Destiny 2\u2019s Into the Light is a needed reminder to never count Bungie out BungieDestiny 2\u2019s free update, Into the Light, has Bungie bringing back some of the most beloved and requested features in a long time. Here\u2019s why that\u2019s a massive step forward as The Final Shape looms. Destiny 2, and by extension Bungie, has had a rough year. Lightfall, a moment where the game had more eyes on it than ever, ended up being a poisoned chalice that ended in disappointment. All the news coming out around Bungie since has only made it more harrowing. Recently, I wrote about all of the company\u2019s troubles in the last 12 months. It\u2019s not a pretty picture. In short, Destiny 2 needs a win. Into the Light, judging by the reaction to the three reveal streams Bungie has hosted over the last three weeks, is possibly that win. Not many were expecting to get so much out of this release as it had been downplayed in previous wording. It was just supposed to be a free update to onboard new players into the Destiny 2 ecosystem. Instead, what\u2019s been promised is so much more. Bungie is seemingly busting out all of the cards they\u2019ve had in their back pocket for a rainy day to try and generate goodwill ahead of the conclusion of the Light and Dark Saga in June. Raiding the content vault The Content Vault remains one of the most controversial subjects in Destiny 2. With Beyond Light, Destiny 2 sunset a lot of content and weapons to better the infrastructure, fix meta issues, and (sort of) advance the story. In hindsight, it was the most destructive decision Bungie ever made for the game. Players lost access to many excellent raid experiences, beloved weapons, campaigns like The Red War and Forsaken, and a lot more. While it all likely had a positive influence on the under-the-hood performance \u2014 the way it was rolled out was messy and remains one of the darkest marks on the game\u2019s history. However, it has had an interesting side effect. Much of the most beloved content that was vaulted has taken on an almost mythic quality. The Recluse\/Mountaintop meta, The Whisper mission \u2014 to players who were there, they\u2019ve become pure nostalgia. A relic of a simpler time in their life. For Guardians who joined after they were vaulted, they have a legacy passed down by veteran players who built their legend. We all knew, at some point or another, we would likely see things like The Whisper, Zero Hour, The Recluse, Mountaintop, and other favorites return. However, Bungie has played a masterful gambit bringing back all the greatest hits in one fell swoop, right when the game needed it. Break glass in case of emergency There\u2019s a phrase I keep coming back to when I think about Into the Light \u2014 \u201cbreak glass in case of emergency\u201d. This update feels like a bank robbery scene in a film, with Bungie going into the Content Vault, smashing all the display cases for the most precious gems, and grabbing what they can. We knew the game had these big-ticket items saved for a time of need, and boy, we\u2019re in the thick of that time. That smash and grab extends to ideas that have been floating around the game as common suggestions for years. Onslaught is the new showcase mode coming alongside Into the Light, and essentially, it\u2019s a Horde mode. You only need to search \u201cDestiny should have a horde mode\u201d on Google to see how long people have been asking about it. It\u2019s endless Reddit posts of people requesting a wave-based tower defense mode. Bungie, in their raid of the content vault, decided to snatch the napkin with \u201chorde mode\u201d scribbled on it, too. After taking it, they discovered the note had \u201craid boss rush mode\u201d written on the back too. Heck, while they\u2019re there, they might as well grab Super Black, the most requested shader of all time. The Recluse. Mountaintop. Blast Furnace. The Whisper. Zero Hour. Horde mode. Raid boss rush mode. Craftable Outbreak Perfected and Whisper of the Worm. Heck, even the Super Black shader. Into the Light feels like Bungie grabbing all the most nostalgic, beloved, and most requested items they\u2019ve had in their vault since they were locked away all those years ago. Bungie performs under pressure The most shocking thing about Into the Light and the quality it seems to have throughout is that this was likely cobbled together pretty quickly. The Final Shape delay has been known for a while internally, yes, but considering the team was still delivering seasons, developing the actual expansion, and, of course, having to navigate the demoralizing experience of layoffs, it\u2019s a slight miracle this is making it out at all. Some will mock and say it\u2019s \u2018old content we already paid for\u2019 coming back. All I can really say to that is \u2014 get a grip. Be happy we\u2019re getting a bunch of cool things with rich histories added back into the game, all updated for the current sandbox. And it\u2019s all for free. If you\u2019re out there complaining about this \u2014 I mean, what are we doing? There is an old adage that Bungie always performs best with its back against the wall. Historically, that has been true with releases like The Taken King, Forsaken, and The Witch Queen. Of course, things feel different this time due to layoffs and a very sour feeling after the tumultuousness of the last year. I will admit that my faith has been shaken as things did, and still do, feel different than those previous low points. However, Into the Light is pointing to something positive \u2014 something worth getting excited about and a reason to jump back into the game with the old gang before the big conclusion of The Final Shape. This is exactly what Destiny 2 needed right when it needed it. Perhaps I should have learned the lesson this developer has taught me over and over \u2014 don\u2019t bet against Bungie when they are down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Destiny 2\u2019s Into the Light is a needed reminder to never count Bungie out BungieDestiny 2\u2019s free update, Into the Light, has Bungie bringing back some of the most beloved and requested features in a long time. Here\u2019s why that\u2019s a massive step forward as The Final Shape looms. Destiny 2, and by extension Bungie, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}