The Destiny 2: Lightfall launch trailer revealed during PlayStation’s State of Play stream opted to mostly veer away from the neon-soaked promotional material of its new destination Neomuna, and lean more heavily into the high-stakes cosmic conflict that has been brewing since the franchise’s inception.
And boy, oh boy, did it deliver – especially when it came to The Traveler. After the big dumb supposedly-powerful blob in the sky tried to ditch Earth (just like it did to the Eliksni) in the Season of the Seraph epilogue, only to have a change of heart, we finally see the darned thing put to task. In the trailer’s closing moments, it goes full Death Star against a mob of pyramid ships.
At this point, one could fill a library with Destiny lore, but that big grey orb that floats over planet Earth that features on most of the game’s promotional materials has been one of the most enigmatic entities in the entire franchise.
Granted, the Traveler has always been useful in the sense that it’s the source of a Guardian’s power, but other than that, it’s pretty much always just been a big spherical ornament prettying up the skybox whenever you land in the Tower. And yes, sure, it sort of exploded at the end of the Red War campaign at Destiny 2’s launch to take down Dominus Ghaul, but beyond that, this is certainly the most animated we’ve ever seen it.
The launch trailer gave off a real The Taken King-esque all-out-war vibe, except this time, the stakes are astronomically higher. If you’re not a lore buff, all the evidence you need of that is in the Traveler actually reacting to a threat rather than mostly snoozing its way through nine years worth of conflicts.
If not that, then perhaps it’s the terrifying out-of-context shot of our Ghost being chopped up into pieces, which we’re hoping is a vision and not reality. Destiny 2: Lightfall launches on Feb. 28, 2023, and with it a bunch of new tools to fight back against the Witness, as well as a cast of new characters.
