Destiny 2 is coming to an end… sort of. The Light and Darkness saga, which began in 2014 with the release of the first Destiny, ends this year with The Final Shape, Destiny 2’s most ambitious expansion yet. This is everything we know about it.
So far, the Destiny series has told the story of The Traveler, a mysterious spherical entity, and its Guardians' battle against nefarious forces that want the Light which powers it for themselves, the Darkness, and the Witness, an immensely powerful being that commands the Black Fleet and has become the overarching main villain of this first saga.
After last year’s half-baked Lightfall expansion and major creative shakeups and layoffs at developer-publisher Bungie, expectations and pressure are understandably high, with the veteran Guardians hoping for a grand finale worthy of all the time (and money) invested into Destiny 2 over the years. As for newcomers looking to join the fight, Bungie’s recent efforts to onboard new players – who can still begin their journey completely free – have been quite interesting.
We highly recommend checking out Destiny 2 if you're into majestic space settings and ambitious universe-building, but if you’re looking for more good sci-fi video games that maybe aren't as time-consuming, our lists of the finest Alien, Marvel, DC, Warhammer 40K, and Star Wars games out there are exactly what you need.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape: Release Date
After one major delay that pushed it away from the start of 2024, Destiny 2: The Final Shape is launching on June 4, 2024. So it's already available to play. This marks the beginning of a huge and hopefully fun summer season for the game and its many players.
Coincidentally, Lucasfilm Games and Zynga's Star Wars: Hunters, a free-to-play online action game, is finally releasing on Nintendo Switch and mobile phones that same day too. But that's not everything space-related dropping on June 4, as the new Star Wars series The Acolyte is premiering its first two episodes on that date as well.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape: Platforms
Much like the base game and the rest of the expansions released so far, Destiny 2: The Final Shape is coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (Windows).
Of course, you can expect better performance and much faster loading times on the current-gen consoles and beefier computers, but the Destiny 2 experience remains pleasant no matter your platform of choice. It remains to be seen whether Bungie will drop last-gen support in the near future as both the company and the franchise venture into a new era.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape: Trailers
Bungie's marketing efforts – now boosted by owner Sony Interactive Entertainment – around The Final Shape have been unsurprisingly strong, with several trailers and more in-depth videos letting veteran Guardians and newcomers alike take a good look at the expansion and everything it has to offer, all while surely saving some huge surprises.
Its evocative, CG reveal trailer was released on August 22, 2023, and teased a bit of how the War of Light and Darkness will conclude and who we can expect to play a major role in the epic, long-gestating finale. You can watch it below:
If you're looking for a proper look at fresh new gameplay, the Prismatic class (a jack of all trades of sorts), and some of the foes that await in The Final Shape, the gameplay trailer released on April 9, 2024, has you covered.
Finally, we believe the third must-watch trailer is the incredibly cool and exciting launch trailer dropped on May 28, 2024, which is packed with mind-bending visuals, big action, and perhaps even more drama than anyone was expecting. If you don't fear a handful of mild spoilers, check it out here:
Destiny 2: The Final Shape: Plot
According to Bungie, the Final Shape is "a nightmarish calcification of reality into the Witness's twisted design," and the way to stop it might be, against all logic and even the wildest expectations we could have… inside the heart of The Traveler itself. The story campaign will take Guardians on a desperate mission to pursue the Witness and put an end to its deranged plan for the universe.
While we don’t know everything about the Witness' design, the launch trailer reveals part of what it wants to do: reshaping reality into a perfect stillness of sorts. The villain claims that doing so will bring an end to all suffering, but it's kind of boring and terrible for every being in the known universe to be turned into a statue.
You might need a much deeper dive to learn about what happened back in the Lightfall expansion and during the seasons that filled the gap between it and The Final Shape. The gist of it is: we now know that the Witness originated from the first known civilization that was empowered by The Traveler. it's also the product of an entire species merged into one through the mastery of the Darkness, the paracausal force whose counterpart is the Light.
The Final Shape will kick off shortly after the events of the Season of the Wish, during which Cayde-6 somehow made a return back from the dead, or so it seems. Now, the player-controlled Guardian, Commander Zavala (now voiced by Keith David after Lance Reddick's passing), Ikora Rey, and the rest of the Vanguard need to enter the Pale Heart of The Traveler – a dimension influenced by past adventures – to stop the Witness and end the war to end all wars.
Will Destiny 2 End With The Final Shape?
No, The Final Shape won't be the end of Destiny 2. "Facing the Witness is not the end of Destiny," teased Luke Smith, exec. creative director at Bungie. While Destiny 3 – whether it's a rework of D2 or an all-new game – could be a possibility in the future, it appears that Destiny 2 will continue to tell the post-Light and Darkness saga story with 'episodes' that can be played separately and are more casual-friendly than the seasons of old. Expansions should still be a thing after that, but we don't know yet whether Bungie is looking to shake things up after this saga or not.
As it stands, it's unclear how the future of Destiny 2 will look after everything about The Final Shape (don't forget its big raid) is said and done, but Bungie isn't moving away from the current game anytime soon.
Destiny 2: Genre and Gameplay
Destiny 2 is a 'looter shooter' action RPG. Think Diablo but FPS. Of course, shooting and getting better gear isn't everything that you do when fighting off hordes of enemies, as melee and magic combat are extremely important too. Beyond combat, there's also a fair amount of exploration and talking to characters – who love to drop huge chunks of lore and exposition – in Destiny 2. There's a lot going on that justifies all the content available and makes the game feel quite special if you have the time to keep up with it.
In case you didn't know: Destiny 2 is an online game, and while it's friendly enough to solo players (except for high-level raids) thanks to a mostly solid matchmaking system and seamless online areas, a certain degree of teamwork is expected from those jumping in.
Gamers unfamiliar with FPS games shouldn't fret if they're interested either, as Bungie made sure to craft simple but immensely satisfying gunplay and ability mechanics that power some of the best-in-the-business power fantasies you can have. If you love both sci-fi and space operas, you ought to try it.
