Over its five-year span, Destiny 2 has introduced an impressive array of annual expansion to grow the game's story, ritual content, loot, and systems year after year. With The Witch Queen expansion debuting this month, it's exciting to see how another major update will transform the game once again.
While Bungie has always looked to build upon their success with each release, it's clear that not all expansions are made equal. Metacritic details just which expansions fell short of expectations and which ones hit the mark for critics and fans alike.
Curse of Osiris - 61
Curse of Osiris was the first expansion to release for Destiny 2 all the way back in 2017, launching with less-than-enthusiastic acclaim. The expansion followed the powerful Warlock known as Osiris, with guardians helping to prevent an apocalyptic Vex future by time-traveling through the Infinite Forest. It also added the first new destination to Destiny 2 with Mercury, which had been transformed from a once-beautiful homeworld to a wasteland overrun by the enemy.
Destiny 2's base game launched with all sorts of changes from its previous installment, so fans hoped that Curse of Osiris would revert some of those changes, but it didn't quite deliver. To start, Mercury was an incredibly small destination, offering just one public event, one lost sector, and not much exploration. The weapon crafting system was a solid attempt, but the fact that it only granted static weapon rolls made the grind for them quite limited. The raid-lair that debuted with the expansion, Eater of Worlds, wasn't necessarily bad, but a step down in terms of difficulty and mechanical achievement. It sat moderately with critics with a score of 61, but terribly with fans at a score of just 1.8.
Warmind - 68
Later in Year 1, Warmind was released as the second expansion to the base game and saw guardians aid Ana Bray on Mars to revive the powerful Warmind Rasputin. Rather than a copy-paste of Mars in Destiny, the destination was completely overhauled to provide players with new zones to explore and challenges to complete.
Perhaps the most memorable feature of Warmind was the public event known as Escalation Protocol, which saw public fireteams of up to eight guardians fighting wave after wave of Hive. At the time, it was an extremely challenging and rewarding event, which led to better reception from fans. It also had a few memorable strikes, a decent campaign, and the raid, Spire of Stars, was by far the most challenging thus far. However, Warmind didn't solve many of the annoying leveling and loot systems players hoped to see. Warmind currently has a Metacritic score of 68 and a user score of 3.1.
Beyond Light - 71
Beyond Light is the most recent of Destiny 2's expansions, debuting in November 2020 after numerous delays. Players were tasked with traveling to Europa to stop the rising House Darkness from utilizing the Darkness to take over Sol System while using their own power against them. The expansion promised to offer a more expansive destination and involved story, which was delivered on to some degree.
One of the major issues that faced Beyond Light was the lack of new loot, with shockingly few weapons to earn from the start. Europa was a massive destination with all kinds of secrets to uncover, but the variety of rewards it offered didn't worthy of a yearly expansion. On the bright side, the story was much more cohesive, the new Stasis subclass shook up the sandbox, and the raid, Deep Stone Crypt, ranks among the best in terms of loot, accessibility, and pure fun. Beyond Light had mixed reviews overall, with a Metacritic score of 71 and a user score of 5.9.
Shadowkeep - 78
When players learned they would return the moon in Shadowkeep, it was met with more mixed reception given that it was previously featured in the last game. However, Bungie was able to add enough new features, exotics, and endgame content to improve greatly on its predecessor. This time, guardians traveling to the Moon to stop an ancient Hive threat from rising to the surface and posing a threat to the Last City.
Shadowkeep is unique in that it improved on many aspects fans were hoping for while regressing on others. It introduced a simplified form of weapon crafting for more diverse pursuits, a stellar dungeon, some great atmosphere, and big leaps forward in lore. Yet, the central story in Shadowkeep felt fuzzy, muddled down by a lot of busywork and open-world objectives that could slow progress to a halt. The raid, Garden of Salvation, was interesting at first but lacked the same replayability that makes raids in Destiny 2 so memorable. Shadowkeep currently scores a 78 on Metacritic with an average user score of 5.5.
Forsaken - 84
Forsaken will no doubt go down in history as one of the best expansions in an action MMO ever, given the massive breadth of content and improvements it offered. To avenge the death of Cayde-6, players took to the Tangled Shore to hunt down Uldren and his Barons, bringing the offensive with all kinds of new exotic weapons and loadouts.
It can't be overstated just how much better Forsaken made Destiny 2 as a whole. The weight of the campaign made it among the most emotional and climactic. The secret destination known as The Dreaming City was the most mysterious and scenic yet, with mysteries around every corner. Not only did this expansion introduce a new 3-player endgame activity in the form of dungeons, but The Last Wish raid is widely regarded as the best in franchise history. These features alongside many more set the benchmark for Destiny 2 today. It's no wonder that when an MMO or looter is in need of an overhaul, the gaming community coins it as a "Forsaken Moment". It currently sits highest among other expansions with a Metacritic score of 84 and a user score of 6.1.