It’s been a rocky road for Destiny 2, but Bungie hopes to win back its players with Warmind, a new expansion that’ll be out on May 8. It’s set on Mars and will have you fighting off frozen waves of ancient Hive aliens.
Bungie and co-developer Vicarious Visions showed off Warmind on an hourlong stream this afternoon, telling viewers about the campaign’s premise, which revolves around the artificial intelligence Rasputin. Short version: Rasputin has woken up from a long slumber, and he’s called down a bunch of Warsat satellites, which have cracked open the polar ice caps on Mars and unleashed a whole bunch of the frozen Hive. You’ll have to fight those Hive on a new Mars destination that goes live with Warmind.
One of the main features Bungie showed today was Escalation Protocol, a horde mode that sort of looks like a cross between Destiny’s Prison of Elders and Court of Oryx. It’s a public event on the new Mars area, and it’ll task players with shooting through waves of enemies before time expires. There are rotating bosses, different tasks (like “destroy those crystals!”), and even mode-specific weapons, like a sweet-looking spear called the Valkyrie that you can hurl at enemies.
Bungie’s developers also talked about many of the changes they’re making to the player-vs-player Crucible mode. Next month, Destiny 2 will get private matches and ranked PvP, the latter leading to all sorts of wild rewards, like an overpowered gun that will be super-tough to acquire. This gun has a buffed version of the Outlaw perk (precision kills boost your reload speed) and then a new perk called Desperado that boosts your fire rate while Outlaw is active, allowing for what I imagine will be some incredibly overpowered attacks.
Warmind also comes with a new Raid Lair, new Strikes, an NPC named Ana Bray, and a bunch of other changes, including the emote wheel (!) that Destiny fans have been requesting for years now. It’ll be interesting to see if this all is enough to bring regular Destiny players back—and keep them playing.