Let's Unpack Bungie's Destiny 2: Lightfall Livestream

Well. That was a lot. 

Bungie just held its Destiny 2: Lightfall reveal stream, and there’s a lot to go over, so let’s just jump right into it.

Editors note: As a lapsed Destiny player seeing a new enemy that doesn’t just look like a slight various on the original 4 species is very enticing.

Destiny 2: Lightfall is releasing on February 28th, 2023 along with a new subclass, location, and campaign. The new location is a previously-hidden city on Neptune with an incredible cyberpunk-inspired look that has now found itself caught up in the conflict between Light and Dark. Calus, a name that longtime Destiny 2 players will recognise, has shown up to take the Neptune city, along with his new, enhanced Cabal faction, called the Shadow Legion. In addition to the Shadow Legion, there will be a new Pyramid enemy type called Tormentors that Bungie described as “boss enemies'' that show up during missions. There is also a new faction of humans on Neptune called Cloudstriders that Bungie says Guardians will learn from.

No word yet as to if the Strand mechanics in Destiny 2 will like people ‘like’ Norman Reedus peeing on mushrooms.

On the subclass front, Bungie showed the new Strand power (not affiliated with Hideo Kojima). Strand seems to be Guardians somehow manipulating the ties that bind things together, which somehow means that players get grappling hooks now. All classes will be able to use the grappling hook that comes with Strand, and Bungie said they designed the new location with Strand in mind, leading to new opportunities for exploration. Each class gets a new Strand super. Warlocks throw magic-missle-looking Strand darts, Hunters get a Strand rope dart that they fling at enemies, and Titans manifest Strand claws that they can use to become living Beyblades. Additionally, there will be legendary and exotic Strand weapons, though Bungie didn’t say more on those.

Lightfall, similarly to Witch Queen, will launch with a legendary difficulty option alongside its campaign. This was apparently a huge success in Witch Queen, as Bungie revealed that two out of three players completed the campaign on legendary. Other system-level improvements that Bungie has been working on include an in-game loadout system that will allow players to save and switch all of their equipment at once, an in-game group finder, and player commendations. One catch-up mechanic coming this season is the Gift of the Thunder Gods, a chest that is free to all players that will contain a full set of gear to boost a player’s power level and get them a little bit more caught up to the current season’s power level.

They should add an LFF* feature next.

*Dom Toretto voice: Looking For Family

The latter part of the stream was dedicated to Season of the Plunder, the new season that launches today. It’s a pirate season, with enough scurvy dogs to make Sea of Thieves jealous as Guardians will work with Drifter, Spider, and others to fight the freshly revived Eramis, the villain who was frozen at the end of Beyond Light. There are a number of new activities, including a 6-player activity called Ketchcrash. In Ketchcrash, Guardians will jump onto Fallen pirate ships to steal the treasure aboard. There’s also a 3-player activity, called Expedition, which involves collecting map fragments and then protecting a drill while it digs for treasure at the spot the map reveals. Then there are the weekly missions, the Pirate Hideouts, in which Guardians will invade secret hideouts in order to capture relics.

Free for all players is the Arc 3.0 update which overhauls the current Arc subclasses in the game. Bungie stated that they purposely timed Arc 3.0 with a Fallen-themed season because the Fallen are often countered with Arc damage. Arc Hunters have been given an entirely new super, the Gathering Storm, where the Hunter throws their arc staff which then sticks out of the ground (or the enemy that gets hit by it) and chains arc damage in a radius around it. Warlocks turn into and create lightning, and Titans are described as “freight trains.” 

You call that an Arc Super? This is an Arc Super. *pulls out bigger hunter blade*

Also free for all players is the Kings Fall raid which is returning from Destiny 1’s best expansion The Taken King. Originally released in 2015 (seven damn years ago), King’s Fall is one of the most important raids in Destiny history. When Bungie brought Vault of Glass forward into Destiny 2, they modified and updated a few encounters to fit the contemporary combat sandbox in Destiny 2. Presumably, Bungie will have done the same to King’s Fall, but we won’t find out until the raid launches on August 26th.

There is something about seeing Destiny armour in the Fortnite artstyle that is deeply upsetting. Like seeing a photo of your parents when they were young at a party.

Following on from the content announced for Destiny 2, Bungie announced an in-depth collaboration with Epic Games and Fortnite. Destiny 2 is coming to the Epic Games Store today, and anyone that downloads it within the next week will get the 30th Anniversary pack for free. Additionally, Destiny 2 is getting three armour sets inspired by Fortnite cosmetics added, one for each class. On the flip side, Zavala, Ikora, and the Exo Stranger are coming to Fortnite as cosmetic skins. More than that though, Fortnite is adding a Control mode to the game, which is a PvP mode in Destiny 2 about capturing control points, that takes place on Javelin-4, a Destiny 2 PvP map that has been rebuilt in Fortnite. This is a more in-depth collaboration than I was expecting, and I’m really pleasantly surprised. In addition to all of this, Destiny 2 skins will be added to Fall Guys in a couple weeks. So yeah, Zavala and Lebron James will be able to fusion dance with Ikora… VIDEO GAMES!

These all look exceptionally dumb, in a very good way.

Finally, one of the most important announcements came at the end of the stream. A few years ago, Bungie announced that they would be removing the Red War, Destiny 2’s base campaign, from the game, citing technical limitations of their  engine. Last year, Bungie removed content from the fan favourite Forsaken expansion, again citing engine considerations. This year though, Bungie announced that they have made such great progress with their engine optimizations that they will no longer be sunsetting current expansions. This is excellent news, as losing content is always disappointing and anti-consumer. Hopefully they will be able to bring back the content that was previously removed now that they’ve made optimisations to their engine.

Damn… Neptune got that bisexual lighting.