Originally posted by Me @ 14 years old - Nearly 7 years ago at the time of this edit:

It's better then I had expected, I had pre-ordered the re-release to Steam only to hear about the many issues this game during it's time with Activision. After the game was made playable on Steam, I tried it and had a blast! It's controls feels like a mixture of Halo and Cod's which is to say amazing. Which is no surprise because Bungie did create the Halo original series (CE to Reach). The story is great and it's Lore is just as good. I feel like I could have many hours enjoying the grind. Which I kind of like. The game is quite deep with mechanics such as the ability to change around you super with the use of different ability and with a lot (and I mean a lot) of pretty creative guns and form of armour.

What would of happened had me at 14, still in that phase where I felt easily impressed by games hadn't liked or even played D2. It honestly wasn't even until mid-2020 until the addiction really kicked in. Let's be real, I might of been less distracted during COVID lockdowns during that critical mid-teen phase of school, if I'm being honest for better or worse. /hj

Since the announcement of the Monument of Triumph, the last content update Destiny 2 will ever have. Particularly so suddenly and at the cost of the original plans of Sundered Doctorine and The Alchemist for The Fate Saga. I kind of been wondering why does it feel like someone died? Why do I grieve over binary and photons pretending to be a place? I think Byf puts it best when he described it as "losing a third space". It's kind taken that sense of place and personal history for me and many, that has arguably been slowly arroded in the physical space for lonely suburbia. A forest you played in as a child, dug up for nothing more than soulless greed.

Whilst Bungie's Leadership absolutely do need their balls to their hot iron /hj. This game still occupises a hard to replace spot.

I still wonder sometimes why I love this game despite the often bipolar relationship I have had over the years and knowing that some parts of the game is literally designed to keep me hooked (the exact opposite of art). Like I haven't been playing as much or as long as some people have here, I "only" have 2,000+ hours (on multiple platforms) and only started when Shadowkeep launched.

Though I have seen this game since then stumble over stupid problems which we would eventually pinpoint to Bungie Leadership like overstretching Bungie's resources on the assumption that COVID-era revenue was forever, or the vaulting from extending a game only intended to last 3 years of updates which required a new data format for the Tiger Engine just to keep the technical debt and bloat in check. To innocent people being layoff right as with another possibly happening soon, if Tassi is correct...

But then the reason this game hasn't ever really died in my opinion, despite the multitude of "Destiny-killers" that haven't even put a scratch in the series they claim to have murdered. Is five things in my opinion:

• Frankly there's not much geniune competition (I seriously struggle to name a looter shooter that brings the highs of finally beating a raid boss after 8 hours of struggle in a LFG... because there's basically no shooter with proper raids)
  
• The community (even if I think post-Final Shape/Fate Saga it became far more cynical, or a little bit concerning in terms of behaviour from what I remember). It's still one of the nicest and helpful communities around. The game literally warped around often accidential community events like the Craftening bug (which inspired the developers to do more interesting ideas and goofy weapons based on it).
  
• The universe of Destiny frankly amasing how it weave so many different genres and themes and still feel tied together (not you Lightfall). The smaller parts of lore, music, artstyle and characters are actually feel consistently good. It's a rare example of a live service game that actually had 12 years of actual time to make a living world and different ideas explored than most (particularly live service) games do not get.
  
• The gameplay still actively makes it hard for me to play other shooters because they usually feel much worse than Destiny, it's actually insane how many games feel like your aiming through grease or don't really feel "good" for lack of a better term. Heck even abilities with buildcrafting makes you feel in a trance.
  
• The game kind of always found it's footing after stumbling, those who stuck with the game. The "true believers" or "masochists" depending who you ask, kind of were rewarded for their vocal criticism but still sticking with the game when expansions that were geniunely amasing like The Final Shape or The Witch Queen came out. It felt like the "pinnacle" type of experience that many live service games never had.

Like the monitistation at a few points was just embarassing... though the Monument of Triumph update has heavily lowered the price barrier to entry for beginners by including every piece of expansion content into one including dungeon keys (which was a source of contention at a few points for ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pricing strategies), making Bright Dust (the free cosmetic currency) plentiful and frequently rotating the free cosmetics store.

..but I also think had I not gotten so fixated on Destiny, I would be a different person today. Whilst I might not have have the free time to play this game like I did as a teen during a global pandemic, or my senior years in high school... the game kind of helped me in a way that was hard to fullfill?

Sherpaing people actually helped me to try be more of a leader instead of just a quiet follower which grew my confidence and ability to teach (which is an embarassing skill to have learnt so late). I wouldn't of met so many great friends. Enough people to helped break a lot of my social anxiety.

So thanks the developers, community, artists, everyone who actually tried to make the best of an often bad situation at Bungie. I seriously hope this is not the end of Destiny or even Bungie or Marathon. But also I hope that maybe not having to maintain a resource heavy live service gives the room the team need to do something great!

[quote=Me @ 14 years old - Nearly 7 years ago at the time of this edit]It's better then I had expected, I had pre-ordered the re-release to Steam only to hear about the many issues this game during it's time with Activision. After the game was made playable on Steam, I tried it and had a blast! It's controls feels like a mixture of Halo and Cod's which is to say amazing. Which is no surprise because Bungie did create the Halo original series (CE to Reach). The story is great and it's Lore is just as good. I feel like I could have many hours enjoying the grind. Which I kind of like. The game is quite deep with mechanics such as the ability to change around you super with the use of different ability and with a lot (and I mean a lot) of pretty creative guns and form of armour.[/quote] [h2]While I like to imagine I have grown as a person since I wrote this original review, I think part of that was thanks to this stupid game and the people I met doing so[/h2] What would of happened had me at 14, still in that phase where I felt easily impressed by games hadn't liked or even played D2. It honestly wasn't even until mid-2020 until the addiction really kicked in. [i]Let's be real, I might of been less distracted during COVID lockdowns during that critical mid-teen phase of school, if I'm being honest for better or worse. /hj[/i] Since the announcement of the Monument of Triumph, the last content update Destiny 2 will ever have. Particularly so suddenly and at the cost of the original plans of Sundered Doctorine and The Alchemist for The Fate Saga. I kind of been wondering why does it feel like someone died? Why do I grieve over binary and photons pretending to be a place? I think Byf puts it best when he described it as "losing a third space". It's kind taken that sense of place and personal history for me and many, that has arguably been slowly arroded in the physical space for lonely suburbia. A forest you played in as a child, dug up for nothing more than soulless greed. Whilst Bungie's Leadership absolutely do need their balls to their hot iron /hj. This game still occupises a hard to replace spot. I still wonder sometimes why I love this game despite the often bipolar relationship I have had over the years and knowing that some parts of the game is literally designed to keep me hooked (the exact opposite of art). Like I haven't been playing as much or as long as some people have here, I "only" have 2,000+ hours (on multiple platforms) and only started when Shadowkeep launched. Though I have seen this game since then stumble over stupid problems which we would eventually pinpoint to Bungie Leadership like overstretching Bungie's resources on the assumption that COVID-era revenue was forever, or the vaulting from extending a game only intended to last 3 years of updates which required a new data format for the Tiger Engine just to keep the technical debt and bloat in check. To innocent people being layoff right as with another possibly happening soon, if Tassi is correct... But then the reason this game hasn't ever really died in my opinion, despite the multitude of "Destiny-killers" that haven't even put a scratch in the series they claim to have murdered. Is five things in my opinion: [list] [*]Frankly there's not much geniune competition (I seriously struggle to name a looter shooter that brings the highs of finally beating a raid boss after 8 hours of struggle in a LFG... because there's basically no shooter with proper raids) [*]The community (even if I think post-Final Shape/Fate Saga it became far more cynical, or a little bit concerning in terms of behaviour from what I remember). It's still one of the nicest and helpful communities around. The game literally warped around often accidential community events like the Craftening bug (which inspired the developers to do more interesting ideas and goofy weapons based on it). [*]The universe of Destiny frankly amasing how it weave so many different genres and themes and still feel tied together (not you Lightfall). The smaller parts of lore, music, artstyle and characters are actually feel consistently good. It's a rare example of a live service game that actually had 12 years of actual time to make a living world and different ideas explored than most (particularly live service) games do not get. [*]The gameplay still actively makes it hard for me to play other shooters because they usually feel much worse than Destiny, it's actually insane how many games feel like your aiming through grease or don't really feel "good" for lack of a better term. Heck even abilities with buildcrafting makes you feel in a trance. [*]The game kind of always found it's footing after stumbling, those who stuck with the game. The "true believers" or "masochists" depending who you ask, kind of were rewarded for their vocal criticism but still sticking with the game when expansions that were geniunely amasing like The Final Shape or The Witch Queen came out. It felt like the "pinnacle" type of experience that many live service games never had. [/list] Like the monitistation at a few points was just embarassing... though the Monument of Triumph update has heavily lowered the price barrier to entry for beginners by including every piece of expansion content into one including dungeon keys (which was a source of contention at a few points for bullshit pricing strategies), making Bright Dust (the free cosmetic currency) plentiful and frequently rotating the free cosmetics store. ..but I also think had I not gotten so fixated on Destiny, I would be a different person today. Whilst I might not have have the free time to play this game like I did as a teen during a global pandemic, or my senior years in high school... the game kind of helped me in a way that was hard to fullfill? Sherpaing people actually helped me to try be more of a leader instead of just a quiet follower which grew my confidence and ability to teach (which is an embarassing skill to have learnt so late). I wouldn't of met so many great friends. Enough people to helped break a lot of my social anxiety. So thanks the [i]developers, community, artists, everyone who actually tried to make the best of an often bad situation[/i] at Bungie. I seriously hope this is not the end of Destiny or even Bungie or Marathon. But also I hope that maybe not having to maintain a resource heavy live service gives the room the team need to do something great!