The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Review Part 2 Raid, Vex Insurgence, Armor 2.0, etc.

Episode Date: October 12, 2019

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Review Part 2 Raid, Vex Insurgence, Armor 2.0, etc.

Hi folks, Chris Foss here from TheChrisFossShow.com. Hey, I'm doing part two of our Shadowkeep Destiny 2 review. Now, I did a first one and we covered a lot of stuff that I got to consume in the game in the first three days, but now it's been a good week or so, week and a half, and I've been able to consume the raid, crucible, and kind of really get a whole feel for the game. So I'm going to do a part two where I'm going to talk about some of the things we didn't talk about in the second game. But let me do a recap of my whole impression so far after two weeks. I'm a Destiny fan. I go back to almost day one. I think I might have been a month or two out from day one, but I have loved the game. It's been my favorite game

for all these years. What is it it four or five years now something like that running it's been a blur and it's been one of the games that I have loved the ever-living crap out of I don't play a lot of other games I play some games but I don't spend a lot of time Destiny has been my one thing that has been my favorite and I've spent a lot of time in Destiny as it were. So let me talk about what my experience is because I go all the way back to D1 for being a hardcore raider. Some of my raiding was hardcore up until about Spire of Stars. That's when they lost me with the basketball bullshit. I'm like, look, I got in this thing to shoot shit, not throw balls around. That just lost me on Spire of Stars. And so, yeah, I mean, I've beaten Spire of Stars and got good at it,

but I never really fell in love with that sort of game mode of the whole ball throwing thing, much like I didn't like the speeders which i'm like look i don't like severe jumping puddles puzzles if i want to play mirror's edge i'll play mirror's edge i i got this game to shoot shit uh the speeder is the same way i mean if i want to do speed stuff i'll go get fours of five um anyway i'm glad they dumped that seriously uh so let's talk about shadow keep uh and where it is i gotta tell you overall i'm totally impressed with shadow keep i still give it an 8 out of 10 that we gave in our initial review uh i think bungie did a really really really really really great job with here

props to them a lot of things there's a few things that i don't like um you know whoever's works for bungie i really encourage you to stop listening so much to the top tier players, to the streamers and all these guys. You know, you guys fly the streamers in. They're paid to kiss your ass. They're paid to make you guys happy. It's part of their income. Whatever you throw in front of them, they'll always go, oh, yeah, it should be that way but harder. And they play at a level, because they're playing playing in ours today that most casual players can't play and running uh sometimes

up to 17 clans across destiny i know what casual players are thinking what they're feeling what they're experiencing with the game what drives them away and uh you know there's so many times where bungie has sat down and listened and made the game harder to just make these top pinnacle players happy and just alienate the rest of the base, which goes to Fortnite or Apex or something like that because they just make it so stupid hard. It's not fun anymore. So getting back to what I was saying before, Bungie really needs some better focus groups for people who are casual players of the game. You don't have to make it too easy, but you've got to make it fun and something that most players can get into and enjoy. I think with Shadowkeep, they've done a lot of this. They've fixed a lot of the broken stuff that they broke with moving from D1 to D2 with Crucible.

They've done a really good job with Crucible. I used to play Clash eight hours a day because I could choose Clash eight hours a day, and when Bungie took that away, they took away Choice. And as a smart business, you don't take Choice away from your customers. And people love that game mode. They love what's going on with Destiny.

They love being able to solo freelance play without being farmed by teams and stuff like that it's more about the individual and having fun going and feeling like you can do something all by yourself and you can kick really good butt doing it so they've done a really good job with crucible everyone i've been talking to really loves the whole setup of crucible crucible uh progression is much easier especially even if especially if you're playing comp than when it used to be and it just feels less grindy less wearing down you don't feel so beaten if you're playing comp than when it used to be. And it just feels less grindy, less wearing down. You don't feel so beaten if you lose a game.

Everybody seems to love Crucible so far, and they did a really great job with it. Let's talk about some other things that we didn't talk about in my first review. The Vex Insurgent, I got a chance to see that since our original review. The Vex Insurgency is a lot of fun. It is a hoot of fun. And I think they did a really good job with that, kind of turning it into kind of a sort of crazy running map, sort of mini menagerie.

It's really great for leveling up. It's really great for farming materials you know materials guns and everything else and it's a lot of fun and it's fast and it's quick and it's not grindy um it's hard to fail it really when it comes down to it you know the menagerie is something i initially i didn't run because i was just like this is just moronic raid that's what this is stupid raid raid for stupid people but i actually like the aspect of being able to farm for the guns i wanted and i like how bungee's built that in with the table next to eris more and you can you know you can get those sort of things and farm for them i like

what they've done with the bounties where i can take and buy more bounties and and kind of chew more bounties and that makes me want to play the game more because a lot of people when they're done with their bounties for the week they're just like oh i'm done yeah i'm done with my bounties and that makes me want to play the game more because a lot of people when they're done with their bounties for the week they're just like oh I'm done yeah I'm done with my bounties and I'll hear that all the time hey do you want to play on destiny with me no I've done all my bounties and all my weekly goals I love having the ability to do more and you can earn more and when you earn more you feel like you're doing more and and you just you know it's that sense of accomplishment that makes you happy and just makes you want to keep coming back to the game. So I think they did a really brilliant job on that front.

And I hope Bungie will get some good focus groups of people that are casual players they can convince. The finisher thing is a hoot. At first I thought, what the hell is this? But it is fun. When you get it down, it's fun. It adds a whole new spark to the game i was kind of surprised it wasn't in crucible because i'm like this is gonna make crucible really crazy

but uh no man it's it's it's great it's a lot of fun it's a lot of fun to use it kind of gives an just an added zing to the flavor of when you're doing a a thing it gives you kind of that added thrill when you're fighting through a strike or nightfall or you know whatever mission you're doing a thing, it gives you kind of that added thrill when you're fighting through a strike or a nightfall or, you know, whatever mission you're on or a lost sector. Um, I like the finisher thing. It's fun. And seeing sometimes, sometimes it looks like there's two of you that do it at once and just, you know, just everybody having that experience, uh, and, or even watching what your friends do it where they flip around. It's just fun, man. It's kind of like an extra. It's an extra.

You know, killing is like, I killed you. Okay, well, move to the next one. But it just adds that really dash of spice that's really fun. So, those are the things that I really love. Love the new Vex thing. I love what's going on. I mean, there's a mode in Crucible right now that just has the fire cannons. That's crazy. That's fun. That's fun. People want to do that. I mean, people aren't going through there. And like I say, I'm really glad they got rid of the pinnacle weapons. I'm really

glad they're dialing back to team farming. People just want to go in there and have fun, especially on PC. And I think that's something they need to address. PC players aren't quite as social, I've found, as PS4 and Xbox players. They're more, you know, they PC in their home and they're used to going alone most times and doing their thing. So, you know, you've got to make something that's more for the individual and everything else. So let's talk about some of the things that really i really hate about the game so let's get into it let's just go full deep um armor 2.0 complete and utter fucking fail like a bunchy if i would have sat down with you and someone would have presented this whole thing to me i would immediately been able to tell you this is stupid and a complete fucking failure. It's a brilliant idea. Hey, this looks great on

paper. This is a complete fucking fail. Nobody knows how to do this damn thing. Nobody has knows how to do it right. Um, it's people are, I have friends that can't figure out the gate Lord thing. The Gator thing is cool in the way it's working, but the armor is a fail. It is a complete and utter fucking stupid fail. This is another thing where Bungie sat down and went, we have to turn the tables upside down just so we can tell them we have something new.

He didn't have to do this armor 2.0 thing. Did not have to do it. Now, I realize everything's trying to go back in BD1, but you could have just rewrote the code and just redid everybody's armor um at random or something i would have been fine with that i can't figure this fucking thing out and i'm not buying a game to do armor pieces i'm not you know if i want to do armor pieces and farm for armor and try and get the right bullshit and try and figure out which mod goes in which place i'll go back to division two but division two's dead the content's dead and uh you know they've they're they're like destiny one they haven't figured out how to do all the events and things to keep the

community active and thank god destiny and bungee has but the armor 2.0 is a complete fail like i i talked to everybody about it they're like i don't know what to do i don't know whatever i'll figure it out later i'm just collecting shit and have fun shooting shit i have no idea how to work these mods and all this crap and it just looks like a complete waste of time and it's more complex than what i want to take and do total fucking fail bungee total fucking fail um i don't know what you guys are thinking. You're like, we want to make it more like D1 and make it more complex, maybe divisionist. But, yeah, no one cares, man. No one cares.

It's all about the guns. I mean, armor does make a difference, but really, you've made the system too fucking complex. And I don't want to have to go to goddamn college to learn how to fucking do Armor 2.0. So, Armor 2.0, complete fucking fail. Throw it in the trash. Goodbye. The other thing I love about the game, so let's bounce back on the you there, Seasons Pass Progression.

I really like what Bungie did with the Seasons Pass Progression. It's actually kind of fun to kind of gear for your XP because you're like, oh, I want that exotic. Oh, I want that gun. And everyone's talking about it. Like, where are you in your season? I'm 48. I'm level 53.

Do you have the gun yet? Oh, yeah, I got the gun. I love that. No longer is XP just some sort of blind thing where every now and then you get like a, you know, an engram. Now you can see this progression and you can work towards it and you've got something to do you know triumphs i hate triumphs too um just automatically check those things off i really don't care because nine times out of ten i don't get anything from it um and so being able to look at the season's past progression or the season progression is really nice i really love that

everyone talks about it. Everyone wants to know where you're at. Oh, are you at level 50 yet? No, I'm at 30. Oh, well, sucks to be you. You know, I really love how that works. And from what I'm seeing in the community, everyone loves it as well.

Final thing that I hate about Destiny, well, let's get into the good part first. Let's start with the good part of it. The raid is done really well, Destiny. Well, let's get into the good part first. Let's start with the good part of it. The raid is done really well, Destiny. You built the raid based upon mechanics, a little bit of light, but it's more about skill. It's very easy to learn mechanics. You didn't make the raid too hard. Good for you. I'm really happy with it. It's a beautiful raid. It's very gorgeously designed. I never really thought that I would want to wander through the Black Garden. And I did look through and I'd be like, it'd be cool if we could just go over there

and hang out. But it is fun to go through the Black Garden. Everything is fun, beautiful about the raid, except for one fucking thing. Where Bungie lost me and a lot of players was on Spire of Stars with the basketball shit and i hated it i'm like if i want to go play basketball i'll go play nba okay quit trying to make a multi-faceted game that incorporates speed racing mirror's edge jumping puzzles and fucking basketball just it's a fucking shooter alien game like fucking stick to your fucking brand and bungie i think uh hopefully he's moved away from that god knows if i see basketballs again i'm gonna shit a brick um and uh so in the new raid the tethering thing the thing where you're

gonna line up so the line goes through i don't know what the correct term of it is it's fine i can tolerate it it's okay you know it's a little kind of weird in some places like do we really have to line up in a row like seriously but i can tolerate it but the one part that i hate and my whole teams have been just screaming about is how fucked up and broken the tether shit is at the final fucking boss. That is stupid fucking shit, Bungie. Like you need to fire who came up with that shit. It is fucking dumb. Not only that, it's fucking broken. It's like we spent hours trying to figure out how to keep from, we were all getting tethered by it. Like certain people don't get tethered by it. And other people are getting tethered by it. It's stupid.

It's just fucking dumb. And then you got to do the tether thing again. To fucking beat the boss and unlock the damage. It's just fucking stupid and so unnecessary. I didn't buy this game because I'm like, hey, do you want to play with some rubber band shit? Yeah. Yeah. You want to shoot some shit and there's some rubber band shit fuck off that's not what I bought this game for

I bought it to raid to shoot shit kill shit and have fun that's what I bought it for so I don't know who came out the tether stuff I mean it was it was cool up until the final boss it was kind of like okay we'll do your we'll jump through your little rubber band tether hoop, you know, Oh, we got to line up in a row so we can unlock a gate. All right, fine. Whatever. You know, I got to stand on plates sometimes I get it, but the rubber band thing is fucking broken on the final fucking boss. It's just broken and it's stupid. And we all sit and look at it and go are you fucking kidding me I gotta tell you I talked to and pulled all my friends and stuff that have done that last part of the raid we pretty much have all decided it's the dumbest fucking mechanic that Bungie has ever done in any fucking

raid even dumber than the basketballs it's the dumbest fucking thing Bungie's done. That thing is fucking broken. You guys need to go in the fuck and fix that fucking shit somehow. Like the tether just attaches to everybody. No one can figure out how to get it over to the thing. And everyone's stretching it and pulling it. It's just fucking dumb. I did not buy Destiny for this shit.

I did not buy Shadowkeep for this shit i did not buy shadowkeep for this shit i bought it to shoot shit kill shit have fun this isn't fun this is and it's stupid you'll be walking along and all of a sudden the thing will attach and you're like oh shit i'm i'm a guy who's going through portals why does this shit attach me and i get it off you and you're like what the fuck and people are just fighting over the stupid shit and then the boss comes up for damage phase and somehow you got to run like a line through him knock it the fuck off bungee it's fucking stupid just the dumbest fucking raid mechanic i've ever fucking seen all right so there it is i still still give Shadowkeep 8 out of 10. I love Bungie.

I love Destiny. It's just, I don't know, man. Sometimes you guys make some goddamn dumbass decisions, and whoever keeps making them needs to get replaced. I don't know who keeps making some of these stupid-ass fucking choices, but they need to get replaced. You need to have some people who are casual players of the game who have a life, maybe people who don't work for you.

See, this is the problem that you have. I've owned 22 different corporations. One of the problems you have when you own your own business is you eat your own shit so much you think it tastes great after a while because you're eating your own profits and your own donuts and you're like these donuts are the best ever well you never get outside your box and try some other donuts um so anyway i i fix the broken fucking end of the raid that's just some dumb shit there like everybody on my

raid team tonight was like you know what after we complete this and get whatever guns we need to get off it we're done fuck this raid fuck this raid just because that tether shit is so stupid everyone loved the raid up until the last boss and it's not that we couldn't beat it it's just the tether thing is just so stupid it's like a nonsensical mechanic that makes no fucking sense and for a guy who's a hardcore raider with hundreds of raid completions under his belt going back to atheon uh this is the dumbest fucking mechanic bungee's ever done so anyway let me get off this rant because uh i love everything about shadowkeep i think they made some great choices i'm hoping they're going to really capture the steam base uh it's just i can't stand their armor 2.0 no one i can talk to can no one i talk to is in love with it or likes it or even understands it for that matter they're

just like i don't know what to do with it it's i'll figure it out when i gotta get my highlight or something we'll work through it um it's just it just feels like i go to goddamn college to figure that shit out the raid other than that it's beautiful and awesome i loved everything up to the final boss i was able to put up with the rubber banding tether shit uh the vex incursion loved it loved it just a lot of fun just bang out quick fun wham bam thank you ma'am sort of stuff. And you get lots of farming materials, lots of farming guns. There's all sorts of really cool things to do in the game right now.

It's really awesome. The finisher thing I loved. And the season progression pass loved. And Crucible just seems to be a wonderful game to play again. So keep it up. Bungie, keep working towards whatever. But try and get some better focus groups. Holy shit.

I mean, between times where like the EP on Mars, when you guys launched that, you made it harder because all the streamers came to you. Look, here's the problem with these streamers, man. They'll tell you yes and you're doing the greatest work every time they fucking meet with you. And the only thing they ever say is make it harder. And then you always have to dial it back when you launch it because none of the casual players can enjoy it. Quit listening to these motherfuckers. You need some people that will come tell you how the fucking reality was who aren't financially invested in it, who are casual players, who will say, you know what, that's not fun. That's great for streamers. That's great for pinnacle players they represent one to two percent of the

base but what you're doing now is going to drive people away to fortnite and apex which is what you guys did with the launch of the original d2 so anyway uh that's my advice i i love shadow keep i highly recommend everyone buys it plays it there's so much content it's crazy and sick maybe you'll like the tether thing in the raid i don't know is maybe that's your thing have fun with that maybe you're a scientist who will figure out the armor 2.0 good luck with that um you know it's it's just, there's an old saying, Bungie, the kiss concept, keep it simple, stupid. And you did that in so many different things in this wonderful launch of Shadowkeep.

There's just a few different things that you guys, you didn't even have to mess with the armor. Like everyone I talked to was just like, I don't know, why did they fuck with the armor? It was fine. Like why do we have to do this whole armor 2.0 shit we're all happy but uh i don't know man sometimes just because you got to sell a new game you don't have to do all this stuff man we were fine with destiny one all you had to do was give us a new maps change the look of everything

we knew you were going to regurgitate the guns and armor and that's all you had to do that's all we wanted you know we wanted 1080p that would armor. And that's all you had to do. That's all we wanted. You know, we wanted 1080p. That would have been nice. That's all we wanted. We just wanted D1. Kind of, you know, update it a little bit. That's all we wanted. We don't want you to fuck up the game.

We don't want you to turn over tables just for the sake of selling us a new game. That's all I was willing to pay for was just to get D1 improved. But you guys turned over all the tables just for the sake of turning over the tables, basically. But I do love how we're going back to D1. The game does feel very nostalgic. I think a lot of people's love of D1 has grown on to Shadowkeep

because they look at Shadowkeep and go, this really reminds me of playing D1. And it really does. It really takes me back and it makes me really love and appreciate the game again because I had so many great feelings and thoughts and memories from D1 and it really does it really takes me back and it makes me really love and appreciate the game again because I had so many great feelings and thoughts and memories from uh D1 now the big challenge that uh Bungie has is being able to rebuild their um database that they ran off with their D2 failure um so hopefully they can keep that in line and keep it rolling and make it a

fun game for people and uh make it so it isn't so stupidly hard that people can line and keep it rolling and make it a fun game for people and make it so that it isn't so stupidly hard that people can take and do it anyway those are my thoughts and my opinion on destiny 2 shadow keep once again i highly recommend it i give it 8 out of 10 stars everyone i know really loves just about everything 8 out of 10 things that bungie did and i think they did a great beautiful job on it it's just a it's a gorgeous thing to look at and play in. In fact, a lot of people talked about the raid and said, it's just amazing how big the maps are and beautiful the maps are. Bungie didn't have to go over that far, but the Dreaming City is the same way. It's a really beautiful sort of layout and map and, and people like that. People like the aesthetics of that. You know, even during Kroda's

reign, I hated the darkness of eris morn and in the dark maps and everything it just felt really depressing to me but that's just me anyway uh guys that's my opinion you can take it from there that's a part two and watch for more reviews and updates on the chrisfossgaming.com thanks see you bye