What is ‘Destiny 2’ about?

With the brand new Lightfall expansion out, now is a great time to get back into Destiny 2.

The massive sci-fi game developed by Halo creator Bungie has enjoyed frequent updates since it’s release in 2017. The Guardians must face the threat of the Darkness once more as the fresh expansion teases the arrival of the Witness, a physical representative of the Darkness. Of course, it may have been a while since you last played Destiny 2, or you might be starting out as a new player. Either way, it’s always good to have a bit of a refresher what’s happened in the story so far.

The story so far

Destiny 2 continues the events from the first game (duh!), which requires players to recall that — during the events of the first title — humanity makes contact with the Traveler, a sphere that drifts the cosmos terraforming planets. The Traveler is damaged by the Darkness, a terrifying force that causes the Traveler to break apart and create ghosts, plunging humans into a dark age and forcing them to form the last city. At the outset of the game, one of the ghosts resurrects the player and they embark on a quest to destroy the Black Heart, an entity connected to the Darkness. In destroying it, players restore the Traveler’s ability to heal itself.

Of course, in the world of Destiny there are other threats the player must face off against, all of which stand between players and their quest. Such enemies include the Fallen, the Hive, and the Cabal. There is tension between these alien races and humans, which is only compounded in the first game’s rife DLC content, such as The Taken King, a popular expansion which saw players take up the fight against the Hive, among other things.

Things escalate in Destiny 2

The events of the second game kick off when the Cabal, led by Dominus Ghaul, invade the last city and capture the traveler, draining its powers. As a result, the player loses their own abilities, and must work to get them back and ultimately stop Dominus and the Cabal super weapon known as the Almighty.

Just like the first Destiny, the second game has many expansions which each bring new threats, challenges, and playable locations for Guardians to overcome and explore. The first expansion, Curse of Osiris, came out back in 2017, and since then each year has seen a fresh DLC release. Each new DLC expands the story, usually by pushing players to deal with alien threats or god-like beings like the Vex mind Panoptes.

The latest expansion sees the Guardians in yet another new location, on Neptune, where they must fight against Emperor Calus of the Cabal. This is the penultimate Destiny expansion, and the next one, The Final Shape, promises to bring a close to the light and dark saga that started with the first game back in 2014. That leaves us with nothing to do but wait until next year to see how it all ends.