Players of Bungie’s Destiny franchise are no doubt well aware that the long-awaited finale to its epic Light and Darkness Saga arrives in a little over a month. But with dwindling player numbers and an uncertain future, a potential Destiny 3 may be the only hope the series has left.

I’ve previously written about how the franchise’s rigid, increasingly stale content structure slowly drove me away from the games over the course of a decade. Despite a deep love for the series, as it stands, the proposition of leaving once the story wraps up in The Final Shape is all too tempting. But perhaps Destiny 3 can change that.

Our End Begins, Indeed

Once Lightfall released as a massive, anticlimactic disappointment, that was when I decided to uninstall the game once the saga ended. As such, once I’ve beaten The Final Shape‘s raid, that’s what I plan to do now. Lightfall was promoted with the tagline “Our end begins.” I don’t think they intended it so literally.

Honestly, The Final Shape looks cool as hell. Had it released three or four years ago, I’m sure I’d have played it nonstop for months. In a game where the more overpowered you are, it is introducing seemingly game-breakingly overpowered build options with its new Prismatic subclass that essentially fuses all prior subclasses into one, alongside the long-awaited return of exotic class items which appear to be deeply customizable. It looks to offer a large new destination, the first completely new enemy faction in the franchise’s history (FINALLY) as well as loads of other exciting changes to the sandbox.

Sadly, despite all of that… I don’t see it sucking me in enough to change my plans. I hope the story is great; I hope it’s as fun as it looks, but even if it’s the most content-packed D1 or D2 expansion ever and has the best story in the series yet, I doubt my mind will be changed. At the end of the day… it’ll still be Destiny 2. The content structure for the series is too deeply baked into what this game is.

This is the first expansion in the series where I didn’t get the fanciest digital version available because I don’t see myself touching the Episodes (the game’s new replacement for Seasons.) Maybe I’ll be wrong, but I don’t see it happening, because at the end of the day, the gameplay may be great, but the content loop itself doesn’t excite or interest me anymore. I’m aggressively apathetic to it at best and actively averse to it at worst, now. It sucks that I feel that way because I have loved this franchise for a long time.

Destiny 3 – Hope for the Future

There have been rumblings lately about Bungie potentially finally moving onto Destiny 3. Just rumors, of course, but it’s worth considering, especially since executive creative director Luke Smith himself recently mention that after The Final Shape, Bungie will talk about “what’s coming next to Destiny 2 and beyond.” Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but the optimist in me hopes that’s a tease for Destiny 3.

On that note, I hope that if/when Destiny 3 happens, it changes things up a lot. Destiny 2 is (more or less) the same content loop as Destiny 1, with some alterations of course by now. If Destiny 3 just ends up being the same thing but with some new mechanics and better graphics, it’s going to be very hard to convince me to play it. Personally? I hope it’s more exploration-focused.

I still want the core, amazing gunplay that this series has always had to stick around, of course, but I want it to be more about grouping up with a friend (or going solo if you want) and exploring big worlds, flying around in space together, and doing cool, immersive, expansive questlines with loads of cool stories, loot, and side quests.

I hope for activities such as strikes and raids to be seamlessly structured into a wide, primarily open world game. Rather than simply clicking on the director in-game, heading to the destination itself to begin the activity. In short, I hope for an exciting, ever-expanding open world multiplayer adventure with this franchise’s incredible gunplay. Wishful thinking, but dreaming about the future is always fair game.

The Last Word on Destiny

I hope The Final Shape meets and exceeds all expectations, but I will be blown away if it excites me enough to play it past finishing the story and the raid. It sucks that I feel this way about this franchise. I want to be more excited, especially because this expansion truly does look really cool. But Destiny has simply grown stale enough, that I don’t know if it matters how good the expansion is anymore. Destiny 3 may be the best hope the franchise has for me.

If you still love the series and its content loops, more power to you. I wouldn’t wanna take that away from anybody. I’m not trying to hate on the game, just expressing where I’m at personally with the franchise.

Regardless, whatever happens, I’ll be here to see through the finale to the 10-year plan we were promised back in 2014, at the very least. To end on a positive note, regardless of everything else I have said here, I have many fond memories of this franchise. It has meant a lot to me over the years, and even if I borderline don’t play it anymore, it helped get me through a lot of tough times. Through everything else, I am excited in a bittersweet way for The Final Shape to bring us the finale many of us have waited a decade for. Per audacia ad astra.

If there is a Destiny 3, what do you hope to see from it? Do you want an updated version of the current mold, or a new model entirely? Let us know what you think in the comments below!