Into the Onslaught // The End Before the Start [D2]
Just 2 weeks from now, the final expansion of Destiny's Light and Dark saga will be concluded with The Final Shape. In the meantime, Bungie has dropped some of the community’s biggest asks since the release of Destiny 2 including our first true horde mode as well as the slow rollout of Pantheon; the game's first ever raid gauntlet. All topped off with the return of the game’s first two exotic missions and a dozen of the games’ most infamous weapons. I had thought that Season of the Wish has been a fantastic round out to this last year of content, but as the trend has ever been; the Longer Lightfall lasts, the better it gets. Even during the unplanned delay of our next expansion.
With Lightfall being considered a universal story failure and Season of Defiance not seeming to exist for any great reason other than providing more loot, The following seasons of Deep, Witch, and Wish have all followed the age old D2 trend of improving over time. The key of the improvements this year have not been in the story department like they were during Witch Queen, but instead in the gameplay. All 3 of the post launch seasons have had minor and major activities with the majors all experimenting with new game modes such as rogue-lite’s or changing difficulty mid activity along with boss fights on demand. I find it especially interesting that the core experiences of all 3 of those experiments can be found throughout the 2 activities introduced with the Into the Light event currently going on; Onslaught and Pantheon.
Pantheon is Bungie’s first real iteration of something that I’ve been wanting for quite some time; a singular boss fight experience on demand. An opportunity to jump straight into a major encounter from raids or the end of expansions and attempt them without the sometimes hours of gameplay that can come prior. Unfortunately or otherwise, this content is not made for players like me who have barely any raid experience in comparison to a large bulk of the community who are often found farming the hardest raids multiple times per week. Whether for lack of experience or networking in the larger community, there’s many players like me who are contained to Dungeon Bosses and Legend/Legendary Campaign bosses. Be that as it may, I’m so excited for Bungie to finally be experimenting and presenting players with new ways to relive some of the most impactful and important moments in Destiny’s World(s).
Onslaught on the other hand is not only much more accessible but also really feels like such a great expansion on what they have been doing throughout this year’s seasonal content. Pitting players against escalating waves of enemies in a classic horde mode battle that pulls heavily from Gears of War’s classic horde mode with basic defensive constructions and upgrades while enjoying the chaotic enemy density found in Halo 3 ODST’s Firefight mode. Over the years many players have accused Bungie’s encounter designs of being too heavily focused on the concept of horde modes, but I think Onslaught’s execution has proven that they know the difference. The Boss Fights every 10 waves are very simple, but the enemy density along bonus objectives really do help with making them feel frenzied and focused at the same time. Whether it be in 10 wave quickplay sessions or up to 50 rounds in one go on both Normal or Legend difficulties, Onslaught has become a great place to test new builds and enjoy the full range of Destiny 2’s massive sandbox and I love it.
As the curtain falls on this final season of the most confusing expansion that Destiny has ever endured, I think it’s fair to say that Bungie did their best to finish strong. Season after season of improvements that made use of Lightfall’s sandbox updates and some great gameplay experiences through the new activities has created a really great space for consistent players like myself to test new builds and chase after some awesome loot. Even with Season of the Wish starting pretty strong I think Into the light has improved on it even more by bringing in the prior seasons with new bounties and new activities, possibly to create the best end of expansions experience Destiny has ever had. I’m very excited for The Final Shape as well as seeing how these Into the Light activities return or continue on in the games ecosystem, I really think that Onslaught has a place with Gambit as one of the Vanguard activities.
