Ever because the launch of the Forsaken enlargement in 2018, developer Bungie has been shifting its focus with Destiny 2, emphasizing build up its world and telling extra character-driven tales which might be vital to that world’s progress. I’ve solely spent a few days with the Beyond Light enlargement, however to this point it demonstrates Bungie’s new course higher than any content material the developer has launched to this point. The marketing campaign of Beyond Light particularly could be the perfect model of Destiny 2 storytelling, due to an emphasis on characters that makes its run-and-gun missions really feel extra significant than they’ve in previous iterations.Beyond Light continues the story of the arrival of the Darkness, a robust, unknown enemy pressure, to the photo voltaic system. We’ve been listening to in regards to the Darkness because the first days of Destiny, however now we lastly know what it’s. So far, it hasn’t been an enemy a lot as a seductive pressure, encouraging the individuals of the photo voltaic system to stray from the benevolent Traveler and the ability it is granted gamers because the first sport. We lastly get to do this new energy, however the story marketing campaign of Beyond Light has characters always questioning if the dangers are value the advantages.Unfortunately (or possibly thankfully), we want these advantages, which manifest themselves within the type of a brand new icy energy known as Stasis. Eramis, the chief of one in every of Destiny’s enemy teams, the Fallen, have found learn how to wield Stasis, making them a few of the strongest creatures within the photo voltaic system. To defeat them, we have to tackle the ability of Stasis as nicely, which alters the sport considerably by introducing a number of recent skills in each player-vs.-environment and player-vs.-player actions.The opening few hours of Beyond Light are about determining learn how to beat Eramis, which requires you to finish a bunch of duties to unlock new Stasis powers–pretty a lot par-for-the-course Destiny stuff. There’s a brand new huge unhealthy and we have to kill it. Breaking up the missions wherein you chase down bosses or battle large teams of enemies are your normal “kill X enemies in Y location with Z gun/ability” grinds. Every so usually, you may unlock new sorts of weapons to blast enemies, new armor to look spiffy doing it, and the brand new Stasis skills to offer some new methods to your battles.What makes the story marketing campaign stand out from different Destiny choices is that it feels just a little extra impactful for characters and vital to the general lore than a few of the sport’s previous tales. You spend the primary portion working with Variks, a Destiny 1 Fallen character who has been lacking all through the previous few years of Destiny 2, and who, within the backstory of Forsaken, betrayed his former allies (and was not directly answerable for the demise of one in every of Destiny’s greatest personalities, Cayde-6). Variks threw in with Eramis in hopes of uniting and defending the Fallen individuals, the Eliksni, however when the Darkness began to deprave her in her quest for energy, he bailed once more and known as on the Guardians for assist.Variks particularly is a captivating character as a result of his final purpose is to assist the Fallen, no matter kind that may take. He spends his time speaking about these objectives as you hunt Eramis and her advisers, however as a substitute of the villain being a distant, faceless pressure of evil, you are in direct contact together with her for lots of the missions. That results in straight-up debates between Variks and Eramis about the easiest way to guard the Fallen. Beyond Light makes sensible reference to lore whereas filling within the gaps for informal gamers. Between the characters really speaking about what issues to them, the deeper backstory of how the Fallen received the place they’re and what drives them, and the affect of the Darkness on occasions as they unfold, the marketing campaign elevates Destiny storytelling in a method that is been missing because the very first sport.Gallery
Even after the state of affairs with Eramis is resolved, the deal with inspecting characters and linking them with Destiny 2’s huge lore continues with the Exo Stranger. We final noticed the Stranger method again in Destiny 1’s vanilla marketing campaign, the place she principally confirmed as much as, once more, level at some huge unhealthy earlier than disappearing into the lore for years. In the marketing campaign, you spend a bunch of time studying in regards to the Stranger and who she actually is, how she’s affected by the sport’s lore, and the way she connects with different characters. It nonetheless principally exists within the realm of previous Destiny stories–characters usually simply monologue in between missions or chime in over the radio–but in Beyond Light, there is a feeling that selections and motivations really matter, and that there is extra underpinning the occasions than simply some new factor that wants taking pictures.At least in PvE, the brand new skills and weapons assist to vary up the expertise in enjoyable new methods. The Stasis skills are all based mostly on debuffing enemies whereas damaging them–the Darkness helps you to sluggish and freeze enemies, then shatter them to do injury, and a few skills create frozen partitions of ice to cease incoming hearth or management the battlefield. It gives some enjoyable new methods to unravel issues after spending a pair years with the identical set of powers, and I’m to see the methods Stasis will sync with different participant skills on a fireteam to take down a few of Destiny’s hardest challenges.As for the additions to the sport world, Europa feels huge and mysterious within the methods the place Destiny 2 greatest excels. It’s stuffed with towering frozen ruins and tough-to-spot nooks and crannies, offering loads of beautiful vistas and locations to slide in small discoveries. Notable is the inclusion of dynamic climate, a Destiny first, the place storms will whip up as you are working round a patrol zone. The climate provides just a little further feeling of life to the place whereas altering up firefights as visibility immediately plummets underneath a blanket of snow. It’s not a drastic change to the expertise, however Europa does really feel recent and foreboding in a brand new method for Destiny that provides to the need to discover it.There are a variety of different, smaller modifications within the sport, the results of which have not all turn out to be clear but. While I like Stasis in PvE, I have not had an opportunity to see how a lot it’s going to change the dynamic of the Crucible, the place gamers go to face off in opposition to one another. On paper, it looks like the brand new powers ought to add some new strategic depth to teamwork within the Crucible, however I’m to see for myself–particularly in gentle of the complaints some are already leveling in opposition to Stasis inside the Destiny neighborhood.Gallery
It’s additionally laborious to gauge the standard of any Destiny 2 enlargement within the first few hours and even days. So a lot of the sport burns slowly, requiring you to grind up your energy, unlock new gear, perceive new programs and new meta relationships between weapons, and uncover hidden mysteries. The Deep Stone Crypt raid can be a significant query mark, because the raids are at all times the place Destiny takes its greatest dangers and reveals off its greatest concepts. That will not be launched into the sport till November 21.I’ve been impressed with Beyond Light to this point, although, particularly in its storytelling focus. Destiny 2 campaigns have struggled to convey their stakes or painting well-developed characters all through the sport’s life, however this enlargement looks like a significant step ahead. I’m not simply keen on seeing how the subsequent mission is designed–I’m keen on what I’d study in regards to the Stranger, the Fallen, and the Darkness, too. Destiny’s world is huge and multifaceted, and with Beyond Light, it lastly appears as if Bungie is determining a strategy to higher set up what makes it so fascinating to followers with out at all times counting on pages and pages of lore textual content.
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