It is rumored that the version of Destiny 2: Lightfall that Bungie recently released was not, in fact, what was initially planned for the game's penultimate expansion. The latest major piece of Destiny content has been under fire since it came out, partially due to its inability to explain crucial lore and partially because of its zany tonal shift. Still, it seems that there's more to the story.The Destiny community hasn't wasted any time in this regard. A Destiny 2 player has summarized Lightfall's problems already, and many others have come to agree with their assessment. In the meantime, the first reviews of the DLC have also highlighted its shortcomings, most of which have to do with the story Bungie has decided to tell.According to a Destiny 2 leaker, Lightfall as it currently exists is "kind of like a filler," in that the DLC was originally supposed to be the grand finale of the franchise's Light and Dark saga. Sometime during its development, however, Bungie decided that it would need an additional chapter to expand the narrative properly, which is where next year's Final Shape DLC comes in. The leaker in question claims that the current iteration of Lightfall and the content that's coming with The Final Shape were supposed to be bundled together, implying that Bungie ended up having to expand upon the Neomuna chapter to provide this year's big batch of content.
Moreover, the same leaker also claims that Destiny 2: Witch Queen's Deepsight was originally supposed to be a subset of the Strand ability set before the new subclass got pushed back into Lightfall. There's no hard information to corroborate this, it's worth pointing out. However, the green Strand abilities would've fit in perfectly with the jungles of Savathun's Throne World, especially since the DLC focused heavily on its detective investigations, paranormal memories, and other thematically appropriate matters, all of which would've tied in nicely with the discovery of Strand.
While the abundance of CGI animations is one of Destiny 2: Lightfall's many strengths, some players have noticed how the start of the DLC's final cutscene is set up to continue immediately after the end of its first cutscene. This would, in effect, suggest that it was all supposed to be shown at the start of this rumored original, unchanged version of Lightfall, setting up the main conflict of the DLC.
Whatever the case may be, Bungie is unlikely to admit whether the information is true or not. Considering how disjointed and inconclusive Lightfall's main narrative is, however, there's definitely some merit to the leaks in question. Thankfully, Destiny 2: Lightfall's Legendary Campaign mode holds up to scrutiny when it comes to gameplay, so it's not all bad.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
