WIth the Destiny franchise reaching its tenth anniversary today, I figured I’d write up a little something about my favorite parts of this series I’ve been with since the first alpha test. Destiny’s characters, the stories and loot have evolved over time with its players, and Bungie’s space epic has inspired dozens of other studios to try (and usually fail) to match its scale and quality. It’s been a genuinely unforgettable ride, and these are just a small number of my biggest highlights with it.
June 12th-14th 2014 – Playing the Destiny Alpha
My decade-long journey (so far) in Destiny began even before the game was out. I got to run a few patrols in the cosmodrome on Earth, play through a couple of strike missions during the first Destiny alpha and it got me hooked. It was just a small taste of what was to come, but I thought even then that Bungie had something special on their hands.
January 7th, 2015 – Defying a God in the Crota’s End raid
Destiny’s first expansion was a bit of a mixed bag, but it also our first introduction into the villainous Hive factions’ ruling pantheon. The Hive’s strongest beings are unkillable outside of the pocket dimensions they rule over and thus were considered undefeatable until the Crota’s End raid. The Crota encounter is intense and the death of the Hive Prince kicked off a chain of events that are still playing out now as Crota’s remaining relatives scramble for power. It was also one of the first moments that established how absurdly powerful Guardians in the Destiny universe could be. After all, we were Godslayers now.
Plus, Crota’s End was where I finally got the iconic Gjallarhorn rocket launcher to drop, so this raid will always hold a special place in my heart.
September 2016 – Becoming an Iron lord in Rise of Iron
The Iron Lords were among the oldest and most revered Guardians to ever exist, so assisting the only remaining one in his fight against the enemy that destroyed the majority of his brothers and sisters was beyond epic at the time. After it was all over, we were knighted as the first of a new generation of Iron Lords. Also, the Eliksni (A.K.A Fallen) who imbued themselves with siva nanites were among the most interesting enemies in the first Destiny and it’s a bit of a shame we haven’t seen them since. Maybe they show up again if we ever get a Destiny 3…
September 2018 – Losing and Avenging Cayde-6 in Destiny 2: Forsaken
As a Hunter main from day one, my class’ vanguard Cayde-6 (played by Nathan Fillion) was always one of my favorite characters in Destiny and he was beloved by the rest of the community too. That made his death at the hands of the villainous prince Uldren Sov one of the most effective story beats the franchise had seen thus far. Forsaken is still considered one of the all-time best Destiny expansions, and I’d say it was the start of Bungie really leaning into its characters and how effective they could be at creating more personal stakes. The world-ending threats we encountered before were certainly great, but sometimes plain ol’ revenge will move a story along just fine too.
December 7th, 2021 – Completing the Grasp of Avarice Dungeon on Day One
I’ve experienced almost every piece of endgame content in Destiny as of now, and dungeons are far and away my favorite. Grasp of Avarice is among the best of them, and completing it on the day it released without any guide or idea how to solve its puzzles before going in remains a core memory in my Destiny gaming experience. There isn’t a bad encounter throughout it, watching newcomers springs the hidden traps is often hilarious and the jubilation I felt upon earning the reprised Gjallarhorn rocket launcher upon completing it for the first has cemented Grasp of Avarice in its place here. Thanks for the great run, Jacob and Jessica!
February 2022 – Fighting Light with Light in The WItch Queen Campaign
Light is good, Darkness is bad. That was basically set in stone for roughly the first half of Destiny’s lifetime, but that perspective began to shift when we began wielding the Darkness via Stasis in Beyond Light. Then in The Witch Queen expansion – which features the best campaign in the series -the Hive began to wield the Light against us. It was an earth shattering revelation for the Destiny universe as a whole and introduced my favorite enemy faction to date, the Lucent Brood. The line between Darkness and Light was all but completely gone, opening up a new era and powers for us and Savathun; a big brain Hive God, the Witch Queen and one of gaming’s coolest villains.
Late 2022/Early 2023 – Earning the “Conqueror” Seal and Title for Grandmaster Nightfall Mastery
The Hardest mainstay endgame content in Destiny and Destiny 2 are Grandmaster Nightfall Strikes. They’re the typical strike mssions you’d run, but make you much weaker, your foes much stronger, throw in champion enemies that require specific weapons or abilities to defeat while limiting the time and revives your fireteam have to complete them. They are brutal, but I was able to complete an even more insane set of challenges within them to earn the seal and title of “Conqueror,” essentially bragging rights that I was able to topple the biggest challenge the game had to offer.
Although… As much as I love being a “Conqueror,” I might replace my title if I get around to earning the “Legend” seal over the next couple of weeks.
December 2023 – Climbing to the Top of the Castle in Warlord’s Ruin
In this Destiny veteran’s opinion the Warlord’s Ruin dungeon is the best piece of endgame content in all of Destiny. The boss encounters are all top-tier and the story behind it is basically “chase the corrupted ghost of a dragon up a castle filled with zombies.” It even has Indebted Kindness and Buried Bloodline in its loot pool – two of the very best weapons in Destiny 2! I’ve spent countless hours running raids and dungeons over and over in my time playing Destiny, but there hasn’t been one I’ve enjoyed going back to as much as Warlord’s Ruin. Here’s hoping the next dungeon lives up to it.
April 9th, 2024 – Destiny Gets A Horde Mode
I and many others had been saying for years that a cooperative, wave-based defense mode in Destiny would be an absolute delight, and guess what? We were right. Onslaught is a blast to play, and I still revisit it even though I already have the best rolls on all the weapons I want from it. And there’s so much potential for it in the future; Bungie could add more maps, throw in other enemy types or even have us fight a mix of them together! If Destiny is truly scaling back in scope for the next few years, an easy way to keep me engaged would be to build on the exceptional foundation that’s already been laid out in Onslaught.
June 2024 – Feeling All the Feels in The Final Shape
WARNING! SPOILERS FOR THE FINAL SHAPE BELOW
Destiny 2: The Final Shape is the Avengers: Endgame of Destiny; an epic, emotional ending that isn’t a complete goodbye but closes off ten years of storytelling in a slightly messy yet overall stunning fashion. We defeated the Witness and saved all of Sol with the help of other Guardians, humans, Eliksni, Cabal, and even the Lucent Brood! Zavala and Ikora have changed but are still the characters we love. Crow finally earned his spot among the Vanguard – something many of us guessed would happen years ago but are still all too happy to finally see realized. We only got Cayde-6 back for a bit but man did he make one last impression. The Final Shape is the strongest expansion in Destiny, and not just a highlight of the franchise, but of any game I’ve ever played. I cheered, I gasped, I even cried,and ultimately I felt fulfilled when the credits rolled. I’m so pleased with how this part of the journey ended and I’m excited to see where it goes from here.
Honorable Mention: December 2014 – That One Time My Friends Killed Me During a Stupid Jump Puzzle (and all of the other fun times)
I have a couple of friends, Martin and Jeff, who I’ve been playing Destiny with since September 2014. We’ve tackled pretty much everything in Destiny together at some point, and I think I should at least mention a highlight of theirs. For context: I am abysmal at jump puzzles. Doesn’t matter which class or how many times I’ve run an activity, gravity gets me at least once during every raid, dungeons or exotic mission. It was even worse when I was still learning the ropes, so you can imagine my annoyance and my friends’ delight as they shot at me to make me miss a jump at the very end of a lengthy jump puzzle dring my first time raiding. The result: I plummeted to my death yet again. Fuck you guys, thanks for everything, and I’ll probably see you online this weekend.
Always – Just Playing the Game
Is Destiny perfect? No, absolutely not. There have been weak expansions, bizarre sandbox changes and jumping in as new player is, to put it lightly, daunting. The latter in particular has been a struggle for ages, especially after Bungie removed all access to the first two years of Destiny 2’s story from the game, and with seasonal story content vanishing each year catching up almost impossible.
But, I (and many others) keep coming back. Why?
Well, that’s because Destiny is consistently fun in it’s moment to moment gameplay. Whether I’m grinding Dual Destiny for the 150th time to get my desired exotic Warlock bond combo (still don’t have it) hoarding bounties for the next season/episode or running pretty much anything in the game, it looks and feels awesome. Few games have one gameplay mechanic that’s as rewarding as nailing a golden gun headshot with my Hunter, seeing my Titan throw out firey shockwaves in third person or hearing the explosion of my Warlock’s nova bomb super obliterate a boss or group of enemies, but things like that happen all the time in Destiny. And it’s not just the abilities; each weapon archetype has plenty of options that are immensely satisfying to use, and fully exploring the different biomes in each world is worthwhile too. Finally, the consistent updates and new content have made it quite rare to find a period of time where I haven’t had a powerful new weapon or meta-defining piece of armor to hunt down.
As far as live service games go, Destiny has been and continues to be the gold standard thanks to its superb gameplay, great characters, and vast universe that might be getting even bigger if rumors about us leaving the Sol system are to be believed. Thank you Bungie for everything you’ve done to create Destiny, a franchise like no other – even a full decade later.
Middle of the Row 