Bungie has plans to continue releasing content for Destiny 2, with Lightfall planned for early 2023 release and The Final Shape after to complete the first saga of the game called the Light and Darkness Saga. Despite these plans, Bungie itself has planned to create future IPs that are hoped to hit the market around 2025. While that year is still far off, in 2018, Bungie filed a trademark in the EU for ‘Matter,’ believed to be the next planned IP. Further information remains hushed even today; however, any new IP the studio creates faces an uphill battle for the bar that Destiny 2 has set.
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Rich Lore and Storytelling in Destiny 2
One such reason that elevated the bar for Bungie through Destiny 2 was the rich lore and storytelling that the game has laid as a foundation. While characters traditionally drive the experience for players through their choices and actions, if the setting, history, and storytelling are shallow and one-dimensional, the characters feel flat and like cardboard. Within Destiny and Destiny 2, the lore and storytelling create a rich tapestry that spans eons yet directly correlates to the heart of the conflicts in the game’s present timeline.
Any new IP from Bungie doesn’t necessarily have to have a history and lore bank that dates as far back as that found in Destiny 2. Still, it should weave an intricate web of information that relates to the conflicts and motives that its characters will experience. New IPs will always face the initial challenge of standing on their legs and face comparisons to other titles in the studio’s repertoire. However, they can stand out individually by providing unique worlds and stories that can speak to players, just as Destiny 2 has.
Extensive World-Building That Compliments Story
As important as history, lore, and storytelling are in general to a new IP, the world-building featured in the game must also provide an in-depth experience. After all, when it comes to video games, players are not passengers along for the ride as they are for TV and movies. In games, players become active members of the world created for them to explore, interact, learn, and grow. Destiny 2 has established world-building to an extensive level, encompassing numerous planets and locations within the solar system.
Though the locations are grounded in reality, the worlds built upon them have created new and exciting features for players to immerse within truly. New IPs will need to ensure that the worlds completed for the players feel lived in, that they’re living and breathing places that have their place in the game’s overall design and function. Destiny 2 not only accomplished this, but through its use of expansions and Seasons, it allows these places to adjust and react to the events transpiring within the game. Players embarking on new Bungie IPs will likely expect this level of detail to continue.
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Compelling and Evolving Characters
Destiny 2 has excelled at creating characters not only for the players to play but also NPCs that inhabit the settings provided. Games that incorporate the player character into the story as more than just a vessel to experience the events unfolding are more memorable than those that don’t. Building upon that, the characters that flesh out the world of Destiny 2 enhance the lore and story by having their own stories, conflicts, agency, and motives.
One of the most surprising aspects of Destiny 2 was the murder of Cayde-6. A character loved by fans and represented comic relief even in the darkest times was so fleshed out that their death was shocking, and fans and in-game characters alike feel their absence and loss. What also makes this event so pivotal is that Destiny 2 makes sure that Cayde-6’s death matters. It wasn’t done for shock’s sake; it was done to capture a realism of life despite being a video game. Cayde-6 dying has consequences and impacts the player character and the others that inhabit the game. Achieving this facet is needed for new IPs to include.
Adaptive Gameplay Styles in Destiny 2
While being a successful looter shooter in its own right, Destiny 2 has also succeeded in providing players with numerous ways to enhance and build out their characters. Players can grow their characters’ powers and abilities through gameplay, story missions, public events, raids, PvP, and PvE. This myriad of choices flows together seamlessly to allow players to choose how to play the game comfortably. Even better, PvP and PvE events are tied to the story in ways to validate their presence, giving more ways to challenge and strengthen player characters.
New IPs from Bungie don’t have to weave all these features together. Still, the fact that Destiny 2 has allowed so many options without faulting players for not participating in all or specific events sets a high standard for what’s expected. And while new games are allowed to be creative or even niche, offering players different avenues to accomplish the goals outlined in the game tends to enhance the player base, popularity, and accessibility.
Destiny 2 has set an extremely high bar for Bungie to match with any new developing IPs it looks to create. Through Destiny 2’s extensive backdrop of lore and storytelling that affects the present paired with livable and reactive worlds, the game allows players to immerse in the experience entirely they set out upon. Populating these worlds with compelling and evolving characters creates further depths for the story and players. With fans able to play the game comfortably through different play styles, Destiny 2 creates an inviting and welcoming world to join.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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