Bungie Cites Jason Statham’s ‘Crank 2’ As Inspiration For New Destiny 2 Subclass

August 18, 2022 Papa Dom

Bungie has never been shy about letting their freak flags fly, and the latest subclass set to arrive sometime next week in Destiny 2 is no exception.

While discussing their inspiration for their juggernaut MMO shooter’s newest subclass, Bungie calls the new Arc 3.0 system “the ‘hold W’ subclass” – a class that grants you a set of skills that require you to keep moving, killing, and causing absolute mayhem on the battlefield.

Powering that high-speed, high-impact goal, one of the prime inspirations for Arc 3.0 was the 2009 action movie Crank 2: High Voltage. The madcap action flick stars Jason Statham as an ex-hitman who has his heart stolen and replaced with a battery. To stay alive, Statham must keep his body electrically charged in increasingly outrageous ways. It’s non-stop, it’s relentless, and it’s a great place to start for the fantasy the team wanted to achieve. Namely ridiculous closing speed and maximum impact upon arrival.
BRING THE THUNDER: INSIDE ARC 3.0 – Bungie.net

So yeah, Arc 3.0 is gonna kind of play like this:

For the uninitiated, the Destiny series features three classes – the beefy Titan, the elusive Hunter, and the mystical Warlock. Each of those has access to a unique version of four elemental subclasses that can be switched around with the click of a button – Solar (fire), Arc (lightning), Void (black holes or something), and Statis (ice). Up until recently, the subclasses were in desperate need of a rework. Over the last few seasons, Bungie has rolled out a “3.0” update for each element, which implemented dozens of new ways to tinker with your powers and cause all sorts of destruction.

Destiny designer Mike Humbolt adds that Arc 3.0 plays “much like Jason Statham’s heart —you need to keep it ticking by staying in the fight,” and it seems like that’s readily apparent with the new buff being added to the game exclusively from the Arc 3.0 subclass – “Amplified”. This buff will allow players to slide faster, live longer, hit harder, and sprint “as mechanically fast as our sprint animation will allow players to go” which seems like an unbelievably good time.

Arc 3.0 launches alongside Destiny 2’s newest season, which is set to drop next week. You can catch the reveal live on August 23rd at noon Eastern time.