Recent reviews by Finch

The below was my review during "Into the Light" experience. I am updating my take. Context - I was gifted the entire year of Final Shape, and was recently gifted Edge of Fate.

Overall, this past year of the game, I did enjoy what Bungie brought to the table. The story elements in their "episodes" (essentially longer seasons), was in my opinion, much better than Lightfall's main story, but there was still some left to be desired. The story from the main campaign, felt absolutely phenomenal. It belonged, you felt right in the heat of everything. No out of left field questions, just put your foot on the gas to drive forward.

Episodes: I've seen the Saint-14 and Osiris bit played, using it as a catalyst for new bad could have been done better. I thought the Crow/Fallen story was okay. The Hive story was too good and you felt it right in the beginning. If you didn't, and you played this game for a while, I question some things.

End Game: Honestly, this was one of the highest points for me and why I enjoy the game. The struggle, the perseverance, the frustration. It's genuine challenge, no hand holding, YOU, the player, going in with a group to get that emblem to achieve that clout. The raid was the absolute best, and no I didn't finish it on day 1. Salvation's Edge was meant to be played for end game. I will not spoil it. Vesper's Host returned us to one of my favorite locations, Europa. The challenge is top tier as well. Appropriately balanced and seeing some amazing Bungie puzzles to get amazing rewards. Sundered Doctrine, by far, is my favorite dungeon. They cooked masterfully there and the day 1 contest mode for this was so much fun.

Gameplay: PvE, prismatic is super powerful. A welcomed combination of multiple class specific elements that everyone should get the chance to use. It needed its upcoming balances in the next expansion. The gunplay and more continues to be what Bungie does best. It has not changed since my last review. PvP, I'm going to be blunt. Hunters just run the show. Titans and Warlocks cannot keep up with what they bring to the table. However, a bright point they changed was to make the loot acquisition for Trials much looser which definitely helps when you're trying to hunt good PvE weaponry. This definitely needed to happen. Yes, a lot of much better and experienced players still run shop, but gaining loot that is desireable there doesn't have much else of a bar to climb as it did before.

I'm mostly for PvE, just my take.

It is and continues to be tough to hear about the turmoil Bungie currently puts itself into. People, like me, want what is best for the game, for the actual devs who put in their livelyhood for this game. But what is truly beyond frustrating, is when a journalist put out reports saying how a specific "Trials shader" would push people away from the Eververse store, I get flashbacks to a very dark period during the year of Lightfall. If you're a vet of the game, you will know what I am talking about - during the Season of the Wish, there was a TWAB that felt incredibly tone deaf in its delivery of certain things happening. It really got people angry at felt disrespected, rightfully so. Then after, a "welcome" pack surfaced on the page which further put gas on the subsequent fire, that was quickly taken down. As more reports came out during this time last year, hearing how upper management has the "right people," unwilling to slash their own pay to stave off the layoffs that occurred, I truly think that upper management doesn't get it anymore.

I say the above as context as this report saying how a trials shader being somehow better than what's in the Eververse store signifies the problem. If upper management's goal is to put dollars into the store, you've lost the plot. Nevermind that the "shader" still requires some level of skill to acquire (five to seven wins, each streak awarding a different color), I'm likely not reaching that 7 streak, nor do I want to. Taking into account the issues from last year, and see it similarly echoed from that report, upper management has not learned their lesson. I have only bought 1 item with "silver" in the store, and this was prior to Beyond Light. If upper management wants to push me to the store to get cosmetics, I'm not interested. The money itself should be pushed to making the game better, investing in the *people* so they are happy with what they do.

I'm going to leave my recommendation as is, I am mixed if you want a take right now (7/10/25). I haven't invested into the game since the expansion, and I play because some of the people I've met here are good people who like doing end game content. I really, really hope upper management lets the people on the ground just do their jobs without the overarching threat of a number to cause burnout to those who really do care. Cause while the content of this expansion was great, it doesn't feel good knowing that devs who helped take us there got left in the wake of their mismanagement.

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Context, I've logged well over 1,000 hours of this game.

Main Expansion Narrative Story - this was a very, very painful narrative. The moment The Witness attacks, to going to the Traveler, and when the Vanguard and company just stare after the attack, that looks like it was originally meant for the main plot of when we were supposed to start our traversal to the Traveler. If you slice these together, none of what you're doing on Neomuna makes sense in the realm of time within the game. Neomuna, while aesthetically pleasing to look at, doesn't appear like enough was done to really make use of the planet itself. Calus' story, while comes to a close, really left much to be desired. It felt as though there was a lot more that could have been done when you were on the Leviathan the year prior.

Seasonally, honestly, it's a mixed bag. First season was just more of the same. Had its own narrative subplot from the main story. When we started into Deep Dive, Tithes, and now The Coil, things do get better. Narrative-wise, I am liking it a lot more, but the spots in which we're drip fed these plot points, sometimes even MAJOR ones, makes no sense when you compare to previous expansions and their seasons. Those who have played, and have made videos on YouTube, will easily know what I am talking about from Season of the Deep and probably the biggest context that should have been in the starting expansion.

End game content raids are good, albeit, this expansion had a lot of people waning because of Root of Nightmares, which has very minimal mechanics, compared to Crota's End, which was much more difficult on Day 1. The former had much more to be desired and although I was able to get my day 1 emblem, the final boss was... way too simple, especially when you consider the previous year (Witch Queen expansion) new Raid, its boss and then Crota. Those two were active bosses in the environment, whereas Root of Nightmares you can easily not engage with, despite the fact he is mobile. Dungeons easily were exceptional this year. You get your money's worth with them.

Gameplay, the simplification of the Armor system definitely makes things easier, to a degree. It can still be information overload for a lot of new players who may not understand how to even get their feet wet. Gunplay is Bungie's specialty, and it continues to show here. Each season's respective events, modes, and such are enjoyable to a degree.

I don't necessarily blame people for not jumping on the pre-orders for The Final Shape, especially considering how let down many were, including myself, from this year's expansion's story. I'm at a state where I'm only purchasing the first "chapter," or whatever the situation is with The Final Shape, playing the Raid to fight The Witness, and just stopping after that point. I want to see the saga end, and I'll observe from afar to see how things change with the game before considering giving my time to it again.