Is Destiny 2: Shadowkeep worth buying?

What you need to know

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep allows players to explore the moon and take on new nightmare enemies, but the campaign is too short and the moon itself isn't nearly as fun or interesting to explore as the areas from the Forsaken expansion are. The story is good, though, and there's more content coming with the expansion that will release over the course of the next month.

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep summarized

• Destiny 2: Shadowkeep allows players to explore the moon and take on new nightmarish enemies.
• The campaign has a great story and the missions offer a healthy challenge.
• The campaign feels way too short.
• The moon is on the bland side and lacks things to do.
• More content is coming over the course of October.

Facing your fears

The Shadowkeep expansion sees Guardians travel to the Moon, where they have to take on a terrifying new type of enemy called Nightmares, which are apparition-like beasts that take the shape of past foes. Most of their army consists of the Hive, but over the course of the expansion's narrative, players will discover the true source of the Nightmares — and this revelation will shock players who finished the game's base campaign.

Overall, Shadowkeep's campaign has a great story and the gameplay experience is challenging and fun, but it's on the short side. You can complete the campaign in just about four hours, which is significantly less than the eight-hour-long campaign from Foresaken, the previous expansion.

On top of this, the Moon itself is lacking in interesting things to do and in general feels devoid of life, which makes it a disappointing area to explore. Most of the activities currently available on the Moon boil down to doing the same Public Events that players have been doing since Destiny 2 vanilla, and that really sucks, especially since the previous DLC introduced new Public Events to the mix. There are some secrets to find, sure, but it's not enough.

More content is coming

While the state of Shadowkeep is overall disappointing right now, there is more content coming soon that will hopefully improve the state of the expansion. A new raid and dungeon are coming, as well as several Exotic gear quests. In addition, the robotic Vex are going to start invading soon and will continue the offensive all the way until the middle of November.

It's unclear if this content will be any good, or if it will do much to improve the Moon's bland atmosphere, but if it does, my thoughts on Shadowkeep will be a lot more positive. For that reason, my recommendation is to wait a month or so and to keep an eye on what the community thinks of the content when it drops. Shadowkeep right out of the gate wasn't as awesome as Forsaken was, but that doesn't mean it can't develop into something excellent.

In the meantime, if you haven't gotten it already, I highly recommend the Forsaken expansion that came out last year. It has some of the best storytelling and lore in the Destiny universe, and the two new areas it introduced, the Tangled Shore and the Dreaming City, are rife with interesting places to explore and tons of cool activities to partake in. The expansion also includes a raid and a dungeon. Overall, it's pretty much everything you could ever want in a Destiny DLC.