Edge Magazine recently released issue #310 and one of the features was an in-depth look at Destiny 2. The staff over at Edge had a chance to play through the entirety of the D2 campaign and they came away extremely impressed with it. They also revealed a few new pieces of information!
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Energy Improvements
The energy weapons that we got to sample during the beta weren’t quite the finished products that will be awaiting us in the full game. In the full game, energy weapons that correspond with the shield of an enemy combatant will have a big effect. Once you deplete their shield using the matching weapon element, their shields will explode, causing splash damage to other nearby enemies. While this was apparent in the beta, the full extent of the damage wasn’t applied.
Timed
Nightfall Strikes will now be timed activities. Each Strike will have it’s own time limit, encouraging players to work together and really optimize their approach. The name of the game will be playing aggressively, optimizing your loadout beforehand, and using teamwork.This is likely to be at least one type of activity where locked loadouts will be in play.
Campaign Exotics
The article also revealed that Warlock players will acquire an Exotic chest piece early. This new Exotic will allow them to hover in the air while aiming down sights, and kills made while hovering will speed up grenade recharge. This is great news for players who were a little troubled by the recharge rates of abilities during the beta as we now have confirmation that armor can make the experience better.
This also marks quite an interesting design choice with Destiny 2 if the campaign is granting us Exotics as we progress now. Will the Titan and Hunter get their own unique Exotic piece from the same point in the campaign? Or will the Exotics correspond with each specific member of the Vanguard and the planet we find them on? Either way, one thing is clear: gear is going to play an important role in how your abilities perform.
Hunter PvE Details
We also learned that the Crowd-Pleaser perk for Gunslinger will generate up to 8 Orbs of Light with precision hits! That’s a nice quality of life improvement for PvE Hunters who were worried they may struggle to find a spot in end game activities compared to the other two classes who feature more co-op friendly abilities.
Not only that, but Edge also discovered something about the Hunter class that will apparently make PvE players VERY happy, but Bungie asked them to keep it secret… what do you think it is?
The Magician
Edge teased something big they referred to as “The Magician” but no other details were provided. Every time we get new information, it leads into more even more questions. September 6th can’t come soon enough!
PvE Players Rejoice
Destiny 2 is shipping with over 80 activities at launch, and they all will be “substantial in length, challenge, and reward.” If all of that content is designed with the same level of quality as the ‘Homecoming’ mission was, we are definitely in for a treat with Destiny 2.
They make note that at one point, Bungie realized they had more content than progression, although this has since been remedied. Hopefully this news helps alleviate some players concerns that Destiny 2 would ship with a limited amount of PvE content like vanilla Destiny.
Some other interesting PvE tidbits also emerged, especially concerning public events and Strikes. Apparently some public events can now be manually trigger while wandering around in patrol mode by picking up a flag, which also automatically charges your Super. Another interesting change from the original game is that apparently patrols and Strikes don’t unlock until the third and final act of the campaign.
The magazine also revealed a few new story details regarding the campaign itself, such as what happens after the conclusion of Homecoming. Players will awaken in the European Dead Zone and make their way to the Farm shortly after. From here, players will head out to secure a shard of Light that fell from the Traveler during the Cabal attack. Once that is accomplished, you will regain your Light and your abilities and begin your mission to bring Ghaul to justice.
They also dropped some info on the final boss of the campaign. The final battle during the campaign will be against some sort of shape-shifter. Edge describes the encounter as thrilling, and assures us that the boss isn’t just a bullet sponge.
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Conclusion
All in all it sounds like the Destiny 2 campaign is shaping up to be a truly epic experience. Over 50 hours of playtime in PvE alone sounds like a healthy amount of content. Add in the Crucible, upcoming expansions, and the steady stream of free updates and it looks like we’ll be busy for quite a long time.