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| Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris |
Score: 65%
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Bungie Software
Media: Download/1
Players: 1, 1 - 4
Genre: First Person Shooter/Online/RPG
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Rekindling the Burning Light:
Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris is the first DLC to be spit out by Bungie for its high-powered shooter of the same name. After the successful launch of Destiny 2 and rising popularity with the second incarnation as compared with the first, Curse of Osiris is certainly a highly anticipated expansion. However, in the same way that a film can feel lackluster after it gets drilled into your mind that it’s going to be great, it is this high anticipation that probably adds to the lack of spark felt when actually playing the content of Curse of Osiris.
Before you can unlock and get into Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris, keep in mind that you need to first make it through the entire Red War Campaign in the core game, bringing the Light back to The Traveler. The DLC unlocks after that point, and not before. Once you do, you’ll be treated to the new campaign that essentially revolves around simulated time travel, where your Guardian is set to stop the Vex with any possible outcome. The concept can be argued both ways on the bandwagon train of whether the concept is good or bad, but in reality, the gameplay comes across as a cheap way to reuse content rather than fully flesh out something new. |
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A Ghost from the Past:
The namesake of Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris is the center point of the storyline, where you’ll be sent to Mercury to investigate the exiled legendary Warlock, Osiris. This all comes to fruition when Osiris’s Ghost, named Sagira, is found partially intact after The Traveler was awakened. The opening sequence is strong, and gives a great synopsis of the events that lead to your Guardian’s next campaign. It seems that Sagira is able to be merged with your own Ghost, which helps unlock the entrance to the Infinite Forest. Throughout the Infinite Forest, you will be guided by reflections (or instances) of Osiris from his limitless exploration of the simulated realities that the Vex uses to try and be victors in the war. Sounds good so far… and it will definitely pull you in as you first boot up this new campaign. In practice, however, Curse of Osiris falls pretty flat after this initial blood-pumping set of cut scenes. |
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Infinite Possibilities, Same Ol’ Same Ol’:
The core of Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris revolves around battling the Vex throughout simulated time and space, where if you defeat them in one possible future, they poke and prod to try and find another way they can succeed. By incorporating this storyline of infinite possibilities, and putting it on a linear path, the overall flow and story of the game ends up falling short of expectations. Instead, Curse of Osiris has your Guardian revisiting the same environments and trying to defeat the same enemies time and again.
It’s true that the environments (including the Infinite Forest) still look and play outstanding, holding true to the core game’s high standards. For that reason, the gameplay can continue down its heart-pounding path. However, there is something lacking in this DLC from an originality standpoint, and most of that is due to the exclusion of enough new environments to explore.
Using alternative realities gives endless possibilities for variation in characters, stories, and environments. Unfortunately, Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris doesn’t explore a storyline that could have diverged any number of ways to sprinkle a little more life into the linear and repetitive (albeit still generally fun) gameplay. For this, the game was fun, but it wasn’t as exciting and intense as was felt during the Red War. |
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Extra Content and Final Thoughts:
With Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris comes some extra content outside of the single player storyline, as well as some new gear to get a hold of. There are a couple of new Strikes to take on with friends, including the Tree of Probabilities and A Garden World, in the Infinite Forest and on Mercury, respectively. Additionally, The Leviathan Calls is a new Raid Lair feature that poses a severe challenge, unlike the Curse of Osiris Campaign, and requires a Power level of at least 300. The DLC also uncaps leveling up from 20 to 25. There are also a couple of new PVP maps called Pacifica (on ocean rigs) and Radiant Cliffs (on Mercury).
The new gear that you can obtain will undoubtedly pull your power up quickly, and leveling up seems to take no time at all. Unfortunately, because Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris is not all that difficult in the greater scheme of things, it almost feels like this gear is more of a gift for buying the add-on. It’s unfortunate that the storyline didn’t unfold in a more fluid fashion and provide more of a challenge, but to be fair, the gameplay was generally still fun. If this DLC would have been half the cost, I’d be more apt to recommend it for its few hours of extended gameplay, but at $20 at the time of this writing, you may feel like you would get more value packaging it with others instead of purchasing it standalone. |
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-Woody, GameVortex Communications AKA Shane Wodele |
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows XP SP2+, Pentium or AMD Athlon X4 – SSE2 instruction set support, 6GB RAM, AMD R7 260X – NVidia GTX 550 Ti 2go, 40GB HDD, DirectX DX9 (shader model 2.0) capability, Any sound card, 720p-1080p resolution |
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Test System:
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit; Intel Core i7-5930K CPU @ 3.50GHz (12 CPUs); 32GB RAM; nVidia GeForce GTX 980 |
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