The closest activities thatDestinygames have ever had to a survival mode are the Prison of Elders from the originalDestiny, and the Dares Of Eternity activity inDestiny 2. These activities put players against waves of enemies with additional objectives mixed in along the way. Where these activities succeed where the recent Neptune andseasonal playlist activitiesfall short of embodying an all-out war is that they feature every enemy of the Traveler. Even then, each of these activities in mention is somewhat more about the destination than the journey, since their rewards are based on completing the activities.
Destiny 2could benefit from mixing things up with a survival game mode that learns from similar activities in the past, as well as one of the most popular survival modes from a different game franchise. There are already a lot of features inDestiny 2that aren’t far off of what a survival activity would need, especially the story. Sometime before the war between Light and Darkness inDestiny 2ends, Bungie should seriously consider the potential of an endless survival mode.
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Destiny 2 Could Use a Survival Game Mode
Light and Dark forces have been at war for a while in theDestinyuniverse, and the stakes are higher than ever leading up to the next expansion.The Final Shape expansionis slated to be the end of the Light and Darkness saga inDestiny 2, so it’s expected to be an epic finale. The current state of the ongoing war between Light and Dark forces is a perfect opportunity to introduce an arcade-style survival mode, either in Lightfall or in The Final Shape expansions. Neither the Season of Defiance’s playlist activity nor the new activities on Neptune have seized the opportunity to introduce a survival mode in Lightfall so far. These activities are particularly geared toward resembling the ongoing war, yet they don’t quite offer the same type of experience that a survival mode could offer.
WithDestiny 2’s Strike scoring system, there’s an infinite amount of mechanics thatCall of DutyZombies could inspire by giving tangible uses for scores. Some of the main differences betweenCall Of Duty’s Zombies andDestinyactivities are that Zombies makes players build their loadouts along the way and that matches usually don’t have foreseeable endings. Otherwise,Destiny 2andCall Of Dutyhave a lot in common as far as central gunplay and discreet storytelling. WhileDestiny 2would likely pass on making players build their loadouts midgame, there’s still a lot of room forCall of DutyZombies influences inDestiny 2survival activities.
A few particular features already inDestiny 2could have drastic influences on shaping what a survival activity in the game could amount to.The scoring system forDestiny 2’s Strikesis already in a good place to support an endless survival mode because it determines the quality of rewards earned from finishing the activity. The only change that would need to be made for the Strikes’ scoring to play into a survival activity is that all players eventually dying would have to count as completing the activity to grant rewards.
Another factor that could potentially play into a survival mode would admittedly make it similar to Gambit, except with a few stylized twists. Now that there are a couple of Darkness Subclasses inDestiny 2, this could influence some form of PvP integration for survival modes. Clashing wielders of the Darkness against Lightbearers is essentially the whole premise behind adding a survival mode in midst of the Light and Darkness saga. Ultimately, any kind of similarities a survival mode would share with existing content would grant some much-needed breathing room while the recentissues with Strikesand Gambit are resolved.
Destiny 2is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
