Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris released in early December to lukewarm reviews, with its lackluster story missions and strikes among the most popular targets for criticism. Next spring, the game’s second expansion will release, and a PlayStation Network listing appears to have detailed it ahead of an official announcement.
A Reddit user spotted the listing prior to its deletion, which revealed the expansion’s name: Gods of Mars. Scheduled to launch in March, it will feature new story missions and open-world adventures, new cooperative and competitive content, a new enemy faction, and additional gear — it sounds almost identical in scale to Curse of Osiris, for better or worse.
“[Destiny 2: Gods of Mars] sends your Guardian on a long journey to a brand new destination — the Frigid Vale of Mars, with an array of new missions, adventures, and enemies to fight,” the listing said. “Charlemagne has reawoken on Mars and has imprisoned Rasputin within an ancient vault. Work with the elusive Ana Bray — long thought to be dead — in order to combat Charlemagne’s Remnants, free Rasputin, and uncover the secrets of Clovis Bray.
A relatively minor plot point in the final version of Destiny, Rasputin was originally going to be central to its campaign. The machine was set to be captured and taken to the Dreadnaught ship, which eventually appeared in The Taken King expansion. This version of the story also would have starred Osiris, who wouldn’t appear in the universe for another three years. Charlemagne, who will apparently be the villain of Gods of Mars, was also set to appear in this version of the game. It was ultimately scrapped late in the development process and replaced with the skeleton of a story we received in 2014. Writer Joseph Staten left Bungie and returned to Microsoft, where he now serves as a senior creative director.
We’re hoping Gods of Mars bears more resemblance to the main Destiny 2 campaign than it does Curse of Osiris. With vague “mystery” and lackluster characters, we felt like it was a step backward for a series that had finally seemed to find its groove.
Destiny 2 is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.