Destiny 2

Destiny 2 is a game that's about half as good as it could be, and nowhere near as good as it was.

I started playing in 2020, stopped playing early 2025. At its best Destiny 2 was fantastic, at its worst, it is a monotonous grind that sucks the fun oput of video games.
Now its time to say goodbye and retire my Warlock for good.
used to be 10/10, now 3/10

Reason for thumbs up (conditional):
This is a free to TRY game, not a free to PLAY game. You are locked out of roughly 85% of the content if you dont spend money. However, I was able to grab the legacy collection bundle for 90% off (~$8 and change) about a year ago and at that price it is definitely worth it. The graphics are good, sound and music are good and the moment to moment gameplay is fun. I got a couple hundred hours of enjoyment out of it before I stopped playing. You can make this game as sweaty or as casual as you want to make it. In conclusion, if you can get the legacy bundle on the super cheap (epic store has this bundle listed for $11 right now) it is worth it. However....
Reasons for thumbs down:
DO NOT PAY FULL PRICE FOR ANY DESTINY 2 CONTENT. Bungie is arguably one of the worst developers on the planet and these days there's a long list of terrible gaming companies and it takes effort to be at the top of that list. They are most known for:
1) Deleting paid content from customers. They call it "sunsetting", most call it theft and false advertising.
2) Plagiarism multiple times. Most recently for marathon art and a huge settlement on "sunsetted" content.
3) Ridiculous corporate greed with predatory MTs, predatory in game currency structures and pay to win bs.
4) In game advertisements and pay walled content.
Negatives for the actual game include the most disorganized "story", if you can even call it that anymore, I have ever seen as the first chapters of said story were deleted from existence with the whole sunsetting robbery. They literally have a timeline section in the game, that is buried in menus, to explain the actual sequence of events. 99% of players will not see this and play the different campaigns out of order so none of it makes sense. I thought I was doing it in the right order and I very much did not. The new player experience has to be one of the worst in gaming. Tutorial pop ups at every turn that explain how to shoot your gun, that never go away and will still pop up hundreds of hours into the game but no detail what so ever about incredibly important in game systems like weapon and gear moding. It contains what has to be the worst "journal/quest list" in gaming. There will be times where you are completely confused about what the game wants you to experience. Sometimes you will even know what you want to experience and have absolutely no clue how to access it. At times it feels like a menu simulator and the in game group finder is a disaster to the point were the community has all resolved to using 3rd party apps for it.
So, the thumbs up is conditional. If you can get most of the content for under $15 total, get it and enjoy it. Its fun. If you cant get a deal, try out the free nibble of a game until you get irritated with all the pay walls and ads and be done with it. Rob them like they robbed their customers. Hit it and quit it for free.

The GAME ENDED FOR ME after the final shape expansion am finally free, it has been an amazing and depressing adventure.

I have been playing Destiny for 10 years. I am a Warlock, my Warlock is me. But, it's finally over. Thank you for the Final Shape, it was truly some of the most fun I've ever had. Now I finally rest, and watch the sunrise on a grateful universe.

Destiny 2 isn't just a video game; it’s a full-time job that charges you for the privilege of working overtime. It is a masterclass in how to build a perfect mechanical engine and then bury it under a mountain of the most disrespectful, soul-crushing systems ever coded.
The game is built on a foundation of "Bungie gives, and Bungie takes away." You pay $50 to $100 for an expansion, and then a year later, they have the audacity to "vault" it—which is just a corporate euphemism for stealing the content you paid for because their bloated, unoptimized engine can’t handle its own weight. It’s the only game where you can buy a product and have the developer literally delete it from your hard drive while telling you it’s for your own good.
The "new player experience" is a digital hate crime. If you try to start now, you are dropped into a chaotic mess of cutscenes for stories you can’t play, characters you don't know, and a UI that looks like a spreadsheet had a mid-life crisis. You’re expected to care about a "Grand Saga" when the first three years of that saga are literally gone. It’s like trying to watch Lord of the Rings starting at the last thirty minutes of The Return of the King while someone screams "LORE!" in your ear.
And the gameplay loop? It’s a literal hamster wheel. They’ve spent years tricking players into doing the same three strikes they’ve been running since 2017 just to watch an arbitrary "Power Level" number go up—a number that they reset every few months anyway. It’s a psychological experiment designed to exploit the human brain’s weakness for shiny colors. You aren't "becoming a legend"; you’re a lab rat pressing a lever for a chance at a "God Roll" that will probably get nerfed into the dirt the moment it becomes popular.
The economy is a joke. There are more currencies in this game than in the actual world. You need shards, prisms, golf balls, dust, and silver just to change the color of your boots. And don't get started on the Eververse. The coolest armor and ships are always behind a paywall, even in a game that already asks for an annual subscription's worth of money just to keep up with the story.
It’s a game that hates its players as much as the players hate themselves for logging in. It survives purely on the fact that the shooting feels good—which is like staying in a burning building because the couch is comfortable. It’s a beautiful, shimmering, $100-a-year pile of FOMO-driven garbage that treats your time like a renewable resource it can harvest until you’re burnt out and bitter.

Long time Guardian, here...

This is my favorite game.

I hate how it was handled.

I hate that I can't play parts of the game that I've paid for.

I hate the negativity that the online community is regurgitating.

This game deserves better from everyone involved.

Those things in mind, I will forever sing praises to that phase of Bungie. I truly hope we can see life breathed back into both the game and our community.