I pre-ordered the game when it first came out, and I even bought the deluxe edition for every DLC, season pass and even a fair amount of the in-game currency; I even sunk a few thousand hours in the game trying to collect all the exotics, and level my Titan and Warlock. Don't get me wrong, I adore this franchise, the gameplay is smooth and satisfying, the gunplay is amusing and feels impactful, the graphics, character design and landscapes are beautiful and incredibly well done, the story arch is very heart-wrenching and intense for the most part, and the game feels reasonably challenging up until you finish the campaign.

Though, for me, I feel ripped off, after sinking in almost 2000 hours solo into this game since launch, and spending hundreds of my hard earned money just to learn that the game is going to be free, along with its first two DLC's, and have a new overhauling DLC (Shadowkeep) that you have to pay for in order to unlock any meaningful/interesting content; anyone that paid for the game and the first two DLC's before they went free get no compensation, as a college student with little spare money to spend on things like this, it feels like Bungie have just spat in my face; and to add insult to injury, Bungie don't have ANY way of contacting them if you have an issue with their game, so you can't even get reimbursed if you tried. They also brought out a booster that basically instantly levels you from 0 to somewhere near max, which I feel takes away from the starting experience, but it does make things easier for newcomers.

On the gameplay front, I also think that this game (even though it's significantly easier than the original Destiny) is not friendly to solo players and casual players at all, because a solid 70% of the content needed to get any of the significant and powerful gear requires a team of people, like Raids or Trials, those don't have matchmaking, so if you don't have 3-6 friends free that are all the same level as you, it's just not possible to do, making progression in the game turn stale, slow and boring because you simply can't do the endgame content solo. The game also needs a lot of attention in order to keep on top of things, because (a merit to Bungie, they're very good at releasing good and refreshing content quite regularly) in order to stay at a high enough level to actually do any of the content you have to grind as often as possible, which isn't always doable for a casual player, and it's made twice as hard for solo players because they have no-one to help them.

My overall summary, it's okay, if you're only just getting into it, but if you actually want to enjoy the game for what it is, be prepared to spend a lot of money, and free up your schedule for a whole lot of grinding (even if you have friends to play with).

I pre-ordered the game when it first came out, and I even bought the deluxe edition for every DLC, season pass and even a fair amount of the in-game currency; I even sunk a few thousand hours in the game trying to collect all the exotics, and level my Titan and Warlock. Don't get me wrong, I adore this franchise, the gameplay is smooth and satisfying, the gunplay is amusing and feels impactful, the graphics, character design and landscapes are beautiful and incredibly well done, the story arch is very heart-wrenching and intense for the most part, and the game feels reasonably challenging up until you finish the campaign. Though, for me, I feel ripped off, after sinking in almost 2000 hours solo into this game since launch, and spending hundreds of my hard earned money just to learn that the game is going to be free, along with its first two DLC's, and have a new overhauling DLC (Shadowkeep) that you have to pay for in order to unlock any meaningful/interesting content; anyone that paid for the game and the first two DLC's before they went free get no compensation, as a college student with little spare money to spend on things like this, it feels like Bungie have just spat in my face; and to add insult to injury, Bungie don't have ANY way of contacting them if you have an issue with their game, so you can't even get reimbursed if you tried. They also brought out a booster that basically instantly levels you from 0 to somewhere near max, which I feel takes away from the starting experience, but it does make things easier for newcomers. On the gameplay front, I also think that this game (even though it's significantly easier than the original Destiny) is not friendly to solo players and casual players at all, because a solid 70% of the content needed to get any of the significant and powerful gear requires a team of people, like Raids or Trials, those don't have matchmaking, so if you don't have 3-6 friends free that are all the same level as you, it's just not possible to do, making progression in the game turn stale, slow and boring because you simply can't do the endgame content solo. The game also needs a lot of attention in order to keep on top of things, because (a merit to Bungie, they're very good at releasing good and refreshing content quite regularly) in order to stay at a high enough level to actually do any of the content you have to grind as often as possible, which isn't always doable for a casual player, and it's made twice as hard for solo players because they have no-one to help them. My overall summary, it's okay, if you're only just getting into it, but if you actually want to enjoy the game for what it is, be prepared to spend a lot of money, and free up your schedule for a whole lot of grinding (even if you have friends to play with).