Here's everything you need to know about Destiny 2

Bungie and Activision debuted Destiny 2’s gameplay for the first time to a global, livestreamed audience in a hands-on event at the Jet Center in Hawthorne, California today where they shared gameplay and screenshots. Destiny 2 is the sequel to the internationally-acclaimed Destiny, a first-person action game that takes the player on an epic journey to defend humanity from annihilation. The live broadcast showcased a variety of activities, opening on a dramatic campaign mission that sets up the premise of the game to answer how you recover when your home is destroyed and your powers are taken away.  The broadcast went on to detail the game’s social and cooperative activities, including the all-new Guided Games feature while highlighting multiple brand-new destinations.

The broadcast was streamed globally in 4 languages and emphasized that the game will offer a fresh start to all players with no previous knowledge or background needed. Destiny 2’s story allows the player to enjoy a heroic, cinematic journey, either solo or with friends. A key announcement during the livestream was about a new feature called, Guided Games, that makes it easy for all players to experience the most challenging and rewarding activities the game has to offer. This new feature allows solo players to find and play with other players to enjoy Destiny 2 and earn new in-game rewards like weapons, and armor. Destiny 2 carry service allows you to level more quickly. Also available for attendees was Countdown, an all-new competitive multiplayer mode as well as a three-player cooperative activity on a new map called, Inverted Spire.

In the story of Destiny 2, the last safe city on Earth has fallen and lay in ruins, occupied by a powerful new enemy and his elite army, the Red Legion. Every player creates their own character called a Guardian, humanity’s chosen protectors. As a Guardian in Destiny 2, players must master new abilities and weapons to reunite the city’s forces, stand together and fight back to reclaim their home from the invaders.

“Destiny established a blockbuster, new franchise and a massive global community of amazingly passionate fans. And today, we are giving people their first look at the gameplay of Destiny 2,” said Eric Hirshberg, head of Activision. “Destiny 2 has a great story, an iconic new villain, awesome characters you want to go on an epic adventure with, and of course, tons of the amazing gameplay that Destiny is known for. We, along with our partners at Bungie, have listened carefully to our community, and have added thoughtful innovations that make the game, and all of its content, more accessible to more types of players than ever before.”

Bungie head, Pete Parsons, said, “This is a defining moment for our studio, and we couldn’t have done it without the continued support of our partners in Activision…and now Blizzard.” He added, “We have an amazing community of players who have been with us on this journey, but with the sequel, the team are paying close attention to welcoming new and returning Guardians to the universe with something for every type of gamer, including gameplay for solo, cooperative and competitive players with new places to explore and adventures to conquer.”

“As Destiny fans, we were excited to learn that the sequel was coming to PC,” said Mike Morhaime, cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re pleased to support Destiny 2 as the first non-Blizzard game on our platform, and we look forward to joining fellow Guardians in their fight against the Red Legion.”

On September 8, Destiny 2 will be available on Xbox One. Additionally, Destiny 2 will be available on PC at retail and as the first third-party game to be offered digitally via Battle.net, Blizzard Entertainment’s online gaming service. It’s unclear if the PC version will launch alongside the Xbox One version at this time. There will also be a beta later this summer. Lastly, the game also adds dungeons called Lost Sectors to improve replayability and give gamers a great way to earn better equipment. Destiny 2 is shaping up to be an expansive and interesting game. Here’s hoping the story lives up to expectations unlike its prequel.