Found verdict: plan C
Destiny is a game of spectacular highs and even lower lows. The shooting and movement mechanics are so fluid and enjoyable, yet the map/navigation/mission-select system wrapped around everything is painfully tedious and unnecessary. The graphics and art design are breathtaking, but they get stale fast as players grind the same missions for rewards over and over again. The game is most fun in co-op, yet almost all lessons learned in the MMO genre in the past decade was ignored. Loot is addicting, but also has probably made every Destiny player cry at some point. In the end, in its current state with added content and tweaking patches, Destiny is better than ever. It's just a shame that the less you care, the better experience you will have.
Vanilla Destiny had many glaring problems. DLC packs have improved on the story-telling and the amount of content available. New players going into Destiny now will actually find certain characters and storylines interesting without reading walls of text online. They will also have much more to do, for single player, co-op, and PVP. Exotics, gear, and shaders are also at an all time high, great for players that like to collect, or experiment, or just play dress up.
Unfortunately Destiny is still not the persistent world MMO-like game Bungie or fans hoped it would be. Looking for players to team up with is still relegated to external websites. Only 4 emotes are available for expression and communication outside of voicechat (Addition ones are locked behind microtransaction, and even then only 1 of the 4 buttons are customizable. This is a game with MMO ambitions where you can't point, nod, and shake your head without remapping buttons.).
Reward-wise, a few improved systems are in place for players to acquire new legendary or exotic gear. Unfortunately most still rely on the roll of a dice. Few things are as infuriating in Destiny as grinding hard towards some reward package, only to be disappointed by meager blue engrams. Well, one thing, when nothing of note drops at the end of a hard-fought raid while everyone else got the loot of their dreams.
Bungie's insistence on balancing PVP and PVE simultaneously has rendered certain weapons worthless in either situation. Their approach was also leaning too heavily towards nerfs, which means gunplay in general feels less powerful than in Vanilla Destiny. Whereas PVE still has some freedom of experimenting, the meta in PVP has settled into a pretty stale state.
Destiny is best enjoyed when I'm listening to podcasts and just goofing around shooting low level minions. Or when I do the older raids or horde modes, where a lot of interesting mechanics are not found anywhere else, ignoring the fact that the item drops are obsolete and will not help me in any way. Or when I'm just hanging out with friends, and not focused on getting certain gear or achievements.
Hopefully Destiny 2 will revamp the poorly-thought-out systems, add new mechanics and enemy variety, and feature a more intriguing story arc.
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I would be remiss, however, to not note the annoying PS4 exclusive content practice Bungie/Activision has adopted. Basically, Sony paid huge amounts of money to ensure Destiny always has exclusive content on their platform, usually a few exotics and a strike. This is of course highly damaging to a game already thin on content, as Xbox players are paying the same price for less stuff for the base game and every DLC. The PS4 players are also affected, as the exclusives cannot be put into the random rotation of sold gear and augmented strikes. Most exclusives lasted one entire year, except the last DLC, which still has locked out content that will be released for Xbox after the launch of Destiny 2. Bungie has confirmed this policy will remain in place for Destiny 2, with the lock-out extending to PC players.
