Bungie finally gave the world its first look at Destiny 2 this morning in an hour-long broadcast on Twitch and YouTube. The gameplay reveal drew hundreds of thousands of fans, peaking above 400K concurrent viewers. But we’re still a bit surprised by how much information Bungie was willing to share with the Destiny community on Thursday morning.
The broadcast opened with a brief history of the Traveler and the Tower from the perspective of Commander Zavala. We got to see how the last city on Earth was built and what it means to those who assembled it. From there, we were treated to a brief introduction from Destiny 2 game director Luke Smith, who explained some of the core changes to the development team’s design strategy. One of the biggest changes mentioned during the broadcast was a format change for the Crucible. Rather than having different team sizes, determined by match type, all Crucible matches will now pit teams of four against one another. We also learned Destiny 2 will have matchmaking, of a sort, for a wider swath of content. And from there it was off to the races.
Players were given their first look at “Homecoming,” the introductory mission from Destiny 2. And it turns out we won’t just see the Cabal destroy the Tower in a cinematic, or hear horror stories recounted by those who survived the attack. We’ll experience it first-hand. And it’ll be up to the Destiny community to pick up the pieces, gather those scattered by the attack and help mankind reclaim the one sanctuary it had left. Fortunately, we’ll also have some new tools at our disposal, including miniguns and grenade launchers, along with new abilities and Supers to incorporate into our arsenal. We also got an early look at non-boss named enemies that seem to serve the same functions (tougher challenge, more loot) as named units in other loot games.
Bungie also confirmed weapon slots have been reworked. In Destiny 2, players will have slots for three weapons: Energy, Kinetic and Power. The first two are pretty self-explanatory. One is for energy weapons, the other for those that fire physical projectiles. The third slot, Power, is for high end gear like rocket launchers or sniper rifles. There are also new Super abilities, three of which were shown during the broadcast. My personal favorite was Sentinel, an ability that transforms Titans into Captain America (complete with throwable shield) for a few seconds. Bungie also revealed Dawnblade, a Hunter ability that lets you fling fire from a sword, and Arcstrider, a Warlock super that basically turns you into that not-a-Jedi-but-totally-a-Jedi guy from Rogue One.
The broadcast included a variety of other details about the Destiny 2 launch. Bungie outlined its rational behind the switch to 4v4 in the Crucible and introduced a new attack/defend match type called Countdown. The studio even confirmed we’ll see a Destiny 2 PS4 Pro hardware bundle on store shelves when the game debuts in September. Sadly, we didn’t get a look at any of the new strikes or raids. But there will probably be a few more Destiny 2 broadcasts before Bungie’s next shared-world shooter heads to PC and consoles.
To see the Destiny 2 gameplay reveal in its entirety, check out the archive embedded below. Then head down to the comments section and let us know what you’re hoping to see when Destiny 2 hits PC and consoles this fall.
Destiny 2 is in development for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The game debuts Sept. 8.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes and follow Scott on Twitter for more Destiny 2 news in 2017 and however long Bungie supports Destiny 2 in the years ahead.
