After a lot of rumors, speculation, and theories as to where Destiny 2 is going, Bungie finally revealed its official plans for the Fall. Destiny 2: Beyond Light takes players to Jupiter’s moon Europa where Eris Morn, The Drifter, and the Exo Stranger are working together against a new threat named Eramis. The Darkness is here, though in this new expansion, players are going to be presented with a choice as to how they proceed.
For the first time, Bungie is adding a fourth element type into Destiny 2 that sits alongside the familiar types of Void, Solar, and Arc. Stasis, which looks to be similar to ice, will not only be a damage type but will be usable by Guardians. Weapons will be able to use stasis as a damage type and if the gameplay footage is any indication, stasis is capable of freezing enemies in place.
In addition to an element type added to weapons, players will be able to use Stasis through a new set of abilities. Neither Luke Smith or Mark Noseworthy went into too many details but Stasis is also going to be used as new Darkness based abilities. The initial trailer shows at least a few of the abilities in action with enemies being frozen in place after getting hit with grenades and other attacks. A hunter dual wields ice daggers, perhaps a Darkness altered form of Spectral Blades. A warlock also appears to have some sort of ice staff that can launch projectiles.
The ability to use the Darkness has been heavily rumored over the past few months, even being mentioned specifically by leaks. According to Luke Smith, the Stasis subclass will work a bit differently than the current three subclasses. Instead of diamonds that lock into place, players will have more customization and choice to making their Stasis subclass unique. He didn’t go into too much detail, but one could speculate that players may have multiple points to use to activate a set number of abilities rather than pick and choose 1 option in a cluster of options.
Shockingly, Bungie went even further by showing off two additional expansions planned for 2021 and 2022 respectively. It’s clear that Bungie’s plan is to eventually evolve Destiny 2 more into a platform rather than a traditional game. In order to get there and to prevent the game from ballooning in size, Bungie’s plan is to cycle content out that’s getting a bit old in order to revitalize it down the road. It’s an interesting future for the game, rather than pushing out sequels every few years as the developer has done in the past.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
