Destiny 2 Vanilla vs. The Final Shape

Part 1: The Introduction

I am a big fan of mirrored comparison, because I think it is a good measure of growth for anything, especially a creative work made by the same team/studio. This isn’t a discussion to kick anyone, but by highlighting why two similar things can leave such different impacts on someone, a work is better understood and can be more deeply learned from. Does that make sense? Okay, with all that being said, all I could think about during the campaign was how much better this entire package is over Vanilla Destiny 2 and how far we truly have come in the 7 years that Destiny 2 has been active.

 

The part of the campaign that got make on this line of thinking was simply the funny thought “If I had a nickel for every time the Vanguard had to team up to fight a tall pale alien with a mask that conceals their face that was threatening to destroy the world while trying to harness the Travelers light, I’d have 2 nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice right?” But really, beyond the meme, Destiny 2 Vanilla and The Final Shape share a lot of on the surface similarities but have left vastly different impact on the player base. So, the first thing to do is show all the similarities between these two releases, and then see how they measure up against each other.

 

Full spoilers for the Final Shape and its related content

 

Part 2: The Similarities, Painted in Broad Strokes

Both campaigns operate partially as a “get the band back together” type of story, where the core Vanguard are separated and it’s your job as THE Guardian of all Guardians to reunite them and get them on track to fighting the tall pale masked alien. During this campaign, the Traveler bestows you with a gift that no other Guardians seemingly has access to during this time of crisis, and you help the Vanguard as their faith in the Traveler is tested. Gameplay wise Titans are given a new void super, Warlocks a new solar super, and Hunters a new arc super. Also, and this has no bearing on anything, but the first mission of the campaign takes place in the D1 tower.

 

Part 3.1: The Differences in Success and Impact

This is going to be the meat of the discussion so buckle up (proverbially/literally if you are in a car). The similarities can be boiled down to 1. The story, 2. The new supers, and 3. The updates to the larger game, as a whole. Addressing point one first, Destiny 2’s Vanilla campaign sees you rediscovering your light when every other Guardian lost it, reuniting the Vanguard, and killing Ghaul. The campaign, while offering the same gunplay and beautiful vistas, left much to be desired from a narrative perspective, and was quite disappointing compared to what Bungie offered the Destiny universe previously. The Vanguard, while being given more screentime than they ever had in Destiny 1, feel hollowed out and made far more two dimensional, especially Cayde-6. Cayde was way too comedic (to the point of him losing any actual edge in a scene), Zavala was too serious, and Ikora was too nothing, Ikora is kind of just competent and good at what she does (classic Warlock amirite). Nothing in the campaign actually showed us anything below the surface for the Vanguard, I mean, their light was stolen from them and the giant orb they worship and protect was taken captive, and all we see is that it “broke them apart”. They all go their separate ways to solve the problem, but never in a way that shows off that more vulnerable side that led them to that conclusion. There are many aspects of Destiny 2’s Vanilla campaign that can be taken issue with, but centering your campaign on characters that you give no real insight into and don’t really change or develop is certainly one of the more obvious pain points.

 

On the flip side is The Final Shape’s story, where our characters are brought through moments that bend them, break them, and cause change from within. And what I love the most about all of this is that nothing brought up in The Final Shape is new information. If you’ve been playing Destiny 2 consistently, you know how Zavala’s son was a major story moment in Season of the Haunted, how Crow has been on a journey of self-acceptance and reconciliation for the past 3 ½ years, and how the death of Cayde-6 started all of this in 2018 and that Zavala and Ikora have been struggling to fulfill their duties as the Vanguard with their fireteam being incomplete. Zavala’s temptation into seeking out the darkness is not out of nowhere either, as ever since Beyond Light and the Witch Queen, Zavala has had to reevaluate his position on the darkness after guardians started to use Stasis, and his faith in the light was shaken after the Traveler blessed Savathun and her brood with Light powers, something at the time only given to humanity. Zavala’s total breaking point, this moment of change, after so many years of loss and reevaluation makes sense, as does the development and change that takes place in Cayde and Crow.

I bring them up together because their story has been forever linked by the Forsaken campaign. Cayde has been brought back in this conclusive chapter, but he’s not the old Cayde, the same Cayde. He’s still maintained his humor, but it’s humor that doesn’t ultimately make him a joke, and he has a lot of earnest, serious moments as well.  This is a Cayde that was brought back due to Crow’s wish, and he’s just trying to figure out what role he is supposed to fill after all this time. The years following Cayde’s death were tough to say the least for Zavala and Ikora. He not only filled the very needed position of Hunter Vanguard to complete the fireteam, but he also was the glue that kept the team together as their friend. All of this comes up in real, honest developments in the campaign. Bungie showed that not only has their world developed, getting more nuanced in the seven years that Destiny 2 has been out, but their writers have gotten better at bringing these nuances out so it’s not just a lore entry but an entire string of missions to an exotic quest. That’s right, I’m talking about the Wild Card exotic quest now. (I understand this is a little outside of the scope of comparing Vanilla and Final Shape, but I’ll try to be brief and have a point.)

 

What I love about the Wild Card exotic quest is how it lands the plane in this conclusive chapter in such the right way that it feels like it could have only happened now.  Crow’s journey for some has felt like a foregone conclusion, “Oh, Uldren came back and the lore entry for Cayde’s gun means that Uldren is gonna be the next Hunter Vanguard”. And sure, Bungie could have done that, but I’m glad they took their time with it. Over the past 3 ½ years, we have seen Crow get introduced, develop as a Guardian, be made aware of his past life in Uldren Sov, come to terms and make peace with this other half (while making some mistakes along the way) and his change even spurred on change in others, like Queen Mara Sov. Bungie could have ended it there, saying that they made it 99% of the way there and everyone already thinks Crow should be the next Hunter Vanguard anyways, so let’s just make it happen. But for Cayde to be there with Crow during the campaign, working alongside him, mentoring him, “forgiving him” by saying there is nothing to forgive, and ultimately pushing him to make that big next step is exactly what needed to happen. I was never one to say “I need new Uldren to earn our respect”, because Crow is a new guy and deserves a fresh start, but the way Bungie executed Crow’s journey from outcast to Vanguard was so satisfying to watch over the years, as the portrayals and pacing of his journey felt honest and real. This is the benefit that deepening your story gets you, and it’s something that just would not have been possible before the Season of the chosen really kicked off this new era of Destiny storytelling.

The Final Shape’s story is the perfect concluding chapter not only because of its satisfying ending, but because it is the utmost example of the level of storytelling that Bungie is capable of, pulling together all these developing journeys into interesting and rewarding resolutions. We are a long way away from the Vanilla launches of Destiny 1 and 2’s story, and the future seems bright.

Soapbox tangent over, now to talk about the new Supers!

 

Part 3.2: The Subclass Differences

I think it’s quite ironic that even the new supers for The Final Shape match what was offered in Destiny 2 vanilla (void titan super, arc hunter super, solar warlock super), and quite interesting how the vanilla supers show a homogenization of the sandbox, while the Final Shape supers and prismatic subclass show a desire from Bungie to offer players more choice. The supers in base Destiny 2 were bad for two reasons: They lacked depth in comparison to their D1 counterparts and nearly every super was changed to make them more similar. Now, to break down what that all meant for players in the moment. In Destiny 1, players were given the ability to customize their subclass makeup over an unlock tree of 8 columns, and in Destiny 2, all your subclass options were separated into 2 big nodes to choose from. This change obviously took away choice and customization away from players and was made even worse by the homogenization of subclass identity, where most if not all were turned into ad clearing supers. The Titan arc, solar, and void subclasses are great examples of this happening. In Destiny 1, every subclass had their support super, their big one-shot damage super, and their ad clear super. So, for Titans, their support super would be void bubble, their one-shot damage super would be arc striker, and their ad clear would be solar hammers. In D2 with the changes to arc striker and the addition of the void shield titan, every super now acted as an ad clear, with very little in the way of differentiation besides maybe the enemy shield type you were fighting. This and the node system were done to welcome in new players who might have been intimidated by the level of choice the D1 subclass trees gave you. Then you look at the new subclass options in The Final Shape and it is night and day. Not only were the classes given a new super each, ironically enough a void super for titan, a solar super for warlock, and an arc super for Hunter, but Bungie also introduced Prismatic, which allows the player to combine light and dark together in unique ways thanks to the aspects and fragments system introduced in Beyond Light and made standard in The Witch Queen. Prismatic is Bungie really letting loose on player choice and freedom, giving a slew of grenades, melees, aspects, and fragments to choose from. The changes and additions to the subclasses in both releases are emblematic of Bungie’s larger goals for the game at that time, and boy have these goals gotten brighter over the years.

 

Part 4: The Conclusion (and kind of Point 3 from earlier)

Destiny 2’s launch year was a rough time, both for Bungie and the players, and my goal is not to drag Bungie for something they did 7 years ago, but just highlight how far we have come since that rough launch, and how much work Bungie has done, especially since Beyond Light, to weave a grander, deeper story that actively moves the world and its characters forward. It used to be that Destiny felt as wide and deep as a kiddie pool, introducing variety but not developing it any further than its initial release, but those days are long behind us. Not only that, but Bungie has constantly worked to improve and deepen the gear side of the game as well. They haven’t always gotten it right, but since Forsaken and its updated weapon system, Bungie has made big changes like Armor 3.0, Aspects and Fragments from Stasis that eventually led to subclass 3.0, and so many more big and small changes that would double the word count of this word document if I were to list them all. Who knows what the long-term future holds for Destiny 2 (hopefully an eventual Destiny 3), but if this were to be the last Destiny thing that Bungie ever did, they would certainly be ending on a high note.