Destiny 2's next expansion, Lightfall, launches on 28th February and will introduce the first of several big new changes coming to the now-venerable service game. Game director Joe Blackburn outlined what is to come in a monstrous 5000-word blog post entitled Lightfall and the Year Ahead.
Beginning with Lightfall, Destiny 2 is going to become more difficult, with enemies hitting harder and player abilities taking longer to come off of cooldown, with the idea being to make things feel more dangerous and encourage further cooperation.
Changes are also coming to the power level system, with the cap remaining static in the following Season of the Deep and potentially being removed entirely in 2024. Blackburn explains that "we think that there are some major issues with power in Destiny 2 and how it prevents players from seeing some of our best content, so we’d like to make a big change to the system in The Final Shape". The Final Shape will be the last expansion in the current Light and the Darkness Saga, essentially setting the stage for whatever comes next.
Season of Defiance begins alongside Lightfall, and it will do away with Umbrals and Umbral Energies, feature fewer but better seasonal vendor upgrades, tougher Vanguard Ops, and introduce new Crucible game modes Countdown, Countdown Rush and Checkmate Control, to name a few.
The entire blog post is well worth a read, as besides what there is to look forward to, it goes into the thought processes that led to these changes, with player feedback being crucial to each decision made.
Are you excited about the future of Destiny 2? Will you be diving into Lightfall when it drops next week? Look towards the next horizon in the comments section below.
[source bungie.net]
Comments 18
I am looking forward to coming back to Destiny 2, this expansion looks cool.
Definitely not putting a hundy on the expansion. Bare minimum entry level.
@CieloAzure The Hundy also includes 4 seasons of battle passes and their related quests but yea that's a pretty steep price for dlc's. I'm still debating this too but defo interested in light fall.
Had my share, never going back.
Unless... VR?
this game leaves newcomers so far back in the dirt
@nomither6 What do you mean with that? I was thinking about starting D2 for the first time but is it not recommended if you haven’t played it before?
Sure these changes will lose players rather then gain players. There model is so messed up. darude it’s not just new players it’s returning players they have so many different currencies and systems it’s hard to start or go back to it. There onboarding is terrible.
I don't play Destiny anymore, I'd like to get back into it but not sure where to start these days. However if they only have so many resources I would prefer to see them focus on keeping the experience right for those that stuck with the game, rather than getting new or lapsed players back in. Of course, ideally both could happen.
I've had a love-hate relationship (mostly love, but I dip in and out) with Destiny since D1. Been playing again recently and have really enjoyed catching up on content and playing a ton of PvP (always feels great to return). I think I'm going to get Lightfall and see how this next expansion kicks off, but I decided not to preorder the $100 version because that just seems like too large of a commitment up front. (I was seriously considering it when I first jumped back in and was playing for hours and hours each day, but now that I'm in a rhythm after a few weeks and am also playing other games, I feel the Destiny treadmill beneath my feet and feel less sure that I want to play Destiny and little else for that long).
Will be good to see the quality of life improvements, which are always a big highlight of any expansion. They've talked a lot about simplifying the nonsense (fewer currencies to juggle) and adding variety to activities and builds while preserving the power fantasy.
@Darude84 The game is bad at onboarding new players.
It's something they're actively addressing in Light fall though with Guardian Ranks.
The biggest problem is they have removed the first two years of story content for the game, the main campaigns that actually had some story to help onboard new players and get them geared up. So new players are lost in lore and unless you buy Witch Queen, don't have any good story content to do.
Beyond Light is now free with PS+ which helps a bit, but that story isn't very good.
I'll pay the 100$ but only cause it's my main game with friends. I think it's too steep, for an expansion in a game already containing a micro transaction store.
I really just want haptic feedback support
Destiny 2 remains a fine FPS game buried under so many mechanics as to make it impenetrable to new players.
The game needs a full Destiny 3 reboot. This means tidying up the story, having more classes with more granularity in the levelling and making the weapon system a bit more RNG.
Basically what they need to do is make Diablo 3 in space. This game is a classic for a reason with wonderfully streamlined post-game mechanics and plenty of room for experimentation in classes.
@RadioHedgeFund I'm hoping that after The Final Shape they do an overhaul of the whole thing, have a new starting place for newcomers. I love playing Destiny but its far too easy to get left behind
Bungie if your idea to make a game harder by making enemies hit harder and give guardians less resistance then you have no idea. How about improving on your garbage AI?
So they're making it harder for solo players then? That sucks! I've just got back into it this last week and I've been enjoying the grind.
@Stragen8 @Darude84 @nomither6 I started playing D2 a few days ago b/c I have PS+, and also my teen is really into it on PC. Now, I don’t play FPS b/c FP view isn’t to my liking, but I have been playing Fortnite an hour a day for a year so I can shoot things w/o expecting much of a story.
I really don’t know what’s going on in D2. My kid tells me that’s b/c I didn’t play 1 and this is a continuation. I assumed Beyond Light would be a good starting point b/c they added it to PS+ but perhaps Witch Queen would have been better b/c the game really wants me to buy WC. Now, I’m really only trying to play it solo but the starting area is ongoing online quests that I can join but it says I need to do something first but I don’t know how. I have done 6 solo bounties and 2 or 3 story missions, got the flying cycle, that’s cool, but the map lost me. My arrow disappeared and I was just walking around inside this big green tower. 🤷🏻♂️
Maybe I just need to keep doing the blue story guardian missions and all will be explained, but it isn’t exactly inviting.
@rjejr Yeah try to follow the quests in your inventory - you may need to Google some of them if you're confused.
The story doesn't make sense even if you played D1. There's so much that was packed into seasons or lore tabs that aren't there anymore. It's best to watch a video on it if you're interested.
The game is much much better if you have a group of friends to join up with. The best content is the raids, nightfalls and doing the other activities as a group.
Witch queen has a fun and engaging story, with actual story missions that can be enjoyed solo, however, it's not a 60$ solo game. It's a fun 6 hour bonus to the game.
@Stragen8 Thanks, I’ll play something else then. Life’s too short to waste on uninviting games.
@Stragen8 My kid played with me this afternoon to finish the tutorial section and get me to the city. I could see things getting a little more interesting now that I’m there. Not sure how I’ll be affected in 2 weeks when the season changes over but I’m not spending any $ to find out. I once spent $8 on Fortnite and it’s lasted me a year - keep my V-bux for the new battle passes each season - so that’s enough. I really don’t like playing games with other people online, I just want to shoot things. If it was split screen couch co-op I might play w/ my kid more, that’s different.
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