The Final Shape's campaign will be one of Destiny 2's most compelling stories

Destiny 2: The Final Shape is arriving in a matter of days. Prior to its release, and before the end of Season of the Wish, Bungie gave us a special behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming conclusion to the Light and Darkness saga. This hands-off preview included a playthrough of the first mission, part of a Strike, and the opportunity to ask the developers some questions about this highly anticipated expansion. Here’s what we saw of the campaign mission, and rest assured, there are no story spoilers below.

The presentation kicked off with a cutscene that we’ve now all seen in-game. Crow, with his spunky new haircut, makes it into the Traveler and avoids taking damage by double-jumping right before hitting the ground. Classic Hunter move right there. But he’s instantly in a shootout with the very man he killed! A tension-filled moment and a reversal of the imagery from Forsaken later, and Crow and Cayde-6 are pals, ready to figure out what’s going on.

With the story set up, Bungie’s senior communications manager Carlos Ascencio switches scenes and we’re staring at a perplexing landscape from the perspective of a Revenant Hunter. Everything is bathed in purple light with structures stretching into the distance – it’s clear this player, controlled by test lead Tyler Hillis, has passed through the threshold of the Traveler and is on their way inside.

Instead of being a two-dimensional portal, this area is sort of a bridge between our world and whatever constitutes the Traveler’s guts. The landscapes are all fragmented, torn apart, and littered with the Witness’ army. But Hillis isn’t fighting the Dread (not yet), he’s fighting Taken that have glowing yellow eyes, an indicator that these are controlled by the Witness, not a Hive god.

When the Dread show up, it’s in the form of the new Weaver units, which are Witness-allied Psions. They’ve got a pesky pull move, an inverse of the Psions’ Void push we’ve all come to love. It sounds like Bungie relishes these moments where it can surprise the player by moving them – against their will – while in the midst of combat. It definitely spiced up the flow of things as Hillis was wrenched from safety and thrown off the edge of the level.

After fighting along the Escher-like structures and jumping up familiar landmarks, we were inside the Traveler (though Bungie did hide the actual entry into the Traveler). As you’ve seen from trailers, the environment is familiar yet extremely bizarre. Green grass stretches along dainty dirt pathways to a giant tree with humongous Ghosts embeded in it. Super cool! But also slightly unnerving.

As Hillis rounds a corner, the portal that we used to enter the Traveler comes into view. It’s a striking visual: the kaleidoscope of colors set against the earthy tones. Bungie notes that this portal will function as a landmark as we journey toward the Witness and its spire, shrinking as we stray further from it.

The hilly terrain transitions into the Lost City and we’re introduced to the second member of the Dread: the Grim. These bat creatures flap about over your head and can screech at you, giving you a debuff literally called Tinnitus that suppresses your movement and abilities.

Up until this point, Hillis has just been using the Stasis subclass for the Hunter, but that shifts slightly as he finds a wellspring. These wellsprings quickly charge up your Transcendence meter, which is a key component of Prismatic, but it’s also available to those not using this new subclass. Once activated, it increases your damage output and lets you deal damage to Bound enemies, which would otherwise be immune. For those using a Prismatic subclass, it also lets you throw a unique grenade that combines Light and Darkness elements.

Because there are Bound enemies that can only be damaged while Transcendent, Bungie made the decision to let non-Prismatic players access Transcendence. This means you aren’t locked into using Prismatic throughout the campaign and can instead utilize a subclass you might be more comfortable with.

The fight continues deeper into the Lost City, with Hillis eventually fighting in the corridors and plazas of our old Tower, except it’s the version we know before Dominus Ghaul destroyed it during the Red War. Bungie noted that there will be many of these familiar locations throughout the Traveler, as they have been created from our memories. But it’s not just environments from our memories; you’ll be fighting and exploring completely alien landscapes, places from the Witness’ memories and those who are also inside the Traveler.

A climactic moment of this campaign mission preview was when Hillis received his Prismatic subclass. Not everything will be unlocked immediately, that will happen over the course of the campaign, though Bungie was coy about exactly how players will discover each ability. The first build you will receive is designed to give you a great starting point on which to construct your own Prismatic subclass.

After receiving Prismatic, it’s time to put it to the test. Hillis moves out into the courtyard and begins laying into the Taken. Waves of foes evaporate with the mixture of elemental abilities and soon enough another member of the Dread appears, the Subjugator. Even with Prismatic, this thing is no pushover. It’s lithe and speedy, and capable of throwing out some major hurt with its own Strand attacks. Getting strung up by this thing on Legendary looks like a death sentence. But Hillis prevails and the mission comes to an end and we get to see a cutscene. I won’t spoil the contents, but rejoice because our Guardians finally have a voice again!

Though it was just a glimpse of the first campaign mission, it was enough to showcase just how far Destiny 2 has come since the franchise began a decade ago. Memories that players have of the game are finding their way into this campaign. Cat Macedo, expansions project lead, spoke about this nostalgia and how the team wrestled with deciding what memorable locations had to be included throughout the campaign. For the team, there was one location that was unanimously agreed upon that absolutely had to be in there: The OG Tower.

While these familiar locations will no doubt make this alien landscape more welcoming, there’s uneasiness to it as well. The team wanted players to be able to identify the things around them but at the same time it should feel not quite right.

For Bungie, even though the campaign is focused on long-standing characters, newcomers will still be in for a good time. Destiny 2 game director Tyson Green noted that it’s a pretty compelling story, regardless of a player’s familiarity with every single aspect of the game. And this story doesn’t sound like it will be short, either. The team described the journey as “immense,” and noted that it’s the biggest campaign to date and it does not end with the raid.

A new expansion is always an exciting time in Destiny 2 and The Final Shape looks like it will compete with some of players’ favorite campaigns. If this preview is just a glimpse of the shape of things to come, then I’m looking forward to whatever form Destiny 2 will take as Bungie continues to mold it.

This preview is based on a remote, hands-off demonstration by the developers. The content was a work-in-progress and subject to change. Destiny 2: The Final Shape is available on June 4, 2024.

Bill Lavoy and Sam Chandler

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Bill and Sam are the two Shacknews writers who handle the bulk of the Destiny 2 content. As a Hunter and Warlock main respectively, they can cover a great deal of ground with whatever is happening in Destiny 2 today. What they don't know they can find out thanks to their all-star lineup of Destiny 2 friends.