Recent reviews by LenaO'H

Oh boy... So, when this DLC was first put on steam I wrote this:

"one of the best Destiny Expansions to date, high recommendation! My only complaint is that although the content is great here it is not really as relevant anymore :c but still great stuff, worth the price."

This was written along side a thumbs-up recommendation, so what happened?

Well, the story starts in 2021, with the release of the Beyond Light expansion for Destiny 2, where Bungie removed all of the content for the game that was made during its first year. I hold the decidedly hot take that this was an excellent move, I can not say I am at all a fan of year one Destiny 2 content, in fact, I despise most of it. I thought that the content sat awkwardly, from a game design and tonal aesthetic standpoint, against the rest of the game after two expansions, and to see it removed was a great improvement in my eyes [this is a hill I will die on, if you have any inquires on this take feel free to hit me up.]

So, now to be less contentious, the decision to remove content from year two and onward was... hmmm... there's an English phrase for this... uhhh... oh yeah! Really really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid! I apologise for being so curt and I understand that it was to weaken the load on the engine, but this was far too much, there should have been an attempt at some other workaround and I sincerely hope the content expunged makes a return in the future. With this decision, big chunks of the Forsaken expansion have vanished, and while the content which remains is still excellent and some of the best work Bungie as a studio has ever accomplished, the price point for said content is nothing short of egregious. I respect Bungie as a studio, as artists, I even—in spite of what a lot of people think about their catalogue—hold them in pretty high regard, but this is a shameful point for the team and absolutely abhorrent practice. Do not, under any circumstances, purchase this downloadable content outside of a sale or some form of value bundle.

To not mince words, this DLC should be free, and I'm shocked that it isn't.

Shadowkeep was an expansion released for Destiny back in October of 2019. Destiny is game which as existed since 2014, and in all of its years, having played for every single one, I can comfortably tell you that this is one of the worst DLCs ever created for this franchise. I know that a lot of people might think that to be a sloppy contender for most hyperbolic statement ever put in a Steam review, and I can see why but hear me out.

I am in no way denying the genuine highlights that do exist in this DLC, the Garden of Salvation raid, the staggeringly good lore entries, the more meaningful revised moon, the Pit of Heresy dungeon, as well as the first and last missions of the campaign. But, unfortunately, what quality elements to be found here are just that, just what I have listed. I can—no joke—think of absolutely nothing else redeemable about this expansion, in fact, those staggeringly good lore book additions are in some ways annoying given how disproportionately beautiful they are in writing compared to the slop in the actual story missions. Shadowkeep is a collage of corny nostalgia bait and feels practically adverse to new ideas within the game, barring its innovations to armour systems which did admittedly revolutionise build-crafting into being far more meaningful—even if such depth was not truly elucidated until ways into its successor expansion, 'Beyond Light.'

Video-essayist Whitelight lent a pretty sufficient line to describing the nature of Shadowkeep's "callbacks" which was this*:
"When they said we'd be reliving parts from Destiny 1, I thought they meant reliving the experience ... not the bad boss design."
*quote slightly paraphrased, sorry im tired lol
Ultimately, Shadowkeep is the form of attempted nostalgia that casts a shadow over the genuinely good elements of its source material rather than illuminating it's strengths and re-contextualising them in a meaningful way, which results in a cheap and substance-less experience for most of the time one would spend with its constituents. I can, however, comfortably say that the good moments are worth time and money, just not at all the full 36AUD. I can only truly recommend a purchase of this DLC on a hefty sale, in 2022 you're much better off spending the higher amount of money on The Witch Queen if you're really on the lookout for more Destiny to play, that content is of far higher quality.

I miss my wife

World of Warcraft for this generation. The ultimate produce of the capitalist game industry culture which it exists in. Play the original instead.

EDIT: "You've played for an additional 7 hours, would you like to revise your review?"
thats 7 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hours of trying to get this game to load. I dont know how the optimisation has gotten WORSE since I last played but yeah, dont waste your money on this joke of a game. Actual scam, ignore everything I wrote.

OK I just want to make it clear I REALLY WANT to like this game. The only reason I'm not recommending it because it is stupid that this game has load times this bad [trust me, put this on your SSD if you don't want to wait the length of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Byzantine-Bulgarian wars just to get into the game.] and that it has a minimum requirement of 10gb of ram. Honestly stupid.

However, if you can put the poor optimisation aside, this game is a blast especially with friends, its very unforgiving and sometimes a little cruel but that's what I find so appealing about it, it has been said that adding multiplayer into a survival game is a common mistake, but Rust screams that sort of take is one of ignorance through a god awful microphone. The multiplayer aspect is by far one of the greatest aspects of the game. In one of the best implementations of proximity voice chat in recent memory, you can play Rust for a few hours and come back with a years worth of stories. In that respect, Rust is something to marvel.

h

Good gameplay loop, intuitive level design and hands down some of the best writing in a videogame. Portal is a hallmark in genius black comedy and excellent levels.

Please do not play this game

better than fortnite

good game