Destiny 2
Desitny 2’s Final Shape’s raid has been beaten, and immediately, Bungie unleashed the final battle against The Witness that all players can participate in. The result is a finale that is as epic as it could have possibly been, a Helm’s Deep/Avengers Endgame moment that seems like it would have been almost impossible to pull off in the video game space, but they did it. They really did.
Go play the 12-player activity right now. With that much support, you don’t need to be max level, max geared. It’s chaos, and incredible. Now, I’ll talk about it a bit, and the ending after. Spoilers follow.
The final mission is an assault that includes 12 matchmade players (of course you can go in with a fireteam) and includes an initial territory takeover section full of the full range of the Witnesses forces, I think five different enemy races all at once. But you have not just your 11 friends, you have NPCs like Zavala, Ikora, Saint, Mithrax, Caiatl and even Savathun at your side, who are introduced in an absolutely epic precursor cutscene that ends with the reveal that Zavala has mastered Stasis after the death of his ghost.
Destiny 2
The final fight against The Witness itself is more utter chaos. You kill enemies including some large minibosses who you can burn down pretty fast with your big team. You collect fissures of light as you build up for DPS, in between NPCs dropping you all manner of weapons from Scorch Cannons to Hive swords. Then, you stand on a middle platform and unload on The Witness’s weak spot after smashing more statues inside a Darkness plan. It took around three phases for our group, but I’m sure it can go faster.
The Final Stand is everyone blasting the Witness with energy for our ghost, though as we learn in the cutscene after, this kills our ghost, draining it of its last light. But, Cayde is there to save him, giving up his light-restored body to bring our ghost back to life. I choked up many times over the course of this mission, but this moment? Wow.
The end result is a celebration at the city, where the highlight is that Crow is not just the new Hunter Vanguard, but he also got a haircut. Truly the best development of the whole affair.
Destiny 2
We end with teases about what’s to come, a “power vacuum” in the universe after The Witness’s death, and setup for the year’s worth of episodes to come. I am still exploring exactly what happens in-game now after this mission, and what’s changed, and I will report back soon. For now, go play that mission, what I would consider a perfect ending for the last ten years, even if it carries on from here.
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