Crucible remains mostly intact outside of quality-of-life improvements. Bringing the player count back up to 6v6 was the right move and the lower time-to-kill vastly improves the experience. The significant multiplayer addition in Forsaken lies with Gambit, a new mode that blends PvE and PvP elements. The 4v4 mode tasks players with killing AI-controlled enemies and collecting and banking motes of light. After accumulating 75 motes, a Primeval enemy shield mechanics appears and the first team to defeat their Primeval wins. Of course, it’s not that simple thanks to the PvP elements. Players can spend motes to summon Blockers on the enemy’s map. Collect enough motes and a player can invade the enemy’s map for a short period.

After nearly nine months of haranguing from disappointed fans and harsh criticism from the gaming media in general, Bungie has finally presented us with something that is wholly exciting. Destiny 2’s "Forsaken" expansion looks great, better than great even. One could even say that it looks like it contains everything Destiny fans were expecting Destiny 2 to offer from the very beginning. Perhaps even more. Truly, it looks as if Bungie has finally heard the community’s feedback and acted upon it. That, however, only seems to be the case in regard to the content of Forsaken. Unfortunately, everything surrounding it is still classic Destiny-era Bungie. Destiny may be changing soon, but Bungie most certainly isn’t.

The big addition that comes with the Season Passes is the Battle Pass. Yes, Destiny 2 is jumping on the Fortnite bandwagon by offering tiered rewards. There are actually two Battle Passes; a free one and a paid one. Season Pass owners earn rewards from both Battle Passes, and free players only from the free one.

There’s no justification for this other than Bungie thinking they can get away with it and they most certainly will. When Forsaken launches in September, Destiny fans will have been waiting for about a year for the game to finally become what it should have been in the first place. If Forsaken turns out to be as good as it looks, then Bungie deserves to be rewarded for it. There’s no excuse for all the scumminess surrounding it, though, especially when there are similar games like Monster Hunter World, Warframe and Rainbow Six: Siege that are all enjoying massive success without dipping into any exploitative business practices.

Outside of the new story, locations, enemies and Gambit, most of Forsaken’s changes lie in its quality-of-life improvements. From the addition of in-game lore to random rolls for weapons and gear to an in-game accomplishment tracker, Bungie has done an excellent job bringing back popular features they nixed when jumping from Destiny to Destiny 2. The good news is that all players can enjoy these improvements whether or not they own Forsaken.

Trials of Osiris has returned to Destiny 2 this season, albeit with some mixed reviews, but none the less rewards players with triumphs and the Flawless seal for a variety of completions. Going flawless awards players with Trials specific weapons as well, so players should win frequently in order to add them to their arsenals. While most of these triumphs for the Flawless and Conqueror seals are labeled "available only during the season of the worthy", these seals will not disappear and might merely require different Triumphs to complete them in further seasons ah

This is an easy one but an important first step. Due to all the change that has come with Forsaken getting one’s bearings on what all has changed with menus and inventory will be the most important. There are now Triumphs to be tracked, Collections to be had and an assortment of other things that are all around different. The Cryptarch can now break down Shaders in quantities of five; all those Shaders going to no use? Head over to Rhaul and he’ll be happy to get rid of them quickly as you can hit a button over and over (took me less than five minutes to get ride of most of my useless Shaders). Players returning might also notice that all of the modifications are null and void. This is due to the entirely revamped modification system, so might as well delete those too. Don’t freak out seeing that light level of certain items has gone down, this is just the modifications being useless and one’s Light Level going up will quickly fix this.

Still Hunt is one of the strongest snipers in the game, if not definitively the best. It's main trait, Cayde's Retribution, allows the gun to fire Golden Gun shots after landing enough headshots and/or picking up enough Orbs of Po

It’s no secret that Destiny 2’s year of existence hasn’t been a joyride. From a disappointing launch that lacked vital features present in Destiny by the end of its lifecycle to several controversies, both Bungie and fans have been put through the ringer. Destiny 2 needs a reset and Bungie hopes to recapture the magic with Destiny 2: Forsaken, a true expansion built to give players exactly what they want. With a new campaign, weapons, locations and quality of life improvements, does Forsaken successfully press the reset button?