So here's what I know about Destiny 2. The City is destroyed. The Tower is destroyed. Guardians are outcast to the wilderness and flying around the system to find enough weapons and stuff to save Earth. But the really interesting idea I heard was that there will be something like co-op missions where you find a member of the Vanguard and fight along side them. That gets a wow. Now I'm also speculating that there will be rescue missions. It doesn't take much poking around this reveal trailer to see that there is a guardian shepherding civilians along to safety. That's fabulous. And I'll also throw it out there that there may be some flying involved and attacking Cabal ships from your own ship. That would be super magnificent. But what Destiny needs more than anything is a competent way to tell stories. The only thing they've done very well in that entire area of creativity centers around the wit and attitude of Cayde-6 and the interchanges between him and the other Vanguard members in the Taken King.
So if there is a surefire way to continue this style along with the idea of rescuing civilians in general and Vanguard members in particular (as well as the rest of the denizens of the Tower) then Bungie already has a model: Halo ODST.
The first thing you notice about ODST is that it's quiet. It's night. You're lost. You're sneaking around trying to find your way around New Mombasa and there are patrols of Covies around every corner. But you've got silenced weapons, enhanced vision and your Halo skills. Fair fight. The music is thematically very different. It's occasionally noir, jazzy, solemn. It feels like the music of the dark and lonely night. For moments, ODST approaches Splinter Cell. In fact, that's the first way to think about it as an FPS, because you are not the Master Chief, the monk's chant is not in the background, you are on Earth and there are no Elites to be found alive. What the heck is going on here? You are on the front lines.The hardest thing, and the greatest thing you have to get used to in ODST is that you start to realize how deadly the Covenant are. Sure, when Brutes were introduced in 3, it took a minute to figure them out, but after a while you mowed them down. You were the Chief. Now you're not and it takes two, maybe three melees to take out a grunt. And if you think you can just melee a brute because his helmet is off, think again. Your combat style has to change. Heroics will get you killed. You are not a Spartan. This is not Sparta!
Wow that was eight years ago. But now I invite you to think about the arc of the story of ODST. You start off with basically the weakest of weapons, almost like Splinter Cell: Double Agent, where you begin in jail with none of your fancy weapons. You're lost in a city and you have to combine up with the members of your team. You don't get to use rocket launchers until you find the teammate who used rockets. You look for clues as to where this missing teammate might be and search your way through foreign territory.
Now imagine that in Destiny. Just as you started the original campaign with one weapon, you'll have to gain rank before you can even get your super. And then it was a while before you could be strong enough to compete in the Crucible. So all that is possible again. Your guardian is completely rebooted, stripped of all goodies. The Tower is gone. You have no ship. It would be a while before you can get off the planet and up to the Reef. Man that sounds interesting.
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