Is Destiny 2 worth playing in 2022?
Five 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’s a loot-shooter with MMO ambitions, but more so because if you’re playing it, it transcends gaming. It’s a place to hang out with friends, blow stuff up, and engage in some of the best endgame content in any game. If you’re not, though, it’d be fair to wonder what all the fuss is about — and ask if Destiny 2 is worth playing in 2022?
At the time of writing this review of a game that’s absorbed a frankly scary amount of my free time in the last five years, the future is bright. Lightfall has been revealed, and we’re in the middle of a pirate-themed Season of Plunder that’s delightfully silly.
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A new Golden Age
Bungie
Lightfall will be Destiny 2’s fifth major expansion when it launches in 2023.
It hasn’t always been like that, though; Destiny 2’s base game arrived with a solid 85 on Metacritic, but it wasn’t 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’t until 2018’s 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’s excellent Witch Queen.
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Bungie
The Witch Queen is Destiny 2’s best expansion so far.
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’ll 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’t be able to play the base game’s Red War campaign or Forsaken’s excellent one either.
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Destiny has long had trouble balancing out the cost of new content and the toll it extracts from players, but right now it’s at least in the healthiest state it’s been. The $10/£10 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’s not to say it’s perfect, though. Bungie took the unusual step of putting the game’s Dungeons (some of the best content) behind Deluxe Editions of expansions, with Bungie eventually making them available through an additional $20 purchase. It’ll still cost you, but you won’t be punished for not buying the most expensive versions of the expansions.
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Can you keep up, Guardian?
Destiny 2’s 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’s especially true after The Witch Queen’s ending, as we now challenge the notion of “Light = Good, Darkness = Bad”.
Our story began long ago but the ending is not written yet.New heroes rise every day. Join us, Guardian.https://t.co/fl69S3RICe pic.twitter.com/3YWondzmwK
— Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) August 24, 2022
Bungie’s “free weeks” and lore recaps are great, but much of the game’s narrative heavy-lifting is done by its community. I’ve lost track of the times I’ve recounted how Crow, a Guardian in the Tower, was formerly Uldren Sov, a bad guy, because the campaign that reveals that is gone.
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The good news is that once you have got to grips with who is who, there’s an awful lot to appreciate in Bungie’s 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’s character-driven moments. In fact, on the rare occasion that Destiny 2’s gameplay falters (usually in the grind to earn a Seasonal Title), it’s hard not to log in for the next breadcrumb of story and character development.
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Guardians make their own fate
I’ve gone for 700 words or so now without getting to Destiny 2’s core gameplay, but that’s because it really is what held the game together through those early years.
Bungie’s ‘holy trinity’ 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’re 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
Season of Plunder’s Arc 3.0 update has been well-received by players.
Bungie has overhauled the three subclasses, too, with impressive results that make each feel powerful. It’s a tough line to walk, and while many will argue that PvP has been forgotten in favor of the PvE power fantasy, there’s still nothing quite like burning through a boss’ health bar magnitudes faster than you did the last time.
Since parting from Activision, Bungie has begun to lean into Destiny 2’s nerdier aspects, with character builds that let Guardians tweak their loadout ad nauseum. It’s 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’s hoping the new Guardian Ranks system will mean more players get to run the likes of King’s Fall.
Creaking bones
Bungie
Destiny’s Raids are a highlight of the franchise, but it’s not always easy to find five other players.
There are some pretty significant growing pains, though. Much of Destiny 2’s 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’re following objectives that feel poorly signposted, if at all.
It’s the kind of idiosyncrasy you start to overlook after hundreds of hours, but it certainly doesn’t 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’s 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’s 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’d encourage anyone to try it, you’ll undoubtedly get more out of its systems, story, and setting by picking up the expansions.
If you do, though, you’ll open up a Solar System’s worth of refined combat, interesting characters, and frequently gorgeous settings that’s 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
How to start playing in 2022
Destiny 2 is arguably one of the most popular online multiplayer games of today.
With the release of its fifth expansion, The Witch Queen, it can be overwhelming for new players. To help you on your way, we’ve assembled a new player guide to help you buy the right content and get you up to speed with all the ins and outs of Destiny 2. So suit up Guardian, and let’s get started!
First of all, if you’re wondering if Destiny 2 is worth playing: we can only say that one million players can’t be wrong! Destiny 2 has an incredibly healthy player base and most players agree that Destiny 2 is one of the most rewarding games they’ve ever played. That is, once you get into it.
And that’s one of the biggest hurdles of getting into Destiny 2, because where do you begin? The fact that the game has a long and confusing history of alternating between free to play and paid models doesn’t help either. Let’s start off by looking at which content is available at what price.
What Destiny 2 content is free to play?
Destiny 2 has been free to play since October 2019, when the New Light version of the game was released. You can create your own character, play certain missions and complete activities in the many different locations in the game, without having to spend any money.
You don’t have to worry about a level cap or time limit when playing the free to play version of Destiny 2, but if you want to experience the story campaign and some of the meatier game activities, you have to pay up. That said, the free to play version of Destiny 2 gives you plenty of opportunities to get a taste of the gameplay loop and see if this is a game that you want to sink more time into.
Some of the legacy campaigns of previous expansions used to be free to play as well, but since the release of the Beyond Light expansion in 2020, more and more free content has been taken offline in a process which developer Bungie calls “vaulting”. This means that even if you want to experience the Destiny 2 story from the very beginning, you won’t be able to, as some content has already been vaulted.
These are all the Destiny 2 story campaigns released so far:
- Red War (part of Destiny 2 base game) (vaulted)
- Curse of Osiris (expansion, 2017) (vaulted)
- Warmind (expansion, 2018) (vaulted)
- Forsaken (expansion, 2018) (vaulted)
- Shadowkeep (expansion, 2018)
- Beyond Light (expansion, 2020)
- The Witch Queen (expansion, 2022)
Furthermore, a new Destiny 2 expansion and campaign called Lightfall will be released on February 28 2023.
The original story campaign The Red War, as well the first three main expansions Curse of Osiris, Warmind and Forsaken, have been vaulted, which means that this content is inaccessible until Bungie decides to reintroduce it. There are currently no plans to bring these campaigns back to the game, but never say never!
Thankfully, there’s no need to worry about more expansions entering the Vault. In the Destiny 2 Showcase 2022, Bungie announced to the delight of many players that they will no longer remove expansion campaigns. This means that Shadowkeep, Beyond Light, The Witch Queen and future expansions will always stay playable. Seasonal content will enter the Destiny 2 Content Vault once a new Expansion launches.
The three currently available campaigns Shadowkeep, Beyond Light and The Witch Queen, are all paid expansions and their campaigns are not free-to-play. You can however, play the first one or two missions for free to get a taste of them, but if you want to continue playing, you’ll need the full paid version.
What are Destiny 2 seasons?
With the release of Forsaken in 2018, Bungie also introduced seasonal content with additional story content and activities. A season spans around four months, with every year seeing four different seasons that build up the story towards the next expansion and campaign. They essentially fill in the narrative gaps between the major campaigns, so to fully understand the Destiny 2 story, the seasonal content cannot be missed.
That is why even if all the campaigns were still playable, you’d still miss out on the story, because a lot of it unfolds between the campaigns during these seasons. And seasonal content is always time-limited: it can’t be replayed once the season is over!
What is the current Destiny 2 season?
Destiny 2 is currently in Year 5, which began with the release of the newest expansion The Witch Queen in February 2022. At the same time, the sixteenth season called Season of the Risen started, which is the first of four total seasons that make up Destiny Year 5. On May 24 2022 the seventeenth season of Destiny 2 began, called Season of the Haunted, which ended on August 23. The next season, which is the current running season, is called Season of Plunder and will be active until December 6 2022, after which the fourth and final season of Year 5 will start. Once that season has concluded, Destiny will kickstart Year 6, with the release of its next expansion: Lightfall.
How to catch up with the Destiny 2 story?
Because the first three major expansions have been vaulted, and the seasonal content isn’t replayable at all, catching up with the Destiny 2 story in its original form (by playing it) is impossible. But don’t fret, as there are many resources that can help you understand the story so far.
Of course, it isn’t required to be completely up to speed with all the story beats in order to enjoy the story. You can also easily jump into one of the available expansions as they all serve as an adequate starting point and are more or less standalone!
Here are some useful resources for catching up with the Destiny 2 story:
- Destiny History, a beautifully illustrated website that retells the story of all expansions and seasonal content of Destiny 2
- Previously on Destiny, another website that provides a more condensed recap of the Destiny 2 story so far.
- (YouTube) Dynasty, a cinematic fan video spanning almost two hours which details the lore and story specific to The Witch Queen expansion.
- (YouTube) The Complete Story of Destiny, if you want a full recap of the entire Destiny 2 story up to Shadowkeep. Be warned, it’s a 3 hour ride! (bring popcorn!)
- The Ishtar Collective, a collection of all the lore materials found in Destiny 2.
And finally, there’s also a timeline in the game itself that has a very condensed summary of all the main events. You can access the timeline by going to the Director screen, and clicking on the emblem in the top right corner.
The in-game Destiny 2 timeline | Source: Bungie
Where to start playing Destiny 2 in 2022?
Now that you know how Destiny 2’s campaigns and seasons relate to each other, you might be wondering where you should start.
It doesn’t hurt to try the free to play content first to see if you enjoy Destiny’s gameplay, before you start investing in additional paid content.
The base game will give you access to the New Light campaign, which serves as a jumping board and introduces new players to the main mechanics, story and characters of Destiny 2. In addition, you can freely explore all the currently available planets and complete bounties and simple tasks to gain experience and new gear.
When you start Destiny 2 for the first time, you’ll automatically be dropped into the New Light questline. It’s actually the same starting quest as in the first Destiny game, so if you’ve had some prior Destiny experience, you’ll recognize it right away!
Just be sure to keep checking your quest objectives to follow along the New Light questline.
Which Destiny 2 expansions should you buy?
Once you’re ready for more adventure, you can choose between buying Shadowkeep, Beyond Light and The Witch Queen, which are the three currently available expansions. Additionally, there’s the season pass which will give you access to the seasonal activities.
Generally, we advise to start with one of the expansions, and save the seasonal content for last. We’ll cover your options so you can decide which expansion has your preference.
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Shadowkeep
Shadowkeep is the least substantial expansion of your three choices, but if you’re adamant on playing all available content, this should be your starting point. This expansion also regularly goes on sale, so in terms of bangs for bucks, you can’t go wrong here.
Buying the Shadowkeep expansion gives you access to roughly ten story missions, two strikes, a raid and a dungeon, so that’s plenty of content to keep you entertained. Shadowkeep centers around The Moon, so that’s where you’ll mostly be running and flying around in this expansion.
That said, compared to the other two expansions, Shadowkeep doesn’t add any new gameplay features. If you are interested in playing a new subclass or gaining new abilities, you might want to get Beyond Light or The Witch Queen instead.
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Beyond Light
This expansion added Europe as a new explorable region, as well as a subset of the Cosmodrome on Earth, a location you might remember if you’ve played the original Destiny.
The most notable feature of Beyond Light however, is the addition of a fourth damage element called Stasis, which is born from Darkness instead of Light, and causes ice damage. Each player class (Hunter, Warlock or Titan) also gets a new subclass based on Stasis, with new abilities to unlock.
Without Beyond Light, players can only use the first three damage types: Solar, Void and Arc, and they won’t be able to choose the Stasis subclass. So if you want access to all available subclasses, you can’t skip Beyond Light.
Naturally, Beyond Light also features a hefty story campaign, as well as strikes, dungeons and a raid for players to complete.
This all makes Beyond Light a very nice starting point for new players. You will gain access to a pretty exciting new player class and abilities, and playing through the campaign gives you a chance to immerse yourself in the Destiny 2 universe before you eventually jump into The Witch Queen.
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The Witch Queen
We can imagine that you want to jump right into the newest content, and therefore it makes perfect sense to start with The Witch Queen. You might be a little lost in terms of story and characters, but this won’t prevent you from enjoying the incredible story campaign, which is heralded by the community as one of Bungie’s finest.
Just like Beyond Light, The Witch Queen gives access to new gameplay features, such as the new Glaive weapons, which are part gun, part sword and part shield. The new expansion also changes the way the Void subclass works, similar to how Beyond Light added the new Stasis subclasses.
On top of that, you gain access to a whole bunch of activities, including a brand-new six-player activity called the Wellspring, and a slew of exotic weapons.
You can buy The Witch Queen from the PlayStation Store with our PlayStation Store Cards.
How to buy the Destiny 2 season pass?
If you search for the season pass in the PlayStation Store, Xbox Store or Steam store, you won’t find it. That is because the season pass has to be bought within the game, with the in-game currency Silver. Each season pass costs 1000 Silver, which amounts to $10/€10/£10.
Silver has to be bought through the PlayStation Store, Xbox Store or Steam store. The more Silver you buy, the more ‘free’ Silver you get as an added bonus. Spend more, get more!
These are the Destiny 2 Silver quantities that you can buy:
- 500 Silver ($5/€5/£5)
- 1000 Silver + 100 bonus Silver ($10/€10/£10)
- 2000 Silver + 300 bonus Silver ($20/€20/£20)
You can buy your Destiny 2 Silver with PlayStation Store Cards and Xbox Store Cards bought from Startselect using your prefered payment method and you will receive the code instantly. We are official partners of PlayStation and Xbox, so you can buy with confidence!
Once you’ve topped up your wallet with Silver, you can proceed into the Destiny 2 shop to buy the season pass for 1000 Silver.
Silver Buying Tip: you can always check under the Season tab in the menu how many days the current season has left. If there’s only a few days left, you might want to hold onto your Silver a bit longer and wait for the next season to start before you buy the Season Pass.
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You should now have all the information you need to start your own cosmic adventure in Destiny 2 as a full-fledged Guardian. It might still be a bit intimidating, but once you start blasting aliens in the face and zoom across the galactic landscapes on your speedy Sparrow, everything will naturally fall into place. Stick with it, and Destiny 2 could become the most fun and rewarding game you’ve ever experienced, thanks to the helpful and dense community and the continuously evolving story. See you among the stars!
Life and Fate, 2022, broadcast, watch online // Watch
Life and Fate, 2022, broadcast, watch online // Watch
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Weekdays at 9:30 on Rossiya TV channel
«Life and Fate» is Boris Korchevnikov’s new program in which famous people, opinion leaders, public figures and representatives of culture will have the opportunity to openly declare their position in the life of society.
Today it is especially important for viewers to know what they think and say of those whom they used to trust and on whom their mental attitude, an objective view of the present and faith in the future largely depend. Artists, scientists, writers, politicians, economists, athletes in a confidential conversation will answer the main question: what each of us can and should do for our Motherland.
Actor Anton Shagin, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation Dmitry Kharatyan, writer Zakhar Prilepin, actress Olga Budina, musician Pyotr Lundstrem will be the guests of the first episodes.
Author and presenter: Boris Korchevnikov
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Images from the program «Life and Fate»
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The fate of a man with Boris Korchevnikov.
Aired on 11/02/2022. Alexander Adabashyan. Part 2 // Watching
The fate of a man with Boris Korchevnikov. Aired on 11/02/2022. Alexander Adabashyan. Part 2 // Look
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November 3, 2022, 02:00
The guest of the program «The Fate of a Man with Boris Korchevnikov» on the channel «Russia 1» was the actor, screenwriter and production designer Alexander Adabashyan. In a conversation with a TV presenter, he recalled his stage debut and first filming, and also spoke about his second wife Catherine, with whom he brings up two children and seven grandchildren. Watch the second part of the interview with the Honored Art Worker of the Russian Federation.
