So I know the end game is supposed to be a mess, but the campaign in Destiny 2 is probably worth $12...right?

Destiny 2 is this month's Humble Monthly offer. I was always intrigued by the game if not just for the single play campaign stuff based on the duders reviews on the game. For 12 bucks it seems like I'd easily get enough enjoyment out of it right? Not to mention the fact that one or two other decent games might get included in the bundle at the end of the month.

What do you guys think? Is Destiny 2 worth it for $12 even with all of its end game issues and community drop off crisis?

Wondering this too. A lot of people seem to really hate the end-game content, but is Destiny 2 worth it if I have a group of friends ready to play through like a Borderlands type of game and don't really care to treat it as a Diablo/MMO-like?

Totally is. If you play Destiny as a regular shooter you can get a good 20 hours out of it. The art and the shooting itself are super strong.

Hell I’d argue it’s worth more than that. I bought it day one and wasn’t really disappointed (but I had my expectations in check). Destiny 2 is disappointing if you expect to play a lot after you get to the level cap. It’s a great game before you get there.

@fear_the_booboo: Ya...that's kind of what I'm thinking. For $12 it actually seems like a decent price.

@minipato I think I'm gonna jump on this. If you find the community is dead and have trouble finding friends to play with, I'd be down to shoot some aliens with a fellow bomber. Unfortunately all my friends got it on Xbox so I will be mostly solo'ing it otherwise.

This 100%. You can definitely have a great time with it if you go in with this expectation.

@mrplatitude: Ha, that's all I will ever want from it, to be honest. I've never been into the grindy, end-game loot loop others seem to love so much. For instance, Diablo 3? I saw credits, and never booted it up again after that...yet I'd still say I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. There's just too many great games to play these days to obsess over loot and character builds so much...but maybe that's just me being narrow-minded and restless/impatient.

If your already subscribed to humble its great to play that game for free because thats what it should have been all the hell along. If you thinking about subscribing just for that well you'll get a bunch of other stuff you'll probably like more anyway.

Note: screw destiny and what it represents both for Bungie itself and for games as a service as a concept.

@big_denim: Absolutely. My biggest question for you, especially since you even mentioned the End Game, is what do you want from Destiny? If the answer is just a short jaunt Solo through the Campaign, play a few Strikes, a PvP match or two, I'd be hard pressed to say there are many games that offer what Destiny does that aren't worth $12, that's an incredible deal. Destiny 2 is a pretty mediocre FPS story, that feels incredible to play (though I personally think D1 still felt better, but that's from someone who put 2,400+ hours into it and knows pretty detailed how each weapon's Aim Assist, Stability, and every weapon perk and class ability in the game worked), has a top tier UI, and pretty good graphics. You are likely going to enjoy your time with it, especially knowing you are doing so for only $12, but there are legitimate reason's why people who expected more than 100 good hours out of it were upset. But if have no real interest in it, outside of 20-30 hours with the Campaign, some Strikes, and farting around in the Planets you will walk away feeling pretty good about it.

For a pretty quick summary of what happened, the Level Cap in launch was far too easy to reach, weapons dropped relatively easily, and players found most of the best gear within a short period of time. When compared to Destiny, it just wasn't what the Community expected. Add to that a rather underwhelming and a bit under developed DLC in December with Curse of Osiris, and players left rather unhappily (there were also a few controversies I won't go into). But, since January, Bungie has actually done a lot to give Destiny 2 pretty much a complete face lift. The things they added since Curse seem to be unknown to a lot of people around here like Masterwork Weapons/Armors, Raid reward changes, Raid Unique Mods, Vendor changes, Xur changes, new Nightfalls with Challenge Cards and Unique Loot, Weekly Featured Crucible, 6v6 Iron Banner, Go Fast Movement improvements, and Ornaments to chase for all Armor sets. And after next Tuesday, with the changes coming with Warmind (most of which are available to all players regardless of DLC ownership), the game will be rather unrecognizable from the vast majority of problems people who left upset about it between Nov-Jan. Feel free to check out the changes I have posted, coming Tuesday with Warmind alone. It's pretty extensive. Things like allowing all players, regardless of DLC ownership, to play any Crucible Map are pretty great. It's honestly a pretty perfect time to jump onboard.

As someone who played a lot of Destiny 1, none of this is really new to the franchise either. Though I am in the camp that just doesn't understand how Destiny 2 launched in the shape it did, especially after 3 years of constant improvements with Destiny 1, it is looking to follow those same steps. Destiny 2 is in a vastly better place currently than is was a few months ago, and on Tuesday, that place will be even better. Even more, we already know come September Destiny 2 is going to be back into a Taken King type position. Love it or hate it, this is how Destiny and these "Games As A Service" games go.

TLDR: Yes, for $12 it's a great deal and easily worth it.

I was wondering the same thing. I tend to enjoy playing a game and then moving on (got more money than time, and there’s lots of great games to play). Tried the free trial of D2 a bit back and thought it was awfully fun, but then when I look up opinions on the game, I just see just a wall of complaints.

Hearing that the SP campaign is good fun, that will probably tip the scales and convince me to get it. Maybe if there’s a few people here new to the game we could play some evening (although my MP time is few and far between these days).

Yes, Destiny 2 is totally worth $12. I crap on Bungie (modern Bungie) and the Destiny series all the time but paying $20> is a great price. Much like with The Division I think the story content of Level "0" to level cap is perfectly fine but its the "game" after that where it breaks down into drivel. I would be far nicer to the series if the multiplayer was worth anything but, sadly, it is not.

I've been getting humble monthlies for a while now so I'm kind of a sucker. But this seems like a real steal.

My bet is Overwatch is too far off.

Meh, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. The shooting is good and there's like... one or two set pieces that are neat when you initially see them, but I didn't think it was anything outstanding or memorable. The story itself is very uninteresting and lacking any depth. Most of my enjoyment out of destiny comes from the lore. Shoot, I have more fun reading the wikis to be honest. But it seems a lot of people here think the opposite so I'm probably the outlier.

I think the Humble Monthlies are pretty worth it as is. $12 for Destiny plus like 6 or 7 other games seems like a better than normal deal. I don't know where a bunch of people in this thread are getting that everyone hated it. The GB crew was obviously very into it. Maybe not a perfect game, but god. We're talking $12.

Definitely! The campaign isn't great, but the shooting and co-op stuff will almost certainly make $12 seem a steal before you get tired of it.

Yes it is. One of the best feeling shooters to ever be made. The thing that most people really feel when completing the game is that there isn't more.

The real beef I've seen with the game is that the PvP aspects of Destiny took a more front seat due to the fact that Destiny 1's most hardcore fans only stuck around for PvP. They didn't realize it was because everyone else left when we realized they forgot to add story and content leaving only PvP players behind.

I played a lot of Destiny 1, but haven't made the jump to 2 yet. I have some questions that I tried to google, but if anybody knows:

Did the D1 character transfer have an expiry date, or can you do it still?

If so, did they ever allow Xbox - > PC character transfer?

Also: When The Taken King came out for D1, did it include the other DLC's too? That's when I got in on D1, but I remember base game players being annoyed about having to rebuy DLC they already owned. I guess this question is: Should I wait for the September DLC to buy in?

Finally, I'm going to want to use a controller, is that viable on PC? (probably not the Crucible, right?) Is there still auto-aim, etc, if it detects a controller?

@topcat88: character transfer was pretty much just appearance and a short slide show of your destiny 1 accomplishments. No levels or gear. Does not go Xbox to pc as far as I know but you aren’t missing anything there.

Don’t bother with Destiny 2. The highs aren’t worth the lows.

@topcat88: The D1 character Transfer happened automatically for all accounts if I remember correctly, but they are Platform specific (and to be honest, they were terrible rewards anyways, as after Day 1, I've never looked at those Emblems again, D2 has better ones that actually track stats), or Xbox One to Xbox One and PS4 to PS4 only. As far as The Taken King goes, it depended on how you purchased it. It launched for $40 for people who owned all previous content, but only $60 for new players. So if that was your goal, and D2 does the exact same, $12+$40 would be cheaper, but they may force you to own DLC 1 & 2 as well, which would negate that (I can't remember if that was the case or not, but I think it might have been). So if that is the case though, then rather than $12+$35+$40, you would be better off waiting for the Complete September Edition for $60. Now that I'm thinking about it, the whole "they forced me to buy content I already owned" was players who didn't buy the Dark Below/House of Wolves DLC's in Y1, and had to buy the Complete Taken King edition for $60. Personally, I'm not sure what to tell those players, as in my mind, they are still getting the Season Pass for $20 rather than $35 like everyone else. Same thing happened with Rise of Iron, it had a complete addition for $60, which included Destiny, Dark Below, House of Wolves, Taken King, and Rise of Iron (which was $35 standalone).

Should you wait until September to buy in? If price is the concern, is very likely a complete edition for the September DLC will launch, and be your cheapest entry level. But, the September DLC is going to start at Level 30, and expect most players to be Power Level 385, and also have a base understanding of the what went on in 3 Content launches stories. So another question becomes, is a $12 investment now, and 4 months to finish 30-50 hours worth of content a price worth getting that out of the way, so you don't have to slog through that when the actual September Content is what you want to play because everyone else is. Destiny is a very community focused game. At launch, the D2 Discord had people talking about it all day everyday, getting groups together to Raid the first couple weeks, etc. To me, that's what makes Destiny special, the community aspect of it. And playing through last years content in September, could cause someone to miss out on that aspect of the game entirely. So, is $12 worth testing the waters to even see if Destiny is worth that kind of investment of $60 in September? I'd say so, but I could understand the argument going the other way of it's just throwing $12 out the window.

Using a Controller is completely viable on PC. I bought the PC version when everyone started tailing off of PS4, and played about 50 hours, 100% on a Gamepad. It honestly made it feel identical to D2 on Console, but with all of the trapping/advantages of the PC (IMO, it's the better version in it's own right, but it has a drastically reduced playerbase, especially coming from PS4, and I have a massive Destiny PS4 friends list, so that will always be my Destiny home). Not sure what you mean by Auto-Aim, but it gives it the same Aim Assist and Recoil patterns of PS4/XOne (M/KB has zero Recoil). And as far as playing PvP, I actually had a slightly higher K/D than I do on PS4, so I think it's all relative. There were obvious moments were I ran into players where I was like, yep, can't be mad about that, he obviously M/KB'd me (due to crazy movement impossible with a Pad, or hitting 100% of Hand Cannon shots all game, something that was impossible on Console at launch due to low Accuracy values for HC's, RNG bullets, but is mostly fixed now), but I was also able to just punish M/KB players who didn't have a clue that Sidearms even existed in the game due to PS4 vs PC meta differences. Honestly though, PC Crucible suffers far more from low population than anything else. Long match queue times, against extremely skilled players, because only like 15k people are still playing on PC Crucible, and many of those are Streamers. I probably wouldn't even recommend PC Crucible to good M/KB players. I hope these answers help.

@wandrecanada: Honestly, that wasn't really the issue at all. The problem is Bungie felt like they needed to casualify the experience too much. They treated the entire playerbase like children, continued a longstanding tradition of nerfing everything that made Destiny 1 so special, all in some misguided attempt to make the experience harder, but all they ended up accomplishing is sucking a lot of the fun out the game. They slowed movement speed by more than half, cut Gun Damage values down by 33% pretty much across the board, dropped both Ability Cooldowns and Damage values a significant amount, and made the vast majority of both Subclasses, Weapons, and Armor almost purposefully not synergize with each other like D1 Classes and Weapons did. They gutted D1 Weapon/Armor perks, lowered Aim Assist significantly across the board (accuracy based weapons felt terrible until recently when this was reversed to an extent), replaced perks with a terrible Mod system that didn't work well, and introduced a Weapon Slot System that drastically reduced Guardian Power. One of the major reason's all of this was done, was to make it easier for Bungie to balance the game, in both PvE and PvP (it's hard to burn down Raid Bosses quickly it you have to use a Primary Weapon 75% of the time, which makes them easier to develop). All of this left PvP, in particular, feeling awful. Destiny 1 had a very unique PvP, and one where everyone always felt extremely powerful. You could take out 4 players in 4s, if you used Abilities and Weapons correctly. It was fantastic, and felt great. Destiny 2's 1.5-2.5s 1v1 fights just felt stale in comparison. The Skill Gap was shrunk to an extremely small window, and good players felt there was no way to show off how good they were at the game, and average players no longer had that 1 amazing "Legend of Bagger Vance Moment" per night or week that made the game worth playing. Thankfully, these are some of the biggest things Bungie has spent the last couple months addressing, so it's finally getting better (and pretty much all of those things are being directly addressed before September). But in essence, that is IMO, the major reason the vast majority of players left unhappy, at least D1 vets. The game was just a lot more boring than D1, moment to moment, in PvE, but drastically so in PvP.

Yes. I felt the campaign alone was worth $60 when I bought it week of release. Great set pieces, great moments. When the community imploded because it wasn't designed for them to play every hour of every day all I could do was shake my head in disbelief. It's so much better than D1.

Yes.

@hestilllives19: @brich: Thank you both for your replies. I played a LOT of Destiny 1, so I'm think I'm going to get in on this Humble Bundle.

It was lots of fun playing through the campaign with my friends, and doing most of the multiplayer stuff as well.

If you don't plan on playing competitively, in PVP only, the things people complain about doesn't matter.

The problem is that too many people are only interested in PvP, nothing else. And they compare everything to CS:GO, Rainbow Six and so on.

The PvP in Destiny 2 is just a tiny part of the whole game, a mostly insignificant one. Play the co-op stuff instead with friends, like you would a Borderlands game, and you'll have fun.

It's not an FPS I would play alone, in single-player. Your money is better spent on Prey or Far Cry 5 if that's the case.

It's not an awful price, but I'd feel much more comparable spending around $5-7 on it. At the very least less than $10.

The campaign is nothing special, but it's fun w/friends, and the game is gorgeous. For $12 and friends to play through it with, it's a good deal. The shooting mechanics are still top-notch too, btw.

Destiny 2 was pretty great for the time I spent with it and I spent $60 on it, so yeah I'd say it's worth $12. While the end game was lacking, I did play the game for a few weeks straight and got more hours out of it then most $60 games so for that low of a price you can't really go wrong

No, very few levels to see with missions constantly taking you through the same areas repeatedly, following a non story told by a very boring and sometimes annoying cast of characters.
I enjoyed it, because i spent my entire time playing with friends and we were all complaining about how crap it was the whole time.

I agree, it should be less than $6 to be worth it for the 6 hour campaign, which automatically boosts you to the max level when you finish. Also, the whole end game is locked behind the expansion pass, which is still regular price at $40.

Anyone want to start up a clan for those of us jumping in at the bargain basement price? A "Dan's Recycled Popcorn Container" clan?

If you don't care about the story and just want to shoot things up in a satisfying manner across colorful locations, then sure, $12 is probably ok. More so if you have friends to play it with.

It's kinda impressive that they barely managed to improve on the first game's story. It starts out ok, then afterwards just about every (not really interesting) story beat takes place during cutscenes and even those basically consist of talking and really nothing else. I guess they give you an illusion of a story happening, unlike the first game where it was either in the background or didn't exist at all.

Play warlock voidwalker, choose the risk runner as your first exotic weapon. You can have a blast with that combo. It’s probably the best thing about Destiny 2. For 12$ you can do worse. Like playing a hunter or something.

It's also $10 at Best Buy for PS4/XB1/PC atm, not sure for how long.

@glots: The first game felt like someone wrote out a huge bible for the universe and a massive story that would propel a game through 60 hours of playtime...

...then people realized the gameplay and the story would be at ends and they hack that story up and spat out what they could here and there.

It’s disjointed, the dialog is terrible, and it all feels incongruous. There are bits and pieces that work, like hunting down the ancient evil on the moon, but it’s more flavor and feel than story. I think the DLC and expansions told decent stories too. Rise of Iron probably being the best. Even then, they’re more highlights to bookend gameplay, kinda like Diablo.

I get why these games would be light on story moments based on game design, but it’s still a bummer.

For Destiny 2, they continued to distance themselves from the space opera and just told a pretty standard story about getting your revenge on a dude. I haven’t played any of the DLC (even though I was a sucker and bought the season pass), but I assume it’s more of the same.

I wish they had nailed the landing on vanilla Destiny. I think this franchise would be in a totally different place if that game didn’t launch as a flaming ball of hype crashing into reality.

I wish there was a way to use my PS4 characters on PC. I really don't feel like going through the main campaign a 4th time.

I played through the campaign three times, once per class and I had a great time with it and doing the public events. I think I paid $40 for the game back then and I feel I got my money's worth. Try and find an active clan to join. Even if you never group, you get free stuff just for being a member if they're leveling each season.

@bonbonetti: I'd say the main problem with this is that the PvP in Destiny 2 seems to dictate a whole lot of how the rest of the game plays/feels and that seriously detracts from the PvE stuff and even the more "casual" PvP side. They're making steps to lessen that balance though, so its maybe not such a huge problem anymore.

As for the main question, $12 is an alright price for just about any game. The best stuff in the game isn't the campaign though, and if that's your only reason for picking it up I'd say you could do better.

I really see no reason to transfer my character to PC. The game is still the same game just a little prettier and 60 fps...so no, not enough for me to care about.

My friend wants to buy this game through Humble for our buddy who hasn't played it so we can all play alts with him. And yes. It's worth that price for one play through which will take you about two weeks of casual play, one week of more focused effort.

You just have to be of the correct mind set and treat it more like Halo than Borderlands or Division or some of these MMO lite games with long tails. Destiny 2 is not interested in having any tail, at all.

I don't think the 'end game' is a mess. In fact the best things about Destiny is doing the raids. IMO the campaign etc is the barrier you have to get over to get to the raid.

People aren't playing it much anymore because the idea of playing a game forever is ridiculous.

I had a great time playing both destiny games and I'll jump back in for 2 weeks or so when the new DLC drops. Hope the new raid is good (I really liked the last one)

Just play Warframe. Bungie is hostile to their playerbase. I got Destiny 2 for free, enjoyed the first couple hours. Worth it, you would say. Well I felt real bad about playing the game when their in-game store shenanigans started all over again. I would have rather not used the code at all.

Consider this:

Destiny

Environments/story from trailers missing in game. (Held back for DLC including Taken King content.)
DLC retroactively locks players out of content that they had paid for.
Taken King excluded from their Season Pass.
Microtransactions added on top of DLC pricing.

Destiny 2

Eververse introducing paid loot boxes and shaders become limited use.
Lied about XP gain/loot box gain.
Made XP gain/loot box gain almost twice slower.
DLC retroactively locks players out of content that they had paid for.
After DLC gear locked behind loot box RNG.
Paid item to increase loot box drops is temporarily not working correctly.
Prismatic Matrix adding paid loot boxes on top of paid loot boxes as their solution to the first loot boxes.

Bungie just cannot get it right. It's not rocket science though, is it? It's like Bungie's own idea of 'player first' that they once embraced has been surgically removed from their brains (by Dr. Activision?) that they are since rendered incapable of thinking that way again.

@rasrimra: I know, there are some shady things Bungie's done with Destiny 2 up to this point. I almost feel guilty for supporting them, but screw it. I ended up jumping on it anyways. For $12 and I'll get a handful of other hopefully decent games with it? I can't really complain.

Destiny 2 is a great game and a bargain at $12

I always assumed that the various issues with both Destiny games were mostly down to Activision's meddling, CoD also has similar problems too.

I'm afraid that unless something drastic happens to the industry then the big gaming companies like Activision will keep doing what they do because they profit from it so much.