Destiny is a Roaring Engine of Space-Fantasy Love
A new set of class specific abilities are being added as well. These abilities stay the same no matter which subclass you choose, and are generally meant to help your teammates. Titans can plant down a shield, Warlocks can cast an area of healing and Hunters get a dodge roll similar to the one that was part of the Nightstalker subclass. The first two are activated by holding down the circle or B button and the Hunter’s roll is done by double tapping it. They are all a nice addition to each class’ set of abilities and are super tactical. They were all incredibly useful in both PvE and PvP.
Other (obvious) additions to Destiny 2 are the new subclasses and extra abilities. I’m a Titan main, so most of my time was spent with the new Sentinel class, but I also got to check out the Dawnblade Warlock and the Arcstrider Void Hunter melee Rework. All three are similar in a lot of ways to their previous subclass, but with more aggressive tendencies. The Arcstrider is almost identical to Bladedancer, save for the super, which gives you some mad bow staff skills. Dawnblade gives you a flaming sword and the ability to essentially fly around the map as you swing fiery blasts at everyone. That’s instead of Sunsinger, which brought you back to life and gave you unrestricted access to all the melees and grenades you wanted. Instead of Defenders and their Wards of Dawn, Sentinels will get a Captain America shield that they’re able to throw around and smash into people with. So while I think that the new subclasses are less tactical than the original ones, they grant new and interesting game mechanics to players. The new supers are about taking out as many baddies as you can, and in that case, all three are extremely successful.
OK, yes, loot has not been talked about and isn’t that what Cayde-6 made a firm point of mentioning at the end of the trailer? Well, seeing as we already know the outcome of what happens to said «loot,» it might not seem to matter — wrong. Just like everything else, loot is in full-swing. It might as well be raining guns and armor from the skies because the loot is real and it’s good. Aside from the sweet Raid armor mentioned above, the drop rates on loot have all been set to maximum. I’m talking exotics, I’m talking legendries and everything in between. My guardian has never looked rawer. I’m a space wizard and I’m here to party. All this loot also means that catching up has never been easier for those who might have fallen behind coming back to Destiny. Getting to 400 light level should take no time at all and again, Destiny 2 isn’t out until September, so there is plenty to do until then.
There was an interesting moment when we finally run into the Taken again. As new players, the game acted as if The Taken King never happened. With the possibility of a lot of these moments popping up, how have you handled the whole new player vs. returning player conundrum?
[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.
Whether they intended it or not, when Bungie stated during the livestream that community was what bound Destiny together, they made relationship clear. Destiny is about playing with friends new and old. It could be a one off, with the new Guided Games or something more concrete with friends who have banded together again to face the encroaching darkness. If community is so important to Destiny, it was only understandable that this path would be traversed eventually. Relationship, is something most of us take part in everyday whether we like it or not. Even the Guardians in the Tower couldn’t escape the inevitable crouchers that would surround you or the dance parties. Oh, the dance parties. People can’t help but be drawn to each other, even if it means joining others only in digital spaces.
Curse of Osiris begins after the events of Destiny 2. The mysterious Warlock Osiris has vanished, and a new Vex threat has surfaced on Mercury. Pushed by Ikora Rey to investigate, you and your Ghost set your sights on the planet closest to the Sun in the hopes of saving Osiris and defeating this new threat. The Vex have always been the most interesting of Destiny’s five alien species. Unlike the others, we don’t know what motivates them to convert planets and who their allegiance belongs too. Likewise, the character of Osiris has been hyped up over the past three years through the Grimoire and Brother Vance, which means that there should be an interesting story here. Unfortunately, there isn’t. In fact, Curse of Osiris’ storytelling is a regression back to Vanilla Destiny.