Destiny 2’s Kepler And Portal Have Some Big Issues, It Seems

On Tuesday, Bungie had a second Edge of Fate reveal stream, Destiny 2’s new, smaller expansion that comes out in two weeks. It was more informative than week one, which was mostly a retread of old information, whereas this time we focused more on the expansion itself and its Kepler location, and the fundamental “loop” Destiny is meant to have going forward with its new Portal system.

The presentation was better, certainly, but now we can debate the nature of what was shown, and the general sense I’m seeing is that the audience is still not exactly giving all this a standing ovation. Few seem to be excited about what’s coming, and those that are may be the biggest of superfans, a group that Bungie takes for granted as they try to instead get lapsed players to return or welcome new ones to Destiny 2 after 11 years now. A tall order, and so far, Edge of Fate and the Frontiers era does not seem like it’s going to do that.

So, Kepler and The Edge of Fate:

• The event opened with a new story launch trailer that was actually quite cool, leaning into the “time travel” aspect of whatever’s going on in Kepler, and channeled, of all games, Control. I liked the spot a lot.
• The zone is strange. The aesthetic seems rather underwhelming compared to really all the last major expansions, with ones like The Final Shape, Witch Queen, Beyond Light and even Lightfall having clear art direction. Kepler? Perhaps there’s a lot that isn’t shown, but the zones look like some sort of Fallen sewer system, and everything from the destination armor to the new weapons doesn’t feel like it fits with any sort of coherent theme. This is not usually not somewhere Destiny drops the ball.
• The campaign was briefly shown, and Bungie said that there would be some sort of playlist system for campaign missions that would take you back to them with modifications.
• The main activity of the expansion seems to be taking place within the general map and its zones, a mix of a public event and a larger scale offering like Vex Incursions as a way to farm gear, meant to be harder as you move up in World Tiers, a system that I think is interesting, but the activity seems a bit strange.
• Another activity, one that appears only so often on the map, was mentioned, one that really sounds like Vex Incursions, but that wasn’t detailed in any meaningful capacity. That’s the extent of the built-in Kepler activities, it seems.
• Bungie briefly touched on Kepler and the expansion being compared to Destiny 1’s Rise of Iron, a comparison they previously made, but says it was more along the lines of the size of the zone and things like that (the Plaguelands were not terribly big in RoI). But of course Edge of Fate lacks big additions like strikes and Crucible maps. As for the map, this appears to be small enough where you can’t even use a sparrow, and the main form of transportation is turning into an electric ball and zipping around.

Now, The Portal:

• The Portal is concerning to me. First, Solo Ops appear to be limited to a few Crucible modes that seemingly don’t allow pre-made teams, but otherwise only PvE Lost Sectors you can modify to increase their difficulty. As of yet, they do not appear to have figured out any solo content that can be played here. I was under the impression they’d invent something new for that, but that does not seem to be the case yet.
• The Fireteam-based Portal was a somewhat mocked demonstration which focused on of all things, a Beyond Light-era Empire Hunt, a five year-old activity “updated” with million-health Brigs and a bunch of champions and banes thrown in. Again, there does not seem to be any new content in here, a mix of old strikes, seasonal activities and such. It may fill out in time, but for now, it’s just a whole lot of old stuff with a new modifier system.
• I have one fundamental question about the new modifier system where you add bonuses and penalties as you try to get high scores to farm gear. Using this system in a matchmade experience for Fireteam Portal or the Pinnacle Portal of just exotic missions right now would indicate the only way you can truly customize this to your liking is to be running this with a premade team who can agree on all the mods. I have no idea how this is going to work with Fireteam Finder, as unless you’re all on comms and spend ten minutes doing modifiers, that seems tough. A normal playlist appears to run with just a set series of modifiers that you cannot alter at all, sort of negating the point of the system. This feels like it’s going to be very strange in practice.

I’m glad Bungie showed more this time around, but I don’t think what we learned is all that reassuring and in some ways, confirmed some fears about what’s coming with the expansion and in this new Frontiers era. Or rather the lack of what’s coming. It’s going to be a tough sell, I fear.

Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.

Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.