After spending a decent chunk of time with Destiny 2’s Forsaken expansion, here are my spoiler-free early impressions.

The quality of life improvements are numerous. The new collections tab (found in your character menu) is convenient, useful, and allows you to reacquire many items you have previously obtained. You can reacquire any non-randomly rolled weapons or armor. You can reacquire all your exotic weapons and armor. You can access all your emblems and shaders. Shaders have been overhauled and streamlined. If you’ve obtained a particular shader at least once, you can reacquire more of that shader by spending glimmer, legendary shards, or bright dust (depending on where the shader is from). Shaders no longer require glimmer to apply. You can reacquire ships and sparrows. The collections interface shows certain items by season, and shows which items were missed (they are greyed out).  The collections tab at large shows how each item can be obtained.

Basically, the collections tab is your friend.

When I logged in, I was given 1000 silver and I thought that was a nice touch; many Destiny players are collectors and getting a handful of bright engrams (for the new Tess offerings) straightaway was a welcome (and surprising) gift.

The previous mod system has been overhauled and you can dismantle your no longer useful mods for mod parts.

Three of coins are no longer, and you can dismantle them for 31 legendary shards each; their original cost.

There are better (and more) perks on weapons and armor. Infusing has been changed back to Destiny 1’s system (primary into primary, secondary into secondary, and heavy into heavy), and now requires planet consumables in addition to glimmer and legendary shards. Masterworking a weapon is now a multi-step process.

There are many new types of bounties including bounties from Tess, Hawthorne, and the point of contact NPCs on each planet (e.g.: Brother Vance). If you can think of an activity to do, there is probably a bounty for it.

I’m not sure what to think about the story yet. While I’m consistently impressed with Bungie’s lore and flavor text writers, I often wonder about their dialogue. I’m also not a fan of Nolan North’s take on Cayde. I’m still baffled how they didn’t find a way to bring Nathan Fillion in, especially if this is truly Cayde’s last appearance. It’s obvious it isn’t Fillion with each line, but I applaud North for doing as well as he does. It seems a bit farcical, however, when Ghost is talking to Cayde and all I can think is, “Nolan North is literally talking to himself.”

I love the aesthetic of the Tangled Shore. If the old west existed in space, this would be it. I hope I find a space saloon.

I feel a bit overwhelmed with the sheer number of possible bounties to do each day (my brain wants to do them all), but I know I’ll find a balance eventually. I’m a little disappointed that infusing weapons and armor costs so many resources (I far preferred the more frugal option prior to this update), but I’m sure I will get used to that, too.

While I’m feeling mostly positive about this expansion and the changes it brings, I still feel hesitant. The absence of Fillion and some of the arbitrary changes to infusing and upgrading have me a bit wary. I will reserve judgement until after I finish the campaign.

If you are playing Forsaken, what do you think so far? And please, no spoilers. :)