Destiny 2

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.

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

The game is basically robots, smurfs, and humans being given immortality by a giant ping pong ball in order to fight the forces of evil geometry.

Destiny 2. The game I’ve been playing since the D1 beta — so basically, this isn’t a review, it’s a cry for help.
Destiny 2 is the best bad game I've ever played.
With over 2,000 hours logged on steam and an equal amount on console JUST on D2, I can confidently say that I have no idea why I’m still here. Every expansion promises salvation. Every patch is a new chance to be hurt again. Every TWID (TWAB) gives me hope that maybe this time Bungie will fix things (Spoiler: they won’t.)
The gunplay? Immaculate. No other FPS feels this good. The raids? Still unmatched in mechanics, music, and moments. The art direction? Jaw-dropping. Bungie can design a skybox that makes you forget you're on your 14th Nightfall run hoping for a weapon that still won't drop. The lore? Deep enough to drown in, assuming you enjoy reading 3-paragraph weapon descriptions to learn that some Hive god’s nephew is now a gun. (Still upset about the time Bungie locked the story behind a fishing minigame and three strikes)
But for every amazing high—soloing a dungeon, finally scoring a god roll you’ll never actually use, or finally finishing a Day 1 raid—there's a frustrating low. The seasonal model has made burnout a feature, FOMO is practically a core mechanic, and don’t even get me started on sunsetting. The PvP? Somewhere between “neglected” and “held together with duct tape and Copium.”
And then come the seasons. The same activities. The same currencies. The same "please Bungie, I just want to have fun" energy. You grind your soul into dust for a red-border weapon that you’ll craft, then never use because next season it gets power-crept by a strand rocket launcher that shoots poetry and grief.
And yet, despite everything, I keep logging in. Like a loot goblin with Stockholm syndrome. Because just when I’m about to uninstall, Bungie drops a cutscene that slaps or gives me a cool exotic shaped like a toaster and suddenly I’m back. I’ve lived through content droughts, sunsetting, the Great Shader Crisis, and I still don’t know why I keep playing. But I do. I continue to promise myself I’d take a break after the next expansion... only to come crawling back. And here I am, years later, still chasing the loot. Still spending 40 minutes in the Tower debating the value of a 54-stat armor piece just because it has 20 Mobility. Still logging on to check Xûr like he’s going to sell me the meaning of life.
But then a fireteam forms. Someone says, “wanna run a raid?” and I can’t help myself.
Final Verdict:
Destiny 2 is a manipulative, beautiful, broken, exhilarating, miserable, unforgettable mess of a game.
And I love it.
And I hate it.
And I’ll see you in orbit.

Fun game, just don't continue to play it when its no longer fun. Thats when you start hating the game. Take a break... come back when it updates - don't force yourself to get god rolls or experience all the content etc etc.
If you aren't having fun > Don't keep playing. Just come back later. I've had a much better gaming time doing that with multiple games.