With Destiny 2: Beyond the lightLaunched in November, the continuation of the burglar game is officially in Year 4. One of the most interesting features that will go down in progress next year – at least, of the features that players know – is the return of Vault of Glass, the original raid of the franchise. But after game director Luke Smith claimed that new types of enemies, such as Champions, could enter the old raid, players wondered how much the beloved raid would be “modernized.” Destiny 2.
I spoke with assistant game director Joe Blackburn to understand what a modern glass safe looks like.
How different will Vault of Glass feel?
“I think the ultimate goal here is to make him feel like Vault of Glass when you first did it,” Blackburn said. “Which is probably quite different than if we had made a straight port of Vault of Glass.” Ever since Vault of Glass debuted in the original Destiny, players got new Supers, new Exotics, new types of weapons, a new item and, well, a sequel. “The guards have become significantly stronger during this time,” Blackburn said.
Blackburn told Polygon that the raid team responsible for the Vault of Glass remake returned to the original PlayStation 4 version just to see how it felt. The team stated that “we [Guardians] would smoke this with Destiny 2 modes of weapons and armor. “Speaking from personal experience, going back to the old Destiny raids earlier this year, the enemies of Vault of Glass feel weak, and the flow of enemies on the battlefield is extremely slow. In a modern Destiny where each Super can eliminate a dozen or more enemies, and players can grab the doors with weapons like Anarchy, meetings with bosses like Atheon and Templier would fall.
And here’s the challenge for Blackburn and the raid design team. “We will definitely make changes to make it feel challenging, as it did before,” Blackburn said. “But we don’t want to go too far and make it feel like a different raid.” Blackburn compared the process to how the team updated Vault of Glass and the Crota’s End raid for Destinythe last patch. “There have been some slight mechanical changes,” Blackburn said. “There were a few slight changes to the sandbox, but it was like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is still the Oracle meeting, this is still the meeting of the Templars.’ because of the jump from the original Destiny to Destiny 2 – but players should not enter a room and say, “This is not the boss fight I remember.”
“Each meeting will continue with the people presenting [original Destiny] strategy for fighting, “said Blackburn. Whether these original strategies will hold up is another question, as players will no doubt find much more effective ways to wipe out bosses with a number of new tools at their disposal. But for the first time when players return to the Glass Safe, the fighting itself should seem familiar enough for the Guardians to be able to initialize the old strategy in the rebuilt raid and find success.
The iconic weapons are back
For veteran Destiny players, Vault of Glass is more than a raid – it’s a piñata for some of the most beloved prey in franchise history. For players hoping to get their hands on a Destiny 2 Fatebringer or Vision of Confluence version, Blackburn has some great news. “Just as I don’t think you can bring Vault of Glass back if it doesn’t feel like Vault of Glass and call it Vault of Glass, you can’t bring Vault of Glass without the weapons that look like Vault of Glass, right? So I would expect the favorites to come back, “said Blackburn.
“It simply came to our notice then [Destiny 2] upgrade to fit those benefit groups, ”said Blackburn. “But no one wants to create a found Verdict here or a Fatebringer that feels radically different from the original Fatebringer. Because then we feel like we’re lying to the players, right? For example, “That’s not how Fatebringer feels.” Everyone knows the recoil pattern on this weapon. Everyone knows what benefits they wanted. “Weapons will not necessarily be one-on-one copies of the ones players have had before, but Bungie is working to recreate weapons that many players still claim to be franchise favorites.
Vault of Glass is a complicated but crucial raid to bring back to Destiny. In the end, it was what saved Destiny from its lightless launch in 2014, as the players who stayed with the game found something really special in the bowels of Venus. Without Vault of Glass, I doubt it the Destiny franchise would look the way it does now. Bringing him in Destiny 2 for the first time it creates a double opportunity: one for veterans and one for new players.
Blackburn seems just as excited both for those who loved Vault of Glass in the original game and for Destiny 2-only players who will receive a shot at the renovated raid. Whenever Bungie decides to give up the Glass Safe in 2021, it will look and sound like the glass safe you remember, just a little more to attract him to the Guardians of 2021.