Just about each week brings one thing new to Destiny 2, whether or not it is story beats, new actions, or fascinating new mixtures of parts that permit gamers devastate one another within the Crucible. Iron Banter is our weekly take a look at what is going on on on the earth of Destiny and a rundown of what is drawing our consideration throughout the photo voltaic system.We’ve had a pair weeks now to delve into Duality, the primary of two new dungeons Bungie beforehand introduced would come to Destiny 2 this yr, and like many, I’ve been having fun with getting stepped on by Caiatl for the final week (…not like that). What’s particularly impressed me concerning the new dungeon is how Bungie has deployed it in service of its narrative. We actually bounce into the thoughts of Calus and shoot his private demons to determine what his complete deal is. It’s type of good.
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Now Playing: Let’s Play Destiny 2’s New Dungeon, Duality | Livestream
I’ve been speaking extensively about how good Destiny 2’s story has gotten within the final couple of years to only about anybody who will hear (apologies to the video games journalists who made the error of getting a beer with me after a current in-person preview occasion). I do it on this column principally each different week. But the Season of the Haunted is setting a brand new bar for what Bungie’s narrative crew has completed and continues to do. It’s taking us straight into the internalized trauma of main characters like Crow and Zavala in a means that is actually putting. (Read merrit ok over at Fanbyte about how Destiny is one way or the other on the reducing fringe of the dialog on trauma; this season’s writers additionally lately mentioned taking over these matters throughout a bunch interview I obtained to take a seat in on).But the season is not simply bringing that depth to the heroes. It’s additionally doing so with Calus, the exiled Cabal emperor, in a means that is explaining his historical past and detailing his motivations to make him a very compelling goal for our shooty sensibilities.This is one thing that deserves a better look, as a result of the eye Bungie is paying to Calus feels indicative of a comparatively new strategy. We’ve talked rather a lot about how cool the buildup was to Savathun, large dangerous of Destiny’s The Witch Queen expansion–it actually grounded the sport to have a reputable menace working on the earth of Destiny for a very long time earlier than we lastly met it and defeated it. The sport felt prefer it was constructing towards one thing and that the actions of characters and villains had been tangible and highly effective.What I’m realizing I like much more than being spooked by a Hive god enacting horrors all through the sport for years, although, is how a lot time we have spent currently coping with villains as characters. We’ve been getting nice characterization among the many heroes in each the lore and on screen–but Season of the Haunted, and The Witch Queen earlier than it, have centered antagonists in a means that makes them really feel like extra than simply new enormous monsters to shoot. All the runway spent main as much as The Witch Queen was wonderful, however I’m much more within the moments we have gotten since then which have allow us to peer into Savathun’s thoughts and perceive her as greater than only a scary drive that can in all probability kill us.Savathun was spooky as an unseen manipulator, however she’s extra fascinating as a (considerably) current character.An entire lot of Season of the Haunted is about Calus. The former emperor was a part of Destiny 2 from simply concerning the starting, and we have spent fairly a little bit of time with him over time; there’s an entire lot of Calus lore if you happen to care to go learn it, from vanilla Destiny 2, the Leviathan raid and its smaller “raid lairs,” and the Menagerie occasion that got here with the Season of Opulence that adopted the Forsaken enlargement. But Season of the Haunted is doubling down by making Calus extraordinarily current as we discover the Leviathan and attempt to undermine no matter plans he appears to have. Duality is an exploration of Calus’s motivations, however the Sever missions every week have us speaking with the emperor, and he is an ambient presence throughout the Leviathan whenever you full public occasions or patrols. He’s simply at all times round, and whereas we may be at odds with him, we’re getting an actual sense of not solely what he desires and why he desires it, however what makes him who he’s.Duality offers a bunch of seems to be at previous occasions from Calus’s standpoint and provides new insights on plenty of his relationships. We discover out rather a lot about Calus’s biggest disgrace: the truth that his daughter, Caiatl, betrayed him, which he acknowledges was his personal fault. Destiny had beforehand proven us that Calus and Caiatl had been ideologically opposed, however in Haunted, we discover out that even Calus’s monumental love for his daughter could not outshine his jealousy–in his narcissism and large insecurity, he drove her away by absence and cruelty. He nonetheless cannot overcome that narcissism, nor can he fill the void Caiatl’s betray left in him, and that is what’s driving his actions because the season’s villain. We discover out in Duality that Calus desires to “transcend,” in accordance with Eris Morn–he desires to change into one thing else, one thing higher. He’s operating from himself, hoping the Witness will lastly make him the good man he at all times believed he ought to be, with none of the burdens of his previous failures.Having all that perception into a personality we have beforehand fought and appear destined to battle once more does an enormous quantity to raise Destiny past the surface-level gameplay of wandering into unique area locales and capturing whoever’s there. And it looks as if an strategy that is sticking, given how a lot time we have spent studying about and investigating Savathun in The Witch Queen enlargement. Though the Hive god of crafty was vanquished, the sport remains to be educating us about her by memetic messages she left behind, and all of that stuff solely deepens the sense of antagonism we get from Savathun.We even noticed this strategy with Rhulk, the boss of the Vow of the Disciple raid. Rhulk is lively all through the raid, speaking to you about what is going on on, and a bunch of extra voiceover within the Preservation mission fleshes out his backstory. Even although we solely encountered the character for the span of the raid and solely truly noticed him within the battle by which we killed him, Bungie nonetheless took time to attract him out as a personality, and to place that characterization in entrance of gamers in a means that is accessible within the sport.Rhulk type of got here out of nowhere within the Vow of the Disciple raid, however lore and audio logs within the Throne World retroactively helped fill out his character.Duality is a enjoyable dungeon, however I loved exploring it a lot extra due to the work it does to construct out the character of Calus. And his presence is making spending time on the Leviathan very fascinating, since you possibly can hear from him throughout Sever missions and even on patrols. Those moments fill in backstory, however additionally they appear to be doing a shorter model of ramping us up towards an eventual reveal of what Calus’s complete deal is now. Last week, Calus talked about how he has change into one with the Leviathan–he claims that he’s actually a part of the ship. He additionally mentioned some gross stuff about the way it feels to have us operating round inside the enormous vessel, capturing issues and crawling throughout the decks.Calus could be very a lot part of the Leviathan in a narrative sense this season, and it is working wonders to make him an antagonist who feels worthy of our consideration. I’m hoping we study extra about his relationship with Ghaul, his betrayer, and what he thinks he is gaining from the Darkness, and all of the ways in which the Witness is preying on his pained, damaged psyche and flawed persona.Most of all, although, I hope we finally get to see Calus, and he is some type of fleshy, fungal, half-mechanical Cronenberg nightmare, fused into the bridge of the Leviathan. I’ve some sympathy for Calus, however finally I wish to see the type of terrible, disgusting monstrosity his hubris and narcissism has created. Feel free to share your grossest Calus boss battle concepts within the feedback under.
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