Destiny 2

1. Summary

Reviewers report that Bungie ended live development with the Monument of Triumph update on June 9, 2026. A wave of farewell reviews followed, and a line that keeps recurring in them is that the game is now in its best state in years: loot that matters in every activity, no seasonal resets, nothing left to miss, and, by reviewers' account, the whole expansion catalogue sold as a cheap bundle. 81.8% of the reviews recommend it. Praise goes to the gunplay and abilities, raids and dungeons, and the friendships built around them. Some veterans say they switched long-standing negative reviews to positive, and a few newcomers who arrived for the send-off wish they had started sooner.

What is missing frustrates players most. The Red War, Curse of Osiris, Warmind and Forsaken campaigns, along with years of seasonal story, were removed ("vaulted") long before, so new players get a story with no beginning and a menu maze with no guide. Paywalls, the grind, PvP balance, crashes and anti-cheat errors, and the block on Linux and Steam Deck come up regularly too. Reviewers say a September 21 announcement promised the vaulted content's return, and celebratory reviews followed it, though some players will wait until the content is actually back.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Raids, dungeons and the people you play them withHigh

Raids and dungeons are what veterans single out as the reason to play, and the friendships made in them run through the farewell reviews: clans, fathers and children, couples who met in a fireteam. One long review of the game's highs says "Raids remain some of the greatest multiplayer experiences I've ever had." Advice to newcomers often comes down to finding a group: "Destiny 2 is a good game. It's even better with friends." The catch, covered in the split panel below, is that this content historically had no matchmaking, so it depends on having a group.

The final update left the game in its friendliest stateHigh

Reviews written or edited after June 9, 2026 return again and again to one point: FOMO is gone. Reviewers list what they say the update brought: loot refreshed across raids, dungeons and destinations, the Director restored as the main menu with the Portal pushed aside, Sparrow Racing League and Pantheon returning, larger vault space, and Eververse cosmetics made earnable with in-game currency. Some edited reviews flip from years of complaints to a recommendation: "Ironically, the game dying is probably one of the best things to happen to it in terms of just enjoying the game." Casual players say they can finally play at their own pace ("Ironically, the death of updates for the game has made it accessible to the more casual fanbase."). Several add the bitter note that these fixes arrived only at the end, and a few point out that remaining bugs and balance problems will now never be fixed.

Gunplay, abilities and buildcrafting that nothing else matchesHigh

Negative reviews praise the shooting too, often in the same breath as their complaints. Reviewers call it the best in the genre ("The gunplay is incredible and probably the best in the market."), or simply write "No one does gunplay better than Bungie." Subclass abilities, supers and exotics feed a power fantasy that players say no other looter shooter matches. Buildcrafting gets particular credit, with reviewers crediting the final update for set bonuses, catalysts for every exotic and a choice of old seasonal artifacts. A smaller group says the feel has slipped: floaty jumps, bullet-sponge bosses in later expansions, and nerfs to PvE gear made for PvP reasons.

World, art, music and loreMedium

Skyboxes, destinations, the soundtrack and the depth of the lore draw steady praise, often from players who otherwise criticize the writing. "The music is unforgettable. The art team rarely missed." A few reviewers also say the game runs well on modest PCs and laptops.

Where players are split

The story and the later expansionsMedium

Players praise the universe and certain expansions, The Witch Queen and The Final Shape above all, with Forsaken remembered fondly by those who played it. Lightfall and Edge of Fate draw more criticism, though Edge of Fate has defenders, and Renegades, the Star Wars crossover, divides people: some loved the lightsaber and the villain, while a positive review says of it "it's not Destiny, it's Star Wars." One lapsed player who stopped after The Witch Queen says that after it "the characters and writing just got flushed down the toilet". Newcomers more often find the story impossible to follow, mostly because of the missing campaigns described below.

Price: a cheap complete bundle against a "free to try" paywallMedium

After the final update, the full collection went on sale for roughly $20 to $35 according to reviewers, and several call that a steal for hundreds of hours. Others stress that the free version is a trial and the good content sits behind expansions: "DESTINY 2 is NOT free to play. It is free to TRY." Older reviews complain about separate dungeon keys, season passes, Eververse prices and buying expansions again on a new platform, and some people still resent paying for content that was later removed. One piece of advice: "dont bother buying the DLC at full price just wait for it to go on sale."

The grindMedium

Some players see the loop as the point ("it is a grind, which personally is not a con to me, actually a pro"). Others call it a second job ("It's more of a job than a game."), especially the power resets, tiered loot and Portal grind of the Edge of Fate era, which some say made them quit before the final update. Several say the final update softened the grind by fixing the power cap and making older activities drop relevant loot.

PvPMedium

Crucible, Trials and Gambit have fans, and a few call the PvP gunplay the best around. Much of the PvP talk is critical, including in reviews that recommend the game, and it covers one-shot abilities and metas, cheaters in Trials, lobby balancing, peer-to-peer lag ("PvP doesn't feel modern in terms of latency"), and catalysts or quests that force PvE players into PvP. One reviewer's advice is blunt: "Play PVE, avoid PVP unless you value your mental health".

Solo play versus needing a groupLow

Some say the game works fine solo, and Fireteam Finder and community Discords help fill raids. Others report that raids and dungeons lack matchmaking ("You cant use matchmaking for dungeons or raids."), that Fireteam Finder groups can be unforgiving, and that solo players hit walls in late-game content.

What frustrates players

Vaulted campaigns and paid content that is goneHigh

Removed content comes up more than any other complaint, in negative reviews and in positive ones that still recommend the game. Players paid for the Red War, Curse of Osiris, Warmind and Forsaken, along with destinations like Titan, Mercury and Io and years of seasonal stories, and Bungie removed them. A veteran's negative review puts it flatly: "They vaulted my paid content. They said it was temporary." Positive reviews regret the loss as well, and one review asks simply: "if you're going to stop updating the game at least unvault the old content". After what reviewers describe as a September 21, 2026 announcement that vaulted content will return, celebratory reviews appeared ("Glad the old raids are coming back"), while others are holding back until it ships: "I'll believe it when the content is back and it stays back". A few note the seasonal stories may still be missing.

New-player onboarding, menus and quest flowHigh

Newcomers and returning players describe the same wall. The intro skips years of story, quests come in no obvious order, the menus and quest log are hard to read, and the game assumes you already know its systems: "It thinks you've been playing it for years and doesn't bother explaining anything." Others write "Getting into Destiny 2 after years away feels like trying to read a book with chapters missing" and "It's like trying to understand a movie by watching only the last 5 minutes". Some quit within hours ("As a new player, the game is unplayable."), and even fans advise newcomers to bring a veteran or YouTube: "Terrible new player experience unless you have someone guiding you through it." Long walks between NPCs and loading screens add to the friction.

Crashes, BattlEye errors and Steam-only stutterMedium

Technical complaints come up steadily: BattlEye kicks and error codes (plum, weasel, centipede, broccoli), disconnects that wipe out a long dungeon or mission, crashes, and a couple of complaints about connections in Asia. A separate cluster reports stutter and frame drops on the Steam version after a patch, with one player noting that "the Epic and Xbox PC versions of the game do not have the lag spikes", and another review opens with "MICRO STUTTER ON STEAM ONLY". A short negative review from a newcomer reads "This game errors out more than any game I've seen".

No Linux or Steam Deck supportLow

Players on Linux and Steam Deck report that they cannot play because the anti-cheat blocks Proton, and they leave short, angry reviews: "Not compatible on Linux because of Anti-cheat." One had played on a Steam Deck and then a Legion Go before being locked out, and another gets around it by streaming the game through GeForce Now. Players suggest a simple fix: "Easy fix, literally just ask BattlEye to enable proton/linux support."

Cheaters and bans with no appealLow

A smaller set of reviews reports cheaters in PvP and accounts banned without explanation, with no human support to appeal to. A few also report being locked out by a TAPIR error, and one says Bungie cut off whole countries.

Jumping puzzles and platformingLow

Players who came for a shooter object to the platforming sections in campaigns, raids and dungeons, made harder by floaty movement and class differences in jumping: "NOBODY LIKES JUMPING PUZZLES BUNGIE."

Install sizeLow

A few reviewers object to an install of 100 GB or more for a game with so much content removed.

3. The player conversation

Much of the conversation is farewells from players with thousands of hours, mournful and nostalgic but mostly warm. Many are edits of reviews first written between 2019 and 2025 that track the game's highs and lows before ending on a recommendation. Positive and negative reviewers praise the same gunplay and raids and complain about the same vaulted content and paywalls; the business around the game divides them more than the core game does, and the negative ones weigh the losses more heavily.

Veterans write about raids, friends, the final update and the content they lost. Low-hour newcomers, some of them drawn in by the end-of-service sale, write about confusion, missing story and paywalls, and some of them gave up within a few hours. Linux and Steam Deck owners leave short negative reviews about the anti-cheat block, and PvP draws criticism even from players who like the rest of the game.

The timeline shows clear swings. Reviews poured in after the June 9 update, with 947 written in the week of June 22 alone and 87.4% of them positive. The positive share dipped to between 74.5% and 78.7% in the weeks of August 10 to August 24, then rose to 87.1% in the week of September 21, when the unvaulting announcement brought players back.

4. What the developers could do

1. Restore the vaulted campaigns and seasonal stories as announced. Removed paid content draws more complaints than any other topic, and some players say they will believe the September promise only when the Red War, Forsaken and the rest are playable and stay that way.
2. Build a real starting path for new players. Newcomers say the game explains nothing and drops them into the middle of the story, and several ask directly for a chronological timeline of campaigns and quests.
3. Fix BattlEye disconnects and the Steam-only stutter. Players describe repeated error codes, lost progress at the end of long activities, and frame drops that they say other PC storefronts do not have.
4. Let Linux and Steam Deck players through the anti-cheat. Linux and Steam Deck owners report being blocked outright, and players point out that BattlEye supports Proton when a developer enables it.
5. Add matchmaking or easier group finding for raids and dungeons. Raids and dungeons, the content veterans single out, are the hardest content for solo players to reach, and some reviewers worry groups will be harder to find as time passes.
6. Keep the complete bundle cheap and make the free version's limits clear. Players credit the low bundle price for bringing them in, while others feel misled by a "free to play" label on a game whose best content is paid.
7. Separate PvP balance from PvE and act on cheaters and false bans. PvE players resent nerfs made for PvP, PvP players report cheaters and lag, and banned players say they had no way to appeal.