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Destiny 2's first major expansion, Forsaken, is set to launch on Sept. 4, bringing with it a golden Engram's worth of highly anticipated gameplay additions and system tweaks. Since this massive dose of DLC will set the stage for the game's second year of content, we've put together a list of the five things we're most looking forward to checking out once Forsaken finally arrives.
It has been an interesting first year for Destiny 2, oddly mirroring the first game in the series. While fans and critics alike were impressed with the game's initial offerings, it turned out that the new reward loops and a lack of variety (folks were used to two years' worth of content in the original Destiny at this point) meant that the honeymoon period ended within just a couple of months.
It didn't help matters that the first two smaller expansions to Destiny 2 didn't do much to shake things up, with short-lived campaigns, questionable new Strikes pulled directly from those campaigns and few additional modes or activities to keep Guardians coming back for more.
Bungie hopes to flesh things out quite a bit with Forsaken, an expansion so large it almost cost as much as a brand new game.
A lot is being added with the Forsaken update, but here are the five things we're most excited to check out starting Sept. 4.
A Story with Teeth
When it comes to letting players feel like badass space warriors, leaping through the air and unleashing powerful abilities while mowing down countless enemies with a wide array of weaponry, Destiny excels. Telling a compelling story, though, has been a hit or miss process for Bungie. The good news for folks looking forward to Forsaken is that it looks like the writers have pulled out all the stops to tell a powerful story this time around. For starters, they're killing off a major character, something they've been totally open about from the moment the expansion was officially revealed.
The thing about Destiny is that there seldom feels like there are any real stakes on the line. Usually, the story boils down to "there's a new big bad and you're the very special Guardian who has to go and take them out." It wasn't until Destiny 2 launched and the last remaining city on Earth fell that we started to get the idea that our actions in the game bore legitimate consequences. The campaign even toyed with that concept for a brief period, asking players to consider how "heroic" their actions were when they always knew that space magic would fix their problems and even bring them back to life.
The stories offered through DLC since the launch of Destiny 2 have reverted back to "kill the new baddie," though, with little emotional weight to pull the player along.
They're killing off Cayde in the early goings of Forsaken, though, and that alone shows that Bungie wants to give players a legitimate reason to fight until the final bullet is fired.