3 Fast Facts We Learned About Destiny 2: Forsaken’s Story (Hands-on Preview)

1: The Shift Away From CGI is Evident and That’s Fine

Right off the bat, after firing up the first mission in Destiny 2: Forsaken, we were greeted not by a flashy cinematic, but words. For the first time that I can remember in the series, parts of the story were being delivered through simple text instead of through a CGI or in-game via comms from another character. The sprawl explained to us that we needed to go back to the Prison of Elders, there’s a riot, and if it doesn’t get shut down quick, things are going to go sideways.

I’m not 100% sure if this is something that’s going to stay in the final game, or if it’s something that was just for the demo, but Bungie did mention during the Forsaken reveal that they were going to spend more of time focusing on gameplay instead of story. If cutting down on CGI, and replacing it with text means more of the team can focus on making the core gameplay better, I’m all for it. And in fact, whether it’s a placeholder or not, I actually found the text to be refreshing and RPG-like.

2: Petra Venj is Back and You Need To Help Her in The Prison of Elders

So as we just alluded to, your first stop in Destiny 2: Forsaken is the Prison of Elders. The sights and sounds of the popular House of Wolves locale will be familiar to you, and not long after your arrival, you’ll meet up with your ol’ pal Petra Venj. Petra, in case you forgot, was your partner for much of the House of Wolves storyline, and after the events of The Taken King, she offered you bounties for taking out powerful Taken enemies.

She briefs you on the situation. There’s been some kind of major f’up, and the whole prison seems completely compromised. Petra has had a rough last year or two, losing the Queen, and being left to oversee a Reef that has seemingly gone to shit, especially now. Cabal, Hive, and Fallen are spilling out into the hallways and shooting at everything that moves. Shooting at each other, shooting at you, shooting at Cayde-6. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Cayde-6 is the one that dragged you along to this dumpster fire of a situation. And, as we know, it will prove to be his undoing.

It would be difficult to call the end of this mission a “success” considering everything is still royally screwed, but it did end with Cayde-6, Petra, and I getting through in one piece. However, we only got to play half of what appears to be a two-part opening mission. And not too long after that brief, small, victory, things go very wrong for Cayde-6.

3: Cayde-6 Doesn’t Last Long and Yes, He’s Really Dead

Destiny fans were shocked to see that Cayde-6, the lovable goofy Exo Hunter that fans have gotten close to, especially after the events of Destiny 2, is shot and killed by, of all people, the Queen’s jerk brother, Uldren Sov. In fact, he’s the real culprit behind the breakout at the Prison of Elders, and Forsaken is setting up to be about cleaning up this mess, and getting revenge on Uldren for what he did to Cayde-6.

We don’t know Uldren’s motives yet other than he’s a stupid jerkface that never liked us, and freeing the Scorn (that mutated Fallen faction) is totally something Uldren would do. What a downer.

The opening mission of Destiny 2: Forsaken is, in a lot of ways, meant to be your last ride with Cayde-6. He’ll quip, crack some jokes, and get himself into sticky situations, as he is won to do, that you’ll help bail him out of. That said, you can’t save him. Members of the Bungie teamed confirmed that Cayde-6 is dead, dead, dead. Actually dead.

The Cayde-6 fanboy in me is hoping that there will be some kind of future event/expansion where we somehow bring him back as Cayde-7, but everything that I’ve gathered from what has been shown, and what I’m hearing from Bungie is that our favorite Exo is as dead as disco.