Destiny 2 just blew up a big spaceship really slowly [updated]

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Rasputin just downed the Almighty, but it was a bit of a damp squib.

VIDEO: We watch Rasputin take down The Almighty, also available on YouTube.

[Update] For a game that has been criticised for relying on 'you had to be there' in order to motivate its players base, Destiny 2's first in-game live event was the proverbial mixed bag. Guardians turned up in the tower at 10.00 AM Pacific to witness the season-ending showdown between a vast Cabal spaceship called The Almighty, which was hurtling (honestly, quite slowly) towards us, and Rasputin, the weaponised AI 'Warmind' which had been tasked with shooting it down. 

For the first 15 minutes, most of the people in my instance assumed the event had fallen prey to another glitch, as nothing seemed to happen. Eventually, red streaks in the sky appeared, hurtling (only slightly less slowly), at The Almighty. That went on for quite some time. Next, some little explosions appeared, though initially these looked like a cross between glitter from Claire's Accessories and an MS Paint attempt at Mondrian. 

After that, and we were about an hour in at that point, the explosions got a little bigger. It's fair to say discontent had long spread amongst the crowd I was with, who'd been expecting to see something spectacular within minutes of logging in. Happily, The Almighty did go out with a decent-sized bang at the end, washing the tower in supernova light before a huge chunk of debris sailed past and did some collateral damage.

Event saved? Not quite. Much as I was excited about seeing it play out in real time, the end result didn't feel more thrilling than a beautifully done cut scene. If you're going to do an in-game event, I think it needs to be inherently fun to watch, as more recent Fortnite stuff has been. You can watch a timelapse of what happened above, and tune in on Tuesday when Bungie will be revealing what the future of the game looks like, just before the next season drops.

[Original story] Destiny 2's Season of the Worthy kicked off with a new hassle for humanity: The Red Legion isn't taking its recent ass-kicking well, and has aimed its mega-huge star-eating spaceship The Almighty at the Earth as a final "up yours" on its way out the door. Is this the end for our brave Guardians?

To counter this grave threat, players have been working on various events and quests to fire up Rasputin, the last of the Warminds—great, powerful military AIs built during humanity's Golden Age to protect it from all manner of threats. Think Skynet but with a garbled Russian computer voice.

After the community completed a staggering amount of public events earlier in the season (after some reluctance) the flips are now apparently switched, the knobs are turned, and the big Russian mad lad is ready to rumble.

I don't think it's likely that humanity will actually get smoked by this intergalactic atom bomb, but it does appear that some damage will be done. As Polygon reported in April, redditor PaperMartin glitched into a section of the Tower—the Guardians' home on Earth—that's suffered serious damage from unknown causes. 

Nothing's carved in stone at this point (as far as I know, anyway), but the most obvious inference is that Rasputin was able to stop most, but not all, of the Red Legion's Hail Mary shot at winning the war. What will be interesting—at least to our in-house Destiny obsessive, and you know who I mean—is whether this moment is served up as just another cinematic, or whether players can actually stand in the Tower and watch it happen in a manner akin to Fortnite's bombastic live events. 

Update: Bungie has confirmed that, as we hoped, the Rasputin shootin' will be an in-game thing.

Don't forget that while all this is happening, the big, mysterious Pyramid ships that have been looming on the periphery are also getting closer. While you wait for tomorrow's big blast, you can find out more about what's happening around Jupiter in Tim's in-depth analysis Destiny 2's "next chapter."

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Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.