The other side of the loot pool is the now titled "Illuminated Engrams" (previously Bright Engrams) which drop all sorts of cosmetic goodies and sometimes an exotic ship, sparrow or Ghost. Bungie is sticking to their guns with how these engrams function — aside from the debacle of XP gain — a minor complaint comes against it. With so many new cosmetics, mainly shaders, why can’t these items be locked like armor or weapons? Why can’t they be deleted in mass? Having to systemically break-down shaders one by one is tedious and a waste of time. No one wants to sit around and delete 65 bland shaders, "wooo, look how much fun I’m having."

Getting back to the main story, though, you kill one version of Oryx in his chambers, but that’s not good enough, so you need to track him down once more in the Ascendant Realm and put the final nail in his coffin. This come in the form of the lengthy and well organize raid.

The final piece of DLC is more of an isolated incident on Earth, with a couple of overlaying issues after the fact. This takes the player to the Plaguelands, a sealed off area within the Cosmodrone that houses a familiar but new threat. You meet with Saladin Forge, the last remaining Iron Lord who seeks aid from the Guardians. For clarity, Iron Lords are essentially noble Guardians who have taken up the mantle to defend and rebuild civilization, protecting the walls of the Last City.

As the name suggests, The Last City is the central hub of Destiny and is the only safe haven on Earth. Well, maybe safe haven isn’t the best description of the city and the state of civilization, especially considering the events at the beginning of Destiny 2 Void Hunter 2, but it’s certainly better than what awaits those on the outskirts. The massive walls weren’t built for show, nor are they there to keep Titans out, but instead hostile alien races that have been left over from numerous battles following The Collapse. Most notably are The Fallen, but you’ll also see a monstrous species called The Hive on Earth, as well, due to their hideout being relatively close to the planet.

Destiny 2 is a full-fledged sequel to the original game and not an expansion. It contains all new locations, weapons, armor, characters, etc. You will not need to have played the original game and its expansions to hop into the sequel, but those that have can carry-over their character. Plus, there will be areas within the game that will acknowledge that you have played the previous content.

Destiny 2 is good at two things: shooting aliens in the face and doing that same thing with friends. Destiny 2 screwed the pooch on players as it's not only is on three platforms, but those three platforms can totally interact… oh wait, no they can’t. Destiny 2’s lack of cross-play is frustrating for the obvious reasons. Being able to play with friends in an online space is one of the many reasons people play online games and one of the biggest reasons people play Destiny 2. Having Guardians on PS4, Xbox One and PC is great as it means a wider audience, but it sucks when Guardians can’t play with their friends over on either of the other platforms. Much like Kotaku discussed in their latest Splitscreen podcast , this is a great way to tear people apart. Instead of enjoying the raid with all my friends, now I get to hear about how my friends did this without me over on Xbox or PC, or vice-versa, and it doesn’t feel good.

This is where the Cabal are fiercest, and it doesn’t help that they have also been looking into the Vex Gate, so you will need to get past their forces to make any progress. It's revealed that the Vex are returning through this gate to the Black Garden for an undetermined reason, so like any good Guardian, you follow them through. This is where you will arrive at a very unnerving location as the Vex seem to be worshiping a Black Heart. The final boss of the vanilla game, the Sol Progeny, is summoned to defend this heart, and upon defeating them, light is restored within the Traveller.

Where does Destiny 2 go from here? Curse of Osiris, much like previous Destiny DLCs before it, is more of the same. It can barely hold a spotlight on Osiris, who’s supposed to be one of the most important Guardians and it leaves more questions than it answers. Destiny 2 might be in more of a state of flux than Destiny. It wants to appeal to everyone. Casting such a wide net means knots, holes and all sorts of other problems.

Unfortunately, most of the rest of the content Curse of Osiris provides isn’t top quality. Mercury doesn’t offer the space or sense of wonder other areas provide to make it a worthwhile social space or area to explore. The Lighthouse, the new social space, is way smaller than it was in the original Destiny, and it only contains one vendor to interact with. Meanwhile, the open area of Mercury is just a tiny circle, so tiny in fact that Sparrows are disabled to give the illusion it's bigger than it really is. On Mercury, you’ll find one public event, three adventures, and one Lost Sector. For a planet that has been teased since the initial release of Destiny, it’s appearance in Destiny 2 is underwhelming.