By Paul Tassi Senior Contributor
On Tuesday, Bungie had a second Edge of Fate reveal stream, Destiny 2鈥檚 new, smaller expansion that comes out in two weeks. It was more informative than week one, which was mostly a retread of old information, whereas this time we focused more on the expansion itself and its Kepler location, and the fundamental 鈥渓oop鈥 Destiny is meant to have going forward with its new Portal system.
The presentation was better, certainly, but now we can debate the nature of what was shown, and the general sense I鈥檓 seeing is that the audience is still not exactly giving all this a standing ovation. Few seem to be excited about what鈥檚 coming, and those that are may be the biggest of superfans, a group that Bungie takes for granted as they try to instead get lapsed players to return or welcome new ones to Destiny 2 after 11 years now. A tall order, and so far, Edge of Fate and the Frontiers era does not seem like it鈥檚 going to do that.
So, Kepler and The Edge of Fate:
The event opened with a new story launch trailer that was actually quite cool, leaning into the 鈥渢ime travel鈥 aspect of whatever鈥檚 going on in Kepler, and channeled, of all games, Control. I liked the spot a lot.
The zone is strange. The aesthetic seems rather underwhelming compared to really all the last major expansions, with ones like The Final Shape, Witch Queen, Beyond Light and even Lightfall having clear art direction. Kepler? Perhaps there鈥檚 a lot that isn鈥檛 shown, but the zones look like some sort of Fallen sewer system, and everything from the destination armor to the new weapons doesn鈥檛 feel like it fits with any sort of coherent theme. This is not usually not somewhere Destiny drops the ball.
The campaign was briefly shown, and Bungie said that there would be some sort of playlist system for campaign missions that would take you back to them with modifications.
The main activity of the expansion seems to be taking place within the general map and its zones, a mix of a public event and a larger scale offering like Vex Incursions as a way to farm gear, meant to be harder as you move up in World Tiers, a system that I think is interesting, but the activity seems a bit strange.
Another activity, one that appears only so often on the map, was mentioned, one that really sounds like Vex Incursions, but that wasn鈥檛 detailed in any meaningful capacity. That鈥檚 the extent of the built-in Kepler activities, it seems.
Bungie briefly touched on Kepler and the expansion being compared to Destiny 1鈥檚 Rise of Iron, a comparison they previously made, but says it was more along the lines of the size of the zone and things like that (the Plaguelands were not terribly big in RoI). But of course Edge of Fate lacks big additions like strikes and Crucible maps. As for the map, this appears to be small enough where you can鈥檛 even use a sparrow, and the main form of transportation is turning into an electric ball and zipping around.
Now, The Portal:
The Portal is concerning to me. First, Solo Ops appear to be limited to a few Crucible modes that seemingly don鈥檛 allow pre-made teams, but otherwise only PvE Lost Sectors you can modify to increase their difficulty. As of yet, they do not appear to have figured out any solo content that can be played here. I was under the impression they鈥檇 invent something new for that, but that does not seem to be the case yet.
The Fireteam-based Portal was a somewhat mocked demonstration which focused on of all things, a Beyond Light-era Empire Hunt, a five year-old activity 鈥渦pdated鈥 with million-health Brigs and a bunch of champions and banes thrown in. Again, there does not seem to be any new content in here, a mix of old strikes, seasonal activities and such. It may fill out in time, but for now, it鈥檚 just a whole lot of old stuff with a new modifier system.
I have one fundamental question about the new modifier system where you add bonuses and penalties as you try to get high scores to farm gear. Using this system in a matchmade experience for Fireteam Portal or the Pinnacle Portal of just exotic missions right now would indicate the only way you can truly customize this to your liking is to be running this with a premade team who can agree on all the mods. I have no idea how this is going to work with Fireteam Finder, as unless you鈥檙e all on comms and spend ten minutes doing modifiers, that seems tough. A normal playlist appears to run with just a set series of modifiers that you cannot alter at all, sort of negating the point of the system. This feels like it鈥檚 going to be very strange in practice.
I鈥檓 glad Bungie showed more this time around, but I don鈥檛 think what we learned is all that reassuring and in some ways, confirmed some fears about what鈥檚 coming with the expansion and in this new Frontiers era. Or rather the lack of what鈥檚 coming. It鈥檚 going to be a tough sell, I fear.
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