Enough details have started to come out that we can actually have a summary thread of what was announced.
First off, if you don't feel like reading, here's a short selection of videos about everything new:
If there was anything I missed you felt should be included, let me know.
I'll get more screenshots in a moment, but I don't want the tab to reload on me since these things are kind of large.
NVIDIA has also supplied these screenshots of the PC version in 4K. I'm unsure if these are max settings, as the PC version was capped at Medium settings at the event:
First off, if you don't feel like reading, here's a short selection of videos about everything new:
- Official Gameplay Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn1dML6RC5w
- Campaign Mission Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaAgKqTOCY4
- Strike Video (Inverted Spire): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nv8CMiwllo
- Countdown (new mode) PvP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HrG3qQLuD0
- Warlock Dawnblade (replaces Sunsinger) Overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmhr4xuVPIo
- Titan Striker Overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaVjkSWDsBw
- Hunter Gunslinger Overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra1GlrLj8bM
- Full Reveal Conference: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/144806172?t=01h09m06s
- The game is coming to PS4 and XB1 on September 8th.
- All shown footage is from the PS4 Pro version of the game.
- The console versions of the game will run at 30 FPS.
- The PS4 Pro version runs at 4K, though it wasn't specified if that was checkerboard rendering or native resolution.
- They will talk about the game's Xbox Scorpio support at E3.
- There will be some kind of PS4 exclusive content that's exclusive for a year.
- Bungie notes that a Nintendo Switch version is "pretty unrealistic," and that they don't want to give people the impression that it might be coming a year down the road, so just assume that's not going to happen.
- The game is launching later on PC, but "soon". An exact date hasn't been determined yet, and they hope to share one within a couple weeks.
- The PC version will use Battle.net, along with all of its associated features such as friends lists, and release in every region that Battle.net operates in.
- The PC version is being developed by Vicarious Visions in conjunction with Bungie.
- The PC version supports 4K resolution, has an uncapped framerate, a Field of View slider, mouse/keyboard support, remappable controls, text chat, and 21:9 support.
- The PC version has very extensive graphical settings (detailed here), and they want to make sure it will scale to a wide variety of PCs. The current build was demoed on very high end PCs.
- They are also making some small design tweaks to make sure it feels like a native PC version. For example, the crosshair is directly centered on the screen instead of being slightly lowered like in the console versions. These are more tweaks to make it feel right than major mechanical overhauls.
- The game takes place during and after the Cabal invasion of Earth, in which they destroy and take over The Last City. The Traveler is also covered in a gigantic Cabal duffel bag, causing all guardians (player characters) to lose their powers. Your previous loot/equipment is also destroyed in the attack. Basically, you're starting over with your leveling and gear.
- The game will feature the same three classes, but with all of their subclasses overhauled, included three new ones.
- The way subclasses and gear stats work have been heavily overhauled. I'll talk about both as once as this is a bit intertwined.
- The stats of Strength, Intellect, and Discipline have been removed from the game.
- Subclasses no longer grant changes to Armor, Recovery, or Agility. Every subclass ability is instead entirely related to the active and passive abilities of your character.
- Gear (armor) now give you the stats of Armor, Recovery, and Agility instead.
- Gear (armor) abilities now seems to give a mix of the old armor abilities, the old subclass perks, and the effects that Strength/Intellect/Discipline gave. For example, there was armor spotted with abilities such as "Increases the ammo carrying capacity.", "Additional shield strength at the cost of mobility.", and "Super abilities recharge faster.", which map to the three previously mentioned categories respectively.
- The full list of armor abilities spotted (in summary form, the inspect feature was disabled) is viewable here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/6ca7a1/full_list_of_weapon_and_armour_perks_from/
- Each class now has an ability (that you select one of two versions of) that is present across all subclasses.
- The Warlock's global ability is the ability to put down a circle that either heals players who stand in it, or buffs their damage, depending on what you select.
- The Titan's global ability is to make a big (straight, not bubble) shield that provides cover and seals off an area, or a smaller (straight, not bubble) shield that you can crouch behind that also reloads the guns of whoever is crouching behind it.
- The Hunter's global ability is dodge. They can either dodge to reload their weapon, or dodge near enemies to gain melee damage. Very team oriented, as always.
- The Warlock has a new subclass called Dawnblade. Your new ultimate causes you to gains fiery wings and a fiery sword that fires very powerful projectiles at enemies. This was the only new subclass shown at the event, as Warlocks are factually the most important and best class, and thus they wanted to focus on them. It replaces the Sunsinger class.
- Titans have a new subclass called Sentinel. You get a Captain America shield that you can bash into people and throw.
- Hunter gets a new subclass called Arcstrider. It basically works like the old Arc Knife, but you you use a bow staff instead, zipping from enemy to enemy and whacking them like you're Yoda in the Star Wars prequels.
- All of the original subclasses have also been reworked to fit the new system and change up how they work in general.
- To see all the details on how the three subclasses present at the event work (Dawnblade, Striker, and Gunslinger), go here: https://www.pcgamesn.com/destiny-2/destiny-2-class-guide
- The weapon system has changed rather significantly. There are still three gun categories, but they work rather differently.
- The first weapon slot is Kinetic weapons, which consists of any non-elemental primary weapon such as Auto Rifles, Pulse Rifles, Hand Cannons, and the new SMG weapon (that does lots of damage up close, but very little from a distance).
- The second weapon slot is Energy weapons, which consists of the same weapons as the Kinetic weapons slot, but you can only equip ones do that elemental damage.
- The third slot is power weapons. These have much more limited ammo pick-ups a la the heavy weapons of yore, and consists of weapons like sniper rifles, shotguns, fusion rifles, rocket launcher, and the new grenade launcher. The special weapons (sniper rifles, shotguns, fusion rifles) that have been moved to this slot now do much more damage to fit in with category.
- The weapon inspect feature was disabled in this build, but weapons now have something called a "mod spot".
- There seems to be some kind of new weapon typing system with descriptions like "Adaptive: Well rounded, reliable and sturdy.", "High Impact: Long range, slow firing and high damage.", and "Aggressive: High damage, high recoil."
- All the viewable weapon abilities and gear/armor abilities can be found here, but keep in mind that we were only able to see their short summary versions viewable on hovering instead of the longform descriptions: https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/6ca7a1/full_list_of_weapon_and_armour_perks_from/
- The three exotic weapons on display can also be seen at the above link.
- The game also now has a clan system where players can join a clan, and as clan members accomplish various things in the game, they earn rewards for their whole clan while doing so.
- This clan system is also the backbone of Bungie's matchmaking solution for difficult end game content, dubbed "Guided Games". For example, a group of four clan players can put up a posting like "Looking for Warlocks or Titans to help with the raid. We're nice and friendly, have done the raid before, and are open to new players." or "We're a clan of all Hunters and only want more Hunters who have done the raid before.", and then initiate a search. Solo or small group players who are looking for help with the raid can then sift through the list of clans looking for group members, and join up with them to do the raid or other endgame activity.
- The game will not use dedicated servers.
- The game will not feature a cross-save system.
- The game's graphics now use physically based rendering, which is generally the most important current-gen graphics staple. It does things like making wood look like wood and metal look like metal in terms of how lighting interacts with them.
- You can now mantle jump (climb up the ledge) if you almost make a ledge, but miss it slightly.
- There is a Katana in the trailer, so even though they weren't available in the preview build, presumably swords are still in.
- PvE consists of story missions, strikes, raids, and planetary exploration.
- The story campaign is longer than Destiny 1's, has more cutscenes than all previous games combined, and generally seems more cinematic and narrative focused than before, even compared to The Taken King or Rise of Iron.
- The game has four new area consisting of the European Dead Zone (on Earth), Titan, Io, and Nessus. These areas are supposed to be notably more extensive than the areas of the first game.
- For enemy factions, the Cabal, Vex, and Hive have all been shown so far, with the Cabal having at least two new units (a double swords guy and a dog), along with I think one of the old units (might have been a new one?) that can cast a big wall shield. I believe it has not been stated whether or not there are new factions in the game.
- There are a lot of new types of Hive and Fallen seen in the trailer as well, and the Cabal have started to drive their interceptors.
- Early in the campaign, the city is lost, and the three leaders of the Vanguard (Ikora, Zavala, and Cayde-6) scatter to three different non-Earth locations, and each of those locations seems to revolve around that Vanguard member's story (along with any new people you run into, such as the new AI character on Nessus). Earth is more about the rest of humanity, as far as I can tell, and includes the social space.
- The strike they showed, the Inverted Spire, is basically the same as Destiny 1's better strikes. It is a three player, 20-25 minute dungeon against the Cabal and Vex featuring environmental hazards, radio chatter between three different characters, and a three stage end boss in a changing environment.
- There was no information on the raids outside of the fact that they were still six player events, and implied the game was launching with one raid. Traditionally these have been multi-hour affairs, especially before you have mastered them.
- The game has one social space, located in the European Dead Zone, which can hold up to 26 people, and you can team up into a six player fireteam within. This area acts as an MMO town with all the related necessities you would expect.
- The biggest changes are actually to the open world, which is something they barley talked about.
- Patrols still exist in the open world, as per normal. At least, they haven't specified any changes to those yet.
- They have also added Adventures to the open world, which are side missions triggered by NPCs who reside out in the world. These take 10-15 minutes and have narrative and dialog associated with them. These Adventures also feature new mechanics
- There are also Lost Sectors, which are miniature dungeons hidden around the world that end in a boss and a treasure chest.
- The person in charge of the Adventures and the Lost Sectors is the person who designed a lot of the Vault of Glass, and they say they're going for a similar feel with these two elements of exploring the world.
- Public events are now able to support 10 players (up from 9), and are marked on the map as to where they are and when they're taking place.
- Similarly, this map will also point out Adventures and Lost Sectors, but only after you talk to NPCs who mark them on your map for you.
- It is unknown as to how many players can be grouped up in the open world, though assume three until proven otherwise.
- It is also worth noting that you no longer have to go into orbit to change where you are. You can just open to map and select a new planet, a new landing location on the same planet (implying there are multiple per planet), a social space, a strike, a raid, or PvP.
- All PvP modes are now based around 4v4. This is a decrease for most modes (which were formerly 6v6), but will be an increase for the smaller modes (which were 3v3).
- At the reveal, there was one new mode on display called Countdown.
- Countdown consists of two teams, one on attack, and then other defense. The attacking team needs to plant a bomb and defend it until it explodes, while the defending team needs to either prevent the bomb from being planted, or disarm it.
- When you die in Countdown, you are dead for the round unless revived by a teammate. Each player gets one revive token during a round, which they can use to revive a single teammate. At least, that's what seems to be happening. Some people have varying opinions on how this works.
- A Countdown round is won either by the attacking team planting and exploding the bomb, the defending team disarming the bomb, or either team running out of lives.
- The first team to win six rounds wins the Countdown match.
- It was not exactly clear which other PvP modes would be returning.
- Bungie did confirm a "Trials-like" experience would be coming "soon" after launch, but would not be there on day one. They did note it would come "well before" the Osiris DLC, however. It was implied there are some notable changes to how this Trials-like experience works.
- Ammo crates now only give Power (basically Heavy) ammo (as there is no more special ammo), and only the player who opens the ammo crate receives the ammo.
- Bungie is making large changes to PvP matchmaking to prioritize p2p connection quality.
- There will not be private matches at launch.
If there was anything I missed you felt should be included, let me know.
I'll get more screenshots in a moment, but I don't want the tab to reload on me since these things are kind of large.
NVIDIA has also supplied these screenshots of the PC version in 4K. I'm unsure if these are max settings, as the PC version was capped at Medium settings at the event:
