Is Destiny 2 worth playing in 2022? BungieFive years after launch, Destiny 2 keeps bringing in new players, but is Destiny 2 worth playing in 2022? There are few games like Destiny 2. Not necessarily in that, it\u2019s a loot-shooter with MMO ambitions, but more so because if you\u2019re playing it, it transcends gaming. It\u2019s a place to hang out with friends, blow stuff up, and engage in some of the best endgame content in any game. If you\u2019re not, though, it\u2019d be fair to wonder what all the fuss is about \u2014 and ask if Destiny 2 is worth playing in 2022? At the time of writing this review of a game that\u2019s absorbed a frankly scary amount of my free time in the last five years, the future is bright. Lightfall has been revealed, and we\u2019re in the middle of a pirate-themed Season of Plunder that\u2019s delightfully silly. A new Golden Age It hasn\u2019t always been like that, though; Destiny 2\u2019s base game arrived with a solid 85 on Metacritic, but it wasn\u2019t long before players ran out of things to do. The raid, Leviathan, was great, but you still needed five friends to play it. That was followed by a pair of underwhelming expansions and some quality-of-life tweaks, but it wasn\u2019t until 2018\u2019s Forsaken that we finally got a significant chunk of content, as well as a shift to a seasonal model to eliminate content droughts. That was further improved with Shadowkeep in 2019, before Beyond Light started to change the way players looked at abilities, and on top of this just-about-vaguely-coherent development cycle, you have 2022\u2019s excellent Witch Queen. If the thought of playing through the base game and three annual expansions just to get to the Witch Queen and catch up with everyone else sounds like a drag, then I have good and bad news. The first is that, because Bungie has been putting older content into the Destiny Content Vault, you\u2019ll actually only need to play an introductory sequence and then pick the expansions you want from Shadowkeep onward in an a la carte fashion. The bad news is that if you bought any of the prior content, or even if you buy a disc copy of the game right now, you won\u2019t be able to play the base game\u2019s Red War campaign or Forsaken\u2019s excellent one either. Destiny has long had trouble balancing out the cost of new content and the toll it extracts from players, but right now it\u2019s at least in the healthiest state it\u2019s been. The $10\/\u00a310 season passes are optional, sure, but they offer an impressive value when compared to the battle passes of FPS contemporaries like Warzone or Apex Legends. There are seasonal activities to take part in, new weapons to earn, and, in some seasons, entire new destinations to explore. That\u2019s not to say it\u2019s perfect, though. Bungie took the unusual step of putting the game\u2019s Dungeons (some of the best content) behind Deluxe Editions of expansions, with Bungie eventually making them available through an additional $20 purchase. It\u2019ll still cost you, but you won\u2019t be punished for not buying the most expensive versions of the expansions. Can you keep up, Guardian? Destiny 2\u2019s lore and characters have evolved considerably from a series of vendors in the first game to genuinely fleshed-out digital folks with their own motivations, regrets, and personalities. The trouble is that this can make it tough to break through a lot of the proper nouns and deep narrative walls that Bungie has inadvertently built up over the years. That\u2019s especially true after The Witch Queen\u2019s ending, as we now challenge the notion of \u201cLight = Good, Darkness = Bad\u201d. Bungie\u2019s \u201cfree weeks\u201d and lore recaps are great, but much of the game\u2019s narrative heavy-lifting is done by its community. I\u2019ve lost track of the times I\u2019ve recounted how Crow, a Guardian in the Tower, was formerly Uldren Sov, a bad guy, because the campaign that reveals that is gone. The good news is that once you have got to grips with who is who, there\u2019s an awful lot to appreciate in Bungie\u2019s writing. The Witch Queen was great, but some of the seasonal storylines have been genuinely affecting in the same way FFXIV fans talk about that game\u2019s character-driven moments. In fact, on the rare occasion that Destiny 2\u2019s gameplay falters (usually in the grind to earn a Seasonal Title), it\u2019s hard not to log in for the next breadcrumb of story and character development. Guardians make their own fate I\u2019ve gone for 700 words or so now without getting to Destiny 2\u2019s core gameplay, but that\u2019s because it really is what held the game together through those early years. Bungie\u2019s \u2018holy trinity\u2019 of Halo, with guns, melee, and grenades has been replaced by something much more fitting of the MMO-Esque spot Destiny finds itself in. Guns range from different groups, but somehow each feels distinct, whether you\u2019re a Titan punching through a small army, a Hunter with an exploding throwing knife, or a Warlock healing and empowering teammates, each class feels more distinct than ever. The addition of Stasis, and the upcoming Strand subclass, too, means there will always be new tools to play with. Bungie has overhauled the three subclasses, too, with impressive results that make each feel powerful. It\u2019s a tough line to walk, and while many will argue that PvP has been forgotten in favor of the PvE power fantasy, there\u2019s still nothing quite like burning through a boss\u2019 health bar magnitudes faster than you did the last time. Since parting from Activision, Bungie has begun to lean into Destiny 2\u2019s nerdier aspects, with character builds that let Guardians tweak their loadout ad nauseum. It\u2019s led to an additional community aspect of min-maxing that sees players taking on the toughest content solo where possible. Destiny is, however, at its best when players hit the endgame. Dungeons are three-player activities that require puzzle solving and teamwork, while Raids are a step beyond and require six. While Bungie is bringing an in-game LFG (Looking For Group) system with Lightfall, Raids will always be out of reach to more casual players. Here\u2019s hoping the new Guardian Ranks system will mean more players get to run the likes of King\u2019s Fall. Creaking bones There are some pretty significant growing pains, though. Much of Destiny 2\u2019s core is still the same game that launched in 2017. That means unwieldy inventory systems and a fairly clunky quest menu, as well as a lack of handholding and explanation that even Elden Ring might find obtuse in some areas. That means players can find cryptic clues that really should be more easily explained, and while the community is not averse to banding together to solve a puzzle or two, it can feel exhausting when you\u2019re following objectives that feel poorly signposted, if at all. It\u2019s the kind of idiosyncrasy you start to overlook after hundreds of hours, but it certainly doesn\u2019t leave the best impression. Still, the Destiny Content Vault means that Bungie can rotate content into the game to keep things fresh. Adding the 2015 King\u2019s Fall Raid from Destiny 1, for example, feels like a hit of nostalgia for long-time players, while newer players can jump in for the first time. It\u2019s an enviable position for the developer to be in, especially as so many live service games falter. Is Destiny 2 worth playing in 2022? Destiny 2 is absolutely worth playing, if you can love it for the beautiful mess of systems and overlapping expansions. While it is free, and I\u2019d encourage anyone to try it, you\u2019ll undoubtedly get more out of its systems, story, and setting by picking up the expansions. If you do, though, you\u2019ll open up a Solar System\u2019s worth of refined combat, interesting characters, and frequently gorgeous settings that\u2019s even better with friends. For more tips and guides covering all things Destiny, check out more of our guide content at Dexerto. Best PvP weapons | Destiny 2 Promo Codes | Destiny 2 Prime Gaming Rewards | Infamy Ranks Guide | Glory Ranks Guide | Current Trials of Osiris map | Iron Banner countdown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Is Destiny 2 worth playing in 2022? BungieFive years after launch, Destiny 2 keeps bringing in new players, but is Destiny 2 worth playing in 2022? There are few games like Destiny 2. Not necessarily in that, it\u2019s a loot-shooter with MMO ambitions, but more so because if you\u2019re playing it, it transcends gaming. It\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}