Destiny 2’s Episodes Can’t Just Be Seasons With a New Name (2024)

Destiny 2's highly anticipated expansion, The Final Shape, is almost here, which means the game is about to turn into something drastically different from what it was in the beginning. The Final Shape is a highly ambitious expansion for Destiny 2 because of all that it is changing and adding to the game, but also because of everything riding on it actually delivering on its promises. As the conclusion to Destiny 2's decade-long Light and Darkness Saga, The Final Shape is the culmination of everything players have invested in the franchise since the first game was released in 2014. This epic conclusion isn't all The Final Shape offers, however, as Destiny 2's new episodic release format will begin just a week after the launch of the expansion.

Up to this point, Destiny 2's new content has come in the form of seasons, with each season generally lasting around three months and adding a variety of different features and activities to the base game. Beginning with The Final Shape, Destiny 2 will be ditching seasons for episodes, which will function as regular story additions to the game and effectively continue the narrative of Destiny 2 after the end of the Light and Darkness Saga. Based on what has been revealed so far about this new episodic format, it's easy to see the similarities between episodes and seasons, which doesn't necessarily bode well for the game. As such, Destiny 2's episodes will need to do everything they can to distinguish themselves from seasons.

Destiny 2's Episodes Need to Separate Themselves From Seasons

Destiny 2's Seasonal Model Has Worn Out Its Welcome

For many years now, Destiny 2's seasons have offered the same type of content over and over again. Each Destiny 2 season would introduce a new seasonal activity for players to participate in throughout the three-month period, along with a handful of relevant weapons, armor, and ornaments for players to acquire. Unfortunately, Destiny 2's seasonal model has grown very stale over time, hardly ever surprising players anymore and essentially offering them the same content, arguably only with a different appearance, every time.

Alongside the new activity and items would come a new storyline, though the focus was hardly ever on the story as much as it was on the other content that was made available. For the most part, the story of each major Destiny 2 expansion would matter more than the seasonal stories that followed it, and herein lies both the problem and the solution — an opportunity for Destiny 2's new episodic format to shine.

Destiny 2's Episodes Should Fully Embrace Their Label

As Destiny 2's seasons have worn out their welcome, the game's upcoming episodes can't afford to be anything like them. Instead, Destiny 2's episodes should fully embrace their label. They are called "episodes" after all, heavily implying a focus on narrative above everything else. If Destiny 2's episodes were to make their stories a priority, whether it be by showing more cinematics or simply making each episode's quest line a bit more climactic than the MMO's seasonal quest lines have been known to be, perhaps that would help separate them from seasons enough to evade criticism from devoted players.

Furthermore, Destiny 2's episodes should offer more varied content than seasons have offered in the past. Specifically, rather than offering predictable "episodic activities" every episode, these activities could be much more varied in their overall design, structure, narrative, and gameplay elements. In the past, Destiny 2's seasonal activities have all felt like the same activity but with a different skin, except for perhaps Season of the Wish's Coil activity. There are plenty of ways the new episodic format could set itself apart from seasons, it just might need to be bold enough to take some risks.

See Also

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Destiny 2

Bungie's Destiny 2 is an online FPS that blends single-player and multiplayer content. Constantly evolving, the shooter has established a strong following since its 2017 debut.

Platform(s)

PS5 , PS4 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , Xbox One , PC , Stadia

Released

August 28, 2017

Developer(s)

Bungie

Publisher(s)

Bungie

Genre(s)

FPS

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer , Online Co-Op

Engine

Tiger Engine

ESRB

T For TEEN for Blood, Language, and Violence

Expansions

Destiny 2: Forsaken , Destiny 2: Shadowkeep , Destiny 2: Beyond Light , Destiny 2: The Witch Queen , Destiny 2: Lightfall

How Long To Beat

100+

Metascore

85

Platforms That Support Crossplay

PC, PS4,PS5, Xbox One &Xbox Series X|S

Number of Players

1-6 (Co-Op)

PS Plus Availability

Essential, Extra, & Premium (The Witch Queen)

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