Destiny 2 is a live service game that offers seasonal content drops. Because it’s rather difficult to go back and buy a season after it’s already happened, most people don’t do that. I’ve found reviews of a past season aren’t very helpful as a result, so I thought I’d approach things in a different way. This is my first crack at an ongoing Season of the Splicer review; the kind that gets revisited after each month, and thus tells a more accurate tale of whether the season is worth checking out right now, while you still can.
With that — let’s get on with it!
The Seasonal activities aren’t quite as monotonous this time around
One thing I’m noticing about Season of the Splicer is how much more I like Override versus, say, Battlegrounds. Though both of those activities throw waves of enemies at you and eventually require you to kill a multi-phase boss at the end, Override is more peppy and exciting.
Battlegrounds dragged you through multiple portions of an existing destination, forcing you into huge fights in more spread out environments. Override, meanwhile, keeps you confined to one smaller “arena-type” setting — which makes for more intense action — and lets you get out of that space a lot more quickly so you can get to killing the big bad at the end.
And with the Expunge missions added to the slate, Season of the Splicer is doing far more to change things up and keep you on your toes. It doesn’t feel like you’re asked to grind out the Seasonal Activity until you hate it like Season of the Chosen. Instead, there’s a bit more variety in what you can take on.
There are definitely some interesting weapons worth chasing
Destiny 2‘s Seasons can be pretty hit or miss with regard to the weapons they introduce. I can’t recall a single item I pursued with a vengeance in Season of the Hunt, for example. In fact, prior to this season, my loadout was mostly made up of weapons that would’ve been retired had Bungie not canceled sunsetting. (The one exception: Ticuu’s Divination from Season of the Chosen, which rocks.)
In Season of the Splicer, however, I’m definitely finding some things to get excited about. The Gridskipper Pulse Rifle is one I’m seeing a lot of in the Crucible nowadays. I’ve also had a good time with the Heavy Machine Gun, Archon’s Thunder, as well as Null Composure, a Fusion Rifle you get for completing the seasonal weapon quest. With the return of Vault of Glass, we got a whole Raid full of old fan-favorite weapons to chase, too, like Fatebringer and Vex Mythoclast. If you want to get excited about new weapon drops again, and you want to grind out a perfect roll on something, Season of the Splicer hits the spot.
The narrative this season has taken another step up
One thing Season of the Chosen really did well — more so than Season of the Hunt — was tell a story. We got to see more interactions between characters than we ever have before, and got to know more about what was motivating those characters to make certain decisions and hold certain views. One knock against Chosen: it sort of telegraphed the ending. Everything seemed very obviously set up for the outcome we eventually got.
It’s safe to say that Season of the Splicer has taken Destiny 2‘s story to the next level, to the point where some we’ve even viewed as heroes are starting to look a lot different to us. Those who’ve pledged Allegiance to the Future War Cult, for instance, or held some of our most legendary Guardians in high regard may feel a bit conflicted about Lakshmi-2 and Saint-14 now. The story beats that play out week after week are truly riveting, and the best part: I have no earthly idea what’s going to happen next. That keeps me logging in week after week so I don’t miss anything.
I’d recommend this season to those who haven’t bought it yet
Roughly one month in, this Season of the Splicer review is going to go ahead and call the season a BUY for those who are still sitting on the fence. There’s plenty of new content to play, weapons to go after, and story moments to experience. I am making the bold assumption at this point that the rest of the season will continue to deliver.
I’ll be back in approximately 30 days to deliver another Season of the Splicer review update. That’ll likely come in the form of a new post, so stay tuned.
