A new developer showcase for Destiny 2: The Final Shape just wrapped, giving a long-awaited look at the final chapter in Destiny’s current Light vs Dark saga. Over 30 minutes, Bungie revealed a unique take on a new subclass, the return of a long-awaited Destiny 1 feature (with a twist), a brand new enemy race to fight within the walls of the Traveler, and more.
Firstly, Bungie walked us through a surprising new addition to The Final Shape: Prismatic, a new subclass. While there were theories and hopes of a new red Darkness subclass, Prismatic will instead be the ultimate fusion of everything that’s come before, allowing Guardians to mix and match Supers, melees, grenades, class abilities, and even Aspects from all previous Destiny 2 subclasses. In the preview videos, we saw Warlocks using Phoenix Dive to spawn Threadlings, Titans using Berserker’s three melee charges to deliver three consecutive Consecrations, and a Hunter using their Stasis grenade and melee to trigger Gunpowder Gamble.
If that wasn’t all, Prismatic will have a unique feature known as Transcendence. While using a Prismatic subclass, you will fill two new bars beneath your Super as you deal Light and Dark-aligned damage. Once both bars are full, you can trigger a special animation which causes you to enter Transcendence, greatly buffing your attack power and immediately refunding your melee and grenade. Additionally, each class will gain access to a unique grenade once they enter Transcendence which combines the power of two elements.
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- Introducing Prismatic
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- Prismatic Transcendence
In conjunction with Prismatic, Exotic Class Items are finally returning to Destiny with The Final Shape. Unlike in Destiny 1 where the Exotic Class Items were mainly used for fashion purposes, these new Exotics will serve as a powerful new addition to your kit as they allow you to run two Exotic perks at once. For example, one version of the Hunter’s Exotic Cloak had the Star-Eater Scales perk paired with another Exotic, allowing you to essentially use multiple exotics at once. The Exotic Class Items are all randomly rolled so expect to grind for a long while to find the perfect fit for your builds.
The final major new announcement during the livestream was the Dread, Destiny 2’s first whole new enemy faction since the launch of vanilla Destiny. Previously, Bungie have added the Scorn and the Taken but both of them were built off the skeletons of already existing races. Meanwhile, the Dread – a faction of beings warped by the Darkness and the Witness- have a much different design ethos to anything in Sol. We’ve already met the Tormentors, as well as the Subjugators, but there are several new enemies in the Dread:
- Grim: A highly mobile flying enemy that slows and suppresses a Guardian’s abilities if they get too close.
- Husk: An acrobatic melee bruiser that sends a deployable geist enemy toward you unless you hit their weak spot with a final blow.
- Attendant and Weaver: By wielding Stasis and Strand, respectively, these units can instantly change the flow of the encounter and force Guardians to pay attention to their positioning on the battlefield.
The Dread
Between the exciting new subclass and the arrival of a new race to fight, hype around the The Final Shape has never been higher. There are, of course, some concerns, such as how this expansion seems to be throwing balance and power creep by the waist-side, potentially smothering challenge in endgame PvE and the PvP environment that the Strike Team have been carefully working to fix over the last few months.
The last time we saw gameplay of this last major expansion was during The Final Shape reveal over 6 months ago. Since then, Bungie actually delayed the release of the expansion by three months, shifting its original February 28th release date to June 4th in a bid to give the end of the Light and Dark saga a little more oomph. Today also marks the release of Into the Light, a massive mid-season update for Destiny 2 which adds a new horde mode, twelve iconic and infamous returning weapons, two reprised Exotic Missions, a new social space, and more. Between this sneak peek of The Final Shape and the release of Into the Light, the future of Destiny seems rather bright, especially with Luke Smith’s small teaser of the franchise’s continued future at the beginning of the livestream.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape launches on June 4th 2024.
SOURCE: Destiny 2: The Final Shape Developer Gameplay Preview
