Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris (DLC) Review

The Curse of Osiris, Destiny 2's first expansion, comes right on the heels of the game's initial release and it shows. When you look at how thin the content in this expansion is, you'll wish that the developers took more time to deliver a full-fledged expansion.

The centerpiece of the expansion is the new story-based campaign that it adds to the game. You won't be able to play the campaign with a character that hasn't finished the original game's campaign, but if you have you'll have no trouble meeting the new campaign's level and power requirements. The story features Osiris, a renegade Warlock Guardian who left the Tower against the orders of the Vanguard to counter a Vex threat that only he can see. Osiris infiltrates a Vex construct known as the Infinite Forest that is able to simulate an infinite number of possible timelines in order to learn more about their plans. The Vex don't appreciate an outsider in their supercomputer, and Osiris finds himself overwhelmed by a Vex attack and sends his Ghost Sagira out of the Infinite Forest. You are sent to Mercury, the location of the entrance to the Infinite Forest, to see if Sagira can be awakened and to determine what happened to Osiris.

It's good to see a story campaign focused on Osiris, a character that until now has essentially been nothing more than a name on an event. On the other hand, we don't learn a lot about Osiris in the campaign because he doesn't make that many appearances in it and most of the bigger questions such as how his falling out from Vanguard happened or how he developed a cult following of disciples are left untouched and unanswered. The campaign is also quite short. If you run through the campaign avoiding the battles that you don't need to fight you can probably get through it within a couple of hours. Take your time, and you'll need at most four hours. By the time you reach the end, you'll easily have hit the new level cap of 25. The Infinite Forest looks amazing, but it's main purpose in the campaign is to pad its length. You'll move to a platform, fight a group of random enemies, open a gate, and then move to the next. Repeat this a number of times and you'll reach the other side of the forest and get to the actual mission part of the mission. And you'll go through this process on every single mission. The actual content in the campaign is even smaller than the two to four hour completion time would make you think.

Part of the way through the campaign you'll unlock Mercury as a new destination. Like the other destinations in the game, Mercury has a vendor who collects tokens earned on the planet, Brother Vance, a Lost Sector, and a Public Event. Unlike other locations, it's tiny. It's basically the Lighthouse, a structure that was only previously seen by players who completed the Trials of Osiris event, and the entrance to the Infinite Forest, which sit at opposite ends of a circular zone. That's it, the one area, with once Public Event and one Lost Sector and not much else. On the positive side, Mercury is a visually interesting location to visit. The architecture of the Lighthouse and the surrounding area has a strong Ancient Egyptian influence, and the structures look like they are locked in an eternal struggle against the sands of Mercury which surround them.

The public event on Mercury, Vex Crossroads, is fun. It features a series of warp gates that players must shut down by defeating the invading Vex and using the orbs that they drop to close the gates. The battle takes place all around the Mercury zone including platforms that you can't reach outside of the event, with players using warp pads to fling themselves from one location to the next. The event culminates in, what else, a boss battle, in this case against a Vex Gate Lord. Vex Crossroads is one of the more enjoyable public events that you'll find in the game.

After completing the campaign you'll also unlock an Adventure mission which is essentially is three different possible missions. At the beginning of each you'll traverse the Infinite Forest which will lead you to one of three possible 'Vex simulations.' The end missions include a Cabal boss fight in which the boss keeps running away, a defensive battle in which you must keep enemies from assaulting a central structure, and a mission against the Fallen that has you clearing various platforms so that you can scout them. Once you complete each of the three possible variations, you'll unlock heroic versions of each. The end parts are enjoyable enough, but getting through the Infinite Forest to get to the good stuff quickly begins to feel like the grind that it is. And it doesn't really feel like it's worth that grind because the loot waiting in the chest at the end of it all was never worth the time it took to earn it. A single Lost Sector rounds out all there is to do on Mercury.

There are two new Strikes included in Curst of Osiris, but they are not on par with those included in the original game. They take place in areas that looked to be recycled from the campaign missions and are both essentially runs through the Infinite Forest towards a boss fight. The boss fights themselves were enjoyable enough, but I can't say any portions of the Strikes were particularly memorable. I really enjoyed some of the Strike locations in Destiny 2, so I was disappointed to see that they were followed up with a pair of forgettable ones in this expansion.

Two maps are added to the Crucible rotation, Pacifica and Wormhaven, but there are not any new modes included in the expansion. Pacifica is set at Tidal Anchor on Titan. This map features narrow hallways that lead to storage areas containing industrial containers and crossed by catwalks. Most of the map features interior locations, but there is one outdoor platform. Close-up encounters are prevalent, but larger fights can occur when players cross paths in the open areas. Wormhaven's location is the New Pacific Arcology, also located on Titan. It features a couple of former public spaces in the now-abandoned colony that are slowly being taken over by the local plant life. This map features twisting hallways that lead to a larger outdoor deck area and a smaller atrium. When playing on this map, players tended to congregate in the open areas, giving the matches on this map a different feel than those on Pacifica.

I wish there was more to this expansion because as it is you'll push through the new content pretty quickly and then find that you're not really compelled to come back to Mercury much after that. Curse of Osiris simply doesn't give you that much new content for your money, but without it your characters will be capped at level 20 and 300. This means that you'll be locked out of heroic level content because your power level will be too low. If you play with friends and they have this expansion, then you'll be forced to get it as well if you want to join them in every activity such as the Leviathan raid's hard mode or the Trials of the Nine. If that's not the case with you, you can probably pass on this expansion for now and see what happens with the next expansion due in spring 2018.

Note: I've played through all of the Curse of Osiris content on both PS4 and Xbox One and there is no discernable difference to the gameplay on the two systems.

Final Rating: 56%