At Bungie and Activision’s Destiny 2 event last week, a huge amount of information was revealed. We’ve been sifting through it, analysing it and trying to figure out just exactly what we can expect when Destiny 2 launches on September 8, 2017.
One of the first things that was apparent during the event was that story and narrative was going to take center stage. Just take a look at the gameplay trailer below.
The trailer is explicity for showing off Destiny 2‘s gameplay and even it includes a some cutscenes, dialogue and touches of plot and narrative. This is a huge improvement from Destiny 1.
The first game does have an amazingly deep lore for fans to sink their teeth into, but only if you’re willing to dig through the online Grimoire. Let’s face it, most of us aren’t. When “The Taken King” launched, Guardians the world over were excited to see some story. The same can be said of “Rise of Iron”, though that didn’t quite have the same impact.
In Destiny 2 Bungie has listened to its fans and its players and is making changes for the better.
What’s the Story?
In Destiny 2, we know that (so far) the fan theories have proven correct. The Cabal’s Red Legion, led by Primus Ghaul have attacked and defeated the Tower. The Guardians have lost their light and the Cabal are trying to take the Light for themselves.
Ghaul arrived in the solar system to respond to the Skyburners’ distress signal sent during the events of “The Talen King.” Raised to believe the Traveler made the wrong choice by gifting Light to humanity, Ghaul and the Red Legion want to show their strength to the Traveler and thus become Guardians.
Ghaul’s actions have led to the commencement of the Red War across the solar system, the loss of Light for the Guardians and the placement of a huge ship near the Sun which is siphoning Light.
No More Grimoire
That’s right, Grimoire will be a thing of the past when Destiny 2 launches. Speaking with Forbes, Bungie World Lead Steve Cotton said that Grimoire won’t appear in the sequel. When asked if Grimoire would be in Destiny 2 he said;
The answer to that question is ‘no’ and the reason it’s ‘no’ is because we want to put the lore in the game. We want people to be able to find the lore. All the story is told through the Adventures, it’s told through the characters in the world, it’s told through the campaign and it’s told through scannables you find throughout the world.
This is a huge step forward and is sure to please many fans. The Grimoire held such a wealth of lore and information about Destiny’s universe, but having to go outside of the game to get to it was a pain.
If Bungie can include as deep and rich an experience within Destiny 2 it is going to vastly improve the experience.
From the reveal, we can thankfully breathe a sigh of relief and rest assured that Bungie knows what it’s doing. There looks to be more story and character in the first snippets we’ve been shown than the entirety of vanilla Destiny.
It looks like Bungie finally does have time to explain.
Destiny 2 is launching for PC, PS4 and Xbox One on September 8, 2017.
