Bungie has been burying many secrets in Destiny 2 for years now, to the point that it became hard to discern which of them are genuinely meant for the players to be found and which are unintentionally discovered. Such is the case for the Quarantine Zone 236 area, once the go-to location for Destiny 2 players who wanted to acquire their new Light classes, which was then vaulted and is now inaccessible. Interestingly, a YouTuber by the name of JB3 managed to gain access to the area and found out that it contains never-before-seen elements, which could serve the purpose of testing proportions or other things for Bungie.
In the past, JB3 has found unique secrets in the game like what can be found if trespassing the barriers in the newly introduced Vault of Glass Raid. Again, today the Destiny 2 YouTuber managed to discover yet a new area that is in the EDZ, more specifically this is a hidden city of sorts that can be accessed just outside the box barrier of the Niobe Labs. This area looks like what a basic Old Chicago would be, with run-down buildings and creeper vines, as well as power poles and billboards.
What is The Hidden City Found in Destiny 2 by JB3
This new area is not inspired by something players have already seen in the past, meaning that it could either be a set of scrapped assets that were never actually implemented or a place to try and build the landscape for an entirely uncharted zone. That zone would likely be Old Chicago, which based on the teaser image from Bungie for Destiny 2's The Witch Queen expansion, could be the place players will be going to at the start of next year. The layout of this city is not exactly something players can see in the rest of the EDZ because the mountains are predominant elements in the background, and even then Trostland is merely a small countryside town with no big billboards and tall buildings.
The poles, on the other hand, were also found at the Farm on Earth before it was sunset by Bungie. In this hidden city, they are assets with collision, meaning that players can sort of interact with them by climbing on them. This doesn't provide much of a clue on why these power poles are within the city, but the reason why they have collision on them may be that they were copied from the Farm's assets.
Old Chicago Might Come to Destiny 2
If this is indeed an experimental area to test the scope and possible assets for Old Chicago in Destiny 2, then it also means the city will contain many more urban elements than the rumored location is depicted to feature. As a matter of fact, Old Chicago was concept art from 2013 when it was conceived as a potential new zone for Destiny, but was eventually scrapped. However, this is not the first time Bungie pulls something similar to this, and the perfect example of this is what Bungie did with Europa.
Europa had its own concept art back in 2013 as well, and just like Old Chicago, it was planned to be released as an explorable area in Destiny. It was obviously not included in the game back then, but Bungie did use that same concept art to make Destiny 2's Europa for Beyond Light look very much like that. And the concept art for Old Chicago does paint the city in a similar fashion to the one that JB3 found in the game, with the exception that it has taller buildings and swampy terrain. Overall, whether or not this newfound zone proves to comprise basic assets for Old Chicago doesn't change the fact that the Windy City is likely coming to Destiny 2.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
