Saying Destiny has a story is a bit of an oxymoron. The running joke at this point is that the game's lore-heavy universe features plenty of interesting characters, locations and enemies, but not any meaningful story that ties the whole package together.
We said as much in our initial review of the game. When Destiny released a year ago, it felt like something was missing. Fans wondered what had happened to the characters and the story that had been hinted at in trailers for the game over the last several years?
A Reddit user claimed to have the answers, having supposedly tested out a much different (and more narrative-focused) Destiny in 2013. Though Bungie has never confirmed or denied the user's story, it seems the Reddit post may have had some truth to it. Official court papers documenting the fallout between Destiny composer Martin O'Donnell and Bungie (published to the web by VentureBeat) state that the game's story was "substantially revised" starting in August of 2013:
"Although Destiny was planned for release in September 2013, the story was substantially revised beginning August 2013, requiring a new release date of March 2014 and edits to much of the work previously completed.
"After a brief vacation/sabbatical in early fall, O'Donnell returned, worked on the story and recorded dialogue, but wrote no additional music. His supervisor and the audio team did not consider him to be fully engaged in the work of Audio Director. For reasons unrelated to O'Donnell's performance, the release date was again moved, to September 2014."
It's also worth noting that Bungie lead writer Joseph Staten left the company a month after Bungie elected to revise the game's narrative. The move may have prompted Staten, who had been with the company for 15 years, to call it quits — though the court documents don't provide any further details. Without their longtime lead writer and a dramatic shift so close to launch, it looks like the story that shipped with Destiny wasn't what it could have been.
But that's all in the past. With the upcoming release of Destiny's third expansion, the developer has since doubled down on telling a more cohesive story line – with cutscenes, character interactions and the recasting of the game's Ghost companion – presenting a Destiny that feels much more in line with what players were expected on Day One back in September of 2014.
Destiny 2.0 launches Tuesday and features a number of sweeping changes to the game in preparation for The Taken King's release on September 15. If you want to read about all the improvements coming to the game, here is everything you need to know.
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