In the course of the first mission of Bungie’s latest Future 2 enlargement, Lightfall, having hijacked an enemy spaceship and set it to self-destruct, I got here throughout a familiar-looking hangar bay on my approach out. In its two-tiered structure, its gaggle of room-filling purple ships and its wall-length power shields main out to house, it resembled nothing a lot because the Covenant hangars Grasp Chief invaded in one in every of Bungie’s earliest video games: Halo: Fight Advanced.
Deliberate or not, this visible double-take jogs my memory that Future 2 is a sport in dialog with an extended historical past. Leaving apart Bungie’s earlier video games, Lightfall has arrived on the tail finish of a 20-year span that Halo originated. Whereas Future 2 right now could also be largely unrecognizable in its polish and mechanical complexity in comparison with Bungie’s 2001 megahit, if the place to look, it’s simple to see; within the degree design, the monsters, and the weapons (homages of which made their approach into Future 2’s thirtieth Anniversary replace), you possibly can see the layers and layers of historical past.
In some ways, Future 2 is made for these of us who would possibly discover the proof of this historical past, who would possibly even spend two paragraphs of a Lightfall assessment speaking a few completely separate Bungie title. In any case, it’s at all times been a sport with one foot caught prior to now. Deep in its menus are pages devoted to “Moments of Triumph” and “Seals” commemorating all you’ve achieved within the six years because the sport’s authentic launch. Future 2 constantly celebrates its historical past even because it continues to erase it elsewhere.
![A team of three Guardians fight a scythe-wielding boss in Destiny 2: Lightfall’s neon glow](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sYbnUpjDtyLrgQFwG2B6k6Of1bo=/0x0:1920x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1920x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24476509/lightfall_boss.jpg)
Picture: Bungie
Most of Future 2’s moments are not accessible. Previous campaigns are sundown as new ones are launched. To expertise the sport is to expertise the perpetual current: a gift constructed from the narrative and mechanical uncooked matter of the current previous. Lightfall exemplifies this recursive development.
The enlargement’s story reaches all the best way again to the very first moments of the unique Future, again after we all seemed up in marvel at that enormous white ball referred to as the Traveler hovering Damocles-like over humanity’s Final Metropolis. Lightfall begins to reply the query of “What’s The Traveler’s deal, anyway?” On the marketing campaign’s outset, it leaps dramatically into motion — as a lot as a moon-sized sphere probably can — launching itself into Earth’s orbit and difficult its outdated enemy, the Witness. What was as soon as an inscrutable, passive entity now has develop into an lively participant in the midst of occasions. Whereas nonetheless largely a thriller, we have now now seen the Traveler change issues, and develop into modified itself in flip.
The mechanical act of taking part in Lightfall equally seems like a mixture of the outdated and the brand new. Apart from an armory of latest weapons with all kinds of perks (as is the norm in any of Bungie’s expansions), the marketing campaign additionally grants gamers a brand new tremendous capability referred to as Strand. With Strand, gamers can grapple by way of the air and, amongst different issues, hook onto enemies and slam into them with a satisfying explosion. In Strand’s excessive mobility and its reuse of Future’s acquainted motion of grabbing and dunking orbs, you possibly can see the shapes and behaviors of earlier mechanics. Strand doesn’t reinvent as a lot because it reconfigures how the sport used to operate. It additionally, helpfully, makes outdated content material really feel refreshing once more, significantly for gamers who’ve gone by way of all of it earlier than advert nauseam. New life is breathed into outdated Strikes and Gambit classes, which may now be approached from a brand new airborne perspective, unburdened by gravity or — judging by how simple it’s to fling your self off a ledge — frequent sense.
![A section of Neomuna, a city on Neptune in Destiny 2: Lightfall](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gVqJ3wLfLM15QDkJG1DAgSTaYmM=/0x0:1920x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1920x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24476511/lightfall_neptune.jpg)
Picture: Bungie
Lightfall’s setting is the place it takes its greatest departure from Future’s previous. It’s possible you’ll begin the marketing campaign within the throes of battle round Earth’s orbit, however you’re virtually instantly shuttled throughout the photo voltaic system to the planet Neptune, an entirely new addition to Future’s locales. Its metropolis, Neomuna, which serves as Lightfall’s main location, is a slick futurescape draped in colourful, cartoon neon and soundtracked by synths and playful drum riffs. Its Frankenstein-ed aesthetic of cyberpunk, and the funky sci-fi patina that feels impressed by comics like Silver Surfer and Guardians of the Galaxy, makes a welcome addition to Future 2’s already broad visible patchwork. Your fundamental level of contact is memorably goofy: Nimbus, an 8-foot-tall nonbinary humanoid clad in a chrome, Hajime Sorayama-esque outfit full with a bitchin’ codpiece.
Although Neomuna is new, the villain that threatens it, the Cabal ex-emperor Calus, is kind of outdated. A model of Calus hosted Future 2’s very first raid. I nonetheless keep in mind struggling by way of these late-night classes, trying to beat it with my authentic, now defunct, clan: bashing our heads towards the raid’s seemingly unimaginable puzzles, Calus’ growling reptilian laughter echoing by way of our sleep-deprived skulls. That Calus is introduced low in Lightfall, and become a pawn of the Witness, is made richer partially as a result of we as soon as bought to see him at his top.
However what about new gamers with solely a passing data of Future 2’s intensive lore and backstory? Stepping into the sport itself is comparatively simple. After taking part in by way of the tutorial missions launched again within the New Mild replace, it’s potential to leap straight into the Lightfall marketing campaign. And the cinematic that introduces’ Lightfall’s story does an admirable job of catching us up on the related story beats main as much as the present second. The gameplay itself stays thrilling, the encounters largely very effectively designed, although sadly not as tense and exhilarating as a few of what we noticed within the earlier enlargement, The Witch Queen. On a purely practical degree, and for a lot of gamers, this could all be sufficient, proper?
![A Titan fires a power weapon in Destiny 2: Lightfall](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zywTg0qQBG6IWjKaA1qrycnyKoc=/0x0:1920x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1920x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24476512/lightfall_power_weapon.jpg)
Picture: Bungie
I’m not so positive. On the finish of the day, Future 2 lives and dies by its sense of historical past, by the dedication of its loyal participant base in recognizing and being acknowledged by that historical past. The ability of taking part in by way of the recycled and reconfigured elements of campaigns previous is derived from remembering the way it used to really feel, and in with the ability to rejoice the way it has since modified.
Contemplating that Lightfall’s story ends with many open-ended questions and is only the start of a 12 months’s value of narrative and gameplay content material, which calls for a degree of time funding that many new gamers would possibly balk at, it’s troublesome to know whether or not the gameplay and the paintings — polished as they’re — will likely be sufficient to attract within the uninitiated. Are they keen, as soon as the marketing campaign wraps up, to start grinding, to commit themselves to this world that largely ignores them, selecting to commemorate its “Veterans” (the title awarded to gamers who began taking part in six years in the past) as a substitute? There’s actually one thing spectacular a few sport like Future 2, which has a historical past of its personal, but additionally one which dates again to previous franchises. However it leaves one questioning if there’s house in any respect for individuals who haven’t any relationship with that historical past — who strategy the sport as guests, witnessing only a sliver of what should really feel like a lifetime of recollections.
Future 2: Lightfall was launched on Feb. 28 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Sequence X. The sport was reviewed on PS5 utilizing a pre-release obtain code supplied by Bungie. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media could earn commissions for merchandise bought through affiliate hyperlinks. Yow will discover extra details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.