The Guardians of **Destiny 2 ** are once again celebrating the annual Solstice of Heroes, a month-long recognition of all the magnificent and wondrous deeds completed over the past year. Historically, Solstice has been a point of contention for many in the Destiny 2 community . The time required to achieve everything the event has to offer is often significantly longer than other events offered throughout the y

Probably the biggest albatross hanging over the entire expansion, however, is the lack of anything new. Despite some additional areas to explore and a fresh coat of paint, this is a map players already paid $60 to explore back in 2014. Nightmares are just reskinned versions of enemies we've already fought and they don't behave any differently. Two of the three new Crucible maps are remasters of old maps. The new Nightmare activities are against bosses that players have already fought hundreds of times. The new Strikes and Raid are excellent additions, but you don't even need to own Shadowkeep to play the Strikes. For $34.99, players should expect more and Bungie should have provided plenty of new content rather than rehashing older material.

You don't even need to own Shadowkeep to enjoy a lot of the expansion's content. The opening mission, the Moon patrol space, the new two new Strikes and the three Crucible maps are available as part of Destiny 2: New Light, the free-to-play version of the game. While the Raid and campaign are sectioned off, there's a lot you can do without owning Shadowkeep (the Seasonal Activities require you own the Season Pass).

Since its launch in the fall of 2017, Destiny 2 has led an interesting life that it turns out is going to extend far beyond that of its predecessor. A couple of weeks ago, Bungie revealed their long-term plans for Destiny 2, announcing major expansions for the game going all the way into 2022 at the very least. Instead of being on its way out, Destiny 2 Personal space 2 may indeed only be halfway through its lifespan. With that in mind, perhaps now is a good time to look back and see how the game has grown since its dismal launch week.

Destiny campaigns have always been mind-numbing thanks to heavy-handed writing and mission design that overly relies on mundane busywork. The stories nearly always end up being vague, open-ended and unsatisfying. Forsaken changed that by making the story more personal and finding new and engaging ways to push that narrative forward. Shadowkeep, on the other hand, is content with regressing all that hard work. Aside from strong opening and closing missions, Shadowkeep barely delivers any meaningful revelations or character development. You, Eris Morn and the remainder of the Vanguard remain blank slates with surface-level characterizations. With the most emotive member of the cast, Cayde-6, dead, Destiny desperately needs NPCs with some personality. Unfortunately, that isn't found anywhere in Shadowkeep.

Destiny 2 is now in the midst of the Season of Arrivals, which as itself brought a new dungeon and public event to the game along with near weapons and gear to chase. So far it’s looking like a decent seasonal update and will likely serve as a good prologue to the major expansion, Beyond Light, coming this fall. Bungie has promised great content coming with Beyond Light (including the return of Hawkmoon!) as well as the "vaulting" of locations like Mars and Mercury. Seeing previous paid content get "vaulted" is concerning, but it should be fine so long as it comes back from time to time as has been promised. That issue aside though, the future is once again looking bright for Destiny 2. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Unlike Forsaken, Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is a direct sequel to Destiny 2 . Eris Morn has uncovered something deadly on the Moon and accidentally unleashes the Nightmares, ghostly versions of past enemies. With a new threat emerging, the Vanguard quickly dispatches its army of Guardians to put down the Nightmares and discover their dark source.

Likewise, it’s nice that we finally got a new race of enemies to battle. The Scorn may have some relation to the Fallen, but they look and fight differently. The Scorn brings enemies that rush the player, swing fire-infused maces, attack mid-range and snipe from a distance. They’re not wholly unique from the current crop of enemies, but they provide a good change in pace.

The prime example that comes to mind is The Black Armory from the "Season of the Forge." This was something built up as offering players a special kind of new weapon to chase via a new kind of public event. Both of these claims were true, but unfortunately the forge events wound up being overly grindy (and poorly balanced at first), and the weapons largely weren’t worth the effort. Successive seasons have had similar struggles, but not to the same degree and were largely successful.

Bows join the large staple of weapon types available in Destiny 2: Forsaken. While silly on paper, the bows of Forsaken are surprisingly powerful and feel great to use. Players receive a bow early in the campaign and it’s hard to remove it after finding more powerful weaponry. While not the most practical weapon to take to a gunfight, bows make landing headshots so satisfying, especially when it causes a mini-explosion.