Highlights
- The upcoming Destiny 2 expansion, The Final Shape, will introduce a new destination called The Pale Heart that will change based on player actions and the conclusion of the storyline.
- Destiny 2's open-world spaces, known as destinations, offer unique vistas, activities, and rewards, and have expanded with each subsequent expansion and season.
- The original Tower from Destiny will make a return in The Final Shape, along with Cayde-6, and more details about the expansion will be released in the coming months.
The official Destiny 2 showcase revealed several features of The Final Shape, including a new destination known as The Pale Heart that will evolve and change with the player's campaign progression. The upcoming expansion is the culmination of a decade-long storyline involving the war between the paracausal forces of Light and Darkness, yet, the Destiny 2 universe will continue with episodic content beyond The Final Shape.
Destinations are open-world spaces of Destiny 2 featuring unique vistas, specialized enemy factions and activities, vendors, unique rewards, and more. The game featured four locations at launch, namely the European Dead Zone, Nessus, Titan, and Io, with each subsequent expansion adding new destinations into the mix. Several zones and all corresponding content were removed with the Destiny Content Vault but have since started reappearing with Destiny 2's current seasonal offerings. Apart from providing context to the ongoing storyline, these open-world spaces also feature group activities and secret areas that offer specialized rewards related to the expansion or season.
In the official showcase, Bungie revealed that the upcoming expansion will feature a new destination called The Pale Heart. Touted as the first linear destination, The Pale Heart of the Traveler will change according to the actions taken by the players during the campaign and will shift significantly following the conclusion of the ongoing storyline. The showcase featured several snippets of gameplay inside The Pale Heart, detailing the destination's weird geometry and how guardians will experience the magnified scale of the location through parkour. The developers explained how the Witness's Monolith alters The Pale Heart of the Traveler, reflected in the architecture featuring an amalgamation of environmental assets rearranged in weird ways that play into the cosmic horror themes inspiring Destiny 2.
Destinations changing with player actions isn't a new feature, as every expansion's featured destinations have experienced some changes following the narrative conclusion. The unveiling of The Dreaming City following the death of Uldren Sov is still one of the most cherished post-campaign activities in Destiny 2. Nevertheless, the developers emphasize the campaign's completion being pivotal to exploring The Pale Heart, which is said to "open up" as per Design Lead Matt McConnell.
The scope of explorable areas and secrets to uncover is still unknown, however, the original Tower from Destiny has been officially confirmed as a returning feature in The Final Shape, alongside the former Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6. Bungie has assured that more details regarding the location and the rest of the expansion will be made public in the following months, leading up to the launch.
Destiny 2 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Destiny 2
