Here’s some background info: I have been playing D2 since the free giveaway for vanilla D2. I really liked the time I had with it but ultimately didn’t stay for long after the campaign was complete and finished the same strikes multiple times. For New Light, I have been playing the campaigns I’ve missed out for the Y1 content, and I was fine with it overall. The storytelling was rough, probably worse than The Red War (vanilla campaign). With that said, the gameplay has always been it’s strong points. I love the feeling of getting more powerful gear, especially if it is an exotic weapon. But the bounties, Eververse and the Crucible aren’t my favourite parts of the game.
Enough about my long diversion: has the game improved since becoming independent again? I’m talking from Forsaken to Shadowkeep. I’ve heard mostly agreements but some still aren’t sold on it. I personally don’t play it thoroughly as others would have, so what do you guys think? I personally like the addition of content for free players and I’m not bothered by the Eververse all too much, though the silver being near impossible to gain seems unfair. However, the season pass is probably the shadiest out of all the monetization and even I didn’t think I’d be in a disadvantage if I play it for free or even if I play the base game w/ DLC.
Update (15/10/2019): Thanks for all the insight given by the community in regards to D2’s current state. I love the responses here as they provide a different point of view. Here’s hoping for the better for Bungie and Destiny 2, at least for me.
Oh I also want to get that badge and tell you all I have a new profile pic lol
So i played the game as well when it was given for free, i think i got to the part where the only thing i had left to do was grinding and a couple of side quests.
But now since they put it on steam, i went into it again, and a lot has changed.
- The game is not tied to a campaign anymore, and no longer holds your hand, but you can still pick up the 3 legacy ones from Amanda Holliday in the Tower if you want to play them.
- You can almost immediately play with your friends, you don’t need to play long campaign missions to get to that point.
- The planets are now unlocked based on xp, so at least it’s not overwhelming players.
- Speaking of planets, now you can go to the the ones that were previously locked like The Moon, but of course you won’t be able to play the Strikes, Campaigns and whatever else is tied to the DLC.
- Most of the content is available to you to play (except some DLC ones) which is good and i like, so there is a lot more to do as a new player or as a veteran player, but you’re still going to get to a point where all you have left to do is grinding Crucibles, Bounties, Raids, etc. for more powerful gear.
But i don’t know, i feel like it’s a bit better the way they changed everything, you can jump in an enjoy the content, of course there are some downsides but overall it’s still a fun game for me. I have put in 36 hours so far since it’s on steam and i’m enjoying it once again, new missions, new game modes to play, new planets to explore, and a lot of grinding. 
I dunno how things will shake out for Bungie. This is their first release since the separation from Activision.
I think that much of the struggle with this game is centered around the apparent fact that streamers and “influencers” with massive followings seem to be the guiding force of this game’s development.
When the game launched there were static perks set for every weapon, and it’s very obovious that many many things were designed around that never changing. Streamers and there legions of followers complained until random perks were brought back, which completely destroyed the relevance of collections.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m having fun with ShadowKeep, but It’s basically the moon from Destiny 1 again. A few, too few, welcome additions.
And uhh… I’ve had enough on Destiny 1 moon
^old destiny 1 stats I’m on PC Destiny 2 now.
I’ve seen it 1000s of times. It’s kind of nice still knowing where everything is, but… ehh.
The ShadowKeep story is basically a greatest hits of bosses I’ve killed 1000s of times. So… not good.
The actual new is good. Vex Offensive is really fun, but doesn’t seem to be changing. I like that Nightfalls have matchmaking now, but holy shit, they give me one thing I like and take another thing away… which is getting to choose my strike for the nightfall.
I know why they did that, choosing from 4-5 strikes would have divided the matchmaking pool too much, but they could have made it a playlist like the regular strike playlist. I’m already very tired of running the same strike 20-30 times a week.
They brought back more Destiny 1 exotics. -_-
It really just looks like we are staring at a studio that is very quickly running out of ideas.
Destiny’s moneymaking schemes have always been icky, but at least this time it wasn’t 80USD for the game and the annual pass.
Overall, some things in Destiny 2 have gotten better, and other things have gotten worse. It’s a real mix bag. I’m starting to get to the point in shadowkeep that if I don’t raid, i’ll get bored and play something else.
If you’re new to Destiny 2, there’s literally hundreds of hours of stuff to get done, If you’re like me then you might find yourself at the end of the content pretty fast.
I was die-hard d1 until TTK, played that and then stopped until D2 launch. Got it as a gift, played until raid content, exhausted that and stopped again. I got back into it on PC when vanilla launched for free on bnet and I’ve been jammin’ on it since. The Black Armory and Season of the Drifter were meh, Season of Opulence a bit better than the two.
But I think now is a super awesome point to get back into the game. You can explore the moon and kinda see what’s going on without having to pay anything, and there’s a shit ton to do that’s free to play, which is super rad. I’d encourage you to jump on and play without buying anything just to see how you like the armor 2.0 system; run some strikes, maybe look at some vids about how new mods and builds work, all that good stuff.
Outside of the free to play things, D2 is in a super cool place right now. Shadowkeep offers a bunch of pretty insane lore stuff, Garden of Salvation (the raid) is incredibly paced and super fun. All the possible rolls on the weapons are cool and it feels really nice to chase an energy weapon besides recluse (goin after that one-two punch raid shotty so I can run monte carlo and peregrine for my kicky titan 
)
Aside from all of that though, they’ve set themselves up beautifully not only for the rest of the season but for the seasons to come. Things are feeling a bit subtle right now and it is easy to feel like this expac doesn’t have much to offer yet, because we’ve just finished week two and are coming on week three of the like six/seven week roadmap they have laid out. There’s still the exotic bow quest coming up, the final difficulty for nightmare hunts, festival of the lost, more phantom clearing for Eris, and the climax of vex offensive. As the weeks go by it’ll feel like there’s a lot more to do, especially if you jump in later rather than sooner. The only thing you’re going to be missing out on is the experience of playing during all of these events/a lesser feeling of an evolving world, since you’re jumping in after stuff is happening instead of already existing during it.
Beyond that, they were kind of pressed for time on the Shadowkeep launch. It got delayed before launch, and I think it’s feasible to think they cut some stuff they would’ve preferred to have in favor of less crunch time on their staff. Bungie gets a lotta hate for MTX shenanigans they’ve pulled in the past and while I definitely wasn’t a fan of that stuff either, I don’t get the feeling that they’re trying to pull a fast one on us with the new season pass model or content schedules. Compounded with the dev diaries and vidocs, it really feels like they’re doing their best to make sure they communicate and have a proper relationship with the players, which is super cool.
TLDR: D2 is in a super great place right now. There might not be a billion things for you to do right now if you’re not super into the game, but the longer the season goes on the more there will be for you, the only thing you’ll miss out on is the feeling of an evolving world. If nothing impresses you so far, sit on it and grab this season after the next one comes out, or just grab the next season and jump into it then if you like what you saw. Hope this helps 
I’ll keep it rather short and simple (Mostly because I just got home from Thanksgiving weekend with my family and am dying to play some games) One big thing I hate about this free version is DLC. Let me explain. I bought forsaken and Shadowkeep on PS4. I was not expecting to get my PC done this early which is the only reason I bought Shadowkeep on PS4.
But I heard about the cross-save and thought, okay the DLC will transfer but nope, I had to buy Shadowkeep and I have yet to buy forsaken on PC. Anyway, that was my one downside to new light. A lot of players don’t realize, D2 was very overwhelming before some of these changes. There was a LOT more stuff available before hand to grind out weekly to get powerful engrams. Even a lot of missions/quests are so much easier now, like the Nightfall, or the quest to get outbreak perfected, which I do recommend its a very fun challenge. (Wow this is way longer than expected)
When it comes to Eververse changes. I will say i liked the old system way more. Bright dust used to be basically the main microtransaction currency that you could get free just for grinding the game a bit every week. Now we have to buy silver to get bright dust and it honestly sucks. I have 9k saved up at this moment and I’ll probably never spend it because of how hard it is to get more, and how rare Nostalgic engrams are.
I do hate the fact that I grinded to 750 before the changes, it was honestly pointless. I grinded the shit out of the game all summer, I was super far behind as I hadn’t played the game since the first DLC came out. Then it turned out afer all that, getting all 3 of my characters to 750 and grinding out the Solstice of Heros event on all three. Everyone was now at 750 with shadow keep. I do care so much because that meant I could play the game again with all my friends who like me hadn’t played the game for a very long time. I just wish I got a reward for it something to say thanks for making it to 750 and your continued support of Destiny 2.
In the end though I’ve been having a lot of fun playing with friends that I’ve been slowly drifting away from for a long time now. This game and my PC brought us all back together again. And in the end, its the friendship that matters most, sure the games not perfect, and never will be but Bungie saved my friendship with three people I’ve none basically my entire life. I’m sure eventually we’ll start playing less and less together but it felt AMAZING to play with them again.
Alright, my rather short and simple reply (Basically an Essay) is done, you can take a breath.