The Today marks the 8-year anniversary of Destiny 2. So, by now, it’s been eight years ever since Bungie unleashed this colossal sequel meant to build on all the experiences from the first. And the player reactions are something else, really, it is like opening a time capsule half full with nostalgic genialities and the other half with outright frustrations.
The Official Destiny 2 tracker account tweeted the simple anniversary message with a screenshot from launch day portraying a Guardian and clad in green armor, which one player commented looked “so strange lol. They are the real exotics in the game” now. The innocent celebration then turned into a heated debate on the current state of the game, lack of content, and whether or not to make Destiny 3.
Honestly, that’s the conversation one player set right at the start: “8 years of D2 and people rather have more DLCs than a sequel.” A few others had sentiments alike, in particular, with respect to Bungie’s live-service way of handling. Then there’s the whole “there isn’t any content” situation right now. Remember the Red War campaign? Yeah, the thing that took new players into the world. That is gone now. People are straight-up begging for it to be returned; one comment went some lines of: “I really want to replay this fucking campaign… Just bring all the shit back @Destiny2Team please. The raids, updated legendary campaigns the zones everything. Please.”
And those ain’t even the beginning of the new player experience. Another player, jokingly, gave a nice explanation of Bungie’s cluelessness for why new players haven’t been jumping in: “Bungie: I dont understand, why we are not having new players. New players: What is the red war? What did i miss between D1 and D2? Wait… A 12 hours lore video? Yeah, no thanks.” Fair enough. How does one even jump into a story-driven game when the first chapters have been vaulted?
There is that other question about consistency. An onset of rant was from one player: “And 8 years later is near death because since 2014 Bungie still doesn’t have a clue what Destiny should be as a game. Every time a new game director changes, the game changes again. We’re on the second sunset of gear with an expansion made of 95% recycled content. GG Bungie! 🙄🤮” Oof. Some harsh takes there but certainly not alone. Others referred to release day as “a sad day,” or just flatly said, “Wish it wasn’t” the anniversary.
But the trials and tribulations are far away from over. Some players seem to be reminiscing about the good life. One player spilled, “My fav mission in Vanilla Destiny 2 was when us guardians were in the the city streets retaking it from the Cabal. The fact that Bungie made that mission like a public event style where you could storm your way to the Tower w/random players was a masterpiece! & The music was🔥” So there is still some love there somewhere deep beneath the rants.
Not to mention how bro changes: “And it sucked booty hole with the double primary and static rolls. Hey look, my 7th Better Devils, how exciting! Not!!!! Then they hit us with the Go Fast update and they permanently righted the ship from there…” So yes, while the game was evolving-the path wasn’t always that smooth.
The debate if Destiny should get a sequel or not goes: One player flatly stated, “Destiny 3 needs to happen,” while others argued that Destiny should have been treated more like an MMO since its inception and thus didn’t need any sequels. To quote, “It’s almost like Destiny is a MMO and those types of games don’t need constant sequels 😍 It just needs more than 8 people and a janitor working on it at Bungie.” Boom!
There’s this whole vibe of… tiredness? Like after eight long years, players just cannot take these same cycles anymore. The content gets vaulted, new updates come through, old gear sunsets—just so much. And because Bungie did not even celebrate the anniversary (one player noted, “Annnd no celebration 🔥🔥”), it feels just like the developers are vacating too.
Nonetheless, a really healthy player base clusters around Destiny 2. Expressing his sentiment, a veteran player says, “Man, 8 years this has been my main game… WOW.” Now that’s some commitment. Some still hope this game gets a resurrection that brings back all old activities and raids with updated rewards.
The 8th anniversary of Destiny 2 reminds us just how far the game has moved and how much farther it needs to go. The franchise has inspired both loyal envy as well as glaring frustration; in these 8 long years, although it still is may not be an ungrateful one to the players. Nah Bungie isn’t going to answer to this one whether they’ll respond or not?.. For now, it’s the community who’s thinking, fighting, and maybe, just maybe, wishing for a much better Year 9.
