This review is based on my experience of playing in 2019, and 2019 only. Further information on the game is gleaned from Youtube videos I have seen on the subject, and one of my friends describing his own experience and opinions to me over the years. Since around 2018 he has played every expansion and put in over 3000 hours, so I consider him to be somewhat educated on the subject.
First of all, how the hell did I put 50 hours into this game. I didn't even want to play it. Another friend gave me a second-hand copy of Destiny 1 to play and I hated it and gave up after like an hour. Out of courtesy I gave the disc back to him. Guess what I got back? A copy of Destiny 2. In fact he did this with multiple of our friends so we could do raids together. At minimal expense to himself, of course. Even as early as 2019 the state of the Destiny franchise was so inconsistent that he was able to find multiple second hand copies that were under £5 each. I still felt bad that he kept giving me free games so I tried this game for a lot longer than the first.
50 hours of playtime. The experience was so unmemorable that I find 50 hours of playtime to be baffling. My review score may seem a bit harsh but I also played what is generally agreed by the community as the worst singleplayer content: the base campaign, and the Osiris and Warmind expansions. I played them multiple times as well because I didn't realise they were considered slop by fans (also because I didn't understand any of the rest of the games content, the mission structure was the most familiar to my other FPS experiences, and I naturally gravitate more to singleplayer anyway). Also just the stuff I've heard over the years is enough to incredibly disappoint me. Lightfall sounded really bad and had a terrible story, and the greedy microtransactions got worse after they split from Activision. How??
When Destiny was announced, they said it would be a 10 year plan for one game to be constantly expanded on. 10 year plan? Who said this, Stalin? Well, 9 and a half years later, they turned it into 2 expansion heavy games of varying quality, and you can't even play half of the expansions anymore. "we didn't want the storage space to get too high" blah blah blah. Just do what Halo: MCC now does and let you download each game/expansion separately. Remember when I said my friend gave me a £2 copy of Destiny 2 for free? I could've bought that disc at launch, spending £50 on it...and NONE of the content is playable anymore. It would have been a £50 rent. And they expect people to spend £50-90 on Midfall AND dozens more on microtransactions?? I have a hard time believing The Final Shape can deliver any finality...or quality. Trust me, I've been a Halo fan for 6 years. I know what it's like to chug Hopium.
There is one thing I remember about the game actually. The reason the copies were spread around my friend group. So we could do Raids together. I have never, and will never, understand Raids. The whole game is about brief co-op with randos and no mics. Then the end-game content is to spend several hours solving obscure Konami-input secret easter egg bullshit puzzles with 5 people you need absolutely tight communication with? I remember a friend of a friend trying to organise the group and getting pissed off when we couldn't follow his instructions for 2 hours straight and kept dying on the puzzle/enemy waves. If you like this game for the unique gameplay it offers, the music, setting, beautiful artstyle, then that's great. But that is not my Destiny 2. This review is.
First of all, how the hell did I put 50 hours into this game. I didn't even want to play it. Another friend gave me a second-hand copy of Destiny 1 to play and I hated it and gave up after like an hour. Out of courtesy I gave the disc back to him. Guess what I got back? A copy of Destiny 2. In fact he did this with multiple of our friends so we could do raids together. At minimal expense to himself, of course. Even as early as 2019 the state of the Destiny franchise was so inconsistent that he was able to find multiple second hand copies that were under £5 each. I still felt bad that he kept giving me free games so I tried this game for a lot longer than the first.
50 hours of playtime. The experience was so unmemorable that I find 50 hours of playtime to be baffling. My review score may seem a bit harsh but I also played what is generally agreed by the community as the worst singleplayer content: the base campaign, and the Osiris and Warmind expansions. I played them multiple times as well because I didn't realise they were considered slop by fans (also because I didn't understand any of the rest of the games content, the mission structure was the most familiar to my other FPS experiences, and I naturally gravitate more to singleplayer anyway). Also just the stuff I've heard over the years is enough to incredibly disappoint me. Lightfall sounded really bad and had a terrible story, and the greedy microtransactions got worse after they split from Activision. How??
When Destiny was announced, they said it would be a 10 year plan for one game to be constantly expanded on. 10 year plan? Who said this, Stalin? Well, 9 and a half years later, they turned it into 2 expansion heavy games of varying quality, and you can't even play half of the expansions anymore. "we didn't want the storage space to get too high" blah blah blah. Just do what Halo: MCC now does and let you download each game/expansion separately. Remember when I said my friend gave me a £2 copy of Destiny 2 for free? I could've bought that disc at launch, spending £50 on it...and NONE of the content is playable anymore. It would have been a £50 rent. And they expect people to spend £50-90 on Midfall AND dozens more on microtransactions?? I have a hard time believing The Final Shape can deliver any finality...or quality. Trust me, I've been a Halo fan for 6 years. I know what it's like to chug Hopium.
There is one thing I remember about the game actually. The reason the copies were spread around my friend group. So we could do Raids together. I have never, and will never, understand Raids. The whole game is about brief co-op with randos and no mics. Then the end-game content is to spend several hours solving obscure Konami-input secret easter egg bullshit puzzles with 5 people you need absolutely tight communication with? I remember a friend of a friend trying to organise the group and getting pissed off when we couldn't follow his instructions for 2 hours straight and kept dying on the puzzle/enemy waves. If you like this game for the unique gameplay it offers, the music, setting, beautiful artstyle, then that's great. But that is not my Destiny 2. This review is.