Destiny 2 players resorting to YouTube as Final Shape launch issues ruin cutscenes
BungieGuardians far and wide are resorting to out-of-game methods to catch up on The Final Shape’s crucial story beats as Destiny 2’s most important expansion has launched with a bevvy of issues hindering the fun.
As with most live-service games, the biggest updates often draw the biggest crowds. That’s no different with Destiny 2 as Bungie’s live-service title pulls hundreds of thousands of Guardians together upon the release of every new expansion without fail.
Rounding out 10 years of storytelling through The Light and Darkness Saga, June 4, 2024 brought The Final Shape into focus. However, it didn’t do so in a flawless manner. Server issues were no doubt expected, as has historically been the case with new Destiny 2 expansions, but all manner of setbacks are not only halting progress for players, but in some cases, outright ruining the experience.
At such an epochal moment in Destiny’s history, finally facing down The Witness, any missed moments or abruptly ended cutscenes are bound to cause frustration, and that’s exactly what’s been happening through the launch day.
Although server interruptions are nothing new, with The Final Shape’s release, many have been interrupted at pivotal moments. When disconnected from the always online game, players are either sent back to orbit or straight to the main menu. If that interruption strikes during a cutscene, that particular moment is lost in time until you replay the campaign on another character.
As there’s no way to rewatch cutscenes you’ve missed, this has forced the hands of Guardians by the thousands. Popular streamers like Gladd have expressed their frustrations with the day one experience, even suggesting the most dedicated Destiny 2 players avoid the expansion until issues are ironed out.
“I’ve been disconnected during every single cutscene except for one,” he tweeted nine hours into his launch day grind. “This is actually pretty terrible and it sucks. I do not recommend playing The Final Shape right now if you care at all about the story. You risk missing everything important.”
Most of Destiny 2’s most important moments are often conveyed through said cutscenes, rather than directly in player-controller sequences of gameplay. So to miss out on the vast majority of them for the final chapter in a decade-long story is certainly a punch to the gut.
BungieAs a result, many players have been forced to catch up on what they’ve missed by any means possible. In some cases, this has led Guardians out of the game as they watch cutscenes on YouTube, uninterrupted by any pesky server troubles.
“Had to go on YouTube to see the end of mission one cutscene because the server kicked me,” one player said in reply to Gladd. “I missed the cutscene post first mission and I was peeved. I got off, I’ll just try again tomorrow,” another added.
“This highlights the fact Destiny needs a cutscene theater,” a player stressed. “Unfortunate that we’re missing them because of errors. I want to be able to see them with my Guardian, not some random content creator on YouTube.”
Rest assured, Bungie is toiling away as always, with the Bungie Help account on X (formerly Twitter) providing regular updates on a raft of server-related issues and various error codes too. For now, there’s no quite telling when things may stabilize. Though with the player count slowly dipping after a hot start, we could see hotfixes leading to a smoother experience in a matter of hours.