Wave after wave of army troops progress, apparently without finish. Strikes arrive at once from all angles. The fate of the honest Eliksni victims is in the balance. In reply, Guardians do what they do best: take up arms and manage headlong into the fray. One of the major functions introduced in Destiny 2’s latest Episode, Revenant, is Onslaught: Salvation. Onslaught, a defensive wave-based exercise that ditches three-Guardian fireteams against extremely powerful waves of enemies, even gives Guardians the opportunity to purchase potent protective units to use against the envading hordes. In its classic form, Onslaught was a rattling and powerful style, full of” Did you see that?” and” Did you see that?” events. Then, with Onslaught: Salvation, the growth group is raising the bar.
With the classic Onslaught, there were a lot of positive and excellent feedback from the community, according to Destiny 2 designer Clayton Kisko. ” The one we heard most frequently was that they wanted Bungie to invest in the style with new charts, new foes, and innovative mechanisms, and that is exactly what we are doing with Onslaught: Salvation”.
From a narrative view, Onslaught: Salvation’s three fresh maps – Queen’s Court, Eventide Ruins, and Kell’s Grave – are leaning into the gothic dread that is fitting with Revenant’s chilling visual style. If the initial Assault was about defending the Past City from the causes of the Witness, the design shifts to slaying monsters, combating cruel, and saving the honest.
To create the most tension and action, Onslaught maps must pack a lot of punch into some confined spaces by nature. The three new maps each incorporate their own distinctive layouts while also applying lessons from earlier Onslaught maps.
” This time around we were able to identify the design pain points early and jumped ahead of the enemy teleporting issues,” said Kisko. For each location of an Advanced Defense Unit ( ADU), there were at least three wide lanes. We made sure enemy spawn locations were closer to the ADU so that the larger map Eventide Ruins could finish in a quicker time than the other two maps because of our learnings from Mothyards ( from the original Onslaught ).
Guardians will be pleased to learn that they will have new defensive countermeasures available this time around in addition to the new maps. The new Air Strikes will rain down retribution on humanity’s enemies and, for those who want to get a bit more hands on, there’s the Rideable Turret.
The Rideable Turret is adept at destroying clumps of enemies or inflicting damage to a single, powerful unit, like those deadly Demolitionists who like to attack the ADU, said Kisko. ” It can overheat, though, so players will need to balance when they fire and for how long. The defensive upgrades improve the damage and health of the turret. The final upgrade will add sprightly rounds to the ammunition. What makes that so awesome is that the sandbox team was able to design it so that the turret can pair with any of the rider’s Solar fragments or buildcraft around scorching rounds.
While defending the ADU is one of the key missions in an Onslaught: Salvation game, it’s undoubtedly not the only thing that will keep Guardians moving. Players will be driven out of their comfort zones by gravity waves and bonus objectives ( and away from the security blanket of relying on defensive countermeasures ). Players will be attempting to break into the Revenant Nest this time to free Eliksni who has been captured. For one bonus objective, new shielded enemy units will appear, requiring Guardians to use special ether-light cannons to stop them.
Jonathan To, the narrative lead for Destiny 2, said the team has worked hard to incorporate narrative hooks into Onslaught: Salvation to keep the plot and character development moving.
” The main writers for Onslaught: Salvation created some excellent character-building and exchanges between Spider, Crow, Eido, Eramis, and others. Who knows what Eramis will be up to when she comes back after helping and fighting against us in the past, and Crow is finding a new role for himself in the City. Eido is the player’s partner in this Episode in a role we ca n’t wait to share more about. Fans of the Eliksni and the Fallen saga up to this point in Destiny will adore what the team has accomplished here.
Onslaught: Salvation is playable with the release of Destiny 2: Revenant, starting October 8.