The following is all that we know about Destiny 2.
Storyline[]
Humanity’s last safe city has fallen to an overwhelming invasion force, led by Ghaul, the imposing commander of the brutal Red Legion. He has stripped the city’s Guardians of their power, and forced the survivors to flee. You will venture to mysterious, unexplored worlds of our solar system to discover an arsenal of weapons and devastating new combat abilities. To defeat the Red Legion and confront Ghaul, you must reunite humanity’s scattered heroes, stand together, and fight back to reclaim our home.
Game Modes[]
There are three game modes on offer in Destiny 2:
- Campaign - A story-driven single player campaign.
- Cooperative Play - A game mode in which multiple players can play together.
- Competative Multiplayer - A game mode that pits players against each other in a variety of areas.
PC Version Rumors[]
According to a post on NeoGAF, Destiny 2 might be coming to PC:
"Destiny 2, the currently unannounced 2017 sequel to Destiny, is coming to PC, according to several sources. The first game was exclusive to consoles, much to the dismay of Destiny fans with beefy computers. We also hear that Bungie aims to make Destiny 2 feel like an entirely new game rather than a Taken King-style expansion—even if that means leaving old characters behind.
The PC rumor first popped up on NeoGAF today. This afternoon, a GAF poster named benny_a wrote that a friend at Activision had told him that Destiny’s much-anticipated sequel will indeed be on PC. The publisher informed employees about the news during an internal presentation today, according to benny_a. He added another interesting tidbit: that the Activision-owned studio Vicarious Visions is also helping out on Destiny 2. Although that isn’t public knowledge, I had heard the same thing a few weeks ago, which adds credence to benny_a’s report.
Earlier this year, I’d also heard from a person familiar with Bungie’s plans that Destiny 2, which is currently slated for a late 2017 release, will be on PC. This isn’t a shocker. Releasing Destiny’s sequel on PC will give Bungie access to a giant new potential audience, one that wasn’t around for the first game. Ditching last-gen consoles, which Bungie has already done for the recently released Rise of Iron expansion, ensures that they no longer have to worry about antiquated memory restrictions."
Destiny 2 "A New Game"[]
According to sources at Bungie, Destiny 2 is supposed to feel like an entirely new game, and a proper sequel:
"Over the past few months, I’ve also heard that Bungie’s leadership wants Destiny 2 to feel like a proper sequel, even if that means leaving old planets, characters, and activities behind. In conversations with me, people connected to Bungie have made comparisons to Blizzard’s Diablo 2, which iterated on the first game in some incredible ways but didn’t carry over characters or content from Diablo. I don’t know exactly how much will change in Destiny 2, but all signs point to the developers starting from scratch. “D2 is a completely different game,” said one person familiar with development. “The Taken King was a reboot for Destiny 1 to fix small things. This is the overhaul to fix big things.”
One of the terms we’ll be hearing often with Destiny 2, according to sources, is “play-in destinations”—a new activity model that will revamp how Destiny’s world functions. The plan, from what I’ve heard, is for Destiny 2's planets to feel more populated with towns, outposts, and quests that are more interesting than the patrol missions you can get in Destiny."
Memory Issues[]
The NeoGAF thread suggested that the main reason they're migrating to Destiny 2 is because of memory issues in the Destiny 1 engine:
"Yea, it's coming to PC. From what I'm told the decision to restructure was made thanks to a major memory ceiling being reached on last gen with regard to the Rise of Iron expansion, which was set to launch in the spring, not fall. Bungie decided to push out D2 since it was behind and needed much more iteration, and took advantage of the Rise of Iron delays to use that as the content stop gap for the fall of this year.
Destiny 2 is being overhauled so that they can build upon it in the future without having to work within the frame work limitations that D1 setup."
Better Open World[]
Destiny 2 should integrate towns and outposts directly into the world, and will have instancing much like World of Warcraft:
"Right now, the way things play out, they have to introduce playspaces so that players can engage in systems or activities, but it creates a huge barrier that must be overcome on both the networking & design side so, they're going to do more open playspaces that incorporate towns, outposts, etc into more common areas. This means fewer hardlines for areas and having them be gated by menus. Goal is to have players conducting things & making activity decisions while still in control of their character, instead of having to exit out into an activity hub. Think of how in WoW, you hit a button and queue into activities you want to do all while still playing your character.
Major narrative changes are on board for D2. Both in terms of plot direction, pacing & structure. Major focus is going to be on the Cabal & Saturn. Saturn is a playspace is set to be bigger than all of the playspaces currently implemented in the game combined. This is in large part of the scale of playspaces being redesigned, so it'll be both bigger & denser with activities. There's a reason Guardians take the fight to Saturn. "
Engine Changes[]
The engine is going to change in a huge way for Destiny 2:
"Major changes to the engine are occurring. Their render tech has gone through some major iteration thanks in large part to getting to approach it without having last-gen as a limit. Because of this, they are still undecided what, if any, of Destiny's old content, both in terms of playspace, areas, Strikes & raids, will be available through D2. There is talk in possibly allowing D1 remain as its own client, which flies against how Destiny currently operates, where as the new content renders the old client & content obsolete."
More Content[]
Destiny 2 will feature much more content than Destiny 1, even if some Destiny 1 content will have to be temporarily dropped to make this happen:
"Live team has been going through some iteration so that they may continue to support Destiny with content after a major content drop, but they are stuck between a rock & a hard place. The live team is trying to support a game running on an old engine with its older tools, whereas the bulk of development is on the engine framework & enjoying new tools. Because of this, the Live team is largely handcuffed, so don't really expect a whole lot of post-launch content for D1 in the next year.
However, starting with the launch of D2, we will see far more substantial content dropping in the time between yearly releases, as the game & engine & live team have all been planned to support that going forward. Team is aware that they need more substantial content throughout the year, not just at the end of it.
If they do drop D1 content, it likely won't be permanent - they might reintroduce areas in a more 'D2' fleshed out way. So we might lose temporary access to these places, then regain it or have to fight back for control of it at a later point in the plot. This means we'll get to see older areas or activities through the perspective of the newer content, which also means the older areas might expand considerably by the time we get back to them, since the design goal for playspaces is to now make them both way bigger & way denser with activities."
New Races and Factions[]
Destiny 2 will introduce some new races and factions as well as some new enemies. new classes might be possible, though this has not been discussed:
"New races & factions are planned. No idea on whats happening with regards to classes however. New enemies within factions are also going to be introduced. Take the Sions for the Cabal for example - they are going to get fleshed out in D2."
A "Reboot" of the Series[]
Sources have claimed that Destiny 2 is going to effectively be a "reboot" of the entire series:
"D2 is a completely different game. The Taken King was a reboot for Destiny 1 to fix small things. This is the overhaul to fix big things".
The source also said that the developers felt that not doing a reboot would make Destiny 2 feel "too much like an expansion", saying "I don't think Bungie has decided yet what you'll be able to bring over from year 1 or what you'll get as a reward for being a long-term player. But I expect a fresh start."