Destiny 2 has years of story-telling classes to lean on. Will Bungie capitalise on this bounty? It’s trying good to this point.
Destiny 2 involves us off the backs of Destiny’s rubbish story and three years of hit-and-miss add-ons and expansions. In this last episode of a three-part sequence, we have a look at what Bungie has revealed of Destiny 2’s story to this point, and what that claims concerning the staff’s strategy.
The staff liable for The Taken King is main the sequel. Even now, months from launch, you may already see a component of continuity.
There is nice cause to hope Destiny 2 fronts an honest story, and that hope springs from the truth that the staff liable for The Taken King is main the sequel. Even now, months from launch, you may already decide up an element of continuity from The Taken King to Destiny 2 – one thing that’s been sorely missing in Destiny’s largely standalone story modules to this point.
The Taken King could also be primarily concerning the Hive, however one of many extra fascinating issues it does is current the Cabal as greater than senseless baddies for the participant to mow down, as they have been within the vanilla Destiny marketing campaign. Squaring off in opposition to the Taken, the Cabal have targets and motivations of their very own, and all through the marketing campaign and Strikes we be taught just a little about this, and tellingly, uncover a sign being broadcast again to the Cabal Empire.
That sign will need to have received someplace, as a result of the Cabal’s Red Legion arrives in force in Destiny 2 and completely smacks the shit out of The Last City on Earth; their leader, Ghaul, is the primary antagonist of the primary story marketing campaign, the Red War.
This sounds promising. As we noticed in out look back over Destiny’s add-ons and expansions in part 2, having a correct baddie to concentrate on is without doubt one of the issues that has actually labored for Destiny, so it’s nice to see that coming again once more. It’s additionally value noting that early trailers have centered on the Vanguard, particularly Cayde-6.
Giving us an precise character to attach with is one other aspect that has labored for Destiny, and it appears like we’ll be given extra alternatives to take action in Destiny 2. Each of three leaders (Cayde-6, Zavala and Ikora) is hanging out on a distinct vacation spot in Destiny 2, and hopefully, with function major questgiver and radio buddy all through a phase of the primary story marketing campaign (or maybe one in every of these layered stories Bungie is speaking about now. More on that in a minute).
This character-driven narrative builds on The Taken King’s foundations, because the enlargement’s marketing campaign went a great distance in direction of bringing the personalities of those explicit three characters to the foreground. While the quip-happy Cayde-6 is a transparent group favorite, Zavala’s deliberation, power and willpower make him a basic leader-hero, and the dignified, restrained Ikora is each very quietly humorous and just a little bit scary if you happen to look previous her reserved façade.
The Taken King additionally featured a substantial amount of Eris Morn and ended with a tease on one thing associated to her, and given we all know Destiny 2 will decide up different narrative developments and threads from The Taken King, it’s a reasonably secure guess this tease, not less than, will play out on the sequel – particularly if you happen to settle for that Rise of Iron was a bit of throwaway filler.
That’s not exhausting to do: the sudden, jarring absence of the vanguard and Eris (and perhaps even the Awoken) in Rise of Iron, and the shortage of ahead momentum in its backstory-focused plot, could also be the results of the Rise of Iron staff being advised to not contact something which may matter within the sequel. Hence the brand new NPCs that no one cares about: whats-is-name the Cayde-6 wannabe and whats-er-name the Cryptarch who is just barely much less forgettable than the one on the Reef, and solely then as a result of she arms out a weekly quest it could have made extra sense to provide to an present character. Even Saladin abruptly bossing the participant round appears like a Zavala stand-in.
There are different causes to place confidence in The Taken King staff: the enlargement made higher use of the Grimoire than vanilla Destiny by tying it into collectibles and quests in a method that inspired gamers to assemble collectively these scattered story components (with out making anyone learn it in the event that they didn’t need to). Moreover, The Taken King’s Grimoire playing cards characteristic one in every of Destiny’s greatest bits of writing alongside the best way: Oryx’s historical past is advised in a mode that calls for shut studying and impartial interpretation to actually grok, however importantly, it’s complete and full. Earlier Grimoire tales are riddled with holes and adorned with hints at substance that by no means materialises – as a result of it doesn’t exist.
We know Destiny 2 won’t have Grimoire cards, however it’s been put collectively by a staff that understands the worth of exploring the lore and sustaining thriller with out being coy, even within the exterior supplies – and what Destiny 2 does have is “layered stories”. Mini-campaigns or questlines that really convey info in-game? That’s precisely what we’ve been asking for.
For all its flaws, Destiny actually had one thing, and to be trustworthy, I’m just a little upset the Grimoire has been ditched and considerably turned off by the Whedon-esque, MCU style of the first real Destiny trailer. But I’m additionally actually alert to the potential for Destiny 2 to inform a narrative drawing on the identical writing chops that introduced us all this excellent secret background lore, however in a method everybody can get pleasure from, and with out the empty guarantees of substance that evaporates on nearer inspection.
I’m not prepared to guess Destiny 2 will reply all our questions; there are simply too many free threads for one sport to tie up. I’m not even hopeful that the expected Rasputin and Osiris expansions will do a great job fixing these explicit mysteries, as they’ll doubtless be produced by secondary groups – and Rise of Iron demonstrated that filling within the blanks after the very fact doesn’t work in addition to we’d have preferred.
But I do consider Destiny 2 will give over teasing and hinting, and inform an honest, self-contained story. Smith’s willingness to speak concerning the errors made in Destiny’s previous and concerning the modifications to how Bungie capabilities internally, and his feedback about building a cohesive campaign but layering stories around it, all bode nicely for Destiny 2’s story-telling.
Most fascinating is Smith’s feedback about Destiny 2 telling a story about the Light and what it means to be a Guardian. This is admittedly going again to fundamentals stuff: Destiny did a horrible job explaining any of that, and if you happen to dug beneath the floor, all you bought was extra hints and teases which, we now know, led nowhere.
In that sense, Destiny 2 actually is a correct restart. It’s choosing up threads you may hint proper again to the second Ghost pulls your skeleton out of a pile of corpses, makes you a superhero zombie and sends you off on a journey that you simply promptly forgot all about in your quest to get a Gjallarhorn. To date, the slot machine side of Destiny has been extra compelling than its in-game story, and by returning to these first fundamental ideas and giving us a cause to care about them, Bungie has a great likelihood of correcting that.
Destiny 2 offers Bungie an opportunity to start out once more and do it proper, and it’s giving off all the fitting alerts: a powerful antagonist, a followable narrative, memorable NPCs and precise engagement with the lore in-game. Talk is affordable, and we’ve been burned earlier than.
Source
