Destiny 2has started an ambitious journey to tackle it biggest overarching story thread and fulfill longstanding fan expectations. Bungie is committed to its MMO-FPS for the foreseeable future, and even thoughitsDestiny 2’s roadmap looks good on paper, time will tell whether the developer can execute it well on its own.
Since the split with Activision,Destiny 2has taken a sharp turn, to say the least. It has become evident that Shadowkeep was a refresher, a smaller intermediary expansion before Bungie went back to making full sized, fully original expansion content. Now that Shadowkeep has set the scene, it’s time for act 1 to begin.
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The studio will resolve the game’s major story conflict, teased in a post-credits scene during Vanilla, in a trilogy of expansions culminating in the ominousLightfall. These will not only be tied to each other, but also connect to other early story threads thatDestiny 2has laid out,such as the coming of Savathun, all likely in service of the big bad.
The Darkness
This means that Bungie cannot simply write new events or characters to create solutions for the battle between Light and Dark. It hasto incorporate existing characters such as Savathun andUldren Sov into the evolving storyline, but the good news is that it has given themselves 3 years to do so.
It was explicitly stated by game director Luke Smith that this trilogy will drive “to a moment.” Likely involving the ominous force of evil in the game,The Darkness has been hyped upso much and evolved in such ways that one wonders how the studio can deliver a climax inside the vast, and somewhat convoluted, storyline ofDestiny. Moreover, the game director had also stated that every expansion in this trilogy would feature a brand new, never before seen zone. Somehow, there will need to be a story reason for our characters to go these uncharted destinations to continue the narrative that has been laid out. Because of this, new additions, and building on the old, Destiny 2’s biggest challenge is making the Darkness pose the threat that has been set up for so.
It goes without saying that these zones will tie to the Darkness in some significant way such as harboring a pyramid ship, a trick which the studio cannot afford to pull another time. What the studio can continue iterating on are Darkness subclasses, a longtime dream of fans and developers alike.
The first one, called Stasis, will be coming withBeyond Light,and it has been speculated by some that each upcoming expansion might bring more Darkness subclasses. It is impossible to know how hard this will be to do on Bungie’s end, but given that each ofDestiny’s biggest expansions have introduced new subclasses, it isn’t out of the question.
Darkness subclasses had been rumored to be on the horizon for a long time. Similarly, since early concept art, a new and purely Dark alien race was speculated to be the ultimate arch-nemesis of humanity. A couple of weeks ago, a keen-eyed fan had formed a theory on who or what willrepresent the Darkness and its potential new alien race, and while this is all still speculation, it remains to be seen whether Bungie has planted the seeds of this supposed new race in the game already.
Despite all the new content,the game is turning back to its rootsat the same time as even the original director for the cinematic trailers was hired forBeyond Light, providing fans with some familiar imagery in the teasers. It is an exciting time to be aDestinyfan asBeyond Lightseems to be signaling a powerful new beginning for the franchise, aiming for new heights and embracing the past.
Destiny 2: Beyond Lightis available on November 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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