Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris is a huge red flag that showcases Bungies lack of commitment to the foundation of the game, and sadly, to its fanbase. Let me rewind a few years. I thoroughly enjoyed Destiny and its first major expansion The Taken King. It hit me in the feels when I learned that Bungie were practically disregarding everything I knew about Destiny with the release of Destiny 2, arguably slagging off the first outing as a means to promote the sequel. There were far too many “we didn’t know what we were doing” statements released from several Bungie team members for me to overlook that as a cheap way to engage fallen players. However I took it in stride and awaited the release of Destiny 2, a game I was surprisingly impressed with. One of the most criticised aspects of Destinys three year lifespan was the lack of content, with major criticism aimed at the DLC drops that came roughly 6 months – 12 months apart. Both Bungie and Activision have stated on numerous occasions that this will not be the case with Destiny 2, so as I’m sure you can appreciate, a lot of weight has been riding on expansion one – Curse of Osiris. Sadly, this new content just proves that Bungie have not been paying attention. It’s short, it’s rushed, and it lacks that punch found in the core game.
If you’re on the fence and you can live without new content for a while, my wholehearted advice would be to skip this expansion altogether, or at least wait until it drops in price. Curse of Osiris continues on from the events at the end of the campaign, only this time you’re sent to investigate problems on Mercury. Problems that just so happen to revolve around the legendary and titular Warlock, Osiris. New caps are put in place, including a raised Level cap of 25 and a raised Power Level of 335. This expansion also pulls in new weapons, armour and gear to unlock, as well as new activities. Do you know what else it brings? Barriers! Yes, much like the first game, Curse of Osiris has blocked out some end-game content for those that do not own the expansion. This also means that some achievements cannot be obtained (unless unlocked already) if you do not own the new content. Bungie have stated that they will look into ways at getting the achievement issue addressed, but nothing has been mentioned regarding the blocked content. Poor form Bungie, poor form. On the topic of achievements, this expansion brings no new ones with it.
The new story campaign is hardly something I would class as a campaign. When I say the word campaign, it instils the thought of something padded, lengthy and inviting. Curse of Osiris is neither of those. Oded Fehr is introduced as the voice of Osiris and manages to deliver a solid performance alongside the rest of the cast. His female Ghost Sagira is voiced by (yet another Firefly crew member) Morena Baccarin, who much like Oded Fehr, brings a unique personality to the fold. The problem with the Curse of Osiris isn’t with the concept, nor with how it’s delivered, the problem lies wholly with the volume of content. Any fan of Destiny will know first hand how cheap Bungie can be when it comes to reusing old content and this new DLC is a prime example of that. I mean here we sit four years since the launch of Destiny, yet we still have just four races to fight against – Vex, Fallen, Cabal, and Hive. No, I do not class Taken as a new race. Sure, we have different variants of races to tackle but it would be nice to aim down my sights and see something completely fresh. Unfortunately Curse of Osiris doesn’t offer anything new to blast to smithereens outside of different variations of the same races we’ve been slamming for years now.
Mercury as a location is intriguing at first glance and upon your initial traversal of the interesting environment, it’s hard not to fall in love with what’s on offer. That however is as short-lived as the story itself. There’s only a single lost sector and a single public event, that’s how small it is. Furthermore there’s only three adventures and eight story missions, a handful of which take place on EDZ, IO, and Nessus. The most alluring moments in this expansion are underused, such as travelling through time and witnessing a past Mercury timeline. Bungie really dropped the ball with this expansion, because the Vex are by far the most interesting enemies present. Group that with the ability to travel through time to witness the same location at different points in its life, and one has to wonder why this whole idea wasn’t withheld for a bulkier ‘The Taken King’ sized content drop. Osiris has been on Mercury all of this time investigating the Vex, who are using technology in an attempt to suss out which timeline would see them dominate the universe. It’s an excellent story setup that’s let down by its length, design repetition, and lack of impact.
Osiris has been beefed up to be some all powerful Guardian, yet much of the fighting is done by the player alone, who once again remains without a voice. It just doesn’t add up in the grand scheme of things. I wont spoil the story for you but I would caution you not to blink, because you might miss it. It doesn’t help that the map size and content quality of this new location is meagre. I remember my first visit to the Vex-run Vault of Glass. I was filled with awe and wonder as I dug deeper into the vault to meet its depths and uncover its secrets. My time on Mercury has been interesting but not compelling, and certainly not as fascinating as that comparison. You can nuke everything that’s included in this expansion within six hours, everything. Even the new raid lair is said to last only 30 minutes in total on a good run – despite holding some interesting twists. The Infinite Forest is another interesting concept that seems fascinating but ultimately falls flat. Accessed via a gateway in the Fields of Glass, the Infinite Forest is the aforementioned reality simulation used by the Vex to map every possible outcome in the universe. These realities are overseen by Panoptes, a huge assed Hydra and the main antagonist of Curse of Osiris. Whilst it is indeed interesting to witness different time loops of the same area, it’s not padded out enough to keep you entertained.
The Infinite Forest would have been a spectacular location for a Vex-based raid, but with the rest of Curse of Osiris, Bungie fails to deliver. The difficulty is another downside to this expansion, being that it’s almost non-existent. I may well have died a bunch of times playing the new content, but much of that was down to player error rather than actual tough gameplay. Bungie really needs to work out that it’s okay to challenge their players, it’s okay to make something tougher than it should be, it’s okay to craft something that makes fans feel rewarded for overcoming said hardship. Curse of Osiris seems to dance on the line between doable and simple and I’m not okay with that, I’m not okay with just going through the motions. I haven’t been this disappointed with a Destiny content drop since paying a visit to the Prison of Elders in the House of Wolves. This feels more like something that could have been chopped up and thrown into the game for free. Remember the live team that were responsible for Eververse and promised to throw in free content as long as people purchased her goods? Yes, those people! I would expect much of this content from them, wherever the hell they’ve gone, I wouldn’t expect this from a £17.19 / $19.99 expansion.
Conclusion
Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris is a waste of both money and time. It’s a shame that Bungie couldn’t use the Infinite Forest themselves to find a timeline in which they had actually crafted a content drop that was as interesting and innovative in practice as it was on paper. Curse of Osiris does house some solid elements, such as decent voice acting and gorgeous design, but that means absolutely nothing when the content itself is meagre and half-baked. There’s far too much asset recycling going on in this new content to consider calling it fresh, and far too little execution to consider calling it worthy of its steep cost. I imagine die hard Destiny fans will appreciate the small band of new activities and gear, but for those that were hoping for something more like The Taken King, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. It’s a shame really, because Activision and Bungie promised better DLC for the sequel, and if this is a sign of things to come, I worry for the long term of Destiny 2. My best advice would be to avoid this until it falls in price.
This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox One. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version.
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