Bungie isn’t taking any prisoners when it comes to cheating on its upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon. In a detailed blog post explaining its anti-cheat measures, Bungie took a very declarative position against those caught trying to gain an unfair advantage.
“We are taking a strong stance against cheating and anyone found to be cheating or developing cheats will be permanently banned from playing Marathon forever, no second chances,” the blog post read, adding that there will be an appeals system in place.
However, Bungie’s anti-cheat standards go beyond punishment. In the blog post, Bungie detailed that Marathon‘s dedicated servers have full authority on movement, shooting, actions, and inventory. Since these key actions rely on the server, it will translate to smoother gunplay for players as well as the prevention of cheats related to teleportation, unlimited ammo or damage manipulation. Bungie is also incorporating a “Fog of War” system that limits an individual player’s client to see only certain regions of a map, which should prevent wall hacks, ESP cheats or loot revealers.
On top of these robust regulations, Bungie is utilizing BattlEye, a kernel-level anticheat that’s seen with other popular multiplayer shooters like Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege andDestiny 2. Bungie added that in the event of disconnecting, you’ll be able to reconnect to your run without any hitches. If players can’t reconnect due to an issue with the servers, Bungie said it will “attempt to return the starting gear to all impacted players.”
Marathon isn’t out until March 5, but Bungie is doing a preview weekend with the Server Slam event starting February 26. Still, it’s obvious that Bungie already wants to get ahead of the competition, since Arc Raiders, another recently released extraction shooter, has been dealing with its own cheating problem. To address the rise in cheating, the game’s developer, Embark Studios, implemented a three-strike system, which some players have criticized as too lenient.
Marathon, Bungie’s long-awaited extraction shooter, will arrive on March 5, the studio announced today. Alongside a definitive release date, Bungie shared a new gameplay trailer, in addition to details about the game’s forthcoming deluxe edition, which fans can pre-order today on Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. All versions of the game will support crossplay, meaning you’ll be able to play with your friends, no matter where they decide to buy Marathon.
Sony, Bungie’s parent company, had previously committed to a March release for Marathon, but stopped short of sharing an exact date. News of that date leaked early Monday after Microsoft published the pre-order trailer you see above early. Sony had originally planned to release Marathon in September 2025, but delayed the game indefinitely in June of last year after a mixed reception to its alpha and an admission Bungie had partially plagiarized some visual assets. It’s safe to say Marathon could decide the future of the studio. In November, Sony said Destiny 2had not lived up to its expectations and wrote down the value of the studio’s assets by $204 million. This came after the company said it would take more direct control of Bungie.
Destiny 2‘s new expansion, Renegades, is juking where most brand crossovers jive by having a Star Wars collaboration where, instead of simply just jamming Star Wars stuff into Destiny and calling it a day (well, aside from a few notable weapons), Bungie’s sci-fi shooter is telling its own story inspired by Star Wars, with plenty of themes, locales, and design language given a sideways look to make it look like a merging of the two worlds, rather than a direct transposition.
But just like George Lucas once said, the thing about poetry is that it rhymes. So when Destiny 2 needs a Jedi Order equivalent in a world that already has space wizards, it needs something else to make the parallel clear and feel like the Order—and you can’t just give them a laser sword and call it a day, even if they are also kind of doing that.
Enter the Praxic Order. A faction that’s been touched upon in Destiny‘s worldbuilding since the very first game, they’re stepping into the spotlight for Renegades with actual characters playing a role in the story, as players go up against a fallen guardian, Dredgen Bael (voiced by Marvel Rivals and Dan Da Dan‘s Aleks Le, doing his very best Kylo Ren impression). The Praxic Order will be represented in Renegades by a character named Aunor, who is… essentially a space magic cop.
So far, so Jedi! In a new behind-the-scenes featurette released today, the Destiny 2 team describes the Praxic Order as an “internal affairs” group for the Vanguard, the entity that manages guardians in Destiny‘s world, with their job specifically being to police any guardians who utilize the power of darkness, rather than the power of light that usually gives them their abilities.
That in and of itself is interesting, as Destiny 2‘s broader narrative has spent a good long while at this point tasking players with exploring the darkness and finding strength in the balance of these two diametrically opposed entities—so to suddenly have a main character in Renegades who is the member of an ancient order that has to grapple with the realities of a changed world where their specific, dogmatic view of the way things work no longer wholly applies? That’s Star Wars as hell.
And as funny as it is that a key kind of quasi-multiversal trait of the Jedi Order is that regardless of whatever universe they show up in, they’re kind of just jerks, that’s also a really clever way to bring in elements of Destiny that already feel like Star Wars and push them into an even more direct parallel for this new expansion. If the rest of Renegades can deliver that kind of fun interrogation of Destiny and Star Wars‘ shared similarities in this way, fans of both will be in for a treat.
Destiny 2: Renegades will launch next week on December 2.
The Edge of Fate was supposed to be a bold new foundation for Destiny 2‘s future. Instead, it was the beginning of the decade-old sci-fi shooter’s most disappointing stretch yet. Back in September, Bungie promised a roadmap laying out the vision for the live-service MMO in the year ahead. Two months later, the plans are still in flux. Bungie now says it won’t be ready to reveal what Destiny 2 looks like moving forward until early 2026. In the meantime, it’s scrambling to engineer a 180 with its upcoming Star Wars expansion.
“As we continue to act on your feedback, we’re taking additional time to craft our long-term strategy for the future of Destiny before we share a full State of the Game and multi-year roadmap next year,” the studio revealed this week. It treated fans to what it’s called a new “Content Calendar” instead. No big ideas. No major overhauls. But it did preview everything fans can expect from the December 2 Renegades expansion and its first significant update.
Destiny 2: Renegades Content Calendar has been published.
We need more time for the roadmap, plain and simple. Expect a true Roadmap, and State of the Game, next year.
The big takeaways? All players will be able to hit the new Power cap just by playing Renegades activities, vault capacity will go up to 1,000 slots to accommodate all the new loot, and all Exotic Armor ornaments can now be swapped between gear of the same class and slot, giving a big boost to Destiny 2‘s fashion meta. The seasonal Dawning, Iron Banner, and Call to Arms events will also be returning. Any lapsed players probably have no idea what to make of Bungie saying stuff like “Vanguard Alerts will bring back some Nightfall vibes,” but long story short: Renegades should hopefully cut a lot of the grindy bullshit fans faced in Edge of Fate back in July.
Here’s Bungie’s brief postmortem on what feels like Destiny 2‘s least played, most panned expansion since launch:
With Edge of Fate, we presented a different vision for the future of Destiny 2’s core game. One intended to refocus our releases and player call-to-action on a familiar but deeper pursuit of Power and ascending to higher Tiers of gear across a wider range of activities supporting customizable challenge and commensurate rewards.
Very quickly, the feedback made it clear that this was the wrong path for Destiny.
Even if our execution had been perfect, and we see plainly that it was not, it is clear that grinding Power will never be a substitute for earning a trophy. Climbing though throwaway tiers en-route to the gear you want to build around isn’t aspirational. And the Portal itself surrenders too much of Destiny’s feeling of place and exploration. These lessons, and many others besides them, have been taken to heart by our team over the last three months.
I have no doubt that Bungie has taken all of the negative feedback to heart. I imagine this has probably been one of the toughest stretches, purely in terms of morale, in the game’s post-launch life. But it remains to be seen if the studio can still engineer a way out of Destiny 2‘s 2025 nosedive. The challenge, as ever, is in how you make doing the same stuff over and over again still feel fresh more than a decade later. Maybe you can’t. Or maybe Destiny 2 just needs a humble back-to-basics reboot, at least for its progression and weekly grind. I’m still rooting for it.
Destiny 2‘s big Star Wars collaboration has made a distinct point that while it is drawing on elements from the galaxy far, far away, this isn’t a Fortnite situation: Renegades wants to tell a Destiny story that feels like Star Wars, instead of transplanting elements from one universe into the other and calling it a day. That’s also going to be the case as well for a whole armory’s worth of weapons that you’ll loot and shoot your way through the new adventure with.
Today Bungie dropped a new trailer for its upcoming expansion, focusing on the new gear they’ll be able to acquire in Renegades—a lot of which, of course, is inspired by iconic weapony from Star Wars.
There’s a lot of fun stuff in here for Destiny 2 fans—congratulations to the Titans among us, who will apparently get to boost around flying like Mandalorians with a new piece of armor that gives them a jetpack—but of course the main appeal is going to be the Star Wars guns. But just like the rest of Renegades, you’re not picking up direct versions of those weapons (and they will still play in Destiny 2‘s weaponry archetypes, so don’t expect to be pew-pewing blaster bolts everywhere); you’re picking up Destiny weapons that are inspired by iconic Star Wars weapons. Here’s a breakdown of what’s what in the trailer:
The Uncivil Discourse is a hand cannon inspired by Han Solo’s legendary DL-44 blaster pistol.
The Modified B-7 Pistol is another hand cannon, inspired by the MW-20 Bryar pistol used by Cassian Andor (and the K-16 Bryar that inspired that, used by Kyle Katarn in Dark Forces). Sadly, it does not appear to go vuh-weeeeee when you reload it.
The All or Nothing is a pulse rifle inspired by the EE-3 Carbine rifle, famously wielded by Boba Fett.
The Refurbished A499 is a heavy sniper rifle, inspired directly by the Amban Phase Pulse Rifle, the disruptor originated for Boba Fett in the animated sequences of the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, but now best known as one of the primary weapons of Din Djarin on The Mandalorian.
The M-17 Fast Talker is a submachine gun inspired by the DC-17m Repeating Blaster Rifle, the multipurpose weapon system used by Republic Commandos during the Clone Wars, and introduced in the 2005 classic shooterRepublic Commando.
The Compact Defender is a sidearm inspired by the Defender sporting blaster pistolused by Princess Leia in A New Hope.
Heirloom is a combat bow that fires explosive bolts, befitting a weapon inspired by the iconic Wookiee bowcaster.
And, of course, there is the Praxic Blade, which is a lightsaber. Not as clumsy or as random as a blaster, this kinetic-slot sword can reflect incoming fire, as well as be thrown for a ranged attack.
It’s a fun mix of weapons, and it’s fitting that there’s a variety from not just across the Star Wars franchise, but a few in specific that pay homage to Star Wars‘ own FPS roots. It’s a really nice way to do something that feels like it’s Star Wars-y, instead of just having your guardians rubbing shoulders with luminaries from the galaxy far, far away.
Destiny 2: Renegades is set to release on December 2.
After several silent months, Bungie has opened applications for players interested in participating in a closed technical test of Marathon. It’s an invitation-only limited-time test, lasting just October 22-28. Those who are chosen to participate can only do so under a non-disclosure agreement, so don’t expect to hear any juicy details or insights about the game’s status later this month once the event wraps.
While it’s not a new public look at Marathon, news of a fresh round of testing marks a small step forward for this team extraction shooter. The game was originally slated for a September 2025 release, but in June, Bungie said it was indefinitely delaying the project. The pause was meant to give the studio time to address player feedback from the closed alpha test it conducted earlier in the spring. Considering the language used for this testing phase, we’ll still have a while to wait before getting a new launch window.
Whenever it does arrive, Marathon will be Bungie’s first new title since the company introduced Destiny 2 back in 2017. Before the delay, the studio had also drawn raised eyebrows with Marathon after the alpha build used stolen artwork, which has been a repeat issue for Bungie.
Bungie CEO Pete Parsons has announced that he’s leaving the Halo developer after working at the studio for more than two decades. In Parsons’ place, Justin Truman, a general manager on Destiny 2 and Bungie’s chief development officer, is taking over as studio head.
“After more than two decades of helping build this incredible studio, establishing the Bungie Foundation and growing inspiring communities around our work, I have decided to pass the torch,” Parsons shared in a statement on Bungie’s website. “Today marks the right time for a new beginning. The future of Bungie will be in the hands of a new generation of leaders, and I am thrilled to announce that Justin Truman will be stepping into leadership as Bungie’s new studio head.”
Parsons oversaw Bungie during a consequential period in the studio’s history. Bungie started publishing its own games under his leadership, ending a longterm publishing deal with Activision that helped get Destiny released. Parsons also played a role in the studio’s $3.6 million acquisition by Sony, which placed Bungie at the center of plans to develop live-service games for the PlayStation — a move that hasn’t really paid off so far.
Bungie has faced notable difficulties since coming under Sony ownership. The studio’s relative independence did nothing to spare it from having to lay off 220 employees in 2024. Developing Bungie’s next game, Marathon, has also seemed like an uphill battle. The game was delayed indefinitely earlier this year following the discovery that the alpha version of Marathon used stolen art assets.
Truman’s new leadership role suggests Destiny 2 will remain a going concern for Bungie. It might also signal a new relationship with Sony and PlayStation Studios. During a recent earnings call, Sony CFO Lin Tao said Bungie would be less independent in the future, and eventually “become part of PlayStation Studios,” PC Gamer reports.
In 2002, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter launched on PS2 and GameCube. The third-person action-adventure game let players hop into the bounty-hunting boots of Jango Fett aka Boba Fett’s clone dad from Attack of The Clones. It wasn’t great, but was a fun prequel to Episode II. Now, 20 years later, it’s been remastered, improved, and ported to new consoles, and while it looks and plays better than ever, it’s still mostly the same not-great PS2-era action game, but now with a flashlight. – Zack Zwiezen Read More
As Bungie continues to tease out the release of Destiny 2: The Final Shape, it has finally unveiled how Keith David (The Thing, Halo, Mass Effect) will sound when he assumes the mantle of Commander Zavala. Zavala, a key character in the Destiny series, had been played by the beloved actor Lance Reddick until last year, when he tragically passed from coronary heart disease.
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As part of the upcoming expansion’s marketing cycle, Bungie is in the midst of releasing a series of short documentaries on the making of The Final Shape. The first part of this doc, which debuted on May 23, contains two brief scenes debuting David as Zavala. They are, predictably, a gut punch.
The first scene, which comes about three minutes into the first part of the ViDoc, features Zavala telling an unseen character that he would’ve given anything to bring them back. He is presumably talking to Cayde-6, a character who was killed off in 2018’s Forsaken expansion and with whom Zavala had a close relationship (who is returning and will be voiced, once again, by Nathan Fillion). Later on, there is another cutscene of Zavala telling his fellow vanguard Ikora Rey that he won’t “lose another soldier in this war.” It’s impossible not to read the lines as the game’s developers and fans alike wishing Reddick could still be here for this momentous moment in the series.
Reddick’s character became an increasingly integral part of Destiny’s long-running story, but the actor was a positive fixture of the game’s community in real life, too. Fans adored Reddick, who often took the time out of his day to engage with them on social media. He’d often field questions from fans on Twitter even when he wasn’t actively working on the game or promoting it. When he passed,countless players amassed near his character in Destiny 2’s hub and publicly mourned Reddick’s passing while celebrating his contributions to the series.
After his passing, many Bungie developers who’d worked with Reddick shared how fond they had become of him over the years. Reddick, who’d been with the series since day one, seemed to have fostered an especially strong affinity for Destiny, and he often played the game. In a heartbreaking and completely unintended gesture, it was eventually discovered that Reddick was playing Destiny 2 the night before he passed away.
At the time of his passing, Reddick had recorded some lines for Zavala for some of the content following 2023’s Lightfall expansion. Over the course of some months though, Zavala’s role in the story diminished, and players understood before long that they’d probably heard the last of Reddick’s posthumous work. Beginning with The Final Shape, David is taking over the role, and though he has a commanding voice and certainly has the gravitas, Reddick’s unique take on the character he originated will be missed.
There’s a lot of video games set to get TV or film adaptations in the next few years, and even more that seem like they’d be ripe for the picking. Bungie’s Destiny franchise seemed like a viable candidate, especially after the studio was acquired by PlayStation in 2022, but it sounds like any plans to bring the games to a new medium are have currently been dashed.
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According to Forbes’ Paul Tassi earlier in the week, Bungie was reportedly “tossing around” ideas for an animated Destiny series on Netflix before things fell apart.. Allegedly, this was in development prior to the aforementioned PlayStation acquisition, during which Sony said it would help Bungie “nurture the IP they have in a multi-dimensional manner.” (For extra context, this statement was made a few weeks before the Uncharted movie released and became a decent box-office success.) In regards to why it didn’t go forward, Tassi wasn’t sure, though he did say it just may not have gone farther than the scripting phase.
Destiny 2: Is There Any Way A Destiny Show Is Still Happening At This Point?
Before Sony bought Bungie, the developer brought on Derrick Tsai as its transmedia head. Tsai was a producer and director at Riot who helped pave the way for Arcane to get made and become a hit over at Netflix. He departed around this time last year, after which the studio hired Warner Bros. alum Gabriel VanHuss to serve as the Destiny’s head of linear media. VanHuss holds that position to this day, and his duties involve expanding the franchise in TV, comics (which it’s previously done), movies, and so on. It’s hard to know where this hypothetical show currently stands: Bungie’s currently focused on the Final Shape expansion dropping in June, its new Marathon game, and still reeling from its highly publicized layoffs (to say nothing of possibly working on Destiny 3). According to Tassi, if the hypothetical show isn’t fully dead, it’s not coming “anytime remotely soon.”
The idea of Destiny getting a TV show seemed like a cool idea two years ago, but it’s a little more dicey now. Bungie’s hoping to turn things around for both Destiny 2 and the company at large with Final Shape, and revealing a TV show weeks after the expansion drops could easily take things from “we’re so back” to “oh, it’s over” in a heartbeat. The series certainly has the potential to thrive in other mediums, but it’ll unfortunately have to be a waiting game until the smoke clears around The Final Shape.
Late last year, it was reported that Destiny 2’s upcoming expansion, The Final Shape, was getting delayed amidst struggles and layoffs at Bungie. The expansion, which was initially supposed to release by February, was then officially pushed back to June, leaving a tremendous gap of time between what was supposed to be the end of last year’s expansion and the eventual conclusion of Destiny 2’s ongoing saga. In light of this gap, Bungie has planned a pseudo-season of content, billed as Destiny 2: Into the Light, which is bringing new maps, modes, and weapons when it launches on April 9.
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Into the Light’s weapons are of particular note, as they make up what Bungie has dubbed the “BRAVE arsenal,” a collection of beloved older weapons that have been renewed and enhanced for the current state of the game. When they were first unveiled in the second of three planned developer streams earlier this week, however, they were met with both excitement and a hint of hesitation. The latter was due to the fact that Bungie announced it would release half of the BRAVE arsenal at launch, followed by a protracted weekly rollout for the other half of the armory. Per the initial plan, players who started playing Into the Light at launch wouldn’t be able to get their hands on the full arsenal for a full six weeks.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being in and around the Destiny 2 community for years now, it’s that you should do as little as possible to stand in the way of players and their loot. Fans of the game were none too pleased about the drip feed of weapons, especially considering how many of those weapons are fan favorites whose value deprecated over the years. Crucially, earlier access to the full arsenal would grant players more time to grind them in Into the Light’s new PvE Onslaught mode and earn special variants that are only available for a limited time. On Bungie’s originally intended schedule, this time would be cut dramatically short for the weapons releasing later. Countless players made their concerns and complaints known to Bungie, which despite its missteps is often open to feedback and fairly quick to respond to it, and the team is now (sort of) reversing course.
A thread on the Destiny 2 Team Twitter account (which shares insights and feedback directly from the developers) responded to fans’ concerns yesterday and announced that Bungie would be tweaking the planned weapon rollout. Rather than six weeks, the schedule has now been cut to three weeks, meaning the team will be dropping two weapons a week after launch. On this timeline, players will now be able to get the entire BRAVE arsenal by the end of April, rather than late May. Though it doesn’t completely eliminate the “timegating” that many players are calling out, the decision is largely a step in the right direction.
Further down the thread, Bungie outlines many of the ways in which it is making sure that players can get guaranteed god rolls and limited variants of the BRAVE arsenal. According to Bungie, “weapon drop rates during Destiny 2: Into the Light will be among our highest in Destiny’s history, even harkening back to the days of Season of Opulence,” ensuring that folks who spend any time playing Destiny 2 during the next few months will be able to get their hands on the much-desired weapons.
The entirety of the thread is worth a read if you’re curious about the various pathways to earn loot throughout Into the Light, but the message is clear: you will be able to get the BRAVE weapons no matter what.
Destiny 2 has been around since 2017 and it has seen many changes and additions since then. So, if you find yourself as someone who was a fan of D2 for one reason or another, here are 10 reasons why Destiny 2 is worth playing in 2024.
Better Crucible Matchmaking
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
If you’re the kind of Destiny 2 player that found themselves playing Crucible the most, then Bungie’s matchmaking changes over 2023 may interest you. Over the past year in the Crucible, Bungie has better separated skill-based matchmaking and connection-based matchmaking. This is a simplification, but essentially, if you’re a fan of Ranked or Trials of Osiris then that’s where you will experience SBMM. However, if you want a more casual experience, then the Control/Quickplay playlist will focus more on connection-based matchmaking first before trying to find those of similar skill.
Additionally, Bungie have combined and refined the way solo players and groups queue into a playlist. They’ve done this by having an algorithm smartly find solos to play against if you’re alone, or groups if you’re in a group—most of the time.
Checkmate Control Crucible Mode
Image Source: Bungie
But what’s better matchmaking without something new and fresh to really invest your time and strategy into? Enter Checkmate Control. Previously a Crucible Labs mode being tested, Checkmate Control has graduated to sit amongst the usual options like Quickplay, Ranked 3’s, and so on. What makes Checkmate control something worth at least trying is the way the mode changes the PvP sandbox.
On top of a general increase to the time-to-kill, passive grenade, melee, and class ability regeneration is reduced across the board by 50%. Meanwhile, passive Super generation is reduced by a similar 40%, making the mode itself much more about gunplay than before. Likewise, you don’t start with Special ammo either, that has to be earned through killing opponents.
New Crucible Maps
Image Source by Twinfinite
If you haven’t played a lot of Crucible over the last year or two, you may now find a couple of new maps in the various mode’s rotations. That said, one new map a year hasn’t been something most have been happy with.
Thankfully, 2024 will see Bungie infusing the Crucible with a brand-new map pack of three to four new maps of varying sizes! Which, if they can do every year would be a great start to reinvigorating the PvP scene in Destiny 2.
In-Game Fireteam Finder
One of the latest additions to Destiny 2 as of late was the inclusion of an in-game LFG system. What’s great about a system like this is how it helps solo players find like-minded people to explore the game’s various modes with. No longer do you need to find fellow Guardians through Discord or another online LFG finder.
What’s great is the Fireteam Finder’s flexibility in the kind of people you’re looking for. Don’t want to be judged for not knowing a raid? You can set options for that. Only want to play with people who have mics? Not an issue!
Season of the Wish Coil Activity
Image Source: Bungie.net
Season of the Wish is the final season before the launch of The Final Shape expansion. Unfortunately, said expansion is delayed until June. Thankfully, Season of the Wish brought with it quite the fun new seasonal mode. The Coil is that new mode and while it’s not a horde mode, or endless in nature, it does have roguelite elements which are quite refreshing.
You and a team of two other Guardians run through a few different mission types that are separated by pathways. Each path has a different boss, and as your team progresses you can buy semi-randomized Dragon’s Gift buffs. While at the same time enemies will scale up in power by +5 up to a maximum of +20. The mode ultimately takes around 45 minutes to complete and the four chests at the end for hitting a certain score are worth the difficulty.
New Craftable Exotic Weapons
With Season of the Wish comes a new Exotic weapon that can be altered with multiple Exotic catalysts. Much like the Revision Zero, The Wish-Keeper bow is a powerful Exotic weapon that is craftable, while gaining strength through using and leveling the weapon itself. What makes the Wish Keeper exciting as a bow is the fact that it’s a Strand weapon.
Additionally, Wish-Keeper’s Exotic perks let you create a Snareweaver arrow that suspends enemies. All followed by the weapon dealing bonus damage to suspended targets and faster draw time for a short duration afterwards. New weapons like this go a long way toward keeping Destiny 2 fresh as the months pass.
New Warlord’s Ruin Dungeon
Image Source: Bungie
Dungeons are some of Destiny 2’s best content since they are more accessible with slightly easier mechanics and difficulties compared to raids. This is even more true when you consider dungeons only have three Guardians compared to raids’ six. Enter Destiny 2’s latest dungeon, Warlord’s Ruin, a dungeon located in the snowy mountains within the EDZ. The dungeon will take you and your friends through a dark age castle full of bosses, puzzles, with the odd jumping and navigational challenges.
If you haven’t played Bungie’s latest dungeon then you owe it to yourself to try it sometime as you wait for The Final Shape expansion.
The Gunplay is Still Excellent
Image Source: Bungie
Destiny 2’s gunplay in 2024 is still one of its best aspects. You can say what you want about the story, characters, lore, systems, locations, and modes not getting the love they deserve. However, you have to admit how great it still feels to fire every single shot from your weapons that have those really good rolls. Even Destiny 2’s non-gun type weapons like the swords and glaives do a great job feeling unique and useful in certain situations.
Season of the Wish’s weapons in 2024 may be worth grinding out too since you’ll have the extra time to do it. Beyond that, The Final Shape’s new weapons and Exotics will undoubtedly be just as compelling to use for the 1st as they will be the 1,000th time.
The Final Shape Expansion
Image Credit: Bungie
Bungie’s next big yearly expansion that was delayed several months because it simply didn’t live up to what they wanted to deliver. The extra months The Final Shape will have in the oven should surely improve upon the expansion’s total offerings. It isn’t be too far out of the realms of possibility to assume that instead of just one new Super for each class, that, instead, each class gets its third new darkness subclass.
Okay, maybe that is a bit much to hope for, but those extra few months Bungie is giving themselves to build on The Final Shape could mean that many more Exotic armors and weapons for players to enjoy. It could mean a complete Gambit refresh, or maybe a whole new core mode. At least, that’s what I’m hoping for. Ultimately, traveling inside of the Traveler will be an exciting experience from both a story and gameplay perspective and Bungie now has all the time in the world to make it perfect.
The Start of Episodes in 2024
2024 is the start of Bungie’s new content delivery system dubbed Episodes. It’s been many years now that Bungie has gotten into the grove of delivering Seasons. But after hearing backlash from the fans and seeing revenue drop over time, the developers saw the writing on the wall and knew they had to deliver bigger, more impactful chunks of content that aren’t so formulaic. Players have simply grown tired of the weekly stories, with the quests that have you engaging with years-old content at this point.
Episodes are Bungie’s way of finally changing that status quo in 2024. Personally, I hope to see a huge influx of new Exotic weapons and armors with every Episode, instead of the 1-2 armors and 1-2 weapons we’ve been getting. Regardless, Bungie has a lot planned for 2024 with Episodes. So, it seems safe to raise your expectations just a bit here and hopping on the Destiny 2 train now in preparation for The Final Shape is far from a bad idea.
About the author
Ali Taha
Whether its new releases, or a new Destiny 2 season, Ali will flex his gaming and freelancer skills to cover them extensively. He started off writing features for Game Rant but found a better home here on Twinfinite. While Ali waits for the next Monster Hunter title, he enjoys publishing his progression fantasy novels as an indie author.
The Last of Us Online is dead. Naughty Dog announced today that the multiplayer spin-off of the hit series is no longer in development, citing concerns about managing ongoing content for a live-service game while still trying to produce the single-player blockbusters the PlayStation studio is famous for.
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“We realize many of you have been anticipating news around the project that we’ve been calling The Last of Us Online,” Naughty Dog wrote in a December 14 update. “There’s no easy way to say this: We’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to stop development on that game.”
The studio said that as production on the project ramped up, it became clear that “we’d have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come, severely impacting development on future single-player games.” The choices were apparently between becoming a “solely live-service games studio” in the mold of modern day Bungie, which makes Destiny 2, or “continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage.”
The Last Of Us Online, which many many fans previously referred to as Factions after the multiplayer mode from the original 2013 PlayStation 3 game, was first announced during Summer Game Fest 2022. The spin-off was billed as the studio’s “biggest online experience” ever, and as large as any of its single-player games.
But Naughty Dog never showed the game beyond vague statements and concept art. Then in May of this year, Bloomberg reported that the production team on the game had be scaled back following negative feedback from an internal review by Bungie, which Sony acquired last year. At the time, the studio posted a statement on Twitter saying that while things were progressing well, the game required more time. By October, however, Kotaku reported that the project had been “put on ice” amid some internal reshuffling and dozens of contracted developers being laid off.
The Last of Us Online was one of a number of new multiplayer projects in development across Sony’s studios as the PlayStation 5 maker invested in a massive shift toward more live-service games. In November, Sony revealed during an earnings call that half of the roughly dozen online games it was working on would be delayed past 2025.
In the meantime, Naughty Dog is still working on a “brand-new single-player game” it plans to reveal sometime in the future.
We realize many of you have been anticipating news around the project that we’ve been calling The Last of Us Online. There’s no easy way to say this: We’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to stop development on that game.
We know this news will be tough for many, especially our dedicated The Last of Us Factions community, who have been following our multiplayer ambitions ardently. We’re equally crushed at the studio as we were looking forward to putting it in your hands. We wanted to share with you some background of how we came to this decision.
The multiplayer team has been in pre-production with this game since we were working on The Last of Us Part II – crafting an experience we felt was unique and had tremendous potential. As the multiplayer team iterated on their concept for The Last of Us Online during this time, their vision crystalized, the gameplay got more refined and satisfying, and we were enthusiastic about the direction in which we were headed.
In ramping up to full production, the massive scope of our ambition became clear. To release and support The Last of Us Online we’d have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come, severely impacting development on future single-player games. So, we had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage.
We are immensely proud of everyone at the studio that touched this project. The learnings and investments in technology from this game will carry into how we develop our projects and will be invaluable in the direction we are headed as a studio. We have more than one ambitious, brand new single player game that we’re working on here at Naughty Dog, and we cannot wait to share more about what comes next when we’re ready.
Until then, we’re incredibly thankful to our community for your support throughout the years.
Gaming’s biggest night has come and gone, and perhaps the biggest surprise of all was just how little time devs were given to thank their family, fans, and recently deceased colleagues during their acceptance speeches. But before that, we finally got our first in-depth look at Rockstar’s GTA 6, the most anticipated game in a decade. Here’s your cheat sheet to the week’s biggest news.
Rockstar Games has confirmed that, at least at launch, the company’s long-awaited open-world crime sim, Grand Theft Auto VI, will launch on Xbox Series X/S and PS5 only, with no mention of a PC version. – Zack Zwiezen Read More
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is often heralded as one of the best adventure games of the past 25 years. With the nefarious Ganon once again scheming to conquer the land, it’s up to Link to traverse through time, space, and yet another aggravating water temple to save the Kingdom of Hyrule. While the epic for the N64 is celebrating a major birthday this year, inspiring tribute mash-up videos and social media celebrations, another classic Zelda title is quietly celebrating a major milestone of its own. – Jen Glennon Read More
The Day Before kicked off 2023 as one of the most wishlisted games on Steam. Now, after endless controversies, the self-proclaimed open-world survival-horror MMO styled after The Last of Us is finally in Steam Early Access, and it’s getting panned. The first players to lay hands on the much-hyped zombie shooter are sharing footage of game-breaking glitches and leaving thousands of negative reviews. – Ethan Gach Read More
Overwatch 2 season eight begins today, December 5, but Blizzard showed off its new skins, events, and latest tank hero, Mauga, before kick-off. And the sentiment from players about the skins for season eight has been mixed—Baptiste’s formal wear is a standout, but it’s sandwiched between some real stinkers and an unremarkable Mythic Skin. But one cosmetic has stood out for all the wrong reasons: Mercy’s Year of the Dragon event skin. – Kenneth Shepard Read More
2023’s The Game Awards just wrapped. Did you watch it? Well, no worries if you missed it (or had something better to do) as we’ve rounded up every major game trailer and world premiere you could want to watch in a single sitting. So if you’re looking to check out a new trailer or catch up on all the games that were announced this year, you’re in the right place. – Claire Jackson Read More
A seven-second TikTok reverberated across the internet over the weekend, after it claimed to show the “first look” at in-game footage of a city in Grand Theft Auto VI, the open-world blockbuster whose official trailer is just a day away. Frantic speculation about whether the footage was real or not ensued, including unverified rumors that the leak involved a Rockstar Games developer’s own kid. – Ethan Gach Read More
While Sony acquired Destiny 2 maker Bungie for $3.6 billion in 2022, it repeatedly claimed the creator of Halo and other hits would remain an “independent subsidiary.” Now IGN reports that if Bungie’s sci-fi MMO keeps failing revenue targets, Sony could dissolve its existing board of directors and take full control of the roughly 1,100 person studio. – Ethan Gach Read More
After a long and tumultuous road, Cyberpunk 2077 appears to be getting its final major update today. The sprawling patch includes a new ridable metro system and more romance options, as well as a host of other tweaks, changes, and additions. Unless it ends up breaking something big in the game, consider patch 2.1 Night City’s last overhaul until Cyberpunk 2 arrives a decade or so from now. – Ethan Gach Read More
The final season of Destiny 2 is here, and it is being overshadowed by yet another huge marketing blunder on Bungie’s part. So, together, let’s discover how Destiny 2’s new seasonal bundles aren’t earning Bungie any good will.
Not long ago, Bungie laid off around 8% of their workforce, including the legendary composer Michael Salvatori. The news shocked the gaming industry and put a bad taste into many of Destiny 2’s current and would-be players. From that point on, Bungie needed to win us, the players, back—to earn our trust again where it’s been broken many times before.
Image Source: Bungie
Fast forward to the launch of Season of the Wish and two new bundles made their way to the Steam store. One bundle immediately angered the Destiny 2 community and gaming world as a whole. Dubbed The Destiny 2 Starter Pack, for 15 dollars you would get an Exotic ghost shell, Exotic ship, Exotic sparrow, 125,000 Glimmer, Enhancement Cores, Prisms, and an Enhancement Shard.
Worst of all, however, was the three Exotic weapons that Bungie put into this pack. The three guns were a solid mix of Primary, Secondary, and Heavy weapons that included the Traveller’s Chosen Exotic Sidearm, Ruinous Effigy Exotic Trace Rifle, and Sleeper Stimulant Exotic Fusion Rifle. While these Exotic guns aren’t notably meta (at the moment), this is a much more egregious form of paying for power that Bungie has only flirted with via expansion preorder Exotic weapons.
But beyond the paying to win, the biggest issue here is that Bungie was charging a whopping $15 dollars for easy access to guns you can get in game. Because for $15 a new player can, and rightfully should, buy a couple of the game’s earlier expansions to pad out the content they can grind for and get access to. For example, during a sale, a new player could currently pick up the Beyond Light and Witch Queen expansions for not much more than what the starter pack is asking for.
Image Source: Bungie
But no, Bungie put short-term profits ahead of long-term growth by trying to nickel and dime yet again. It’s like they still haven’t learned that over-monetizing can and will push new and old players away from your game. I read an article earlier today that said Destiny 2 is becoming more and more like Diablo Immortal, and I wanted to weep at how true that felt. If Bungie had made the starter pack free, then there would have been praise—that’s what Bungie needs to focus on.
And then you have the painfully pointless Season of the Wish Silver Bundle that basically sells you the $15 Silver pack and adds a forgettable Legendary Emote to it. How is that an enticing bundle? You get the same amount of Silver between both packs, when bundles could stand to be a lot more enticing and worth the money.
What makes these packs feel rather disingenuous is how they describe the amount of Silver they offer. The regular Silver pack says you get 1,500 Silver plus a 200 Bonus, while this new bundle says you get 1,000 Silver plus a 700 Bonus! That leads me to believe they worded it like that to make players think they are getting a better deal and that feels so dirty. It’s that kind of practice that makes me care even less about new content when the higher ups at Bungie haven’t seemed to learn anything from their mistakes this far into development.
About the author
Ali Taha
Whether its new releases, or a new Destiny 2 season, Ali will flex his gaming and freelancer skills to cover them extensively. He started off writing features for Game Rant but found a better home here on Twinfinite. While Ali waits for the next Monster Hunter title, he enjoys publishing his progression fantasy novels as an indie author.
The hardest thing about Destiny 2 is getting any of your friends to play it. Fans of Bungie’s ambitious and imaginative sci-fi shooter have long hoped for a simple on-ramp that would make it easier to get lapsed players and newcomers back into its universe. Destiny 2’s new “Starter Pack” might sound like exactly that. Instead, it’s a pricey bundle of random items that fans can’t stop dunking on.
Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build
Season of the Wish went live today with an exciting trailer and new missions revolving around collecting dragon eggs to win over an old enemy. But players also quietly noticed a new DLC add-on on PSN, Xbox, and Steam that went live alongside the latest update. It’s called the Destiny 2 Starter Pack, it costs $15, and it’s one of the more ridiculous microtransactions I’ve seen. Contrary to what its name might suggest, the Starter Pack does not include any expansions, missions, or story content. It’s just a random assortment of stuff meant to “supercharge” players’ arsenals. Here’s what’s included:
Traveler’s Chosen
Ruinous Effigy
Sleeper Simulant
Exotic Ship
Exotic Sparrow
Exotic Ghost Shell
125,000 Glimmer
50 Enhancement Cores
5 Enhancement Prisms
1 Ascendant Shard
Image: Bungie
Those first three items are all old Exotic weapons that have been in the game since 2019 or before. They are mostly fine but only synergize with specific builds and can all be acquired from the Tower kiosk without too much fuss. The ship, sparrow, and ghost shell are purely cosmetic and completely dependent on personal taste. In my opinion at least, the ones in the Starter Pack are far from some of the game’s better designs.
The materials, meanwhile, are pretty stingy. Glimmer is Destiny 2’s main in-game currency, earned by doing anything and everything. Cores, prisms, and Ascendant Shards (what players lovingly call “golf balls”) are for focusing engrams, rerolling gear, and crafting new items, none of which is particularly helpful for new players, nor very meaningful in the quantities offered. It’s not even enough to fully masterwork a new piece of armor. It’s a bizarre array of accouterments to buy for more than the cost of an entire season of the game.
“I’d say this is pay to win, but really it’s just a waste of money,” wrote one player on the Destiny subreddit. “Pay to lose.” Another wrote, “This is pathetic. 3 mid exotics, a few crap cosmetics and some materials is not worth that much. A real starter pack would be guns and old DLCs.”
There are three broad obstacles to players getting back into Destiny 2. The first is that most of the story is no longer in the game due to content vaulting. The second is that Destiny 2’s “New Light” campaign remains pretty barebones and offers no real direction with end-game activities. And the third is that despite ostensibly being free-to-play, all of the expansions are paid and unlocking access to everything is still quite expensive. Shadowkeep, the underwhelming 2019 expansion, is still normally $25. The Starter Pack just adds to the noise, confusing players with misleading descriptions like “Fly between destinations in your new Exotic ship.” Narrator voice: Exotic ships are just custom loading screen animations.
The Starter Pack also comes in the context of layoffs at Bungie amid the delay of 2024’s The Final Shape expansion and reported revenue shortfalls. At a time when the studio is apparently desperate for money, the $15 bundle just underlines the gulf between players and whoever is leading Destiny 2’s monetization strategy. It’s one thing to milk whales, but as Destiny 2 players are pointing out, the new Starter Pack seems squarely aimed at taking advantage of new players who won’t know any better. In the words of one of them, “This is some mobile game shit.”
Update 11/29/2023 6:09 p.m. ET: Bungie appears to have removed Destiny 2’s controvertial Starter Pack from storefornts, including Valve’s storefront. “Notice: Destiny 2: Starter Pack is no longer available on the Steam store,” reads an update on the Steam listing. PlayStation Store listings, meanwhile, return error pages.
Screenshot: Valve / Kotaku
In addition to roasting the microtransaction on social media and Reddit, some players had also attempted to review-bomb the bundle and change the Steam tags for it to things like “psychological horror.”
This is for all the Hunters out there who appreciate the sneaker side of Destiny 2’s combat sandbox. From overshields, to invisibility, to Volatile Rounds, the Exotic armors found in this ranked list should give plenty of insight into many varied build choices for your Void Hunter.
With that said, here is Destiny 2: the top 10 Exotic armor for Void Hunters in Destiny 2.
10. Gwisin Vest
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
At the last spot on the list comes the Gwisin Vest. While this Exotic armor is indeed made for the Void Hunter, its ability that augments the Spectral Blades Super pales in comparison to others on this list. This armor’s perk ‘Roving Assassin’ refunds super energy based on the number of kills you get with the Spectral Blades Super once you use the Super’s heavy attack.
In terms of raw numbers, it doesn’t return a huge amount. If you’re in PvE it’s 11.1% after 1 kill and 17.1% after 5. While in PvP it’s 8.3% after 1 and 16.7% after 5 kills. If this chest armor did something more outside of prolong the Spectral Blade Super, it might have been higher up on this list.
9. Motherkeeper’s Wraps
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
This is one of the newer items that Hunters have access to, and it does work with all subclasses. That’s because these Exotic arms replace your grenade ability with ‘Cage of Loyal Moths’. The result is that when you use your grenade two moths explode out of where your new grenade lands. Depending on if you or an ally is close by, two Arc moths will spawn to explode on enemies, or two Void moths will quickly fly to you or any ally to give a 22.5hp Void shield each. Alternatively, an Arc and Void moth can spawn, doing a bit of both.
When you take into account the damage and Void shield amounts given in PvE and PvP, this Exotic simply doesn’t hold up to others on this list. Especially when it completely replaces your powerful Void grenade.
8. Assassin’s Cowl
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
Assassin’s Cowl is one of those Exotics that work incredibly well in PvE but much less so in PvP. Its perk ‘Vanishing Execution’ restores health and grants invisibility based on the kind of enemy you kill with powered melee attack or finisher—with finisher kills generally giving longer invisibility and more HP back in general. Now, this is a lot of people’s favorite helmet for quite a few builds across the many other subclasses.
However, I don’t find it as valuable for Void unless you’re in dire need of a constant source of healing. You can already go invisible pretty easily, so Exotics that can buff invisibility, and not just how you turn invisible, is something I find more interesting.
7. Fr0st-EE5
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
These boots fair a bit better than previous armor on this list. In all of the Exotics that help you go invisible, or use abilities, this is certainly one of the better ones due to its perk. The perk, ‘Rapid Cooldown,’ doubles your grenade and melee ability regen rate in PvE, and increases the base regen rate by 100% in PvP. While your class ability base regen is increased by 200% in PvP.
All of that happens while sprinting, which should be pretty often! Then, when you dodge and go invisible, your movement speed will also be increased by roughly 6%. This makes ambushing other players while invisible even easier. However, other Exotics on this list simply augment other Void abilities better than just “reduced cooldown.”
6. The Bombardiers
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
Now we’re starting to get into the Exotic armor options that mesh quite well with the Void Hunter loadout. I say this because these boots’ Exotic perk, ‘Parting Gift’, drops a bomb whenever you dodge. This bomb explodes after 1.5 seconds and deals a substantial amount of damage over a 7.5-meter radius.
What’s cool about this bomb is that it applies a different effect depending on your subclass. So, as a Void Hunter, the dropped bomb will have the effect of suppression, much like the suppression grenade at your disposal already. However, the key difference is that this bomb uses “Lite” suppression, so it won’t be taking other Guardian’s out of their Supers. If it did, or if the bomb did more damage, it would have been higher on the list.
5. Khepri’s Sting
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
This Exotic’s perk is pretty valuable to have, but with some caveats. The perk, ‘Touch of Venom,’ instantly casts Smoke Bomb on the enemy if your melee ability is fully charged. Additionally, your Smoke Bomb with do 50% more damage than usual, on top of granting you Truesight for 3 seconds. This allows you to see enemies through walls up to 64 meters away.
Even better is if you want to use your Smoke Bomb normally and leave it lying around for say, another player to stumble upon. Doing so gives you 500% additional base melee recharge rate while your Smoke Bomb lies in wait to be triggered. Because this armor is more useful in PvP over PvE, Khepri’s Sting sits at the number five spot.
4. Omnioculus
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
These Exotic heavy gauntlets are an excellent choice if your goal is to make yourself and your team invisible. That’s because its perk, ‘Beyond The Veil,’ gives you a second Smoke Bomb charge. Furthermore, when you use the smoke bomb to make yourself invisible, you can use it on your teammates too. Additionally, when you or your team is invisible by your Smoke Bomb, you’ll have 50% damage reduction in PvE, and 10% in PvP.
What really makes this Exotic pop is that for each teammate you make invisible you get a refund of 50% of the melee ability energy needed to cast it! With that said, the damage reduction buff does not apply when you’re in your Super. Because of how useful invisibility is, this Exotic can do quite well in pretty much any mode, ranking it higher on the list.
3. Wormhusk Crown
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
Even after so many nerfs, the Wormhusk Crown is still easily a top 3 Exotic for the Hunter. Its perk, ‘Burning Souls,’ grants 67 HP split across health and shields whenever you use your dodge. This is especially strong if you are rocking a Void build that has a focus on low cooldowns for your dodge class ability. Even more so if your playstyle as a Void Hunter is to be aggressive and reactive with your dodging to invisible yourself out and into combat.
2. Graviton Forfeit
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
Easily one of the best Void Hunter Exotics in the game, Graviton Forfeit is an incredible example of enhancing the Void Hunter’s moment to moment sneaky gameplay. It does this through its Exotic perk, ‘Vanishing Shadow,’ where invisibility lasts 2 seconds longer. Additionally, and more importantly, while you are invisible your Recover and Reload Speed are increased by 100.
Better yet is that your base melee regen rate is increased by 400% without enemies nearby and up to 800% when more than 2 enemies are near. This number is reduced to 100% and 300% respectively while in PvP, but even then, all of the bonuses of this Exotic around invisibility are always useful and valued.
1. Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk: this list’s best Exotic and the hardest to pronounce correctly. This bad boy has many powerful synergies that really enhance the more bombastic side of the Void subclass and reminds me more of how a Titan benefits from Void powers. It is because its perk, ‘See Me, Feel Me,’ grants your Void weapons Volatile Rounds for 10 seconds (or 3 seconds in PvP) after you drop out of invisibility.
Now, Volatile Rounds not only allow your weapon to pierce Barrier Champion Shields but cover your enemies in Void particles that cause them to explode after taking enough damage. But this Exotic doesn’t stop there, if you are invisible and use a Finisher on an enemy, you get a 35% Weapon Damage buff for 6 seconds. You, and anyone within 24 meters, is also granted a Reserve Overshield buff.
This Overshield buff can be used when you dodge to go invisible again and grants you a 40HP Void Overshield for 10 seconds. During that time, you also have 500% additional base class ability regeneration rate. As you can see, this is easily one of the craziest Exotic perks in the game and gives you and your team quite a lot of defensive utility while giving yourself more damage and AoE. The only place this Exotic falls short is in PvP where the Reserve Overshield can’t be procced, but its other effects in PvE simply overshadow everything else.
About the author
Ali Taha
Whether its new releases, or a new Destiny 2 season, Ali will flex his gaming and freelancer skills to cover them extensively. He started off writing features for Game Rant but found a better home here on Twinfinite. While Ali waits for the next Monster Hunter title, he enjoys publishing his progression fantasy novels as an indie author.
It seems the Crucible Strike Team have been hard at work and continue to do so even amidst troubles at Bungie. Thankfully, Season 23’s massive list of crucible tweaks and changes are a step in the right direction for the PvP community.
Bungie’s Crucible Strike Team has continued to work diligently to satisfy the needs of their community. Part of all that they’ve been working on is coming in Destiny 2’s season 23, Season of the Wish. That said, Bungie is still iterating on the changes they made in Season 22 and so we should expect back-and-forth adjustments. It’s good to see that after Bungie’s layoffs that the Crucible Strike Team seems to still be in a healthy enough position to still deliver on their vision of a better, healthier Crucible.
Image Source: Bungie
The biggest changes coming in season 23 involve the addition of new playlists and alterations to current ones. Part of those new playlists includes a new 3v3 unranked — I like the idea of having a new smaller unranked mode with gameplay that’s like Competitive and Trials, but with matchmaking that suits the more casual crowd. I know myself and a good amount of Crucible enjoyers will appreciate the extra options here.
Beyond the unranked trials-like 3v3 option, the 6v6 mode’s matchmaking will be tuned to be less skill-based and more equal between, skill, latency, and connection. Matchmaking in Destiny 2 is pretty divisive with a lot of people liking purely connection based matchmaking so that unranked is less sweaty. While others like skill-based matchmaking so that they aren’t always stomped on by players who are that much better.
Here, Bungie seems to have found a middle ground where they blend the various kinds of matchmaking to keep skill balanced involved but not so much so that every match is a sweatfest. This I approve of since the best matchmaking is also the most nuanced, while at the same time ensuring the most amount of people get to enjoy every mode at every skill level.
Image Source: Bungie
For a long time now, many have been wanting a larger variety of Crucible nodes to be available more often. With Season 23 having seven PvP nodes to choose from with varying gameplay and matchmaking, each node destination represents a very unique style of Crucible gameplay. Did I forget to mention the 6v6 Unranked node will also feature Sparrow Control? What used to be a bug, is now a feature! Good on Bungie for listening and embracing what players enjoy. Here’s hoping we can get Sparrow Racing from Destiny 1 next!
It’s a shame that Rift is being benched, but I can understand why Bungie may be worried about splitting the PvP community too thin between too many different matchmaking nodes. That said, it will be refreshing to see Checkmate Control graduate from Crucible Labs to become the primary Control gametype for a few weeks after Season 23’s launch.
The playerbase seems to have really enjoyed the longer time-to-kill, wider skill gaps, and earnable Special ammo that you don’t lose on death. It is really cool to see Checkmate being applied to more Crucible modes and I applaud Bungie for creating a new style of Control that feels so fresh with meaningful gameplay.
Bungie also seems to be working on the matchmaking backend too, with changes to the way matchmaking determines your skill versus other players. The changes will allow for more variance between how matchmaking judges your current skill from match to match because not everyone is going to be using a meta build all the time or wants to play at their best constantly. After all, some of us have weird builds that don’t get us lots of kills but are still really fun to play.
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
Now, Trials of Osiris is getting some expanded weekly rewards that should entice some more players to give it a shot. Trials is certainly for the sweatiest of players but that doesn’t mean people who struggle going Flawless shouldn’t be rewarded for getting as far as they can for each week. Where the real rewards now lie in Season 23 is Competitive with Bungie’s big brain move to let players focus and earn very competitive weapons like Rose and Mercurial Overreach.
The ability to reacquire some of the strongest weapons from Competitive Crucible’s past is a nice quality of life feature for the many players who likely missed out. Bungie seems to be going all out for Season 23 in many ways. Here’s hoping it will be enough to weather the extra few months Bungie needs to polish The Final Shape.
Part of the Crucible’s biggest issue over the years has been stagnation in one form or another. Whether it’s maps, modes, or the sandbox itself, players can feel when one has been present and unchanged for far too long. After reviewing a lot of the changes coming in Season 23, it looks like Bungie’s Crucible Strike team is successfully tackling every part of PvP that was beginning to stagnate.
I know a lot of what I’ve talked about here will bring me back into the competitive fold. So, I imagine this update will do the same for many more players and that’s always a good thing. Beyond Season of the Wish’s sweeping Crucible changes, the true worth of Bungie’s Crucible Strike team will be in how they are able to continue their delivery of fresh modes and maps to the PvP ecosystem. If they can pull that off up to and through The Final Shape, then Destiny 2’s Crucible may live up to and exceed when it peaked in Destiny 1.
About the author
Ali Taha
Whether its new releases, or a new Destiny 2 season, Ali will flex his gaming and freelancer skills to cover them extensively. He started off writing features for Game Rant but found a better home here on Twinfinite. While Ali waits for the next Monster Hunter title, he enjoys publishing his progression fantasy novels as an indie author.
Destiny 2 recently had an update that implemented quitter protection for Trials matches that start with missing players. While we will cover that more in a bit, Bungie still needs to address its PvP quitter issue.
So, in the game’s recent 7.2.5.3 update, quitter protection was implemented for Trials at the start of the match. What this means exactly is that if you have a missing member or two at the start of the match, you will be allowed to quit and matchmake again without incurring the normal penalty for quitting a Trials match. This is fantastic news for all those players who suffered and still do suffer from a connection error named after a particular animal.
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
However, this update is only for Trials of Osiris and does not stop quitters from leaving matches early. Just in my experience alone with lots of Control and Competitive playtime, this is still a rampant issue. One that would be fixed, if players were properly incentivized to stay in the match until the end or punished more severely for leaving a match early.
Nothing is more demoralizing to be PvP-ing in the Crucible and are winning, until about halfway through. When suddenly, you or your team starts doing poorly, losing some one-on-one engagements and slowly watching the enemy team’s score pull away from ours. So, of course, your teammates start to leave, and now you’re losing almost every gunfight. The act of leaving a match before it’s over ruins it for everyone else. So, let’s fix that and show Bungie some things they could try to accomplish that.
Now, it’s important that Bungie do their best to try and differentiate innocent connection loss and rage quitting. I’m not entirely sure how they would go upon doing that, but it would certainly help if Bungie were to implement harsher penalties for quitting matches early. I used to play a lot of League of Legends, and I found their leaver penalties quite effective.
So with that in mind, harsher penalties like quickly escalating tiers of punishment. For example, first offense would be a single five-minute Crucible queue delay. The next offense in the same 24 hours could be a 10-minute queue delay for the next five Crucible queues. As the player continues to rage quit, the longer the queue delay, the more matches it lasts for, and the longer the effective window for gaining such punishments would last.
While increasing the punishments for making unsportsmanlike choices in the Crucible is sound, it could be as equally effective to also implement a system that rewards players based on X number of games they finish in a row. With the right incentives, this could help put and keep Destiny 2’s PvP playerbase in the right state of mind while playing. You catch more flies with honey after all.
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
One of the best ways to do just that would be to make sure said incentives are above all worthwhile to a majority of players. As a Crucible player myself, I rarely rage quit outside of the most brutal stomps after most of my time has quit. However, I would certainly be persuaded to stay if say after playing five matches in a row, there was a rare but slowly escalating chance to earn Adept Legendary weapons or Artifice Legendary Armor. In fact, I can’t think of anyone who would turn down such rewards just to rage quit from a tough match and feel their actions justified for that one moment.
Visual cosmetics like rare shaders or interesting ornaments that have appealing colors or other visual traits may be the way to go as well. Although, I don’t believe those rewards would be as inciting enough to keep people from becoming upset and choosing the easy way out. Either way, with the right rewards for staying and playing and the appropriate punishments, it’s harder to imagine people ever leaving mid match again.
About the author
Ali Taha
Whether its new releases, or a new Destiny 2 season, Ali will flex his gaming and freelancer skills to cover them extensively. He started off writing features for Game Rant but found a better home here on Twinfinite. While Ali waits for the next Monster Hunter title, he enjoys publishing his progression fantasy novels as an indie author.
Bungie’s recent surprise layoffs really shook the company to its core. As a result, The Final Shape expansion and likely future episodes have been delayed by four months. The latest roadmap Bungie released is no longer relevant, so we’ll need to explore what they could do when they are ready.
In one of the most turbulent times for Destiny 2, next year’s new content needs to bring some confidence and joy back to the playerbase. Let’s explore 10 things Destiny 2’s next roadmap needs above all else.
Less Structure and More Surprises
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
Previous Destiny 2 roadmaps would have every little thing detailed about each season and each patch within each season. Even so, that still created expectations, as players could read the roadmap and be disappointed because there’s nothing else they could reasonably hope for.
In 2024, Destiny 2’s next roadmap shouldn’t explicitly detail every bit of new content. Bungie should keep it vague and broad on purpose and surprise the players with new content, systems, and modes that they’ve normally wouldn’t expect!
This may be especially helpful for the devs comprising post-layoff Bungie, as they likely don’t want to immediately dive headfirst into heavy and strictly outlined content production.
FREE Dungeons
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
Not one, but two Dungeons in close succession or at once would be something the community could really rally behind. Especially if each would be free for all players to enjoy. I don’t know about you, but I would take two to three new Destiny 2 Dungeons each Season or Episode over a milk-toast series of unchallenging, repetitive, checklist story quests.
To me, the stories contained within each Season could and should be made into sprawling Dungeons. I like this because players re-run Dungeons all the time, but you don’t see players showing that same enthusiasm for seasonal questlines or non-exotic missions. Look me straight in the eye and tell me 9 to 12 new Dungeons a year doesn’t sound amazing.
Granted, this suggestion is a long-shot for current Bungie, but that’s okay. I’d even take four new Dungeons a year at this point, and most other players likely feel the same.
New Fragments or Aspects for Every Subclass
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
Part of what makes Destiny 2 so replayable are the amount of builds a player can discover between subclasses, gear, and Exotics. By this logic, a solid stream of new build opportunities via new Fragments or a new Aspect for every class and subclass could help with player retention.
I’m not saying Bungie needs to deliver new Fragments AND Aspects for every subclass every Season, because that would be a tall order on top of everything else. So, instead of a new Season giving a ton of love to this or that subclass, why not give a little love to all of them? People like inclusiveness, and the Stasis Titan that only plays one or two Seasons a year may want to play more often if he has more to work with.
Given what’s happened to Bungie this year, It would be okay for them to slowly work up to this suggestion.
New Class Abilities and Jumps
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
While it’s fun to tinker with the intricate details of a build with subclass Fragments and armor mods, adding more to each base class could be exciting too. Think about it: Aside from the addition of blink and some subclass reworks, new class abilities and jumps haven’t really been a thing. Seeing new base abilities and movement options on a roadmap might help the community feel like Destiny 2 can keep going after such a tough year for the developers.
With these new class options being free for all players, it could be easy to build some hype and good will amongst new and returning players on the fence. This would be especially true if the new jumps and class abilities synergized with player builds in ways the other options haven’t. For example: A new Titan jump that is essentially a medium-sized explosion that propels the Titan in a semi-random direction while anyone caught in the blast suffers from a few ticks of Scorch would be a huge draw.
A Complete Gambit Rework
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
I could definitely foresee the Destiny community warming at the sight of a complete Gambit rework with renewed support.
All it would take is some fresh eyes and talent and a bit of risk, with the result being something players would be likely quite eager for. Like, what if they turned Gambit into a mode that was slower and larger, with a more direct focus on the PvP within the PvEvP designs? It wouldn’t have to be an extraction shooter, but rather something that could be reminiscent of it. That would certainly be interesting and enticing to see on a future roadmap.
That said, this is a tall order, and would likely take a lot of time to accomplish. Even a single new Gambit map with a few new guns with original Origin Traits would be excellent.
More Strikes and More Crucible Maps
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
Bungie desperately needs to move away from the current trend of releasing one to two new Strikes and Crucible maps per year.
For being labeled as Core Modes, these are woefully underdeveloped and are severely lacking in constant iteration, especially given that they serve as Destiny 2’s backbone. considering Bungie’s turbulent development process lately, this could be forgivable if they can eventually work up to delivering a renewed focus on Core modes in 2025.
Additionally, the new Strikes and new maps need to visually be a slow but constant drip on future roadmaps to make people feel like it’s all being consistently supported. It can feel pretty bad to spend so much money on expansions and seasons only for there to be one or two new Strikes and Crucible maps throughout the year.
Finally, updating older Strikes or un-vaulting the oldest Strikes with new encounters, bosses, and voice work that reflects the changes in Destiny 2’s overarching story could go a long way to satisfying player content fatigue.
Refresh and Streamline Monetization for New Players
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
This right here is the instant-mashed-potatoes-way to garner some good faith. Because right now, the number one issue the Destiny 2 community has is the way the game’s monetized—especially on Steam. It’s just too much.
This is especially true for someone trying to break into the game. As a new player, you’ll go onto Steam and see hundreds of dollar’s worth of DLC expansions you’ll think you’ll need to buy to have the complete experience.
When they are ready, what Bungie could do is make some of the older expansions free for newer players. Furthermore, a refresh of Destiny 2’s various bundles to be easier to understand and navigate could help players better understand when to buy a given expansion, increasing the game’s revenue in these troubling times as a result.
More Meaningful Mid-Season Events with Greater Variety
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
The mid-season holiday events go a long way toward making Guardians feel connected to the game’s world and community. However, the events themselves tend to fall a little flat with an over emphasis on Event passes that usually fail to raise Guardian’s holiday spirits.
More events like last year’s Dawning event, which saw throwable snowballs in almost every mode, is a more viable direction Bungie can take with upcoming events. Maybe next year’s Festival of the Lost could give everyone temporary bat companion throwables that do damage and disorient.
An additional good move Bungie could make with these events is to use them to raise money for righteous causes or charities; much like how Warframe has special customization items that raise awareness for cancer-fighting initiatives.
More New Features and Systems
Image Source: Bungie
One thing I would argue is that for Destiny 2 to grow, or at least feel like its growing, it needs new, interactable features and systems.
This isn’t even something that would be new to the game. Not that long ago, we got Fishing with Season of the Deep, and it provided a new feature with new systems and ways for players to interact with the worlds of Destiny 2. It helped build and maintain player immersion, all while breaking away from the usual content players had come to expect.
Additionally, offering new mechanics that help Destiny 2 feel fresh would be a surefire way to help retain players; which, considering recent developments, is something I’m sure Bungie would very much like to do.
A Way for Players to be Creative in Destiny 2
Image Source: Bungie via Twinfinite
Some of the best games out there aren’t just made with lots of great developer-made content. They include ways for players to add to the game world they like spending time in.
This can usually be seen in the form of map makers, and to a lesser degree, player-made character customization, and is especially true when that player-created content has systems in place that allow other players to enjoy it as well.
I’d bet my gaming laptop that there would have been much less backlash around the lack of new Gambit or Crucible maps if players had the tools to make and integrate their own. I know a Forge-like mode for Destiny 2 isn’t something Bungie can easily or quickly make. However, an out-of-game gun or armor maker where Bungie would choose the best 10 or 20 player creations to be added to loot pools in every season would drive player engagement (and be really freaking cool besides).
Something like that would make less work for them too, which would help reduce overhead development costs and the overall development burden on the team behind the game — a win/win if ever there was one.
About the author
Ali Taha
Whether its new releases, or a new Destiny 2 season, Ali will flex his gaming and freelancer skills to cover them extensively. He started off writing features for Game Rant but found a better home here on Twinfinite. While Ali waits for the next Monster Hunter title, he enjoys publishing his progression fantasy novels as an indie author.
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