It’s hard to believe Destiny 2 launched almost a year ago and we’re just a week away from its first expansion, Forsaken, and new mode, Gambit.

While Cayde-6 is cleaning up all of the headlines with his dramatic shootouts and heroic deeds, another big inclusion will be new PVP mode, Gambit.

This weekend, players around the world will finally get their chance to check out Gambit with an Open Beta Weekend on September 1 but we had a early go-around at Gamescom. The good news is that this might be my favourite Destiny PVP/PVE mode to date.

Flying into the Emerald Coast, you will butt heads with an opposing fireteam to do battle with one of the evil empires in the game. During our playthrough, it was the Cabal, but you could fight against any random set of enemies, such as the Taken, based on a flick of a coin at the beginning.

Before you dive into the action, you and your team of four will be stood across from your opponents, getting a debrief from Drifter. This gives you an opportunity to talk some smack and get a glimpse of their gear before you’re transmatted to the battleground.

 

My side of the battleground against the Cabal was called Trench, which was an outdoor abandoned ruins complete with a crashed spaceship on a beach. Our aim was to snipe, blast, and shoot our way through waves of Cabal, collect any Motes they drop, and then bank them at a receptacle at the center of the map.

If you bank a certain amount of motes, you can summon a Primeval on your side of the battlefield. Kill it, and you immediately win the round.

But the coolest part of Gambit is that you can actually invade the enemy team’s battleground for a short period of time, causing disruption to their game. By banking 25 motes, a portal will open next to the receptacle, enabling you to leap over to the other side and fight Destiny players from the opposing team.

You can only invade for a short period of time and if you’re killed you’re immediately returned to your side, but this lets you take a break from fighting waves of AI and actually getting some PVP action.

You can even drop a Taken blocker on the other side to slow down their progress if you stockpile Motes.

However, if you forget to bank Motes and you die, you lose all of them. As such, there’s a real emphasis on teamwork here, perhaps unlike any other Destiny mode before it.

 

At the top of the screen, you can see a balance of power meter, showing how many motes each team has banked. Enemies were various shapes and sizes,

Of course, your individual stats and contributions are tracked, like the number of motes deposited, hostiles and guardians defeated and even the motes you’ve lost.

The thing with Gambit is, I could have stayed at that booth playing it all day and I almost begrudged having to go to another appointment because I was completely hooked. On paper, the concept sounds outlandish and probably shouldn’t work. In practice, it’s absolutely brilliant.

If you own Destiny 2, make sure you take the time to check out the Open Beta of Gambit this weekend. Personally, I think it’s the most creative, entertaining addition to a multiplayer game since Gears Horde mode and is going to be such a fun way to farm loot.

After that, you’ll only be able to play Gambit if you own the Forsaken expansion which releases September 4. And considering Destiny 2 is the PS Plus Game for September, there’s never been a better time to become a Guardian.