As one Destiny 2 saga ends, Bungie prepares for the future

theverge.com:

By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.

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Destiny 2: Lightfall was unusual for Bungie. The now Sony-owned studio hyped up Lightfall as the beginning stages of the biggest light vs. darkness battle we’ve ever seen. “The battle begins here and now,” said Commander Zavala in an epic launch trailer. The in-game reality felt, for many, like the story writing was lackluster. Even six months on, Lightfall has mostly negative reviews on Steam, a sign that fans were expecting more.

There’s now a lot riding on The Final Shape, the upcoming Destiny 2 expansion that’s set to conclude the light and darkness saga of Destiny in February — a story that’s been told for nearly 10 years now. But with unease in the Destiny community, how is The Final Shape going to draw unhappy or lapsed players back into Destiny 2, and what does the future hold for the Destiny universe?

“Lightfall is probably our most out of bounds release, from like a big crazy urban fantasy, from the kind of story we were telling and from even the way we’ve told it over the years,” admits Joe Blackburn, game director of Destiny 2, in an interview with The Verge. “The Final Shape, we knew from the beginning was going to be the most core thing we’ve ever shipped. What I hope for is, if you ever liked Destiny, this expansion is for you.”

It sounds like The Final Shape will return to the type of storytelling and experience Bungie does best — and something we certainly saw in The Witch Queen recently. Bungie is keeping tight-lipped on the narrative