Destiny 2 is an online sci-fi multiplayer shooter released by Bungie in 2017. The makers of Halo truly made something special with this video game. The universe players find themselves plunged into in Destiny 2 is still expanding, and a considerable amount of gamers continue to play the online shooter three years after its de

The cycle of Destiny whiplash continues with Destiny 2: Shadowkeep. Like during the Destiny 1 era, we started with a lackluster opening, then got two awful expansions, got our significant overhaul, and now we're at the stopgap. Much like Rise of Iron , it's hard to shake the feeling that Bungie is just buying time until the inevitable next entry in the franchise. In this case, Destiny 2: Shadowkeep feels like Bungie is slow-walking to Destiny 3. The campaign ends up going nowhere, ending in an unsatisfying cliffhanger we likely won't see resolved for a while. Meanwhile, as great as the Moon is compared to its incarnation in the first game, there's no getting around the fact that we've already seen and paid for this before. The core gameplay is still the star of the show, the Moon is a fun place to play around in, the Strikes are imaginative and the new Seasonal Activity is a standout. But you can access all that without owning Shadowkeep (though the Seasonal Activity does require you to own the Season Pass). Destiny 2: Shadowkeep isn't bad, but it also feels wholly unnecessary when most of its selling points (Strikes, the Moon, Armor 2.0) can be played without owning it. This is one nightmare we didn't need to have.

That mentality extends to the way Bungie is handling post-launch content. Season of the Undying sees waves of Vex arriving via a storm to take over the Moon. Watching them arrive is breathtaking, and the firefights that ensue are hectic and enjoyable. Then there's the new Vex Offensive activity, which allows players to travel back to the Black Garden to take on the Vex. It's a surprisingly robust seasonal activity and it'll be interesting to see what lasting impact the Vex have on the Moon once the Season is over.

Bungie is now quadruple-dipping with Season Passes, loot boxes (via Engrams), direct cosmetic purchases and a Battle Pass. The Battle Pass in particular is annoying by adding an additional layer of time-consuming grind to a game that already requires a lot of grind. The scummiest part of the whole system, wireless Gaming Headset though, is that Bungie has built the Eververse store straight into the Director menu. Previously, monetization could be ignored entirely because it was secluded to the Eververse Store at the Tower. Now, Bungie has made sure that it follows players everywhere they go. It's sad to see such regression after Forsaken made Destiny 2's monetization feel fairer to players.

Shotgunning here might be a bit tougher unless players are confident in their ability to move into range without being demolished. Medium range and long range are fantastic here, but don't feel quite as oppressive as in Vostok, since snipers have to pick a very specific line of sights to shoot, and don't have a near-full view of their surroundi

Since the release of Destiny 2, monetization has been a thorn in all player's sides. Though Bungie tweaked it to be fairer, players still resented the idea that Bungie was selling a $49.99 Season Pass with microtransactions on top of it all while asking players to pay up front to get the game. Anyone hoping things would get better after Bungie's split from Activision isn't going to be happy to hear what's happening in Shadowkeep.

Guardians playing Bungie 's Destiny 2 don't always have to head to battle guns blazing. However, other players with a flair for tactical battles might want to approach their missions with a degree of finesse. After all, what better way of keeping safe on the battlefield than by dealing damage from afar? And thanks to the Sniper Rifle, players can easily play with enemies from the rear while their allies pick them

For damage, Precision Instrument bumps the damage up to 25% with enough hits. The gun isn't by any means a must-have, but high-end players will want one of these around for when Void Surge is active, where it really pushes past the competit

It's lucky that the rest of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is quite good, though familiar. The Moon, a vanilla Destiny location, never got its fair shake back in 2014. Unlike the other areas in the game, it was easy to finish off the Moon sections and then never come back. In Shadowkeep, Bungie has made it a location players will want to keep visiting. Though the design is familiar, the studio has done quite a bit to make it more visually appealing. Giant chasms have torn the landscape asunder, new caves have opened up never-before-seen locations and an enormous Hive citadel looms large over the horizon. Adding to the spookiness of the locale are Nightmares of fallen Guardians, whose silhouettes replace the standard Patrol Beacons. It's clear a lot of compassion went into bringing back the Moon and transforming it into a place players want to visit.