Does Destiny need a "campaign"? (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, October 21, 2017, 00:08 (2590 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY
edited by Ragashingo, Saturday, October 21, 2017, 00:12

I’d be ok with some threads being left hanging. But not ALL of them...

Hold up. The main campaign of Destiny 2 is the continuation of a Destiny 1 plot thread we last saw in the mission Outbound Signal. The last of the Cabal forces in our solar system sent a bunch of info to the rest of the Cabal and requested reinforcements. Those reinforcements came and they came with information on how to neutralize the unkillable Guardians who had easily slapped their previous force around. So the idea that Bungie left all threads hanging is immediately false.

More than that, I think it is only natural to put some plot threads on hold while others are focused on. The Cabal got very little focus in Destiny 1. Much less than the Hive and Fallen, at least. Now, with Destiny 2, Bungie swung back and put the spotlight on the Cabal. The first DLC, Curse of Osiris, is heavily rumored to focus on Mercury and the Vex, another group that hadn’t been in the spotlight yet. The DLC after that is rumored to focus on Rasputin who got some minor screen time but who’s actions and motives have still only been on the edges. Soon, Rasputin too might get his time in the spotlight.

I admit, I’m playing the part of Angel’s Advocate here (Angel’s Advocate being the positive, optimistic version of Devil’s Advocate :p) but is it fair to say threads are being left hanging? Especially if each new DLC picks up one of those threads and makes it a focus? Just how many threads should Bungie be trying to force into one campaign or one DLC package, anyway? At some point, asking them for feature length campaigns for every race and every plot thread is obviously asking too much. So pull that back to reasonableness. Where is a fair expectation?

Coming back to the idea that thread were left hanging, I think there are two other instances in D2 where Bungie did move forward in a substantial way:

- We see the Fallen’s situation advanced in Destiny 2. Their system of individual houses seems to have collapsed and they have all fallen back and re-emerged as the House of Dusk. And there are some other hints along the way, most notably that they’ve taken to using House of Kings and Awoken encryption in their communications, that points to a continuation of Prince Uldren taking over leadership of all the Fallen via getting the House of Kings to bow before him, as per the final round of Grimoire cards that came with the Age of Trimuph.

- We also saw some movement in the Taken’s thread with very strong hints that Savathûn and perhaps Xivu Arath have at least taken over leadership of the Taken, or maybe Savathûn has figured out Oryx’s power to Take, which would be a major shakeup in therms of who holds power within the Hive. The idea that the Hive in our system are attempting to summon Savathûn is also somewhat present.

True, neither of these are narrative. But if they are the precurosr to future DLCs with Red War or even Rise of Iron size focuses on the Fallen or Hive later on next year or the year after.... well, then what? I’ll note that this is certainly not outside the real of possibility. The voice actor for Prince Uldren walked the red carpet at the Destiny 2 launch event and hung out with Bungie at their big Destiny 2 launch party. I’d almost guarantee we’ll hear from Prince Uldren again at some point down the line, and if we do it will almost certainly be in regards for the search for Queen Mara Sov and his obtaining control of the House of Kings.

In the end, sure, I’d love more in-depth campaigns. More in-game stories. More tragedy, and emotion, and dynamic characters, and dramatic moments. But... I’m not sure we’ll ever get that out of Destiny. Bungie seems more interested in building out their universe just enough to support a fun shooter and doesn’t seem super interested in pushing as hard into full on stories as other developers. I’m certainly not mistaking those kinds of in-depth stories for two sentence scannable in D2. I do think, however, there’s a bit more going on in Destiny 2 than you’re giving it credit for at the moment.