Yesterday, without trying to, apparently I put on my “Bungie defender” hat when I wrote an article titled “Destiny 2’ Players Should Manage Expectations For ‘The Final Shape’ Showcase.”
Most people reading this title assumed I was saying that we should excuse any sort of underwhelming presentation at the showcase or even underdelivery of The Final Shape itself.
Sure, maybe should have picked a different title. But in reality, my underlying message here was…pretty cynical. I was saying that if people believe that this expansion better “blow everyone’s mind” or save the game in some way, I would really temper expectations, as given everything we already know about Final Shape, and how the last few expansions have worked, I would not expect much variance or huge transformations. Plus on the story side, we already know A) the secret of the Traveler and Witness origins, as explained this season and B) that this probably all ends with no more Traveler and Witness.
There is a large gap between what The Final Shape should be and what it will be with the current state of Destiny 2. Yes, I absolutely agree with the sentiment that this should, in theory, be Destiny’s best expansion ever, because it is the last one of a ten year saga (they can say that this saga started with Shadowkeep, but it absolutely did not). As such, yes, they should throw absolutely everything at the wall here.
I simply do not believe that at least in terms of what this expansion will actually provide that it can top the best Destiny expansions at baseline, namely The Taken King and Forsaken, usually viewed as the two best (Witch Queen, perhaps, for narrative).
- The Taken King had four new strikes, three new subclasses, eight new Crucible maps, new Taken enemy race, and the introduction of swords
- Forsaken had two new zones, four new Crucible maps, four new strikes, a dungeon, nine new supers, a total rework of weapon slots, the return of random rolls, the introduction of the bow, the return of machine guns, Gambit, 10 exotic weapons, 12 exotic pieces of armor, and the new Scorn enemy race
I am not listing everything in both of these expansions. I am, however, listing all the things I believe that The Final Shape will not have, and things I don’t think anyone can reasonably believe The Final Shape will have, given the content of every expansion since The Final Shape, and what Bungie has already said (no new Crucible maps, for instance. No fully new weapon type). Those were from an era when Bungie was throwing the entire studio into Destiny. They are simply not doing that now. I’m sure the remaining team is working very hard, but it is not the same era for the studio anymore.
There is believing that Bungie should deliver the best, biggest expansion of all time, and the likely reality that they will simply not. This isn’t to say the expansion can’t be good. The Witch Queen lacked most of what’s seen above, and it was still a great expansion, namely because of its campaign design and story elements. But if Taken King and Forsaken are held up as the highest standards of total content delivery, the volume of things and the significance of changes added to the game, yes, I do think expectations need to be kept in check, as that is simply not going to happen. We already know that’s not going to happen in many instances.
This sucks! I really do wish that The Final Shape could be the biggest expansion of all time. It will not be. I hope it’s good. I would never hope it would be bad, as that is extremely stupid, but I wanted to clarify what I meant by the headline being passed around gleefully yesterday. So here we are.
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