Luke Smith on the story of Destiny 2: Beyond Light: "I think the true danger is you"

Destiny 2 Beyond Light Exotics
(Image credit: Bungie)

In a new interview with GamesRadar, Destiny 2 creative director Luke Smith suggests that the players themselves are the biggest danger in Destiny 2: Beyond Light, and that their actions will have rippling effects on the events of Year 4 and beyond. 

"I think the true danger in Beyond Light is, from a certain point of view, it's you," Smith says. "The situation of Beyond Light is demanding that players take a step. They're not running, they're taking a step toward wielding a power that has not yet been wielded by players. It looks like a lot of fun, ice looks awesome, team's doing an awesome job. But it is the first step toward wielding the Darkness. The ramifications of that are as yet unexplained. Rest assured, there are consequences, and the bills for these actions will come due over time." 

Players are working their way through the campaign of Beyond Light now, and while it's not short on great characters and big story beats, it lacks the kind of cosmic horror seen in previous expansions like Forsaken and The Taken King. 

Rather, the true threat lurking in Beyond Light is less obvious at first blush. However, as Smith says, Guardians are now directly engaging with the Darkness in never-before-seen ways by communing with Stasis, and it seems that this is just the beginning of our descent into the dark. And as the Exo Stranger points out, the Darkness can be very tempting, so who knows what "the bills for these actions" will cost Guardians in the long run. 

Smith also discussed the nature of re-released weapons, assuring players that feedback on "getting the exact same version" has been heard

Austin Wood

Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.