‘Destiny 2’ Wants To Be ‘Fortnite’ With Its Big Seasonal Events, But It Can’t Be (Yet)

Destiny 2

Bungie

I can see where Destiny wants to go, I just don’t know how it can get there.

Bungie has determined that its new seasonal model will “evolve” the Destiny universe in different ways. Lately, we have seen stories progress from season to season, with events unfolding over the course of that season, culminating in some big changes.

And yet this idea has only realized a fraction of its potential, thanks to technical hurdles that are likely impossible to overcome with the current framework of Destiny 2. This is opposed say, Fortnite, where Epic has done some truly incredible things with “live” in-game events that would in theory, be exactly what Destiny should be doing if it was at all possible.

With Fortnite, we have gathered in the game to watch a number of live events during seasons. We have seen rockets launch. We have seen cubes and orbs explode. We have seen monsters and robots fight and destroy portions of the map. We even saw the entire island erased ahead of Chapter 2.

These concepts are more similar to Destiny than you think.

Destiny 2

Bungie

Take the Empyrean Foundation. The concept was that we were donating materials to build a new Lighthouse for Saint and light a beacon.

In the world of Destiny, how this played out in the game was extremely limited. After hitting milestones, the only in-game change was a little hologram in the tower that would grow. The final result was a cutscene that showed our character dunking Osiris’ Lantern on Mercury. And that was it.

But imagine the “Fortnite” way.

Instead of a hologram, every milestone added some new portion of an actual, physical structure on Mercury that we could see with our own eyes. “Lighting the beacon” would have been a one-time world event where we all fight off hordes of Vex and Cabal and manage to protect and light the new structure we’ve built, and we see the thing finished in real time.

I am also thinking of what’s to come, the new Season of the Worthy concept where the Almighty is threatening to crash into the Tower. I think, at most, that maybe Bungie will be able to upload a new skybox every few weeks or so that shows the Almighty getting closer. But that the end result is probably going to be us “arming” Rasputin and him blowing the thing up in a cutscene.

The “Fortnite” way?

In the concluding moments of the season, Bungie tells everyone to gather in the EDZ. Rasputin does indeed manage to shoot the Almighty, but it spirals down to earth, crashing near the EDZ and creating an entire new “wreckage” zone with the downed ship, expanding the area.

Fortnite

Epic

Again, none of this is possible. Not at all. But this is the future of live games that Fortnite presents. Fortnite is a unique case because it’s using the highly flexible Unreal engine and Epic is able to experiment with it to pull off these sorts of live changes. But I want to live in a future where this is possible across a multitude of games, including those like Destiny where it wants to be an evolving world full of live alterations. But right now the way those play out are just underwhelming because of severe technical limitations. I think Bungie is doing the best they can, but man, it’s hard to not wish for more.

It seems like we would have to wait for a full-on Destiny 3 before we get significant engine changes, but even then this simply may never be possible in a game like Destiny. But Fortnite has shown us the future of big, online, can’t-miss, one-time events, and now I want it in a game like Destiny which could clearly do wonders with the concept. But who knows how long it will take for the overall industry to progress in that way.

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