‘Destiny 2′ Dungeon Review: Duality, Calus’ Mental Collapse

Usually I don’t get it Lot 2 dungeons or raids until a while after launch, but I managed to sneak into a Duality run towards the end of this weekend and thought I’d try something new here. A review of the dungeon itself. No, I’m not giving it a Metascore, but I did want to run through what works and what doesn’t on Duality, Destiny’s separately sold dungeon that is indeed tied to this season’s theme and events.

The story – Easily one of the best parts of the dungeon, and probably the most engaging story we’ve ever gotten in a dungeon. Or probably even a raid, since these types of missions are more focused on combat than dialogue, but we have a lot of information about Calus, his history and his current goals, thanks to stories and a dozen different hidden memories with voice work attached to them. My heart actually broke a little when Calus recounts how he named Caiatl after the brightest star in their system, then she’s revealed as the final boss in the encounter “Calus’s greatest disgrace” (his daughter would later literally overthrow him and they became mortal enemies ). Just brilliant stories woven through the actual mechanics here.

The mechanic – Most dungeons and raids have a central mechanism that evolves over time, and Duality is no different. However, here I was deep I was impressed with the technical wizardry used to instantly switch between normal and “nightmare” maps, something that reminds me of The Medium or that one famous mission in Titanfall 2’s campaign. In addition, however, I will say that there are some annoyances are with the bell mechanic, namely that each kind of damage sign, explosions, dropping a well, countless number of accidental things, can accidentally cause one and erase an entire encounter. There are also some weird decisions like later when you are literally forbidden to kill some Psion snipers otherwise you will ruin your nightmare realm timer so you just have to let them shoot you indefinitely. Not ideal.

The difficulty – I said yesterday this was on the “easier side” and everyone jumped my throat. I understand what people are saying because the enemy density here is really wild in some segments, but I also believe we have more damage control tools now than ever before so it didn’t bother me that much and I really never, ever died of anything but encountering wipes or being knocked off the edge. For me, that’s great because I like crowd density without it feeling overwhelming or impossible. This is really a level of difficulty in a way that most dungeons don’t have at launch, and I think they did a great job of balancing it. I’m less excited about running it on master with champions, who just make things worse, all the time.

the loot – Huge split here as this is definitely the worst dungeon armor set we’ve gotten, although it does have a few cool pieces here and there. But you are more disappointed than ever when you get armor because most of the weapons here are just awesome† The new “corrupt” Calus weapons are incredible, pushing new avenues with chill clip grenade launchers and tombstone pulse rifles and most importantly, this insane three-burst linear fusion that looks like it’s testing an entirely new type of weapon. Even the re-released Opulent weapons can be good, such as a Light Bulb or Killing Tally Fixed Odds machine gun. I don’t know many people who have gotten the exotic sword, but I hear it’s good, and I really like the idea of ​​completing triumphs to increase your potential drop rate. It’s also a good thing that the dungeon is essentially infinitely editable, even above and beyond Grasp or Avarice, as you can keep getting new loot.

It’s a great dungeon. Overall, it might be my second favorite after Prophecy, thanks in part to its central mechanic, enemy density, story, and weapon loot pool. To me, it’s well worth $10 on its own, even if I keep questioning the idea of ​​a separately sold dungeon pack in the first place, given how confusing it already is to “keep up to date” with Destiny. But that’s a discussion for another day.

Now, to do this 40 more times for the drops I want…

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