throughout Lightfall has some serious problems, too. There are wonderfully crafted action sequences, solid character moments with your main companion Nimbus, and some of the best strikes and Lost Sectors that Destiny has ever seen. But the campaign suffers from uneven pacing during encounters that leads to a sense of emptiness upon completion.
Discovering Strand leads to some great moments during the story, including a training montage ripped straight from an action movie. Still, it never feels like our Guardians need Strand. There’s an overarching villain in Calus and the Witness that we are already equipped to handle, and the campaign bounces back and forth between our climb to master Strand and the villains threatening the Light without ever connecting the two.