Destiny is an experience I would never trade for anything in the world, except maybe for continued support of the game. I have been playing this series since the initial release of the beta for D1 over 12 years ago and it genuinely has become what I would consider my favorite game of all time. Seeing the game die the way it has due to mismanagement with so much love and content yet to be poured into it is pretty heartbreaking as a long time fan.
With the game entering maintenance mode for the foreseeable future the game has entered into roughly its final state bar any last minute bug fixes and balance changes that need to occur. Despite this Bungie has released what I would consider to be the single greatest update to the game possibly since the complete overhaul of game systems in Forsaken. A significant number of new and old fan favorite weapons to earn with completely new perk combinations, overhauls to many exotic armor and weapons to really let them shine in the current sandbox, balance changes to subclasses that help to bring underperforming elements of kits up to par with other subclasses, and so many other changes to the game that really make the game feel fresh and open again for returning and new players giving the game a chance after the end.
The game still is the pinnacle of gunplay in the fps genre, and is probably the single greatest looter shooter to ever be released. The story, lore, characters, and world(that still exist lol) are some of the greatest in gaming especially for a free live service game.
The game still has its issues, incredibly overbearing monetization around the games content(this has mostly been resolved with the frequent sales) but some features of the game are still paid to my knowledge such as the dungeon keys which lock a significant portion of very enjoyable content behind a paywall. Other problems arise mostly due to the games nature as live service much of the old content from past seasons is gone, and the seasonal narrative building to the release of a major story is almost entirely gone making playing the game feel pretty disjointed at times for new players, unless they watch the myriad cutscenes that attempt to recap a decade old game into a couple minutes. Lots of the interactions with characters outside the main story or remaining old seasonal content are completely gone leaving the remaining characters pretty flat, especially when they make references to things that players can no longer experience.
In the end most of my grievances I had with the game and its direction don't really matter anymore, we will likely never see a true conclusion to the story of the Nine, or the Winnower which is a shame as they are elements that have been developed within the game for almost its entire lifetime.
So in the end, do I think the game is worth playing, definitely, right now all the story content still in the game(thanks DCV) goes on sale fairly frequently for literal pennies compared to what I paid all those years ago. The game is incredibly healthy and fun to play with a literal smorgasbord of content to dive into for new and returning players, with no time limit on the games current content the feeling of FOMO is gone, play now, or play in a year the game will still be here.
-Per Audacia Ad Astra, see you starside guardians.
