Earlier today, Bungie broadcast its final showcase ahead of the July 15 release of Destiny 2's Edge of Fate expansion. Largely it was the expected run though of new features like World Tiers and The Portal, the latter being a revamped homescreen that groups together the most relevant activities in the game and enables players to tweak their difficulty (and therefore loot).
The devs did make mention of a new horde-mode inspired activity that plays a little like Escalation Protocol, but couldn't show any footage due to story spoilers.
If all that doesn't sound hugely hype-worthy, well, I suspect the playerbase feels the same way. People have been asking for an expansion that focused on updating the game's creaking core systems for a long time, but now that we're getting exactly that sort of expansion, the concern has become 'Okay, but where's the sizzle?'
If it's anywhere, the answer is likely to be found in Edge of Fate's campaign. Alongside today's showcase, Bungie also dropped a launch trailer for the expansion that includes some very strange stuff going on with the story. Watch below.
In the opening few seconds we see and hear:
- A very much not futuristic bakelite phone receiver ringing, but as we see later isn't plugged in
- A governmental-looking seal on the floor of a building with the Latin motto: 'Inventio Exploratio Observationis Conexus', which translates to 'Discovery Exploration Observation Connection'
- A '50s sounding song with the lyrics 'Cause I'm stuck right here today, dreamin’ of the past', which I can't find anywhere online.
- The appearance of new NPC Lodi, who we know plays a major role in Edge of Fate, but is here dressed in a retro looking brown business suit, rather than his usual sci-fi garb
- A road intersection with a diner and car that also look very much from the '50s or '60s.
- The Warlock vanguard leader Ikora narrowly avoiding being hit by a passenger train.
It's definitely more mysterious than Destiny 2's recent narrative fare. For one thing, The Lodi character, and flashbacks to the long distant past, are giving major Control vibes. (And for what it's worth, Bungie and Remedy's dev teams are fans of each other.) The fact the footage begins playing in reverse at one point is a reminder that Edge of Fate is going to play with—as Dr Who would have it—timey-wimey stuff.
After the oddities of the intro, the trailer largely settles into standard Destiny 2 stuff, showcasing guardians using their new abilities and gear against Vex and Fallen enemies. You can read our take on how that feels to play here.
That action all takes place on Kepler, a planetoid at the rim of our solar system that is experiencing anomalies related to Dark Matter. It's where we will meet Lodi, having been drawn there by our own mysterious call from beyond.
On Lodi himself, from the first time I saw him, I thought it was odd that he wore classic horn-rimmed glasses. I can't think of any other character in Destiny 2 who wears specs, but it's the perfect clue to suggest he's actually not from this time. He also looks a lot like Zachary Quinto, though doesn't sound much like the Spock actor.
Just before the trailer wraps, we see Lodi's face seemingly stretched apart by some cosmic torment (see top). That reminded me of the VO line from the original Edge of Fate gameplay reveal trailer in which a character, who I presume to be Lodi, says: "I''m not human anymore."
'The Nine' are never-seen cabal of celestial entities possibly comprised of Dark Matter dust.
I also presume, though my ears aren't great these days, that Lodi is the character narrating today's trailer, the last line of which is "Eyes up, weapon"—an obvious twist on the iconic line "Eyes up, Guardian" that Destiny 1 opened with 11 years ago.
Describing the player as a weapon, though an unintended insult in my native British, also suggests we're being manipulated. Which, given that the central antagonists of Edge of Fate are 'The Nine', a never-seen cabal of celestial entities possibly comprised of Dark Matter dust, certainly checks out.
Whatever's going on, it's the start of what Bungie hopes will be another multi-expansion saga, and although cynicism among the game's shrinking playerbase is currently ceiling-high, I am at least glad swings are being taken by the developer. Even if I fear some of those systemic changes are going to receive explosive blowback once they arrive in players' hands in two weeks.
I've embedded the whole Edge of Fate showcase below, in case you want to hear the nitty gritty details about how weapon tiers work.
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