After two days, I finally beat the surprisingly lengthy campaign of Destiny: The Edge of Fate, the first entry in the new “Fate” saga, which is replacing the ten-year-long Light and Darkness saga.
While it’s clear that far less people are going to show up for this, those that do may find something genuinely interesting, and I would argue far less nebulous than those first few years of Destiny (especially the first game) where it felt like Bungie was making it all up as they went (which they were). Here, it feels like there’s a specific plan. And a cool one.
I still don’t like Kepler as a planet, and I thought the campaign dragged from a gameplay perspective, in addition to being punctuated by unpleasant destination mechanics. However, the story? It’s great.
It has been a very long time since there was a mystery in Destiny that I’ve actually had no clue where things were going. Even in The Witch Queen, I had a sneaking suspicion this entire time that Savathun was given the Light by the Traveler rather than stealing it. Here? I had no clue what was going on, and the answers were genuinely stunning.
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There are two major reveals here that I want to discuss, and that very much involves spoilers.
The first? I had absolutely zero idea we were going to learn who Ikora was before she was a Guardian, which turns out to be someone who worked with Lodi at the mystical Chicago department that investigates potential alien activity. He knew who she was this entire time, saying she was the best in the business, and only about two-thirds of the way through the campaign does he explain. This was relayed in a fully rendered cutscene that we’ve never gotten in one of these “past life” storylines before.
The Nine purposefully killed Ikora back then so that she would be raised by her specific Ghost in that specific location centuries later. All leading to this very moment where she will be asked to join forces with Lodi and us to do…something (that comes later). They literally plowed one of their interdimensional subway cars into her, ending the life she used to have but can’t remember, one where she had a daughter.
Ikora is pissed the rest of the campaign, her life seemingly dictated wholly by The Nine in both her past and present. This leads to a stunning segment near the end which is unfortunately not voiced by either of who two previous voice actresses, rather Savathun’s voice actress, Deborah Wilson. It’s some sort of complicated VA strike thing, but Mara Junot, the current Ikora actress will actually be re-recording her lines that will be added in later. But Wilson still did a great job in that moment. But yes, stunning reveals for Ikora in the same way we learned about Zavala and Cayde’s past previously. But this was even more shocking, and relayed better. No inkblot cutscenes, for one.
The second Big Moment was the grand finale, one that had us attempting to contact III, the member of The Nine who had something big to tell us. This had us entering a zone that I can only compare to the Shadowkeep moment that had us turning a corner and seeing a Pyramid underground for the first time.
Here? We enter the space and see the giant, floating, Lovecraftian corpse of III, the first time we’ve laid eyes on The Nine. Its tentacled body is feeding the problematic black hole plaguing Kepler, and this leads to a wild sequence where we finally learn that we’ve been powering up Drifter’s Haul for years and years with motes leading to this very moment, where we temporarily revive III so he can deliver the message that to prevent annihilation, we must “bind The Nine,” which appears like it will be the goal of the entire next era of the game. Just a fantastic sequence.
All of this makes up what could be the single best storyline I’ve seen in a Destiny expansion. It’s this or Witch Queen, but here? The mysteries? The voicework? The nature and scale of the reveals? I don’t know man, it’s possible it’s the best. I just wish it came with a campaign I actually liked to play, but man, keep this narrative and VA team in place. Rehire the narrative people who no doubt worked on this who got fired. Because this is the best thing Destiny has going for it now.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy