Hands-on with Destiny 2’s Gambit
Today I got my hands on the new game mode coming with the September 4th release of Destiny 2 Forsaken, called Gambit. The mode aims to marry PvE and PvP in a very interesting way. The mode features 2 teams of 4 players with each team kept separate in their own arenas. Your objective is to kill A.I. enemy combatants on your half of the map and collect the special “mote” items they drop. You then deposit these motes into a bank in the center of the map. You have to be careful about how many motes you carry with you before banking, because you lose all of your motes when killed. If you are killed, the game currently grants you a 10 second respawn timer before tossing you back into the action. Surprisingly, you actually keep any heavy ammo you have collected when killed, a departure from how things work in standard Crucible PvP. The goal is to bank 75 motes as a team to summon your final boss to fight, called a Primeval. Defeating your primeval wins the match.
You’re doing this at the same time as the opponent team and monitor their progress at the top of the screen. The mode is made more interesting with direct and indirect ways of interfering with the opposing team’s progress. Every 25 motes you bank as a team causes the enemy team’s bank to shut down, sending an enemy blocker for them to defeat. They then have to defeat that blocker enemy before gaining access back to the bank. Also at every 25 motes, a special portal opens, and one member of your team can teleport over to the other side to invade. You have 30 seconds on your invasion timer before you’re ripped back to your side, giving you a short window to take out as many members of the opposing team as possible.
I can tell you first hand that invading feels incredible. Towards the end of our first round, I made my way over with a tracking rocket launcher and scored a triple-kill on the opposing team. It felt very satisfying to mess with their progress. Gambit is a game mode that I can see myself playing a lot, especially if the rewards are up to par. I’m hoping for challenges or bounties that are directly linked to doing well in Gambit, not that I need more motivation to play it.
Sadly all the inspect options were deactivated, so I wasn’t able to get any additional information on subclasses or weapon systems. However, I was playing as a Titan and the new Thunderstrike super is incredible. Upon activation, you blast forward like a bullet and you can then control your path and choose a spot to slam down on, causing massive damage. It’s paired well with a new melee override that replaces your shoulder charge with a Destiny 1 style death from above mini-slam.
Another aspect of the demo I was looking forward to was the Bow and Arrow. I decided to go with an exotic variety that shoots an arc arrow that splits into three projectiles when fired. The Bow and arrow feels like it has a high skill ceiling. You can draw back the bow as much as you want and it seems it will affect not only your firing distance and speed, but possibly damage. Although I was not able to observe for damage fall-off in all the chaos.
Overall the Destiny 2 Gambit experience was awesome. I definitely want to get back in and play more before the end of the show. Be sure to follow us on twitter for updates on more E3 coverage continuing into the week.
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