My mate Jeb and I finished Edge of Fate yesterday.
And like I've said already, I was less than impressed with the expansion. I can definitely consider it the weakest of the D2 expansions I've played so far.
Which is disappointing because I can definitely see it's potential, most of my problems stem from the gameplay aspects. The story itself is perfectly fine and honestly had Bungie put more effort into the DLC.
It would've been a worthy successor to The Saga of Light and Darkness.
But the gameplay drags it down, especially the Matterspark mechanic.
Matterspark is essentially Samus's ball-mode mechanic in Metroid. You turn into a tiny ass mote of energy in order to slip into small spaces, use it's power to solve puzzles
Which on paper sounds good, I've always liked mechanics like that.
Except it really struggles to fit into the aforementioned small spaces alot of the time.
Whether because the slightest flick of the Left stick sends you flying because the Matterspark has barely friction or because there's this clumps of green stuff on either side of the entrance that's just a bit too close together.
So, you're forced to fiddle about and try to shove yourself into a cramped space while on a timer and then panicly scramble to get through the vent before it runs out.
Because until you complete the campaign, the only way you can access Matterspark mode is via these Matterspark nodes and you can only stay in that mode for about a minute or so.
And here's the thing: if that timer runs out if you're in a small space, or if the game thinks you're in a small space, then you're dead.
You will be forced out of Matterspark mode and die.
Which wouldn't be as big of a problem if it wasn't so awkward to move around in that mode with precision.
Because like I said, Matterspark has barely any sense of friction, it slides all over the place which makes the moments where you've got to be precise in your movements, like getting into a vent or pipe or navigating a narrow platform rather difficult.
But that's because Matterspark is also supposed to double as a means of getting around fast on Kepler once you finish the story because the terrain is very much not suited for a Sparrow or board.
Hence why it handles like a football dipped in lube.
Oh yeah and you know how I said if the game thinks you're in a small space?
Well there was one instance in the game where the game thought I was in a small space when I absolutely wasn't and refused to let out of Matterspark mode even though I was stood next to Jeb.
Which meant all I could do is just wait for the timer to expire.
This was because I'd switched to Matterspark mode thinking it was needed to get into a small space and ended up pressing against a vent for a brief moment, causing the game to think I was inside of it even though I wasn't and was whizzing around an open space with the Humanoid Jeb in it.
But the DLC sort of expects you to balance like, three different timed effects sometimes.
Because you also unlock Mattermorph which allows you to manipulate certain parts of the terrain to form openings, platforms and bridges.
So later on in the game, you're supposed to use Mattermorph in conjunction with Matterspark in order to progress.
Which would be fine if not for the aforementioned issues with Matterspark and the fact both of them are timed.
Mattermorph's effects last for a minute, so you have a minute to rush to a Matterspark node, shoot towards where you need to go and get across whatever structure you just raised with Mattermorph.
Except one of the times I had to do this, I ended up getting wedged between two pipes near the end because they were twoo close together and had to scramble to get loose.
While I was in a small space as well.
Jeb didn't need to do that because he'd just brute-forced his way to the other side without Mattermorph. So, he was rewarded for not doing the puzzle properly and i was nearly punished for doing things properly.
Arguably the least irritating mechanic of the DLC is the teleports, though it still has it's issues.
The way the Reloactor works is that you pick up this shoulder-mounted portal gun and hit what amounts to a Servitor eye on a wall with it, which activates a portal station near you.
This portal remains open for about 15 seconds at most and so you gotta rush into it.
As the story progresses, you gotta also bounce the blast off a series of reflecting satellite arrays in order to hit hte Servitor eye.
Which again, I like puzzles like this.
But during the section of the story this mechanic is introduced, it bugged out on me.
So, Jeb and i were running through the Lost Sector, reached the end where we were supposed to use the Reloactor to get out of a space and collect the loot.
Jeb grabs the Relocator, activates the teleport station and we both step through.
But because I didn't use the Relocator and Jeb did, it registered me as having not completed the step but Jeb had.
But, seriously, I'm in a Fireteam with the guy and we're in the same space. He'd already activated the teleporter so why would I need to also pick up the Relocator and do the same?
I'm fairly sure I even got the loot as well. It just decided that since I didn't use the Relocator, I wasn't allowed to progress.
Forcing me to reload the entire area and hoof it back to that place and go through the puzzles all over again.
So, yeah.
All in all, the little problems with the expansion stacked up into a frustrating, awkward mess that feels like it wasn't really tested before release.
Because all these little problems are easy to fix.
There's also the fact that the navigvation points don't want to work properly alot of the time. They spend just as much time sending you in circles due to how twisty turny the layout of Kepler is as they do taking you in the right direction.
There's also the fact that Bungie decided to reach into Destiny 1 and shove a bunch of bosses from that game into the DLC as bosses.
Same with the DLC weapons, some of which are torn straight from Destiny 1 according to Destiny expert Jeb.
Which, yes asset reuse is nothing new with Destiny, this one felt especially lazy because they just grabbed a bunch of already existing assests and bosses in both games.
Gave them some different names and then stuck them in the game.
Especially when you compare it to Renegades, which has new stuff in it even if it's not Destiny stuff.
Which sucks because like I said, the story is decent and the final arena of the DLC is gorgeous if morbid.
That being said, there were two moments that made me go "fuck off."
Already made a post about it, but the fact Lodi, who works for an organization dedicated to containing and studying anomalous objects akin to the FBC or SCP Foundation, sees one of the objects doing something it's never done before.
And deciding to touch it and raise the object, a phone, to his ear.
And then I find out Ikora was about to do the same?! And would've had the Nine not intervened and spawned a train ontop of her.
Did no one at this organization recieve proper training?!
There's also the Nine claiming that they were responsible for Young Wolf becoming a Guardian. Which. I'm sorry but no I didn't like that reveal.
Again, I feel like Young Wolf works better as just a random Guardian who was resurrected and climbed the ranks, standard "From Nobody to Nightmare" stuff.
Not a chosen one who's whole existence was orchestrated by a shadowy group of higher dimensional beings comprised of Dark Matter.
Now for my final complaint which is a complaint I had about Renegades.
Both DLCs feel like Bungie was trying to make the game more akin to a traditional MMO.
The text boxes that pop up for you to read whenever you interact with a character, forcing you to reade what's being said instead of voicing the characters like normal.
Which, just adding this: Jeb's dyslexic. So he did struggle with these text boxes and I imagine other dyslexic players also had this problem.
There's also the fact that alot of the DLCs steps just involve going from one person to other, sort of like FF14's story quests.
Which always drove me batty. Normally, the quest steps were "talk to this person, talk to this person, kill this thing/do this mission."
Instead it was more like "Talk to this person, then this person, then this person, then this person then go here, do this, come back to talk to some more people."
Jeb and at the very least play Destiny for the combat, not to run around reading text boxes.
But yeah, while this problem was prevalent in both Edge of Fate and Renegades.
It was this aspect plus the fact you had to learn the language of the Ainoneans to open chests and stuff that made me think abit of No Man's Sky as well.
So, all in all this was definitely one of the weakest expansions of D2 and it sucks that this was the second to last Expansion because it could've been good had Bungie put the effort into it.
