{"id":37714,"date":"2023-10-28T00:00:21","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T23:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xtremeservers.com\/blog\/is-destiny-2-still-worth-playing-in-2023\/"},"modified":"2023-10-28T00:00:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T23:00:21","slug":"is-destiny-2-still-worth-playing-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xtremeservers.com\/blog\/is-destiny-2-still-worth-playing-in-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Destiny 2 Still Worth Playing in 2023?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With the ups and downs of long-running live-service games like Destiny 2, you can hardly be blamed if you\u2019re one of the many people wondering if now\u2019s a good time to jump in. My passionate love-hate relationship with this iconic Bungie shooter is well-documented<\/u><\/a>, but the question of whether I\u2019d recommend it to others has varied wildly over the years as the game has redefined itself time and time again. Whether you\u2019re someone who\u2019s never played before or a former player considering jumping back in, here are our thoughts on whether or not it\u2019s worth playing Destiny 2 in 2023.<\/p>\n

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The New Player Experience<\/h2>\n

Though many Destiny players have been blasting Hive in the face since 2014, if you\u2019re considering jumping into the fray in 2023, you\u2019ll want to consider how good the game is at onboarding new players, and unfortunately it\u2019s pretty terrible.<\/p>\n

Why? Well, firstly, Destiny 2 is a complicated game with dozens of currencies, hundreds of weapons and pieces of armor (including many that can no longer be earned), a massive laundry list of things to chase, and the \u201cnew light\u201d onboarding questline does a poor (not to mention incomplete) job at bringing players up to speed. I recently completed the New Light experience and while it\u2019s added cutscenes and context that do a much better job of introducing players to the ongoing story, it leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to giving players additional reasons to play, and because seasonal content overlaps with main expansions, there\u2019s a lot of added confusion surrounding what\u2019s essential to play and what\u2019s the flavor of the week content that\u2019ll disappear after a time.<\/p>\n

In December I interviewed two new Destiny 2 players<\/u><\/a>, one of whom was just casually dipping in their toes and the other who was going full goblin mode to dive as deep as they possibly could into high-level play and endgame activities \u2013 neither of these people had a good go of it. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s no two ways about it: Destiny 2 does a poor job of introducing new players<\/section>\n

The Casual Player<\/h3>\n

The casual player found the entire experience obtuse as imaginable, and was overwhelmed by the unfathomable number of currencies to manage and activities to tackle. And since he didn\u2019t have a group of friends to show them the ropes, he was left twisting in the wind with no good options to figure out basic things, like the ins-and-outs of weapon crafting or which things he should be spending his time on. Hilariously, he was also hit with a new cutscene each time they logged in, introducing them to various storylines he had no context for, before throwing him into a seasonal activity or introductory story mission. In one case, he was even thrown into the first level for a campaign he didn\u2019t own, and then was told he needed to pay more money to access the rest of the expansion (which Bungie\u2019s done lately as a method of marketing their premium content to free players). Granted, this all happened just before Bungie introduced Guardian Rank, which does a slightly better job of pointing players towards a list of activities they should take on, but even that system does nothing to explain to players why they\u2019re doing each activity or help them understand the increasingly convoluted landscape of perks, currencies, weapons, armor, and activities.<\/p>\n

The Harcore Player<\/h3>\n

The hardcore player, on the other hand, had the advantage of knowing veteran players to explain everything to him, and so was able to eventually come to grips with all the stuff a solo player has little hope of figuring out. Unfortunately though, just because you understand how it works, doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ll be in for a good time actually achieving it, and he quickly realized that catching up to his friends would be an extremely grindy, time-consuming process. Not only is Destiny 2 filled with loot that takes a very long time to procure, but they often involve spending lots of currencies that a new player has a difficult time procuring. Meanwhile, veteran players might have these resources in abundance, and even though Bungie has recently announced they\u2019ll be removing one of these hurdles by doing away with Legendary Shards, there\u2019s still a ton of catching up one has to do before they can reasonably play alongside their more tenured Guardians. It took many months of regular play, including weekend binges and all-nighters, before the player I spoke with was able to reach some level of parity with his peers.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no two ways about it: Destiny 2 does a poor job of introducing new players, and even though that\u2019s not the full picture of merits and demerits to playing, it\u2019s easily the biggest barrier of entry.<\/p>\n

PvE Content<\/h2>\n

One of the best things about Destiny 2 is its incredibly strong PvE content and top-tier gunplay that\u2019s second only to the most formidable shooters out there. Coming off the heels of a very well-received expansion in The Witch Queen<\/u><\/a>, there\u2019s a lot to love about the game\u2019s over-the-top combat where you\u2019ll be shooting aliens in the face one moment and running around with a giant flaming hammer the next.<\/p>\n

The endgame activities that make themselves available once your Guardian has been properly leveled are especially worth playing. Raids and Dungeons have always been and continue to be the best way to spend one\u2019s time in Destiny 2, even if raid content increasingly relies on re-releasing raids from the previous game.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the most recent expansion, Lightfall, is extremely underwhelming<\/u><\/a>, and that just might leave a bad enough taste in your mouth to make it a bit harder to recommend. There\u2019s still plenty of fantastic activities and storylines to play, but it can definitely be a bit disheartening to know that going into the long-awaited finale the story and writing is perhaps at an all-time low.<\/p>\n

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PvP Content<\/h2>\n

As someone who played Destiny 2 primarily for its competitive content for many years, it pains me to say that the current PvP landscape is in the worst state it’s ever been. With few game modes, cheaters on PC, a sandbox that is unwelcome to new players without the best gear, and laughably few new maps added to the playlist in recent years, it\u2019s very difficult to find reasons to grind out any of Destiny 2\u2019s PvP playlists or partake in what used to be a weekly ritual for me: Trials of Osiris, which has been reconfigured again and again in recent years into the now-tortured shadow of what it used to be.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s really not much more to say here, mostly because Bungie seems to pay so little attention to this pillar of the game these days, and that breaks this sweaty tryhard\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n

Microtransactions<\/h2>\n

One of the biggest knocks against Destiny 2 at the moment is its absolutely unacceptable monetization model \u2013 or more accurately: its seven monetization models.<\/p>\n

Quite simply, Destiny 2 blends a hodgepodge of monetization models that\u2019s not only confusing, but quite literally never stops asking you for money, creating an incredibly incomplete experience for those who don\u2019t shell out for the goods. Destiny 2 charges for mainline expansions like Lightfall, for seasonal content every three months, for Season Pass XP if you want to skip the grind, for cosmetics if you want your character or gear to look cool, for transmog if you want that cool gear to be available on your best armor, for three-player Dungeon activities that it sells piecemeal, and for \u201cevent cards\u201d that are essential for those who want to participate in seasonal limited-time events like the upcoming Festival of the Lost. Even crazier, some of that content you can buy occasionally goes away, like that time Bungie decided to remove years of paid campaigns from the game, then continued to sell that content to players in the months before they took it away.<\/p>\n

Most live-service games, like Warframe or Genshin Impact, offset their microtransaction model by making the base game free, but while Destiny 2 has flirted with the idea in the past, they currently have one of the most ruthless walled gardens in gaming, that acts like a premium game on one-hand (charging full price for expansions), then is brimming with microtransactions every time you so much as wipe your nose after you\u2019ve paid your way. In fact, their model is so hard to understand, we created an entire guide for free-to-play players<\/u><\/a>. Frankly, it\u2019s appallingly scummy and desperately needs changing.<\/p>\n

Upcoming Expansions<\/h2>\n

Though the most recent expansion, Lightfall, was a spectacular disappointment, the horizon at least appears to be bright, with the long-awaited The Final Shape expansion<\/u><\/a> on the horizon with a revised seasonal model to follow. This upcoming expansion aims to conclude the \u201cLight and Darkness Saga\u201d that Bungie kicked off in 2014, and will bring back Nathan Fillion\u2019s beloved character Cayde-6. The jury\u2019s still out if this finale will fulfill Destiny 2\u2019s potential in the same way The Witch Queen expansion did, or if it\u2019ll fall short like Lightfall, but the narrative team at least looks to be taking some big swings either way, which should be fun to play through.<\/p>\n