Destiny 2's new Onslaught mode looks like the Call of Duty Zombies-style horde mode the MMO has always been perfect for, and Bungie thinks it's impossible to solo

Destiny 2's big Into the Light update, an interim patch to catch players up and tide them over in the lead-up to The Final Shape expansion, is coming April 9, and I don't say this lightly, Guardians, but its headlining activity might be the horde mode we've wanted for years.

As Bungie explained during a reveal stream today, Into the Light is built around a new game mode called Onslaught. It's a three-player activity available to all players – no season pass required – that comes with a normal playlist with 10 waves, and a challenge variant with five sets of 10 waves for a total of 50. It's also possible to opt-in for a solo run, though associate designer Noah Lee thinks it's "impossible" to solo. The short version and lower-difficulty challenge version have matchmaking, but you'll need a pre-made team for the Grandmaster-style high-tier challenge version. 

In Onslaught, you'll be defending ADU units from attacking enemies, collecting scrap from defeated enemies (with a unique "purse" of scrap for each player), and spending it on defensive emplacements like turrets, tripwires, and decoys. You can install and upgrade your tools during defensive phases, but there are also boss fights and Rift-dunking phases, plus your ADU will rotate around the map between sets of waves on challenge mode. 

The Onslaught map featured in today's reveal stream is a modified version of the PvP map Midtown, but we also saw some Pyramid Ship-retrofitted versions of other areas. Fittingly, the activity is captained by PvP master Shaxx, who serves as an announcer and vendor here. 

There are some interesting wrinkles to the game loop that sound like a good test of strategy and buildcrafting. You can upgrade defenses up to level three, for example, with escalating costs for the power jump. All this goes down in 30-second upgrade sessions between waves, which hammers the Call of Duty Zombies parallel (or, arguably, Gears of War parallel) even deeper into my mind. 

It looks like all of Destiny 2's