So that Destiny 2 ending. And... that after credits...thing. And.... that place we get to go to now with the story being finished. Dat Skybox.

And... I'm going need time to process all this. Wow.

So that Destiny 2 ending.

So. Epic. The Running through the sun was sooooo cool. I also wanted to just stare at the sun while the ship was blowing up. Also the Energy Slide... Now I want to play the mission over again.

And... that after credits...thing. And.... that place we get to go to now with the story being finished. Dat Skybox.

Wait... what!?
I must have skipped the credits on accident?! shit now I need to finish it again!
But I beat the basic campaign, is a new world opened like the lighthouse?

And... I'm going need time to process all this. Wow.

You will have plenty of time for that :D

As I said in my earlier post, I loved the campaign. Lots of great moments. But there was 1 sequence in particular that clicked for me in a way that few games ever do. I'm talking about those rare moments when the story, gameplay, the virtual world around you all merge together into something that makes you forget you're holding a controller. Mass Effect 2 did it, The Last of Us, Journey... maybe 1 or 2 others.

In Destiny 2, that moment for me was:

towards the end of the campaign, when you are fighting your way through The Last City. I was never particularly invested in the story of Destiny 2, nor did I care much about the characters. But despite my ambivalence towards those things, this mission got under my skin and made me feel like I was fighting for my home. But there was more to it than that. The layout of the mission, the geometry... something about it fell so perfectly in sync with the way movement works in Destiny. I was gliding from ledge to street level to rooftop, never staying still, never going backwards. I hit some kind of "zen" level with the movement and combat where I wasn't even thinking about it anymore, yet I was unstoppable. I felt like I was a mix between Wash flying through the space battle at the end of Serenity ("I'm a leaf on the wind") and River destroying every Reaver in front of her (also at the end of Serenity, lol).

But the BEST part, the part that really solidified this mission as my favorite moment of the campaign, is the fact that Bungie populates the missions with other players. For the first half of the mission, I was fighting to defend my home along side other players. This is what Destiny can deliver that other games can't. This is what has been missing until now.

One rando in particular clicked well with me, and he and I moved through the city streets together, cutting through Cabal like we'd been fighting side by side for years. There were other players in the area too. Bungie's level design hits a point of genius here, because the layout of the city streets branches out just enough to avoid the feeling of a bunch of players running down a hallway together, while still being driven towards a common goal and direction. My rando buddy and I passed by many other players as our paths cris-crossed forward. The impression of being immersed in a chaotic and moving battle was incredible. I don't even recall when my rando buddy and I parted ways. It happened quickly and suddenly, in the heat of battle. I felt disoriented and a little sad by our sudden separation, but compelled to move forward without hesitation.

Brilliant stuff, that mission.

So that Destiny 2 ending.

So. Epic. The Running through the sun was sooooo cool. I also wanted to just stare at the sun while the ship was blowing up. Also the Energy Slide... Now I want to play the mission over again.

Yea. Too bad that's RNG too. :/

And... that after credits...thing. And.... that place we get to go to now with the story being finished. Dat Skybox.

Wait... what!?
I must have skipped the credits on accident?! shit now I need to finish it again!

I got this! Well, it's not the whole clip, as I only grabbed a minute, and apparently it's longer then that. Before you click, make sure you have a clean pair of pants at the ready or some floor cleaner. Either or, I don't judge.

Here it is.

But I beat the basic campaign, is a new world opened like the lighthouse?

It certainly feels BIG enough.

Here it is.

That made me so excited. Also, UpNorth aptly described them as Egyptian space reapers. Very similar ending to ME2.

Also loved seeing The Reef and the Dreadnought in there.

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I got this! Well, it's not the whole clip, as I only grabbed a minute, and apparently it's longer then that. Before you click, make sure you have a clean pair of pants at the ready or some floor cleaner. Either or, I don't judge.

Here it is.

I'm confused. I saw that before the credits rolled.

I got this! Well, it's not the whole clip, as I only grabbed a minute, and apparently it's longer then that. Before you click, make sure you have a clean pair of pants at the ready or some floor cleaner. Either or, I don't judge.

Here it is.

I'm confused. I saw that before the credits rolled.

That sequence definitely played after the credits for me.

100% agree. That was AWESOME.

I just finished the post-campaign quest chain for Failsafe. Massive spoilers follow, don't read if you haven't also finished this bit.

VERY interesting. A harpy has accessed and claimed the memories of the captain? And this harpy is friendly, or at least neutral, to the player? This seems to be counter to the D1 grimoire saying that the Vex could accurately simulate full people, since the stored captain is clearly not well understood. But maybe it's a past harpy? it's certainly been around for centuries. Curious! Also,
dang, that sidearm you get... reminds me of the golden gun from goldeneye.

I really liked the pacing of the down then up then jump to places you wouldn't normally expect to jump to.

I also really liked the audio trick of hearing cayde-6 talking over comms and in-game as well. It's actually really messed up and backwards -- I heard him in-person after the radio chatter, but I recognized it immediately, that I was near enough to him to hear him both over comms and in person. Possibly my favorite "I love the attention to detail" detail.

As far as missions go, I think the stormcaller questline was the best for me. Similar experience to being on stormcaller duty on golgoroth. =)

I really enjoyed the campaign (and also the fact that it looks like there's still tons of stuff to do, now that it's over).

As others have said, I'm immensely impressed with the environments. It still feels like Destiny, but taken to the next level. I was really blown away when you bust through the wall into the Arcology on Titan, and the design just totally changes and the space becomes massive.

Best moment, though, and one that I was really hoping for for the entire back half of the game was spawning into the new Tower. It's gorgeous, and that view is awesome (we can finally see the City in all its glory, instead of just some foggy blocks!).

That sequence definitely played after the credits for me.

I can't say with 100% certainty that it played before the credits rolled. What I do know for sure is that I skipped the credits thinking that I could always go back and watch them later. If that scene was after the credits, it played even though I skipped watching the credits.

I guess I was prescient to only use the MIDA back in Destiny 1 since it being a Marathon reference has pretty much become confirmation (or a Lucille Bluth wink) that the Marathon universe/timeline is connected to Destiny's... just not, 100% the same.

Jones might be the only old timer there now from the Marathon days, but thankfully there's other weirdos there on the story team, I guess.

Also it can't be understated just how badly the beta represented the final game's "game feel". I'm glad I decided to still play D2 due to the story and patrol stuff seeming promising, because it's absolutely what 1 should've been, and it makes the past three years look like a very extended (high, high, high budget) early access prototype.

Last four or so missions, after you gather up your Space Family might be the best sequence of levels in a Bungie game yet? At least from a mission design standpoint? It's a cover band version of the greatest hits of Halo, but with superpowers.

I too was concerned about the gameplay feel from the beta. It was still there upon starting, but I've either gotten used to it or it's tied to gear quality. I remember D1 feeling slower clunkier with common gear vs Legendary. Mobility feels great in D2.

And yes those final missions were amazing. My gaming feels have not been molested like that in a long time.

That sequence definitely played after the credits for me.

I can't say with 100% certainty that it played before the credits rolled. What I do know for sure is that I skipped the credits thinking that I could always go back and watch them later. If that scene was after the credits, it played even though I skipped watching the credits.

Yep, that's exactly what I did as well.

It's a cover band version of the greatest hits of Halo, but with superpowers.

There's a quote for the box :p

-Disciple

I am surprised that they killed off the Speaker (so much for those cliché theories about him being evil), and borderline offscreen, too (Ghost had to clarify it post-credits).

That said, he was easily my favorite character in this game. Tortured throughout the entire game, but he never broke; all the while delivering some Supa Hot disses and philosophy at Ghaul. Even his last words were an act of defiance, essentially admitting to Ghaul that he had simply been stalling/wasting his time.

I'm gonna miss that man (and props to the animators for perfectly capturing Bill Nighy's mannerisms in the performance, even though he spent the entire game unable to move).

Warlocks!

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Here it is.

That made me so excited. Also, UpNorth aptly described them as Egyptian space reapers. Very similar ending to ME2.

(This image was released to us in 2013.)

You will not believe how excited I am to see these thing in game. I've been on the lookout for this mysterious Race 5 ever since that image was released. They got a mention in Speculation Saturday #1: The Golden Age as well as a mention in the 1st (and last) annual DBO Zork-By-Post game.

And now, they are finally here! (Well... out there.) Yaaaaaaay! :)

P.S. Shame all the images broke on the other SS's. I still have them all, it's just that Dropbox changed the way shared links work. :(

You will not believe how excited I am to see these thing in game. I've been on the lookout for this mysterious Race 5 ever since that image was released. They got a mention in Speculation Saturday #1: The Golden Age as well as a mention in the 1st (and last) annual DBO Zork-By-Post game.

And now, they are finally here! (Well... out there.) Yaaaaaaay! :)

P.S. Shame all the images broke on the other SS's. I still have them all, it's just that Dropbox changed the way shared links work. :(

I thought I'd localized them all? Well, if you want to put together a zipfile of all of them and shoot me a link, I'll localize them and update the links here.

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Oh man, that was a very interesting mission. I really want to see some kind of follow up, now, damn.

And the gun has a lore tab, despite being a Legendary, don't miss that. And ow,
it gave me a bad case of the feels, if for an odd reason. Now to find an Exotic engram to complete the questlet...

The format of it as a dialogue over a chat client, and the particular manner of typing are reminding me of Homestuck, and a particular character from it, really hard. Why is a small coincidence so poignant?

Have you found his private quarters in the new Tower? Ghost shares some interesting implications when you investigate.

Did Oryx ever even have any interest in the Traveler?

The Taken is still around, I remember it was explained why with in-game dialogue but I don't remember what was said. When the Traveler pulsed at the end, it went by the Reef and the Dreadnaught. Is it possible it brought back to life Mara Sov and Oryx (assuming they are both dead?)

How come Zavala, Ikora and Cayde didn't go to the Traveler shard to get their light back too? Is it because they didn't have ghosts and you need a ghost to gift you light? At the end of they game they still didn't have ghosts so did they ever get their light back?

I loved the campaign and the story and Ghaul but it kind of seemed like Ghaul was merely a plot vehicle to introduce the Egyptian alien ships. Will they be part of the Raid? An expansion? Was Ghaul small potatoes only here to bring us the true storyline?

How come in the director menu, Earth is rotating backwards? This happened in D1 too. Is that intentional?

How excited were you to see Banshee again?

How annoyed were you to see Rahool again?

How come Zavala, Ikora and Cayde didn't go to the Traveler shard to get their light back too?

I wondered the same thing through the whole campaign!

I loved the campaign and the story and Ghaul but it kind of seemed like Ghaul was merely a plot vehicle to introduce the Egyptian alien ships. Will they be part of the Raid?

I don't think so. I think the raid concept is known at this point. It's going to be the World Eater thing that was seen in the skybox of Nessus during the PC beta. Obviously not confirmed, but it seems very likely

An expansion?

An expansion or D3 is the question. We know what the first expansion is already, and it doesn't seem to be that.

Was Ghaul small potatoes only here to bring us the true storyline?

That seems to be the way Destiny's story operates. We kill a big bad, only for a new, bigger bad to come in and take its place.

Right. They've literally been communicating with me 2 of the 3 times I've gone to that thing to unlock my dumb subclass. Just tag along once.

^ Vanguard related comment.

How come in the director menu, Earth is rotating backwards? This happened in D1 too. Is that intentional?

Maybe you are just upside down or inside out?

Not sure that is them communicating so much as experiencing "light echoes" instead.

They keep tabs on me 99% of the time I'm doing anything, is what I meant.

You will not believe how excited I am to see these thing in game. I've been on the lookout for this mysterious Race 5 ever since that image was released.

Me too! I've hoped for something big like this to come in and mix up the story sandbox and I was really hoping they didn't disappear into the ether of scrapped content.

How come in the director menu, Earth is rotating backwards? This happened in D1 too. Is that intentional?

Maybe you are just upside down or inside out?

Hey! I just saw OK Go last night - are you stalking me?

How annoyed were you to see Rahool again?[/spoiler]

I got two exotics through the campaign rewards. My first two exotic engrams? Duplicates of the two I already had.

x-0

I am surprised that they killed off the Speaker (so much for those cliché theories about him being evil), and borderline offscreen, too (Ghost had to clarify it post-credits).

When does the ghost confirm it?

And my first thought was

"Huh looks like I've only been to the farm a few times and there's no reason to go back :-("

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Have you found the Assasins Creed style race mini game yet?

I am surprised that they killed off the Speaker (so much for those cliché theories about him being evil), and borderline offscreen, too (Ghost had to clarify it post-credits).

When does the ghost confirm it?

Examine the window to the speaker's quarters in the tower. Your ghost will mention how he is gone, but they built the quarters for the next speaker.

That end credit scene. Holy cows Bungle. The whole flash of light and zoom out of the solar system and then the reveal.. I haven't had feels like that since the Halo 3 legendary ending

Vote Osiris for Speaker 2018

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Is there anything they showed that explicitly confirmed the Speaker's death? I mean, Ghaul didn't do anything to him when those lock things were disengaged. Crushed his mask(still didn't see his face!), but I didn't see anything else...

Then again, Turtledick died from a 4-second choke hold. Good grief, I'm a 300 pound asthmatic and I know by fact I can survive longer than that.

There's a scamnable object upstairs in the Tower as you go towards Ikea's area that confirms it.