Destiny 2 Review (Redhawkfour)
Before I start this review, I want to make something clear. This comes from a place not of hatred, but of love. Destiny is a game near and dear to my heart and it angers me to see the way Bungie has handled it. I know they can do better.
I've played the Destiny series since year 1, Destiny 1. I've been through its highs, its lows, and everything inbetween this game I love. I've seen content droughts, content surges, content drops and flops. I've seen this game rise... and fall.
It's time I faced facts, I stop huffing Copium, and be truthful; despite being with this game for years, I genuinely can't recommend it to anybody. Not in the state the game is right now. This isn't just another user complaining about a there not being new content to play constantly without any droughts, but as a player genuinely concerned for the direction Bungie is taking the game, the way the past and recent DLC have been handled, how they've monetized this game, and how they've treated their veteran playerbase.
I bought the $100 Special Edition back when this game first released. All that content I bought with my hard earned money. Within a year $100 worth of content turned free to play. $100 for me turned into $0 for the average player within one year. I received no compensation for buying the game so early except an Emblem. An emblem. Not a potential for a free season pass when the seasons first started, no refund for my money, nothing. Where is this content now? Gone. Not a piece of it is still in the game. My compensation for this content leaving? Nothing still.
Forsaken, the best DLC they've released for this game. The DLC that brought D2 from being a shitshow to being a great, relevant game with a good story tacked on it? Wiped from this game's code.
The game may be "Free to play" but you'll sink hundreds of dollars for DLC, seasonal passes, and now separate dungeon passes worth as much as your average season pass. It's too much money to ask for people that Bungie can and will wipe from the game's code in a few months time.
Yes, the content they do bring is fun, but drip-feeding us the same content for months without any relevant changes is just not a fun game to play. What is there to do anyways? We have:
Raids, high quality but the same ones every time
Strikes, fun but repetitive after years of getting so little new ones
Dungeons, similar problems to the above, fun but repetitive from lack of variety
Seasonal content, not worth doing anything but the current season unless you're trying to follow up with the game story
Crucible with a shitty tryhard meta and hardly any new maps
Gambit, a gamemode they've basically given up on with maps they've removed from the pool
Seasonal events, fun but the same damn thing every season
None of these feel fresh after years and years of doing the same ones and watching old favorites get sunset from the game.
And it's not like Bungie can't look back at D1 for inspiration; Sparrow Racing League is something players have been clamoring for, it'd be something fresh that Bungie can use to entice players to stay in the game. Bungie has gone on record stating that "by the time they've designed an SRL map for Destiny 2, they could have made several strikes maps" which to me states that A: they aren't willing to put in the effort for player experience and B: aren't willing to make several strike maps worth of content at once.
And getting new players into Destiny? The most painful experience I've tried to do. This game's onboarding experience is horrible, mismanaged, and held back by half the content being locked behind a paywall. From friends I've tried to get into the game, the new player experience is:
Overwhelming
Confusing
No sense of clear direction
All the cool stuff is locked behind paid dlc
Why was I put into this random mission when I booted up the game (seasonal mission you start with at every season)
Any many more comments that made them not want to play the game.
I know this review was basically a rant about how I feel this game is going with no clear rime or reason, jumping from topic to topic, but I just want to see this game thrive the way I know it can. Because Bungie has shown to be a competent company with quality products, but I'm just not seeing that right now.
And i also want compensation for the $100 I watched vanish in the span of a year.