During yesterday’s annual showcase event, Bungie unveiled Destiny 2: The Final Shape. The new expansion for the online first-person shooter game is due for release on February 27th, 2024.
In its campaign, players can expect to face off with what was described as the ultimate foe: The Witness. They’ll have the help of Destiny 2’s iconic Vanguard companions to do so: Ikora Rey, Commander Zavala (now voiced by Keith David following the untimely passing of Lance Reddick, for whom Bungie observed a minute of silence during the stream), and even the supposedly dead Cayde-6 are returning for the occasion.
The story will take players to The Pale Heart, a mysterious location inside the Traveler. Bungie said it’d include callbacks to pivotal moments in the Light and Darkness saga, such as a new version of the original Tower from the first Destiny game. This final showdown will be told in Destiny 2: The Final Shape and in the new raid that will debut in March 2024.
This will coincide with the debut of a new seasonal model called Episodes, the first of which, Echoes, will deliver the aforementioned raid. There are currently three episodes planned for Destiny 2: The Final Shape; the other two are titled Revenant and Heresy. With Episodes, Bungie aims to add more content and rewards more often than with the previous Seasons.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape will provide players with three new Super abilities and Aspects (Void for Titans, Solar for Warlocks, and Arc for Hunters). The game’s weapon arsenal is also set to expand with additions such as a new subfamily that includes the Rocket Pistol Sidearm and a Support Frame Auto Rifle that deals damage while simultaneously healing allies. Some classic weapons are returning from the original Destiny, and a new Exotic Fusion Rifle is coming, too.
Over the next year, Destiny 2 players can look forward to major additions such as the long-awaited Fireteam Finder, which is coming with Season 23 in November; a Fireteam Power system that brings players of different Power levels closer to level the playing field in PvE; a new Vex-themed map called Multiplex, a new Relic-based game mode, and the new Checkmate modifier.
While players wait for Destiny 2: The Final Shape and its many changes, Bungie has just released Season of the Witch, which paves the way for the upcoming expansion’s plot. From a mechanics standpoint, it adds the Deck of Whispers, a new method of player progression that allows Guardians to customize their loadouts in various ways. The Season also introduces the so-called Timeline Reflections, short playable missions offering brief narrative intros that help newcomers catch up with the game’s ongoing story while allowing veterans to relive some of those previous events. The following three missions are available for free with Season of the Witch: Cayde-6’s final showdown with the Scorn from Destiny 2: Forsaken, the debut of Stasis from Destiny 2: Beyond Light, and the introduction of the Lucent Hive from Destiny 2: The Witch Queen.
This season also brings back the Crota’s End raid from the original Destiny. Moreover, a trial weekend for The Witch Queen begins tomorrow and ends this Sunday, allowing players to check out The Witch Queen at no charge.
