This is where the Cabal are fiercest, and it doesn’t help that they have also been looking into the Vex Gate, so you will need to get past their forces to make any progress. It’s revealed that the Vex are returning through this gate to the Black Garden for an undetermined reason, so like any good Guardian, you follow them through. This is where you will arrive at a very unnerving location as the Vex seem to be worshiping a Black Heart. The final boss of the vanilla game, the Sol Progeny, is summoned to defend this heart, and upon defeating them, light is restored within the Traveller.
Destiny is a game with strong lore that does a poor job of presenting it to players. Though Bungie vastly improved the game’s story elements in The Taken King and Rise of Iron, it’s with Destiny 2 where the developer is looking to make it’s biggest strides yet. Featuring a full-fledged campaign, Adventures that tell their own sidestory and new lore items, the story team in Bellevue, Washington have had their hands busy. We got to sit down the Matthew Ward and Jason Harris, members of the Story and Cinematics team to discuss Destiny 2’s plot.
[MW]: We’re just aware of it as you are. It’s harder for us to tell a story, but it has it’s moments. There’s one part in the story where you’re told to speak and Ghost cuts you off. So, we have fun with that.
[JH]: So, that’s kind of outside the scope of where we have our involvement. We’re super dedicated to story, and the high-level development decisions based on classes or specializations happen amongst other teams. We try our best to have a good narrative wrapper around that decision-making. Our involvement in the PvP is to develop a strong character in Lord Shaxx.
With 2018 in full swing, a solid first quarter down and plenty of games to keep anyone happy, Destiny 2 Edge of Fate 2 is likely not on the mind. Bungie has been straightening Destiny 2 out, though, and it finds itself on almost the exact same path that its predecessor took. This isn’t a bad path, but it leaves a a bland taste in the mouth. It’s medicine that can be swallowed with maybe some slight discomfort from past experiences. Destiny 2 will continue to course correct, and those improvements do help the game, but do they help it enough? That’s up for the player to decide, because making things work that should have been working all along isn’t a reason to come back.
[MW]: Well, let’s look at the Fallen. In our Age of Triumph Grimoire Cards, we’ve taken the time to advance their story and key into the current state of the faction. The Fallen have completely lose their house structure. The idea of the Kells and the different houses are gone now, and they’re just a broken people. Some of them have gathered together in the EDZ, and others are roaming the solar system. We’re able to really progress their story following the events of the previous games and expansions. Then we have the contextualized dialogue system to hint back to what you’ve done to them in the past.
It’s been nearly three years since Bungie and Activision first brought us into the world of Destiny . The 2014 first-person loot shooter with MMO-lite mechanics strived to be the next big thing, but was ultimately disappointing. A lack of content, a thrown together campaign and repetitive missions marred what was supposed to be the next big Activision IP. Though Bungie got their act together and released the stellar Taken King and OK Rise of Iron expansions, neither felt like the proper leap forward the franchise needed. Well, now we have Destiny 2, a new chance for Bungie to hit the reset button.
[JH]: Like any good story, it’s going to live or die based off the depth and reliability of your villain. We put a lot of hours into developing Ghaul. At first, yeah, he seems like a guy who just wants to kick us in the balls and move on down the road after taking Earth.
[Jason Harris]: It’s really an amazing narrative opportunity to strip away the powers. It’s the tried and true, “is Superman really Superman without his powers,” scenario. If given the opportunity, we would have loved to do more missions without players having their Light, but that is not the case. I looked at it as nothing more than a great story opportunity.
The strike displayed just how big of a leap the sequel is over its predecessor. The Inverted Spire is an exciting mission from beginning to end, showing off the design philosophy that will hopefully permeate the entire game. The maps were far more open, allowing us to approach the battles in certain ways. At one point, we had to cross a huge battlefield with Vex and Cabal battling in the craters. While there will be a lot of returning enemies, there will also be plenty of new ones. For example, the Cabal have War Beasts, doglike creatures that aren’t afraid to get in close and maul unsuspecting Guardians. Even the returning enemies have some neat new abilities. The Cabal Phalanx now has the ability to put down a bigger shield for a small amount of time, meaning you’ll have to jump over and walk around if you want to get them.
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