Caldera Cruisin’…
Another year brings yet another expansion for Destiny 2, following on from the landmark end of the light and darkness saga: The Final Shape. This year brings the ‘Year of Prophecy’ comprised of two ‘Rise of Iron’ sized expansions: The Edge of Fate (which released on the 15th July 2025) and Renegades, which is due to drop later this year. The Edge of Fate takes our Guardian to the planetoid Keplar, following an invitation from Orin, the emissary for the mysterious beings known as the Nine. Alongside the new campaign, destination and raid, the new year also stands as a fresh start for Destiny 2 (a Destiny 2.5 if you will) offering a renewed power grind with the Portal system, Armor 3.0, new stat powers and distribution as well as tiered loot based on power level. Having released on the PlayStation 5 and other major platforms on the 15th of last month, I’m going to give my overlong breakdown of my time spend over the last month with the PlayStation 5 version of the game, detailing the good, deconstructing the bad, whilst ultimately discussing whether it’s worth your time and money at the £34.99 asking price (UK PSN Store – Currently 30% off at £24.49).
Destiny 2 is one of those games that people seemingly love to hate; sometimes with valid criticism, other times blowing things somewhat out of proportion. For the most part, I feel like The Edge of Fate is the latter, it has problems sure, but the overall changes I feel are those that will benefit the game in the long run (provided Bungie listen to player feedback and implement changes on a consistent basis). For a bit of background, I’ve been playing the Destiny franchise since the original beta back in 2014, it’s a franchise that I’ve loved for the most part; I’ve been here for all of the highs and all of the lows, and it’s a franchise I will likely continue to play until it’s finality, however I’m not immune to directing criticism where it’s warranted. It’s no secret that Bungie haven’t had the greatest track record as of late, hit and miss game content, poor communication, a dwindling player base and their infamous mass layoff of 220 employees made all the more bitter by a tweet from Bungie’s toxic turd of a CEO: Pete Parsons tweeting out a response that can only be described as completely tone deaf (see the tweet in question here). Controversy and Pete’s car collection aside, this isn’t the first time that Destiny 2 has weathered its way through stormy waters, and with the release of The Edge of Fate, many are seeing it as the great reset that will make longtime fans either pass on the torch to the next generation, or stick around and embrace what the game will become over the next several years (I still think we should have gotten Destiny 3 over Marathon though).
The Edge of Fate is the first of two major story beats this year, kicking off the Year of Prophecy, as well as the new ‘Fate’ saga that Bungie is billing as the next chapter of the Destiny franchise, despite having massive boots to fill following the satisfying conclusion that was The Final Shape (check out my review for the expansion here). The expansion begins with Ikora Ray and members of her Hidden (think of them as the MI5 of the Last City) patrolling the EDZ for a mysterious energy reading, only to almost be insta-yeeted by a trans-dimensional 21st Century Traincar. Following the dust off, Ikora determines that the source of the mysterious readings is the planetoid of Kepler, far in the distant region of the Sol System, ultimately deducing that it’s an invitation from some other-dimensional force and that the Guardian should be the one to investigate. Soon after arriving and facing off against a forgotten house of the Eliksni (known as the House of Exile) we meet Lodi, a mysterious fellow that acts as somewhat of an Emissary (if you know, you know) on behalf of the population of Keplar, known as to Aionians, humans that arrived on Keplar long before the Collapse, who have since formed their own societal structure and language. Soon after arriving, Lodi reveals that Kepler is held together by a singularity, and if it ruptures, then it will take the entire solar system with it. This sends the guardian down the path of obtaining four strangelets (think cosmic hourglasses) to keep the singularity in place, and open up the path to speak with the Nine directly, revealing their reason for reaching out. Without spoiling anything, the lore implications for The Edge of Fate are huge, and it’s safe to say the narrative team cooked with this one.
Quantum Leap: Lodi is the new POI in The Edge of Fate, his very existence is wrapped up in both the fate of Kepler, but the entirety of the solar system.
In terms of gameplay, The Edge of Fate retains the solid gunplay and core D2 PVE experience that has made the game as popular as it has been over the years; the main attraction this time around however is the destination itself: Kepler. Much like the Pale Heart from The Final Shape, Kepler is a solo location, so you won’t be seeing any other guardians roaming around unless you’ve got them in your fireteam. The difference with Kepler is how you get around, as there has been an emphasis placed on environmental puzzles, which unlocks further the more you progress through the campaign. These abilities allow you to learn the language of the Aionians (although this is selling it more than it actually is) squeezing through tight gaps with Matterspark, and altering the fabric of the environment itself with Mattermorph. All of these abilities are fine, but I do feel that they rely on them a bit too much throughout the vast majority of the campaign, which arguably pads out what is otherwise a pretty strong start (lore-wise) for the next saga of the destiny franchise. Spoiler free, the campaign of The Edge of Fate does a good job of setting the stage of where the game wants to start progressing its story towards, but the issue arises following its conclusion. Once you finish the campaign, Kepler largely becomes pointless when considering the way that power is obtained in The Edge of Fate, in reference directly to Bungie’s new Portal system, where Kepler isn’t affected at all and offers no power benefits whatsoever, even in the higher world tiers (which was touted as an amazing new feature).
Love it or hate it, Destiny 2 has always had an abysmal track record for retaining new players or making the new light experience in any way enjoyable; on top of this, trying to make sense of the director and decide where to go and what to do when it’s your first time looking at it is a colossal undertaking. The aim from Bungie with the Portal system was to simplify this problem, and have it present itself on the main screen when you log in, somewhat replacing the director. The system does a lot on the surface, it gives you the option to solo grind, jump into PVP or Fireteam Ops or dive into end game experiences which have been deemed pinnacle ops (at the moment primarly composed of exotic missions) seemingly missing out raids and dungeons completely. The system attempts to offer the player a more-coherent power roadmap of what to do next, as all the activities will list their selected rewards, should the score should be met, which can be made tougher or easier based on not only your power level, but the modifiers that come with it. The system also allows Bungie to bring back in old content and make it somewhat relevant again, such as the fan-favourite Coil activity from Season of the Wish. Whilst the system has somewhat strong foundations, it unfortunately isn’t enough to sustain interest in the long term, as the power grind this time around is both deep and exceedingly shallow in tandem, and will kill the game quicker than Curse of Osiris almost did if it isn’t addressed soon by Bungie. On paper, being able to swap in and swap out old content on the fly, whilst giving players the ability to customise the difficulty for greater reward is a promising one, but when you realise that the system heavily leans into replaying the same few activities over and over again to climb in power with poor reward balance, you soon find yourself in a situation where people will opt to complete the quickest activity possible (Caldera Cruisin’ all the way baby) in order to maximise efficiency when it comes to power level 450, at at the detriment to everything else, including the new raid, which should have been the best way to gain power, in line with Destiny tradition.
Beam me up Scotty: The portal system sounds good on paper, but when you realise the most efficient way to grind power is to play the same 10 minute mission on a loop, it gets old very fast.
Gripes with the portal aside, the foundations are there; Bungie need to be prompt in their response to the overwhelmingly negative feedback the system is getting, in order to make the most out of their fresh start. With a little under a month away until the next major content drop of Ash and Iron, Bungie need to ensure they need to pull out all the stops to correct the game before the new content launches, as it somewhat spoils an otherwise pretty solid expansion, far from the franchise’s worst.
A PlayStation 5 review code was provided by Warning Up.
This review is featured on OpenCritic.
