Destiny 2 fans are stuck in a familiar cycle. After a year of weak content updates following 2019’s promising Shadowkeep expansion, players are once again getting excited for the game’s next chapter. Like yearly expansions before it, Beyond Light aims to be a big step forward for the franchise, which fans hope will steer the ship back on course.
The optimism is legit. Beyond Light looks like the game’s most significant expansion since 2015’s The Taken King, which completely overhauled the first Destiny game. If what we know so far is any guide, November’s expansion could be exactly what players have wanted for years. Here are four reasons Beyond Light could rehabilitate Destiny 2.
Beyond Light will focus on the story
Narrative has always been a slippery concept for the series. The campaign in the original Destiny was notably lackluster, with much of the game’s lore only existing on a separate mobile app. Expansions like Forsaken brought more focused storytelling to the game short-term, but the past year has been a narrative grab bag.
Beyond Light looks to fix that issue by finally delivering on many of the franchise’s loose ends. Old favorite characters like The Exo Stranger are finally returning, making Beyond Light sound like it’ll make better use of the franchise’s rich lore.
The expansion also pays off the original campaign’s pyramid ship teaser, bringing a Thanos-sized threat to the game. Destiny 2’s story has meandered for years without a true big bad to chase, so this new villain, Eramis, should add some much-needed stakes to the grind.
There’s a whole new element to play with
For the first time in Destiny’s history, players are getting a new element to play with. Stasis joins void, solar, and arc as a new damage type, bringing an entirely new set of character sub-classes and supers to the game.
That’s a big deal for players who have been tooling around with the same powers for six years. While Bungie has tinkered with what those abilities can do, using the same tricks over and over can feel stale after hundreds of hours, and Destiny 2 certainly has less character customization than is typical of large, persistent online games.
Stasis, on the other hand, is unlike anything players have used before. The element has the power to freeze enemies in their tracks, which adds an entirely new dynamic to combat. At the very least, stasis will offer new room for experimentation and make encounters feel fresh again as the community shares their discoveries.
The new exotics bring much-needed utility
Loot is always going to be a make or break piece of any Destiny expansion. If players are going to spend dozens of hours grinding, the rewards need to be worth it. Luckily, Beyond Light is prepared with a wild assortment of exotic gear.
The expansion includes gauntlets that make a Hunter’s knife ricochet off walls, a helmet that grants teams a shielding aura after revives, and a literal chainsaw sword.
What’s promising is that many of the new exotics look like they bring more utility options to the game. For example, one set of gauntlets grants Titans an overshield, making them a much better tank. Having a cool perk is one thing, but being able to equip something that helps serve a specific function on a team goes a long way toward making exotics feel like they’re worth chasing.
There’s new customization, too
Part of Destiny’s appeal has always been the idea that players can get very granular with how they build their character. Beyond Light aims to take customization even further with new systems that give players even more control.
Aspects and fragments augment subclasses in new ways. Beyond Light also adds transmogrification, which allows players to turn any piece of gear into a universe ornament. That means players can wear any piece of armor they like, while keeping the stats and perks of another piece.
That’ll give players the freedom to build a character that best represents their personality instead of one that’s strictly meta-friendly. Public spaces should hopefully become more vibrant as players can finally make their characters as cool, or goofy, as they want.
Much-loved content returns
Lots of content is going away with Beyond Light, including entire planets. That may sound like it will give players less to do, but there’s a silver lining. Bungie announced that fan-favorite content will return to the game as well, starting with Destiny’s beloved Vault of Glass raid.
Destiny 2 featured a lot of activities over the years, but much of it felt like filler. At some point, spaces like Io started to feel like dead space that crowded the game’s ballooning file size. The fact that content like that is going away, while meaningful activities like Vault of Glass are coming back, is a healthy sign. It signals that Bungie may focus on tasks that fans like doing versus ones they feel they have to.
Spicing up the game’s grind could go a long way towards making Destiny 2 feel less like a chore, and more like an evolving universe with satisfying challenges to complete.
