In the past couple of years, Bungie, better known as the developers of the iconic “Halo” trilogy in the 2000s, have been making gaming news headlines. With the release of their new “IP “Destiny”” in 2014, Bungie brought a whole new story to light. As Guardians, your job is to save the planet from the ebbing darkness throughout space with the power of the Traveler, which hovered over Earth’s Last City.
“Destiny” had a great first run, with the first game successfully reviving itself after a horrendous base launch with expansions such as The Dark Below, House of Wolves, The Taken King and Rise of Iron. At first, “Destiny” wasn’t as well-perceived as Bungie hoped, but after The Taken King’s release in 2015, the player base began to really enjoy the game’s content and story, with that positive feeling only continuing into the “Destiny” final expansion, Rise of Iron in 2016. Destiny’s first life turned itself around from a significant negative standing to a much more positive one.
When “Destiny 2” released in 2017, however, the fans were only met with yet again another failed base launch. At the time, “Destiny” and “Destiny 2” were published by Activision, who helped Bungie and certainly put their influence on the game while they could. The “Destiny” player base lashed out as the in-game store, or “Eververse” was introduced in “Destiny” for cosmetics and other in-game items, which were a form of micro transactions.
As “Destiny 2” continued its early life span into 2018, they already had released their first expansion pack Curse of Osiris, as well as the Warmind DLC early in 2018, culminating with their huge content-based expansion Forsaken in September of last year. Forsaken was a breaking point for fans and Bungie themselves, as on Jan. 10 of 2019, Bungie ended their eight-year “Destiny” partnership, fully publishing “Destiny” 2 and all other future games on their own. This breakup brought renowned support from the “Destiny” community and fans all across gaming, as even the developers themselves could see that if they didn’t break off of the ten-year contract, “Destiny” as a whole was only going to decline.
The support of the fans across the world renewed Bungie, as this past September they released their first expansion they fully published on their own called Shadowkeep. With Shadowkeep’s release, “Destiny 2” saw a move to free-to-play, as well as to Steam on PC. Bungie continued to introduce new content, with a brand-new mode for returning and new players alike called New Light. This would allow players new and old to play through the very first “Destiny” mission in the Cosmodrome on Earth, where the franchise’s story first began.
“Destiny 2” has a fantastic soundtrack, with composer Michael Salvatori continuing to perfect it over each expansion, as well as so much more content to play now that the base game has gone free-to-play. Several raids, multiplayer strikes, many seasons of content, and a massive campaign await newcomers and returning “Destiny” players, as Shadowkeep brings the story back to the moon.
The entire expansion reaches its end within the Garden of Salvation raid encounter, which brings the players back to a familiar place they saw in “Destiny” 1, the Black Garden. No matter what age, or experience, “Destiny 2” has content for all players. Bungie has done a fantastic job in resurrecting the “Destiny” franchise and, ultimately, has gained fans and returning players support as a result.
Jeffrey Babcock is a third-year student majoring in communications and minoring in journalism. JB884128@wcupa.edu.