Destiny 2’s The Final Shape expansion has a lot riding on it. It’s the culmination of a 10-year story and the conclusion of Destiny’s light and darkness saga. After a four-month delay, fans haven’t really seen much of The Final Shape, but today, Bungie delivered a preview of what’s to come. The teaser left me thinking that Destiny 2 is about to feel very different — and very broken — as players will be able to wield Light and Darkness abilities together for the first time ever.
A new Prismatic Subclass merges the powers of the Light and Darkness, allowing players to combine certain class abilities from different damage types. So you could throw a Stasis grenade into a stack of enemies to freeze them and then use a Solar ability to wipe them out with a giant explosion. “It feels a little game breaking, I’m not going to lie,” said Ben Wommack, combat area lead for Destiny 2, during a gameplay preview stream.
Being able to combine these abilities should add a new element to the game’s build crafting, but it’s bound to also break many aspects of the gameplay. That’s often part of the fun with Destiny, though; Bungie adds a broken gun or ability, and players grind for hours to feel ultrapowerful.
The height of this power fantasy was during Destiny 2: Forsaken, where Super abilities were broken across the player vs. player environment, and it felt like you could wipe out the enemies in the player vs. enemy part of the game with ease. It’s clear Bungie is trying to bring back this era of Destiny 2 fun and chaos.
Another big part of the amping up of the power fantasy in The Final Shape will be new Exotic class items that allow players to combine exotic armor perks. Bungie showed off class items for hunters where you can ready weapons quickly and also overcharge your super with Orbs of Power. There are random rolls here, so you can imagine there will be different combinations that will be very broken.
But for all this power, The Final Shape will also include some new enemies. Flying bats with guns are part of a new enemy type named Dread faction. These new combatants include the Tormentor that was introduced in Destiny 2: Lightfall, and the Subjugators that Bungie has already teased. New enemies will include:
The Final Shape will conclude as you face The Witness, the main antagonist of Destiny’s light and darkness saga who commands a Black Fleet of pyramid vessels that players have explored previously. “Facing The Witness is not the end of Destiny 2, and it’s definitely not the end of Destiny,” teased Luke Smith, executive creative director at Bungie. “After you face The Witness we’re going to tell you what’s coming next to Destiny 2 and beyond.”
Destiny 2: The Final Shape launches on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC on June 4th.