50 cool things we learnt about Destiny 2 from our hands-on visit

FINALLY, DESTINY 2 IS COMING. With a ton of info, as developer Bungie decided to spill the beans on their first proper sequel. Beans which we picked up,to the tune of fifty as today’s hands-on session revealed plenty of information. Here’s the rundown of what I discovered while I wandered if I could kill the YouTuber in front of me and consume his place in the line to play Destiny 2.

Guardians

• Destiny 2 kicks off with your Guardian at full strength,but it isn’t long before Ghaul and his Red Legion sever your connection to the Light of the Traveller
• While the same three classes will be in action (Warlock,Titan and Hunter), they’ll all get a fourth new powerset to complement their Arc, Void and Solar skills
• Warlocks can now access the powers of the Dawnblade
• Hunters get to dance around foes with the Arc-Strider sub-class
• Titans can wield the shield of the Sentinel sub-class
• The skillsets established across Destiny and its expansions have also been massively tweaked and modified

Weapons

• Your arsenal comes in three flavours now: Kinetic,Energy and Power
• Kinetic offers standard damage with regular rounds
• Energy adds elemental damage to the mix
• Power lives up to its name, offering heavy-hitting responses to enemies
• Basically any weapon type can belong to one of the three categories above, instead of being limited to Primary, Secondary and Heavy categories
• Three new weapons were introduced: SMGs, Gatling cannons and grenade launchers
• Suros,Omolon,Hakke and Tex Mechanica have some new competition: Veist.

New planets

• In addition to the new hub, there’ll be four new zones/planets to explore:
• Earth, Titan, Io, and Nessus
• Earth is home to the European Dead Zone,which survived the cut content of Destiny 1 to resurface again in the sequel
• Bungie said the the EDZ is their “largest destination yet,” with access to caves, a new hub and a massive forest
• Titan is a moon orbiting Saturn that has no actual terrain,only interlinked platforms from mankind’s Golden Age
• Titan vanguard Zavala can be found here, seemingly in self-imposed exile
• Bungie described Nessus as a “strange and unstable planetoid” that the Vex have taken over and turned into one of their machine planets
• Cayde-6 can be found here, up to shenanigans presumably
• Io is the last location that The Traveler visited before the Golden Age of humanity ended, and is considered holy ground for Guardians
• Ikora can be found here, as she searches for answers

Dominus Ghaul

• Project Lead Mark Noseworthy described Ghaul to us as “the hero of his own story”
• Dominus Ghaul’s primary objective is to show humanity that the Traveller chose wrong, as he strips the Guardians of their connection to the mythic being
• Unlike Oryx the Taken King,Ghaul believes that he’s actually helping humanity

The Red Legion

• This division of the Cabal aren’t your ordinary grunts,but rather their elite special forces
• They’re also more varied in their ranks: Red Legion troops include flamethrower soldiers, elite ground forces,hunting packs, sniping Psions and cleaver-wielding Butchers
• Flamer troops can be taken out explosively,if Guardians can snipe the fuel tank on their back
• Butchers are meatier opponents who rush Guardians to deliver melee beatdowns
• The new Phalanxes are also wise to your ways. Their new shields prevent their feet from being peppered with bullets,although it does have a large weakpoint in the middle

Countdown

• Destiny 2’s newest Crucible mode is simple but quick: Countdown
• The map we played Countdown on was called Midtown. It lives up to its name
• Countdown has opposing Guardians either setting off charges, or defending and defusing them
• Charges go off very quick so awareness of the map is paramount here
• Guardian lives are limited. One death and you’re out
• There are respawns available, but good luck surviving long enough to help out a teammate.
• Countdown has a best of five setup
• All PvP modes are now 4v4 games

Clans

• Destiny 2 now has official clan support
• Bungie calls Clan creation a “new integrated system that allows friends to bring their community and unique culture to the forefront of Destiny”
• In-game rosters will allow players to build and customise their teams
• Clans will also have shared rewards,with all clan-mate actions contributing even if they’re playing solo

Guided Games

• Destiny 2’s answer to Looking For Group is a new system which will allow lone wolves and social players to pair up to tackle strikes, raids and missions
• This new feature allows solo players to find and play with other players to enjoy Destiny 2 and earn new in-game rewards like weapons, and armour,” Bungie said.

Destiny on PC

• Vicarious Visions have developed Destiny 2 for PC
• Destiny 2 will have 4K support
• And a FOV slider
• PC will not have dedicated servers
• The PC version of Destiny 2 will be released after the console versions,when Bungie is happy with the end result

There’s even more out there,of which I’ll have more wrap-ups written for just as soon as kick my jet lag in the balls.

Last Updated: May 19, 2017