Bungie just wrapped up their first of 3 livestreams in regards to the free “Into the Light” update for all Destiny 2 players. This stream showed off the new activity, Onslaught, and gave us some explanation and story surrounding the new update.
While Crow has passed through the portal to the Traveller, Shaxx has opened up his arsenal and he’s reprising some guardian classics for players to earn before The Final Shape launches. Reputation (or Hype) can be earned through completing Onslaught activities and waves, and exchanged for some of these old classics.
Onslaught (Gamemode) in Destiny 2
Not to be confused with the fan-favourite perk Onslaught, the new game mode is pretty standard and easy to compare to a seasonal activity. The developers did state that we would be participating on new maps, relevant to The Last City and Earth as a whole – but the stream only featured a reprisal and reimagining of Midtown.
While I and many others enjoy Midtown in the Crucible, it’s kinda upsetting to see how little it’s changed and how much has been reused. We’re fighting the Fallen on Midtown, somehow I must’ve missed the lore memo where they decided to not be allies with the Guardians.
Having the Fallen be present as the primary enemy type here is a strange move, since Destiny 2 has combined most of the Fallen textures into standard – there’s no way for players to discern if these are House of Light Fallen or otherwise. I can imagine a lot of players being confused as to why our allies would be storming The Last City.
How does Onslaught Work?
According to Bungie devs, there will be two versions of the game mode to go live at launch. The first of which being a 10 wave mission involving setting up turrets and defences to protect a VIP, before being sent into a Pyramid ship to clear a boss.
From what we’ve seen of the gameplay, it’s very standard stuff. Kill champions, throw the ball at the VIP, stand in the circle and break the boss’s shield. I can’t complain, it’s a good formula that’s well understood by the playerbase.
There’s also a 50 wave version, where the fight will be taken to the Pyramid ship every 6 waves – with loot dropping every boss kill.
Because there are more streams planned for the upcoming weeks, it’s understandable for Bungie to not want to share the loot dropped through the activity. However, it’s hilarious that the only rewards we got to see was the modern day equivalent of 2 tokens and a blue (2 blues and 100 glimmer).
Midnight Coup and Other Returning Weapons
The highlight of the stream was undoubtedly the return of the Midnight Coup, a Kinetic Hand Cannon. We were shown a curated roll, with Firefly and Kinetic Tremors – which is outstanding. I will never complain about great loot.
The existance of a Kinetic Tremors/Firefly roll indicates that we’ll be seeing the rare double damage perk choices that are usually only available on strange/unique weapons.
Universal Reaction to Into the Light
Opinions online are mixed at best, and seething at worst. Watching the stream’s chat, and reading the comments and posts on Reddit has really showcased the sheer apathy the Destiny community has surrounding the game and Bungie as a whole. From what I’ve seen, the common consensus is that this was a really tone-deaf stream, and could have been summed up in a 5 minute video.
Expanding on that, it’s always great to watch devs play their game. As a hardcore Destiny fan myself, it’s funny to watch the developers get excited over doing backflips into rifts and forgetting to use finishers on Champions. I get it, they don’t play the game too much – but they need to stop doing these live commentaries and go back to having playtesters and using pre-recorded footage.
A lot of comments have raised a good point in that, this stream may actually hinder the sales of The Final Shape. It’s rather roundabout but I’d have to agree, putting the new “meta” weapons in a seemingly half-baked activity and creating FOMO around them is not a successful business tactic anymore.
If players were to miss the duration of Into The Light, and miss out on Midnight Coup, Hammerhead and whatever else they reprise – they’d be less likely to buy The Final Shape because they wouldn’t have access to the meta-defining weapons that are required for high-end content.
While I think that reprising an old PVP map and using it for the new content is a lazy choice, I can’t discredit Bungie for it because Into the Light is a free update. It’s content during a drought. However, I will stay positive and excited for the rest of the weekly livestreams.
