To start things off, I'm going to make it clear that this recommendation is pretty borderline. The only reason I'm giving this game a thumbs up over a thumbs down is because I genuinely enjoy it and I think it's a blast to play and to learn with friends, if you are willing to put the time, effort, and money into it.

However, Destiny is not without its issues. Yes, the monetization scheme is ♥♥♥♥♥♥. I don't like the idea of paying a hundred bucks for an entire year of content sight unseen, which I learned the hard way this year - I bought the Deluxe Edition of Lightfall, expecting something big. That didn't happen. We got shafted big time.

Lightfall is a complete letdown. Strand is fun, yes, but it's also underwhelming and not all that powerful in endgame content (GM nightfalls, master raids) due to the almost complete absence of survivability that Strand offers. And don't even get me started on the campaign. Something about it never really felt right, and the story just didn't hit as hard as Witch Queen did. Legendary difficulty was still very challenging, but it felt easier than Witch Queen (which I see as a plus honestly). The raid, Root of Nightmares, is a mixed bag of feelings for me. It just so happens to be the easiest raid in the game at this point, while also offering some pretty nice loot (though the weapon and armor designs are a little funky, I like them. Except for the warlock armor, that's just ugly).

Now, to briefly talk about the seasons.

Last season, Defiant, was not bad. It was fun being able to mess around with the Favors, though the seasonal activities were not that well designed in my opinion. While yes, Vexcalibur and Avalon were fun, the Legend difficulty on both the seasonal battlegrounds and Avalon was too much in my opinion. Legend difficulty Avalon was a nightmare that I do not wish to relive again.

This season, the Deep, is so-so. I'm looking forward to the bits of lore that we're going to learn through the current goings-on, hopefully learning more about what's to come. I'm also very excited about the Taken weapons, though I was hoping we'd get some taken armor too. Though the armor sets are not half bad, especially the battle pass ornaments and the new dungeon armor (best set in the game so far IMO). But it's getting kind of repetitive. HOWEVER, I gotta give Bungie some credit for the deep dives. Though they started off boring, now that we can do the whole thing in one go, we now have something with some real challenge to push through.

Overall, the past few months since Lightfall have just left a bad taste in my mouth. I did not get my money's worth for the expansion, and I'm pretty bent out of shape about it. Am I going to stop playing? Probably not. But I'm probably going to start playing less much more quickly as the season goes on. I'm just not really feeling as excited anymore. Plus, as much as I wanna farm the new dungeon, it just so happens that dungeons are a huge hassle to farm in this game... I hope Bungie figures something out.

TL;DR - Recent content is falling short of the mark, don't buy unless it's on sale. If you want the older expansions, look for CD keys elsewhere. Dirt cheap on PC. Destiny could be doing better right now, but it's gonna take an outstanding season to rekindle the flame.