Destiny 2 live event let players walk the beautiful streets of the Last City
Escalation protocol.
Destiny 2 waved goodbye to a significant portion of the game last night - and as part of the transition to today's Beyond Light expansion, developer Bungie treated players to a lovely live event set on the streets of the Last City.
For the vast majority of Destiny's six-year life, players have only been able to gaze down upon the Last City from the heights of the Tower. The Destiny 2 campaign briefly let players crawl the city streets amid a Cabal invasion, and there have been multiplayer maps set there, but we've never been able to enjoy the Last City at its best - until last night.
The live event was playable via a mission that popped up on the Tower map. This teleported you to the Last City, where players made their way to see the Traveler, the mysterious big ball that hovers above the earth. As the Darkness closes in, the Traveler pulses with energy. Here's how it went down (video courtesy of YouTuber Esoterickk:
You walk through the Last City as you make your way to see the Traveler. As you do, your Ghost chimes in to say he's picking up... something. Something emanating from the Traveler itself. It's a "resonance" in the light your ghost hasn't felt since the day he was born - and when he found you.
As you continue, you see people gazing up at the Traveler, its light blinding them. Eventually, Eris Morn tells you something is coming. She can feel it, she says. The Traveler is changing somehow. Eris says it's drawing power, potentially in an effort to drive the Darkness away. Ghost says every fireteam has returned to The City. The guardians are with the people. "The last time this happened," Ghost says, "the world ended."
Eris goes on to say the Traveler is reforming, healing its wounds. "This will not be the end. It will be an escalation." Then, a flash of light.
The event concluded with a cutscene that showed the Darkness gobbling up the various planets Destiny 2 is ditching (somewhat controversially), via the Director (Destiny's solar system map screen). As the Darkness approaches Earth, the Traveler pulses to protect it.
This is actually a cool throwback to the opening cutscene of the original Destiny. In that cutscene, we saw the Darkness creep towards Earth in the Director as the Bill Nighy-voiced Speaker recounted the collapse of the Golden Age.
And that's that! It was a cool event for Destiny fans, particularly those who are into the game's lore and universe. And I love the throwback to the original Destiny. Bungie took the time to create an entire new area never before seen for this event, and I'd love another chance to return to the Last City at some point.
Until then, it's onwards to Beyond Light.