Posted by I haven’t played Destiny 2 in months. The first DLC, Curse of Osiris, was a disaster, so my expectations for Warmind were mixed. I want the DLC to be good, but I expect it to be mediocre. I haven’t invested a whole lot of time in the DLC yet, but I think I finished the story, emphasis on think.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
First and foremost, the story involves your guardian working with Ana Bray to save the Warmind Rasputin and defeat the Hive Worm god Xol. And in all honesty, it’s a fun little campaign, but it’s short. Unlike Curse of Osiris, Warmind doesn’t have a pointless gimmick like the Infinite Forest to draw out its runtime, but that isn’t a bad thing. Unfortunately, Warmind is still pathetically short with only four or so missions. And just when things are getting good, it ends. At least I think it ends, because where I am, Rasputin has declared that he will protect humanity on his own terms, and Ana Bray is somewhat worried about that. What I was interpreting was that maybe we needed to stop Rasputin now because he was going rampant or something. Is that the case? Probably not. Now if this was the Bungie from 10 years ago, that would probably happen, but it won’t.
But something else rather noteworthy is the lore implications of this DLC. The Hive received their power from making pacts with these Worm gods, and you have to kill one. The last time some threat of this magnitude both power-wise and lore-wise appeared was Oryx. But much like with Oryx, Xol dies rather easily despite being a literal god-tier entity. Something Destiny has a serious problem with is developing ridiculously powerful entities in the lore, but when you eventually have to fight them in the game, they’re just a fraction of what they should be. Then again, how can you realistically deal with this gameplay-wise? This was the first major lore detail, because by fighting a Hive Worm god, this opens the door to dealing with the other ones. The Hive have some powerful entities, and I’m looking forward to fighting them. Another major lore piece was the inclusion of Nokris, who serves as a supplicant to Xol. When I heard the name Nokris, it sounded really, really familiar, but my Destiny knowledge has been slacking lately. Upon doing some more research, Nokris is one of Oryx’s sons. Oryx’s other son, Crota, was the focus of the first DLC in Destiny, and he had serious lore implications as well. You kill Nokris in the third mission, and he is kind of just introduced there, so it feels like something more could be done. Nokris is a nice little fight and I really enjoyed it, but he was just kind of plopped in. Killing one of Oryx’s sons is no small feat, but that isn’t emphasized in the game at all. Destiny has some deep and complex lore, but there are a few issues:
- You can’t access Grimoire Cards on bungie.net anymore, which is where I got all of my lore knowledge from.
- Again these lore tidbits aren’t very prominent in the game. I know that people complained about needing to look outside the game for the lore, but I prefer it to the system adopted by Destiny 2.
It is also important to note that Ana Bray makes an appearance. Ana Bray’s family is responsible for the Clovis Bray Research Facility on Mars and the creation of Rasputin. Therefore, it is rather eventful that someone like this has made an appearance, but this isn’t emphasized very much. Yes Ana Bray’s ancestry is talked about a little bit, but its relevance could really be more explored.
And finally, Rasputin has awakened and will be becoming a more important part of the ongoing canon. Rasputin is a powerful force, and some of his strength was hinted at throughout Destiny, but now he is finally being used. Rasputin’s firepower and his decision to protect the universe on his own terms could serve as a potential problem for the future, but we just have to wait and see.
SPOILERS END
In summary, I really did enjoy the fun, but short, story of Warmind. I look forward to exploring the rest of it, so expect a more comprehensive review of it next week.
Broad Scope Entertainment 