By: Bryce L. Jackson

Bungie held their first-ever in-game live event in Destiny 2 to cap off the Season of the Worthy. The event focused on destroying the Almighty, the Cabal star killer superweapon from Destiny 2’s launch campaign. The ship had been an eyesore in the Mercurian sky since then and was sabotaged by the Cabal to slowly orbit towards Earth in a final attempt by the Red Legion to destroy the Traveler and the Last City. Guardians have been helping the A.I. Warmind Rasputin build up the planetary defenses all season leading into the day’s event.

The event was captivating in theory. The tower, usually stoic and static, finally gets this large, dynamic instance that enraptures the player base. However, in execution, the event was a slow burn. Guardians were told to be in the tower by 1 PM EST/ 10 AM PST the daily bounty reset as if things were going to happen fast. What we got was a slow buildup over 90 minutes leading to the big explosion that many came in expecting.

Red streaks of the Seraph satellites showed up around 30 minutes in, impacts with the Almighty began about 15-30 minutes after, intensifying at about 75 minutes and finally leading to the grand finale in the last 10 minutes. A blinding light and large explosion detonated the Almighty’s core and sent the smoldering wreckage careening towards the Tower. A piece of debris from the wreckage impacted between Zavala and Tess the Eververse vendor. The rest of the Almighty came down in the mountains outside the city, sending another round of blinding light and the shockwave of the impact towards the city, marking the fiery end of the Cabal weapon and the event.

The event was undoubtedly the most popular thing ever to happen in Destiny 2, but its execution is lacking. When I entered the Tower 2 hours ahead of time so I could avoid server queues that crippled the Shadowkeep launch, I didn’t expect to be locked in for 5 hours waiting for the ultimate destruction of the Almighty. Bungie developers were engaged throughout the event on social media and took the reactions and criticisms of the event in stride. This was a landmark moment for Destiny that shows promise for the future.