Destiny 2: The Final Shape Reviews
Bungie sticks the landing as it finally brings together the threads of its epic first saga.
It's simply the best Destiny 2 expansion-both a satisfying conclusion to the series' first saga, and a compelling shooter packed full of stuff to do.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape delivers on much of what this series has promised, bringing exciting new challenges and a satisfying ending to its decade-long story.
With a confident and satisfying campaign, a fascinatingly well-designed destination, and several standout endgame pursuits, Destiny 2: The Final Shape is an excellent offering for veteran and returning players of the FPS. Even with some classic endgame grinding repetitiveness, it's an incredibly well-executed expansion that nicely rounds off a decade-long journey, making it Destiny 2's best.
Over the years, Destiny 2 has ballooned into a massive and unwieldy beast, filled with cooperative and competitive experiences, hundreds of named characters and organizations, and an often-unapproachable vernacular that can take a long time to learn to speak and play. With The Final Shape, Bungie makes no apologies for the complexity but does finally offer purposeful punctuation to mark an endpoint. Largely unencumbered by what has come before, the frontiers ahead are now open to be revealed.
With a character-driven story and a focus on enhancing its gameplay on nearly every level, The Final Shape feels like what Destiny 2 has been trying to be all along.
The Final Shape is Destiny 2 back to its best for its grand narrative finale. It's the ultimate space wizards with a machine gun fantasy combined with emotional story beats and characters you truly care for. Despite all the odds, Bungie has crafted the perfect endgame.
A ton of new features, very interesting gameplay mechanics, content to bore and, above all, a bullet of nostalgia that hits the mark: The Final Form is the perfect closure to 10 years of history and one of the best expansions of Destiny 2.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
This is as close to perfect as a Destiny expansion can get. If my biggest complaint is “I don’t love the new shader icons” and “the Ritual Pathfinder system should be tweaked,” I think we’re doing well. Instead, The Final Shape represents a stunning finale for a plot arc a decade long that’s not just a huge event for Destiny itself, but the entire industry, as I simply do not think that has another comparison point in the history of gaming, provided you’ve been on this ride for this long. Bungie left everything on the field and delivered on all fronts.
"The Final Form" offers us an epic narrative that resolves the plot that has been simmering for 10 years in Destiny. The new prismatic underclass and detailed environments offer a fun and challenging experience that you won't want to miss.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Bungie absolutely needed to stick the landing with The Final Shape, and by all accounts they've done just that.
The Final Shape is Destiny 2 firing on all cylinders, balancing a story of overwhelming odds with expertly paced combat and puzzles, all set in stunning environments. Much of the earlier complaints about the barrier to entry have been addressed, making for a seamless entry into the latest campaign.
Destiny 2 is back, baby. The Final Shape's exhilarating and heart wrenching main story quest, beautiful and twisted new destination, terrifying new enemy faction, and plethora of insanely powerful gear solidify this as the new peak of the Destiny experience.
As the universe celebrates the prevention of its extinction, there is much debate about what awaits the future of Destiny and our Guardians. After all, the universe is a big place, and threats unknown or unresolved are bound to rear their heads sooner or later. There might be uncertainty in where the Guardians go from here, but there is also comfort in the certainty that this is not the end, but a new beginning – one where each Guardian makes their own fate.
As a solo player there were many moments where Bungie was clearly leaving my ilk behind. But on the other hand, they've finally unleashed the power fantasy and given players the tools to be the space wizard gods we've always dreamed of. The narrative the campaign delivers is a worthy and satisfying conclusion to all of those years spent loving this game. With Bungie already starting walking back some of the changes that hurt solo players the most, it's fair to say The Final Shape probably eclipses The Witch Queen as the best this game has ever been. Ten years on and we've arrived at the summit the journey deserved.
What Bungie has accomplished with The Final Shape in the face of tremendous hurdles and unreasonable expectations is nothing short of remarkable. It’s a powerful and satisfying story, with the mechanics, art, design, and polish to back it up. This is Bungie’s best work in the Destiny era, and sets a lofty new bar for live service expansions. In a challenging market, Bungie have proven they’re still among the best in the business. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
The Final Shape is one of Destiny 2's best expansions and a worthy conclusion to the Light and Darkness saga. Lots of content, all beautifully crafted, including an outstanding campaign and exciting endgame activities, are matched by a new subclass and the introduction of some brand new enemies. The latter are not very inspired, to be honest, but in some specific situations they require changing approaches to confrontations to get the upper hand. All in all, a big yes for The Final Shape and for Bungie, which can thus redeem itself after the débâcle of Lightfall.
Review in Italian | Read full review
I liked to tell myself that I didn't believe in perfect 10/10 games. To me a perfect game is something everyone, unanimously, can say has no issues. No shortcomings. However, Destiny 2: The Final Shape is perfect. Everything that Bungie has done these past nine years has come together in a video game version of Avengers: Endgame. The stakes, the action, the quality of storytelling, and of course the emotion has all merged into the best expansion, no, game I have ever played. If you have ever in the last decade been interested in or cared about Destiny, The Final Shape is a must play. Period.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape feels like a promise fulfilled. We can't help but think back to all of the late night sessions exploring iconic corners of this vibrant sci-fi universe, and digging into all manners of lore to help make sense of it all. And now, despite it's ups and downs, we have a gratifying end to the decade spanning Light and Darkness saga, that evokes all those memories in one big celebration. Destiny 2: The Final Shape is the hope and dream of every other live service game out there. It's a testament to Bungie's unwavering commitment to a riveting saga that defied all odds, and did exactly what it set out to do. This one is for the fans.
The Final Shape really feels intended for players that already have a history or a familiarity with the franchise already established, and doesn’t seem like it’s any better of an opportunity to bring in new or returning players. There’s nothing here to hold your hand and show you what content to do in which order, and menu navigation and item management is no better than it was before. The fact that much of the older story content has been vaulted and is currently unplayable is still a sore spot for a lot of players too, myself included. If you haven’t already invested into Destiny, then The Final Shape doesn’t provide much reason to start now. If you have, however; I think it’s worth it to yourself (and to your Guardian) to finish what you started oh so many years ago.