Destiny 2has enjoyed one of the best years since its release in September of 2017, and this is thanks to the Beyond Light expansion and its contents as well as all the seasons from Year 4. There were great peaks this year with Harbinger and Presage, as well as the deeper and more engaging storytelling from every season, leading up to Season of the Lost and the reveal thatOsiris had been Savathun in disguisefor a long time. And yet, one of the best things to come toDestiny 2is the 30th Anniversary Pack, a DLC filled with well-delivered content and plenty of fantastic items to get from compelling and difficult activities.
The 30th Anniversary Pack has two new core activities: one is the 6-player Dares of Eternity, the other is a new Dungeon called Grasp of Avarice. Both of them share similarities to a degree with another popular looter shooter series, and that isBorderlands. Despite the fact that bothDestiny 2andBorderlandshave an overall sci-fi theme where humanity fights off alien races willing to invade and destroy their home, and despite the fact that both titles are looter shooters that delve heavily into their gunplay, the games couldn’t be more different. That is, until the 30th Anniversary Pack dropped.
RELATED:Destiny 2 Player Shares Shatterdive Sword Skating Method in The Corrupted Strike
The Similarities Between Destiny 2’s 30th Anniversary Pack and Borderlands Games
Destiny 2’s Dares of Eternity feels a lot likeBorderlands 3’s Arms Racethanks to Xur and Starhorse acting as game show hosts, which is not too different fromBorderlands 2’s Axton and Salvador returning to the third installment of the series to host a deadly rush for gear. Xur and Starhorse are a nice change of pace and tone forDestiny 2, considering they both act as comic relief in a game that can get pretty gloomy in terms of narrative, and that’s something that only Cayde-6 had been successful at doing in the past. But Dares of Eternity is just a whacky, hilarious piece of content that is not afraid of mentioning community memes and creating more with bold lines of dialogue.
This is something that theBorderlandsseries has always been great at in the past, working it into the main narrative as well, with plenty of jokes on everything one could possibly think of, be it appropriate or inappropriate.Borderlandsgames have never been afraid of being this way, and while it’s not a matter of boldness when it comes toDestiny 2, but rather what can be considered immersion-breaking or lore-breaking,Dares of Eternitydoes bring some light gameplay in the months leading to The Witch Queen.
The Witch Queenis likely going to featureDestiny 2at its darkest since Forsaken and Season of Arrivals, considering that Guardians will have to take the fight to Savathun’s Hive Lightbearers in her Throne World. The new Grasp of Avarice Dungeon is not as playful as Dares of Eternity, and yet it manages to encapsulate something else from theBorderlandsuniverse perfectly, and that is how one can descend into madness. InDestiny 2’s Dungeon, this is about Wilhelm-7’s story and how he ended up growing mad to the point that he shot himself and even his Ghost, the only thing that prevented him from dying permanently.
To a degree, the same descent into madness was that ofBorderlands' Handsome Jack, which was told throughBorderlands The Pre-SequelandBorderlands 2, mainly, with some extra tales fromBorderlands 3as well. Handsome Jack is still considered one of the best villains in video games ever, and that’s not only thanks to his incredible charm and funny quotes but also because he is a very human character that became evil due to critical life events that changed him. Combining these aspects together shows how muchDestiny 2’s 30th Anniversary Pack nods toBorderlandsgames' tone and characters, and that alone is one of the most interesting things to come to the franchise in recent years.
Destiny 2is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE:Gladd Beats All Destiny 2 Dungeons Solo Flawless in A Row
