WORLDS APART
World lead Steve Cotton talks to OPM about Destiny 2’s incredible new worlds, a speedier way to get around them, and whether Ghosts are dead or alive…
OPM: Tell us more about the new European Dead Zone area. Steve Cotton: The European Dead Zone is definitely the largest destination that we’ve ever built – probably on a magnitude of two times as big as something like the Cosmodrome. There’s lush forests, there’s a town, there’s a Cabal base that you can go assault and you get sent to sometimes, and there’s a big corrupted shard that fell from the Traveller a long time ago. But we’re keeping it mysterious.
OPM: What’s your philosophy when building a social space for Guardians? How do you make a home? SC: That’s a good question! It’s important when you’re designing a social space like the Tower – obviously your Tower in Destiny 2 is gone, is destroyed – you want to make sure that’s it going to collide players in really interesting ways. You want to make sure that all the things you want to do are easy to access, and you understand that space, you understand where they’re going to be and what you need to get from it. You want to make sure it looks amazing. And you want to make sure it’s a place where you can show off your personality. Destiny 2, just like Destiny 1, is all about building up your character. Going out, finding things, playing the way you want to play, getting the stuff that you want to wear, and then showing off how cool you are.
OPM: We really enjoyed Tower football in Destiny 1 – the presentation suggested that’ll be coming back. SC: I forgot that clip was in the trailer! In the social spaces that we have, there’s things to do in the same way that Destiny had things to do. There’ll be more things to do than there even is in Destiny.
OPM: What was one world design idea that you really wanted to explore? SC: Nessus. I love the Vex architecture, I like trying to figure out what they would do with a planet, and Nessus has got an interesting story because it’s basically a centaur, which is a planet that comes into our solar system. It’s got a different orbit that’s outside of our solar system. So the Vex have built this world that they knew was going to be back in our solar system at some point, and the Hunters catalogued it as a centaur. I like going to other planets, I like trying to create new places and make them look different. So Nessus has a soft spot in my heart.
OPM: Are there lots of hidden secrets in the new worlds? SC: I can tell you that I’m responsible for all the worlds and I haven’t been to all of the places within the worlds! They’re all different sizes, but the coolest part is now how much there is to do on them. There’s not just patrols, you’re exploring more. You’ve got Adventures, Lost Sectors, the treasure maps…
The Adventures are longer than people imagine they are. They’re ten to 15-minute long missions with narrative, dialogue… Some of them are my favourite thing to do in the game, and there’s lots of them. You can just spend hours on a destination without ever leaving, just doing these things.
OPM: Does putting in fast-travel affect the way you design the world? SC: Just like in Destiny 1, in all the worlds you can travel on your Sparrow [personal vehicle] – or there’s multiple Landing Zones you can fast-travel to. So if you don’t want to use your Sparrow, if you say “I just want to go here,” you can just go there. There’s a couple of Landing Zones on each destination so you can hop around if you want – but if you travel there on your own, you’re going to run into some other stuff that might distract you and take you somewhere else – so it’s up to you how you want to go.
OPM: Will there still be a Grimoire [online database of Destiny lore]? SC: No, there’s not going to be a Grimoire out of the game – we’re trying to bring all the lore into the game. People are in the game, and we want them to experience the lore as much as we can. And so the Adventures are going to tell a lot of those stories for you; the new characters on the world are going to be a part of that; some of your dialogue and the missions are going to send you on those and they’re going to have things to say to you when you come back.
OPM: Will Rise Of Iron’s custom Crucible matches return, or will modes always be 4v4 from Destiny 2 onwards? SC: We can’t say always, but definitely all the game modes at launch are 4v4, because we have some very specific goals that the PvP team is trying to hit, and I believe all in all them – trying to make the game more readable, more learnable for people, and also more competitive, so that’s what it’s all about.
OPM: There was a pin of a Dead Ghost on the Destiny 2 invite. Please tell us we’re not losing our in-game buddy! SC: I haven’t seen that but it sounds really grim! [laughs] Yes, you still have your Ghost. But…
OPM: Will there be any lore continuation from Destiny 1’s Dead Ghost collectibles? SC: I can’t say anything else about that. I’m like “Aaaand – no”, but yeah. Sorry. [laughs]
OPM: What are you personally most proud of in Destiny 2? SC: The campaign, all the cinematics and the story – we’re pretty proud of how the story’s come together. We’ve created a villain that you’re going to love to hate. He’s got his own story, and his motivations are much deeper and much more interesting.
I’m also really pleased with Nessus, and some of the places that you get to go in there – you go from something that looks amazing, and then it takes you to a place where you’re like “Oh my god, this is even more amazing.” I worked on The Vault Of Glass, and Nessus captures that feeling of the first time you go in there, it just keeps going and gets better and better and better. I can’t describe it, you’re just going to have to see it.
And honestly, some of the Adventures that you get to do just make me smile, because they’re so different and novel.
“WE’VE CREATED A VILLAIN THAT YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE TO HATE.”