This earlier weekend, I sat down to bring an close to a story I have been subsequent for the greatest portion of the final ten a extended time of my existence: Bungie’s Future saga, instructed across two video games, myriad expansions, seasons of living-activity material, and quite a few crushing highs and lows, came to what has extended been formed as its to get started with ideal finish.

It ended in a way that was potentially symbolic of these ten yrs I have invested with Destiny—a activity that I have followed ever taking into consideration that it was breathlessly reviewed as the following match from the males and females that constructed Halo, all the way by way of to the a lot of occasions I stopped and began out participating in all more than once again no matter how insistent I was that what ever hottest arcane style and style alter or lackluster information and facts fall seasoned failed to hook me was the point that would make me place it down for amazing. By which I imply, in equivalent elements sentiment and perplexed disappointment.

The Ultimate Type, the game’s most up-to-date enlargement, created early earlier 7 days, and I was experiencing it in the moment—with its narrative concentrated intently, for the initially time in years, explicitly on the bonds of friendship amongst the closest point Future has had to most essential characters in the kind of Commander Zavala, Ikora Ray, and Cayde-six, the emblematic leaders of the Guardian Vanguard, as they geared up to facial region the Witness, this historic villain teased by way of yrs of esoteric lore and premonitions. But when it climaxed with what was basically a big cutscene of your player character and the Vanguard operating away from the Witness, merely wounding them relatively than finishing the position, mainly indicating “please wait about for the raid to drop” rather of coming to a remotely satisfying conclusion, I located myself perplexed.

Knowledgeable all this been main to my character—the comparable Warlock I created in the genuine Destiny Alpha, that I remade for the initial match in 2014, and have played ever taking into consideration the reality that, for practically as extended as I have worked at io9—essentially prepared on the sidelines while persons who really did the game’s tough raid content material would get to see the “real” ending? I’ve by no indicates seasoned the time, patience, or frankly the social circle to frequently interact with this certain element of Destiny’s famously perplexing and difficult endgame modes, but leaving the cathartic remaining battle versus this extended-anticipated foe up to a manner that has, historically, struggled to entice Destiny gamers previous the most tough of its hardcore, felt like a damp squib.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the circumstance. Just soon after the quite initial groups of gamers raced to be the 1st to finish The Final Shape’s raid, Salvation’s Edge, it was found there was seriously a single far a lot more surprise in Bungie’s arsenal. Defeating the raid unlocked a model new, 12-player—the initial of its sort in Destiny history—fight that any a single who’d completed The Ultimate Type’s story up to this position could participate in, that observed gamers and the allies they’d constructed up across Future’s story as a outcome substantially come alongside a single one more to defeat the Witness at the time and for all. And it was amazing! It was the substantial damn hero minute Closing Situation’s advertising and marketing campaign had lacked it was filled with enormous fights and the varieties of amounts of enemies, players, and allies alike the match seasoned hardly ever attempted to cram into a single spot ahead of it was complex but not frustratingly seriously challenging. And it was an finish! An actual close! There was cutscenes and spectacular catharsis and each and every point.

But as my Warlock and I each equally sat, considering about each and every small point they’d been through in the decades taking into consideration that 2014—gazing out at the Traveler, the major, superpower-supplying residence orb that has in essence been the image of Future for that decade—it was quite clear no matter what was up coming for the game ideal soon after this chapter had lastly closed was going to have to chart a complex route. Destiny two is a dwelling sport, it does not just shut off for the explanation that we beat up this a particular person substantial threat, it retains ticking on, even quickly soon after this minute of very good launch. As for what will come subsequent? At the moment Bungie begun to carry the lid.

In a brief new on line video unveiled this morning, the developer laid out its plans for the upcoming year of content material in Destiny two: a couple of new “episodes” that will roll out across the yr that just about each and every concentration on a single of Future’s standard antagonistic factions nonetheless lingering in the wake of the Witness’ defeat. “Echoes” will target on the Vex, “Revenant” the Fallen, and “Heresy” the Hive, analyzing the techniques our associations with these persons factions have adjusted in the earlier ten a extended time. In some situations, we have made alliances with components of people factions, turning foes into the friends—frenemies, in the case of the Hive, in the sort of the tricksy goddess Savathun. In some other folks, it calls for revisiting spots Future has prolonged controversially “vaulted”—removed from player entry in an try to sustain the dimension and scope of the activity down—and returning to them with new light-weight and new style sensibilities figured out about these identical decades. Additional than that? Whatever’s really following is nevertheless retained shut to Bungie’s chest, previous a nebulous tease for a point identified as “Codename Frontiers,” which suggests discovering new horizons to take a appear at beyond the photo voltaic approach Future has largely been confined in up to this spot.

It is a fitting notion for this transitory period of time Future finds alone in appropriate now, ending a single certain climactic saga and sowing the seeds for whatever’s following. It is scarce to see a video game exterior of this range of dwelling format in reality grapple with what that transformation suggests for its figures and by oneself as a player—it’s some point just a single of my other amazing MMO loves, Final Fantasy XIV, has played with as it goes from Endwalker, the enlargement touted substantially like The Final Type was as the conclude of a story a decade in the producing, and now on to Dawntrail, the impending commence of a new saga. To have Destiny framework alone all about revisiting factions, areas, and mechanical methods for the way the match is generally played as this residing earth, and observing just how far it is come in this second, feels like each a very good endcap to what’s been seasoned and a fittingly Destiny notion: to typically iterate, re-examine, and redevelop as it is adapted and survived a decade of complications.

If The Closing Situation signifies the apex of what Destiny two has been in a position of so substantially, probably back once again to these elements with new light—metaphorically and narratively speaking, with the defeat of the Witness no longer clouding our heroes and their futures—is just a single crammed with potential. A single certain that will most likely retain me playing, in spite of myself, for a distinctive decade or extra.

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