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    2021 Was Destiny 2’s Best Year Because The Game Finally Got A Main Character


    In 2021, Destiny 2 discovered what it needed to be.True, this wasn’t a yr of the largest content material releases for Bungie’s MMO shooter–the Beyond Light enlargement was late 2020 and The Witch Queen is because of hit the sport in 2022. Destiny 2 final yr principally subsisted on seasonal content material, with new actions popping up and tales instructed in serialized style throughout weeks. The yr noticed a brand new raid come to Destiny 2, however it was a refreshed model of Destiny 1’s Vault of Glass. The largest inflow of latest stuff got here with the 30th Anniversary content material, with its hilarious Grasp of Avarice dungeon and Dares of Eternity occasion, however even that amounted to a fraction of what gamers are used to seeing when Bungie goes all-out with a brand new enlargement for the sport.But in 2021, Bungie found learn how to transcend simply being a sequence of latest content material drops and expansions. The developer refined the method it had been engaged on for the reason that launch of the Forsaken enlargement, and for the primary time, Destiny began to really feel like a contiguous, related world. The imaginative and prescient for Destiny 2 lastly began to match the fact of Destiny 2, and the sport has been extra compelling, not less than for me, than ever earlier than.It all may be traced again to a single necessary addition: In 2021, Destiny 2 gained a protagonist.Crow provides humanity to the expertise of turning into an immortal gunslinging area wizard, which helps floor Destiny 2’s story.For many of the run of Destiny, the sport has performed as if you happen to, the anonymous Guardian, are its foremost character. That’s nice for leaping onto the Dreadnaught to tackle Oryx or delving into the Pit of Heresy to uncover the secrets and techniques of a pyramid ship, however the actuality is that the participant character says little and feels much less. To some extent, you make the narrative your personal, however the one actual methods to work together with Destiny 2 are to shoot issues. So the tales the sport may inform had been considerably restricted, often deploying you to kill some random evil alien monster earlier than it may do Something Bad.The better of this method got here out of Forsaken, a narrative marketing campaign about looking down the murderers of longtime comedian reduction character Cayde-6. That story did a fairly good job of evoking some emotion and placing you right into a revenge fantasy, however even nonetheless, it could not get particularly deep. The success of the story depended in your funding in it, and since you’ll be able to’t discuss again to in-game characters like Petra Venj or your Ghost, it could not actually discover the nuances of abandoning your Guardian duties to go on a quest for vengeance. That’s to say nothing of the truth that you did not even actually get to decide on to hunt revenge–it was the story quest laid out earlier than you.In 2021, Destiny 2 pivoted to be extra concerning the tales of different individuals, of which you might be an important half. The yr primarily centered on The Crow, the resurrected Guardian who was once Uldren Sov, the man who murdered Cayde-6. Throughout the yr, we noticed Crow’s story increase and evolve, creating precise character conflicts and emotional moments out of situations that was once nearly discovering the brand new evil alien monster and eliminating it.The addition of Crow has been large, as a result of his perspective helps inject a ton of nuance into the Destiny 2 story. The themes of the story in Destiny 2 in 2021 have revolved round forgiveness and redemption, of reconsidering enemies and understanding their factors of view. Crow stands because the embodiment of these ideas–a former enemy the participant truly killed (in all probability; whether or not the kill shot was fired by you or Petra stays, technically, unknown), now returned to the world.The villainous backstory of Uldren Sov is a part of what provides Crow a perspective that creates battle with different characters, which makes everybody round him a little bit extra actual.Throughout 2021, Crow has struggled with hiding his id; he is aware of the particular person he was in his previous life is hated, however he hasn’t identified why. What’s extra, by the participant’s interactions with him, he is come to think about you a buddy, with out figuring out what occurred between you and his previous self.We’ve watched Crow grapple with what it means to be a Guardian, an immortal superhero tasked with defending humanity, a job gamers have fulfilled for years. We’ve seen different characters wrestle to determine learn how to take care of Crow, who’s successfully a brand new particular person with the face of a hated enemy. We’ve seen Crow’s affect change the opinions and personalities of different main characters as they’ve reconsidered their long-held beliefs. And we have seen Crow’s presence act as a possible spark that would set the fires of latest conflicts, ones that threaten to upend every thing that has beforehand been acquainted and static in Destiny 2 prior to now.Crow’s arrival gave Destiny 2’s story a viewpoint. He’s the one who has emotions about what’s taking place, and people emotions transcend the foreboding of one other new menace looming within the distance. He’s an individual who would not simply comply with orders, however who brings company to the story. His selections and perspective have created modifications in different characters, who in flip have change into fuller and extra fleshed out due to his presence. It’s a part of an general shift in Destiny 2’s narrative method, for sure–just take a look at the wonderful Season of the Splicer, which centered on conflicts between Saint-14, Osiris, Mithrax, and Lakshmi-2, with Crow largely backgrounded–but Crow has most frequently functioned as the guts of the narrative for the entire yr.And that change has made Destiny 2 way more partaking, way more emotional, and way more fascinating than it has been previously. The sport wanted a personality to concentrate on who wasn’t the participant, all the time following orders and by no means actually talking. The presence of an outsider, somebody who asks questions, sees issues otherwise, and worries about his personal id, has created ripples that unfold all through Destiny 2. In 2021, the entire mainstay characters within the sport, whose capabilities have principally been about handing out bounties and infrequently rattling off some dialogue, have gained not simply extra display screen time, however extra nuance. They really feel extra like individuals, and the tales the sport is telling are richer for it.Interactions between characters, fairly than simply straight monologues to the participant, have added dimensions to sport occasions that transcend following orders and taking pictures aliens.There’s rather a lot to be mentioned concerning the narrative work that introduced us so far. An enormous a part of what made 2021 such an thrilling yr for Destiny 2’s story was within the basis constructed years in the past, the bricks positioned one after the other over the course of the sport that at the moment are turning into a full-fledged edifice, lastly paying off their promise. But it is the characters who’ve made these reveals matter, and Crow specifically. What would in any other case simply be fascinating lore moments have change into emotional beats which have altered characters, for higher and for worse.This is probably the most engaged I’ve ever been with that world. This is probably the most I’ve ever anticipated what’s coming subsequent and the way issues will change. This is probably the most I’ve ever cared about Destiny’s characters. There may not have been fairly as a lot to do or see in Destiny 2 this yr as previously, however 2021 has been Destiny 2’s finest yr thus far as a result of that is probably the most alive the sport world has ever felt. It raises the bar for 2022 and beyond–as properly as for the reside video games prefer it.

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