Destiny is a franchise that I, and many others, have put thousands of hours into over the last ten years (I have mostly put these hours in on Xbox). Destiny's gun play is second to none and integrates very well with the rest of the player tool kit. Most gameplay elements are fun and have engaged me enough to where I keep logging back in to get more. So, if the gameplay itself is fun, why is it that I find myself in the position where I cannot recommend this game to other people? The answer is simple and best summed up in two words: evergreen content.

Bungie, the development studio behind the Destiny franchise, began removing paid content from the game right around the launch of Season of Dawn. Before I get any further, I want to explain something to you really quick. Destiny has two kinds of content: expansion and seasonal. Expansion content is content that launches as a part of the base game or with an expansion. This includes campaigns, strikes, raids, dungeons, and patrol/open world spaces. Seasonal/episodic content is content that is included as a part of a season. This includes seasonal arenas/activities, exotic missions, the season pass, and certain patrol spaces. Expansion content is supposed to be big tent pole moments for the story. This is where the Big Bad shows up to a new spot and does Big Bad Stuff that you need to stop over the course of the campaign. Seasonal content introduces minor characters and plot points, gradually setting up much of the needed context that introduces the next Big Bad and preludes the Big Bad Stuff.

Now, Destiny 2 is listed as free to play, right? Here's the truth: its more like a free trial that never expires but locks you out of the vast majority of content in the game unless you pay for that content. There is no free to play path where you can never spend a dime but grind your life away into experiencing this pay walled content. Only a taste of what you could be experiencing before Bungie shoves a wall of text saying, "please give $40, thaaaaaannks!!" This includes all seasonal content.

So, if you want to understand Destiny 2's story in its entirety, you would need to start with The Red War and move, sequentially, through each expansion and the seasonal content in between each expansion. Pretty simple. But there's one small problem that I alluded to earlier: Bungie removes content from the game every year. Paid content. For a while now, Bungie has been removing seasonal content as they want seasons to be confined both in game and temporally. Currently, seasonal content from the past expansion cycle is removed when the next expansion dropped. All Lightfall seasons (Season of Defiance, Deep, Witch, and Wish) were removed from the game when The Final Shape released. Bungie has also, to date, removed The Red War, Curse of Osiris, Warmind, and Forsaken expansion content from the game. None of those campaigns are currently playable. Most of those raids are gone. Do you want to know the story of the Cabal presence on Earth and how Caital arrived in system and became our ally? Too Bad! Do you want to understand who the Barons are and who Fikrul is before Episode: Revanant releases soon? So sad! Did you want to log back in and finish last seasons seasonal pass? Error 404: content not found! Every content drop, expansion or seasonal, usually has one or two pieces of gear worth getting. And if you're new to the game, most of the gear available can be a good start that allows you to have some functional gear before you take on harder pieces of content like raids or dungeons. But you can't go back and play old seasonal content to get any of the good gear.

The lack of evergreen content means that I find myself in the unfortunate position of not recommending a game that I love to other people. This game will not respect your time. You will play a lot of content only for Bungie to just rip it away. This makes the game actively hostile to new and current players and I'm writing this review in hopes that you'll heed my warning and steer clear. The only reason I'm still around is that I haven't missed a single season and actively stay up to date with the game. The moment that falters is the moment I am likely done with Destiny.

To Bungie:
If you're reading this, I just want you know that this review can be changed. All you have to do is return ALL past content to the game including seasonal content. New players should be able to jump in and start from the beginning: The Red War. I know it wasn't the best and I know it was from a very different era of the game, but your in game summaries are totally inadequate and disrespect the time of your players (and employees but it is clear you don't care about them). My buddies should be able to purchase past season passes and work on unlocking the armor, weapons, and ornaments in them. I should be able to take them through Scourge of the Past. But I can't. And because of this, Destiny is a game that they will NEVER play.

What a shame.

This is the greatest, and also the worst game i have ever played. There's just no end to it.

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