Destiny 2

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.

only play it if you have friends otherwise suffer in pain like me

i like it but it needs better new player guidance

Fun endgame content but the start for new players is terrible

game's terrible, I play it all the time

I like how they got rid of Activision!

While this is marked as recommended, this rating has some pretty deep explanation below. TL:DR at the bottom.
This is a review by a guy who has a total of almost 2,900 hours at the time of writing, cumulative from BattleNet and Steam eras. Would have definitely been a lot more if I wasn't stuck on console for several months and wasn't in school or work when (and after) Steam support was enabled.
I love this game. The universe, the lore, in particular. I have the Chronicler title for a reason, and if I didn't love the game world, I wouldn't have spent even 1000 hours on it. Probably not even 500.
The gameplay and current meta as-is are rapidly degrading. Does it have fun areas? Sure. Is it good fun for new players? Probably. Is it good for players that have been playing the Destiny series since vanilla Destiny 1? Most current sources say no. So, I'll give my opinions below for someone just downloading, or someone purchasing the game's expansions.
The free base game lacks the activities of the current seasonal structure but still has public seasonal events (such as the current guardian games). Is it fun? For a bit. The free campaign is a bit grindy at certain parts and doesn't have the best loot drops, but I'd likely still have fun with it if I hadn't played it before.
There are no REAL re-play-ability features in any of the campaigns, apart from strikes and crucible, but the former gets tiring quickly and the latter loses its spark from time to time. I don't remember if gambit is still free for everyone, but it's in the same murky water.
The paid expansions are interesting, kinda fun solo (for the most part) and definitely fun in a group. If you plan to get any, make sure you get Forsaken and/or Shadowkeep (the 'upgrade edition' is 50 bucks, cheaper than getting both individually). I enjoyed both, and they were fun for a while. Emphasis on a while. I'll get to that later.
Keep in mind that the other campaigns (red war, warmind, and curse of osiris) come first in the timeline.
The other main paid feature (currently) are the Seasons. Each season comes with a different suite of content that will (currently) be phased out at the end of the season to make room for new content. This INCLUDES all matchmaking activities and triumphs attached to that particular season, as well as the seasonal badges.
Sundial is a perfect example of this. If you don't know what I'm talking about, google it. It comes from the most recent lapsed season.
The current season is very, VERY bland and tedious. It revolves almost ENTIRELY around Bounty completions, small tasks that have no real impact on gameplay other than to mix up what you need to do with your arsenal to complete their contents. The grind takes an age if you don't have days straight to play, and ends up with very little satisfaction because of how little content there is.
This is only a real issue if you've been playing the game fairly regularly. If you're new to the game and/or universe, this issue will be far less apparent, and may not even show up until the next season due to the plethora of content available for a fresh character to complete. Unfortunately, however, this content drought cycle has become a VERY strong pattern. Luckily one that does not make me pay much for it, but one that still hurts all the same.
Seasons are purchasable via a 'season pass' or individually. I'm not sure if costs are the same either way, the option disappears after purchase of the current pass.
Contents include the seasonal content alongside something similar to the season passes in Fortnight, Division 2, COD, etc. without being the useless cash grabs that those ones are. I actually like the system of the reward track accompanying new content rather than it being separate from that release's dlc.
Are there items that encourage play? Yes. Is there a way to buy levels in the pass? Yes, but the items within the pass do not a strong character make, and purchasing levels is FULLY LOCKED until the season is almost over, rendering the possibility of pay-to-win being almost impossible.
Granted, f2p content does not have a large pool of excellent weaponry, but that's been a fact since before the game went free-to play, and I don't think the difference in loot pools is nearly as significant as some people would claim. Especially with the new armor system.
There's also loot boxes, but you can earn (most of) the items in the Eververse through gameplay and bright dust bounties. Does this mean I'm advocating the required completion of bounties for most cosmetics? Hell no. I'm borderline pissed that there STILL aren't any cosmetics attainable through normal gameplay and activity completion apart from the prestige Leviathan ornaments.
Now, would I recommend this game? This is very complicated, as you can probably tell from the above.
For a new player with low dedication / time allocation to the universe of the game? Yes!
There's a plethora of content to enjoy out of the box, and the fact that it's only 60 bucks for '3 years' of content is quite the steal.
To a new or returning player familiar with the lore, universe and with a lot of time on their hands to complete everything the game throws at us? Probably not. It really depends:
- If you haven't played D2 yet, you might get a good couple hundred hours of play time out of the box between grinding out the campaigns and hitting endgame 'earlier than intended'. For those of you, the 60 bucks might be worth it.
- For people who played vanilla and/or forsaken and/or shadowkeep? I assume you know most of the problems I mentioned above, and know to wait and see what they plan to change with their content-cycling system before you come back. I definitely wouldn't recommend a return at this point unless you want to get some friends into the game, or want to grind out the seasonal activities to see where the story is leading.
TL:DR; I recommend this game with a few heavy warnings:
1- If you plan on playing this game for an extended period of time, expect heavy content drought between season releases.
2- If you are returning to the game, I would suggest waiting or doing research on how Bungie is changing content-cycle systems.
3- If you've purchased or completed shadowkeep and/or forsaken and plan on getting the seasons, do NOT EXPECT THE SEASONS TO REFLECT THIS AMOUNT OF CONTENT. Seasonal content is often particularly gimmicky. Particularly, overuse of bounty mechanics is a huge let down.