Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: December 05, 2017
ESRB: Teen / PEGI 16
MSRP: $19,99
Available Platforms: PS4 [Reviewed], Xbox One, PC
Genre: First Person Shooter (Expansion for Destiny 2, requires the main game to play)
Curse of Osiris is an expansion (downloadable content) to Destiny 2. The main game is required to play it.
This DLC introduces a new playable planet called Mercury with its own story and adventures. There’s also 1 new strike, 3 multiplayer maps (one is exclusively on PS4) and 1 raid lair (which is only a mini-raid, more on that later). The level cap has been raised from 20 to 25 and the soft power cap from 300 to 330.
Mercury is a tiny area, containing 5 gold chests, 1 lost sector, and 1 new public event. The DLC’s story begins here and spans across other zones previously visited in the main game. It takes roughly 2 hours to beat all story missions. Afterwards, 3 adventures (side missions) become available. Unfortunately for me, the first and second adventure glitched out and I had to quit the game and replay them from the start. Some objectives didn’t trigger or a portal didn’t open. With only 3 side quests, you would assume they’d gone through more game testing. The same bugs happened to me in the main game and it’s a bummer to see these mistakes repeated. Especially because there are no mid-adventure saves and quitting means you have to replay the entire quest.
After completing the 3 adventures you can play heroic ones. This is where things get interesting — after your first heroic adventure you unlock “weapon verses”. They let you forge legendary weapons. All you have to do is farm chests from public events. The weapon forging is the only true new feature. Not much else has changed and the lack of endgame content remains.
The best part by far is the new raid lair. In my Destiny 2 Review the shortage of raids was one of my main critique points. Even though I think there should’ve been more raids from the start, it’s good to see Bungie deliver us more content so quickly. Beware, this is not a full raid! The best way to describe it is “long strike”. It’s longer than normal strikes and has a few raid-like puzzles, but it is way shorter than the main raid. Basically, it’s a new level within the old raid. It’s more forgiving than the Leviathan raid, there is less random stuff, and it’s just easier in general.
Going into this DLC, I assumed it would have trophy support but sadly it does not. Seriously, what $20 DLC does not get its own trophy set these days? It seems a bit lazy and only hurts sales. In no way is this a smart decision by the developers. If you’re a trophy/achievement hunter skip this DLC. It’s not worth $20 and your gear will be obsolete when the next DLC drops.
They were also lazy on the ‘new’ exotics. Half of them are copy & paste jobs from Destiny 1.
The biggest downpoint of all is that certain main game content is no longer available to non-DLC players. It used to be accessible in the $60 main game until the DLC arrived. Now it’s only available when you buy the DLC. The now locked content includes: Prestige Strikes, Prestige Raids, PVP trials. Furthermore, if the weekly nightfall strike happens to be DLC, players without DLC won’t be able to take part in it and must wait one week.
You had already paid for this content with the main game. Yet Bungie is stealing it away from you, requiring a purchase of the $20 DLC to get back that old content again. What a slap in the face! Not only does this divide the player base (because you can no longer join up with your friends who don’t have the DLC), but it effectively locks the platinum trophy. Yes that’s right, the platinum is now unobtainable in the base game. Because prestige activities and trials have been moved behind the DLC paywall you cannot earn “The Prestige” and “Lest Ye Be Judged” trophies/achievements anymore. So either pay up or kiss that platinum goodbye. Something similar happened in Destiny 1 so it’s mind-boggling to me how they are repeating the exact same mistake. I can’t help but wonder if this is an “inventive” way to force players into buying DLCs. It’s a big mishap at best and a deceptive marketing strategy at worst.
| Gameplay *Overall Enjoyment Factor, Fascination with Game World, Level Design, Variety, Playability, User-Friendliness (Ease of Use / Readability / Controls / in-game Tutorials / Menus) |
| 8/10 A little bit of new stuff, cool Raid. |
| Story/Multiplayer *Quality of the Singleplayer Story, Cutscenes and/or Multiplayer Modes (whichever is available). If a game has no Story or no Multiplayer it won’t be rated (thus no negative effect on score). |
| 7/10 Story: 5/10 + Multiplayer 9/10 |
| Technical Aspects *Graphics, Texture Quality, Character Details, Lighting, Weather Effects, Animations, Loading Times, Number of Loading Screens, does it run smoothly |
| 10/10 It looks as gorgeous as ever. |
| Value *Amount of Content, Production Quality, Replay Value, is there enough content to justify a purchase |
| 2.5/10 Too short for a $20 DLC, the playable area is tiny, not enough new content. Should’ve been $5. |
| Trophies/Achievements *Rates how much fun the Platinum / 1000 Gamerscore is to achieve: Are trophies fun to do? Do trophies restrict freedom of gameplay? Missable trophies? Multiple playthroughs required? Luck-based trophies? Pointless farming/grinding? Glitched Trophies? Are stats/trophies tracked correctly? |
| 0/10 No trophy support? Platinum now unobtainable for people without DLC? WTF, Bungie. |
| Extraordinary Score Increase or Deduction *Reserved for extraordinarily good or bad features that the other categories don’t cover (such as game-breaking bugs). This score is directly added/subtracted from the final score. |
| -0.5 Points: Old content got locked for base game players who don’t buy the DLC (Prestige Strikes / Prestige Raids / Trials — are no longer accessible unless you buy the DLC). It divides the whole player base. |
VERDICT:
A DLC that locks main game content? Yes, it exists, and it’s called Curse of Osiris. If you have the main game but not the DLC it has locked content that was previously accessible to you. Now locked behind a DLC paywall: Prestige Strikes, Prestige Raids, Trials, and the Platinum Trophy / 1000 Gamerscore. This is content you already paid for with the main game. The introduction of the DLC stole all of this away from base game players. Whether this is an ‘inventive’ way to push a DLC purchase or just a mishap, it’s a slap in the face to all Destiny 2 players and divides the player base. $20 is way too pricy for a 2 hour story and tiny new area. When a full game is $60, a $20 DLC should be one third the size, not one tenth.
FINAL SCORE:
5/10
Reviewed on PS4 Pro, played a bit of all that’s new. For more on how reviews are scored, check out the Review Policy.
For more on Destiny 2 and coming DLCs, check out the Destiny 2 Wiki.