Bungie’s efforts to build enthusiasm for Destiny 2‘s future amid significant layoffs at the studio and fan concerns continue with yet more teases for next year’s Codename: Apollo expansion – which is now confirmed to be whisking players to a “Metroidvania-inspired destination”, as seen in new concept art, and arriving alongside “next generation” armour.
Bungie announced Codename: Apollo back in September as part of “major changes” that’ll see the studio launch two “medium” Destiny 2 expansions every year, instead of a single major release. At the time, Apollo was described as a “non-linear character-driven adventure”, with the word “Metroidvania” floated but not confirmed.
Now though, as part of its latest developer stream, Bungie has shared a little more detail on what’s to come. Codename: Apollo, as previously confirmed, arrives next summer as the first of Bungie’s twice-yearly “medium-sized” releases, which, for context, are said to be approximately the same size as Destiny 1’s Rise of Iron expansion.
Each will have its own unique campaign and post-game content that players can “dive really deep into” beyond the initial experience – Apollo kicking off Destiny 2’s new Frontiers saga with a journey to a “Metroidvania-inspired destination” featuring a “non-linear campaign that puts [players] in the drivers seat of exploring its world and its story”.
Bungie says players will have freedom to explore multiple destinations from the off, with some areas only becoming accessible once a specific item has been found elsewhere. Along the way, there’ll be characters to meet and choices to make, with Apollo set to feature between 25 and 30 “different threads” of stories players can tease out as they complete different activities – the idea being to keep them in the world and always exploring.
The studio remains evasive when it comes to specifics, but concept art (above) for the new expansion shows “people [players] haven’t met yet” in Destiny, and inspirations for Apollo are said to range from early 60s prog rock like King Crimson and Jefferson Airplane, to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and the TV show Scavengers Reign.
Whatever Bungie ultimately has in store, it’s being described as an “exotic world” that’s “tailor-built around the joy of discovery”, where players will acquire powerful abilities to uncover secrets and carve a path to the great mystery at the heart of the planet.
Also coming next year as part of efforts to revitalise Destiny 2 is a system Bungie is calling “next generation armour”. This, it explains in a lengthy blog post, is intended to make armour “exciting again” by giving it unique properties and more manageable stats. Essentially, this will mean a “smaller number of unique stats on any piece of armour, with larger contributions to these stats, and every stat point providing a benefit.” There’s a lot more detail in Bungie’s post, though, so it’s worth checking out the whole thing.
Before all that, however, Destiny 2 is poised to embark on its latest season, Revenant: Act 1, which gets underway next week. Top of its additions is the new Onslaught: Salvation mode, featuring three maps (Widow’s Court was demoed during the livestream), new enemies, and new defensive abilities. There’s a turret, for instance, plus improved Stasis Slow tripwires, and an airstrike that sends a devastating blast from above when enemies stray into its radius. Expect all that (and more!) when Revenant begins on 8th October.