June 9th was a huge day for Bungie, with the reveal of Beyond Light and their plan for the next 3 years, players have been thirsty for more information regarding the thin-line use of the new Darkness subclass, Stasis. A month later, Bungie Day happens and with no surprise, the platform was used to raise money for charity – each new milestone achieved had Bungie reveal some really nice info about their idea of how the Darkness will visually look in the new expansion. Players like myself couldn’t help but imagine the possibilities because Luke Smith then teased to us that the subclass won’t be subject to the 3 class system that we have right now, but instead would have player choice involved with a new skill-tree system.
Earlier this week, Microsoft held a live stream for Xbox Series X showcasing their games and how it’ll run in their new console; Destiny Beyond Light gameplay was amongst the line up and essentially, made the Destiny community implode.
We saw Hunters doing slam attacks, Warlocks throwing FPS staff blasts at a group of enemies, Titans detonating Stasis bombs into the ground, Hunters tossing grenades to create new ice platforms, it was wild. This sort of reveal immediately gave me the impression that Bungie is definitely branching away from their typical formula to truly explore new possibilities.
Stasis seems to be more than it looks – it definitely freezes enemies but also has an additional property of slowing enemies down; at one point of the trailer, we see a Warlock using their staff attack to freeze a bunch of enemies and out of nowhere, a Titan comes crashing down causing some massive AOE damage. Soon after, we see a wall of ice alongside a Warlock Nova Bombing it and causing an unusually massive blast. This sort of new element brings great hope into what Bungie has planned for their franchise for the next 2-3 years. This is just the beginning and in order for it to all make sense, we need to understand what exactly Beyond Light is all about.
Eramis, Kell of Darkness is the main focus for the expansion – she is a former Baroness of the House of Devils and a lightbearer of the Traveler; while we were fighting against Ghaul, she was reforming her army utilizing the powers of the ancient pyramid lying dormant in Europa. In the reveal gameplay, we see a newly dressed Fallen wielding the Darkness in the form of two ice blades, and others just fully armored in ice. On top of that, giant mech roams the open frozen wasteland for use to annihilate. This sort of element should be exciting because eventually all this will lead to the Deep Stone Crypt – a place where the Exo’s were born and soon, to be our Dreaming City-like raid location
Bungie showed us potential, showed us returning characters like The Stranger – and with the introduction of Destiny Content Vault – rotation of updated, beloved content from the original Destiny will make the world come alive like never before. Look out for more information in the coming weeks until November 10th.
