While the core gameplay of Destiny has remained relatively unchanged since its introduction in 2014, the systems around Bungie's looter shooter have evolved a considerable amount. In most cases, the changes have resulted in improvements to Destiny (and Destiny 2) but some players long for the days of the original game. That's an element that Bungie hopes to recapture with the release of Destiny 2's Beyond Light expansion next month.
Speaking to EDGE Magazine (via WCCFTech), Destiny director Luke Smith discussed some of the goals for the development team heading into Beyond Light. Through the introduction of the Stasis powers, Bungie hopes to give players more agency over their Guardian. As Smith explains it, “This is my Guardian, there are many like it, but this is mine.”
Obviously, Bungie is not looking to change the identity of Destiny but Luke Smith did use MOBAs as an example of how the development team is looking to approach things moving forward.
"I think we're trying to get a little bit back to the feeling of Destiny 1, but updated to how we're thinking and some of the systems that we're using today in Destiny 2...I'll use a MOBA as an example. They get to have a lot of tuning vectors for their four abilities. The modularity and the piecemeal nature of Statis allows us more flexibility to do more to introduce....There's cool stuff. I know that Kevin Yanes and the abilities team have a pretty strong desire to keep iterating on it. We're just getting started."
Back when Bungie first introduced Destiny, first to press and then to the public at E3 2013, the developer spent a good amount of time discussing customization that would help players stand out from one another. The vision was to give players a feeling of looking at a teammate and being able to see different "story" based on their equipped gear. Unfortunately, as Destiny has evolved and metas have developed, the viable options have dwindled. It's common to see the players using the same subclasses/abilities, wearing the same gear, and using the same exotics.
With Stasis, however, Bungie is looking to offer more granular options when it comes to the new Beyond Light subclasses. Through the different Fragments and Aspects, players can fine tune their Stasis subclass to fit their play style. One example given was a Stasis Fragment that boosted weapon damage on a frozen target, but at a cost to Strength.
Stasis is seemingly only the beginning too, as Smith says that Bungie Design Lead Kevin Yanes and his team are going to keep iterating on the systems introduced in Beyond Light. Perhaps the current subclasses might see changes that match Stasis, with Fragments to modify the pros and cons of each ability. For a while now, Bungie has been in a constant race to keep every subclass tree in parity with each other, and inevitably some fall behind as others move up. Outside of adding new exotics for Year 4 that buff subclass abilities, Bungie's only other option up to this point is to buff the subclasses outright.
Bungie has even experimented with those customization options within Destiny 2 through the mod systems on armor and weapons, but even that has become somewhat predictable. With Beyond Light, Bungie is making some key changes to Destiny 2 mods in Beyond Light, but the end goals are still the same: survive for longer and do the most damage. Stasis, however, sounds like it will have more freedom in its options.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light releases November 10, 2020 for PC, PS4, PS5 (on November 12), Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Source: EDGE (via WCCFTech)