Destiny 2: The Final Shape’s Prismatic subclass feels like another grand experiment

polygon.com:

When I first saw the debut trailer for Prismatic — the new, “advanced” subclass coming to Destiny 2 in The Final Shape — I told my friends, “This is the most significant change they’ve ever announced for Destiny.” And after a visit to Bungie HQ in Bellevue, Washington, to play part of the expansion early, I’m convinced I was right.

“Putting Prismatic in is probably going to change Destiny on a fundamental level,” Ben Wommack, Destiny 2’s combat area lead, told me at our on-site interview. “But that’s kind of the intention of releasing that kind of feature in the game.”

If you’re unfamiliar, Prismatic doesn’t add any new abilities to the game, like the Stasis or Strand Darkness subclasses that Guardians have gotten in previous years (although each class is getting a new Super and Aspect in The Final Shape, which is separate from Prismatic). Instead, the idea is that Guardians can combine elements together from all of their subclasses to create far more elaborate and powerful builds than ever before.

For example, if I currently want to use the Thundercrash Super on my Titan, I have to be on my Arc subclass, because Thundercrash is an Arc ability. Prismatic lifts those restrictions — mostly — so when The Final Shape launches, I can use Thundercrash for boss damage while also running around with a Strand Shackle grenade and a Void-throwing Shield.

Then there’s Transcendence, which is a new Super-like ability that you can charge up by dealing Light and Darkness damage in equal measure. Damage with Light-based weapons or abilities fills up the Light bar, while the opposite fills up the Darkness bar. When you’ve filled both bars, you can “Transcend,” which refills all of your ability energy, temporarily increases your weapon damage and defense, and gives you a Transcendence-exclusive grenade.

It’s all very overwhelming, but like Wommack said, that’s kind of the point.

“I think this is really us giving a big love letter to the master build crafters of the game,” said