"Armor 2.0" is perhaps the biggest foundational update that Destiny 2 has seen since Forsaken, as it both reintroduced the old stats from Destiny 1 and gave players a means to craft their own character builds via mods and randomly-rolled stats. Following this, Season of the Worthy hosted the return of every Crucible fanatic’s favorite mode: Trials of Osiris. There are still balancing issues and such to iron out of course, but at this moment it’s probably safe to say that Destiny 2 has finally surpassed its predecessor in just about every meaningful way. It’s still a different game of course, but that difference is no longer a bad thing.

Outside of the new story, locations, enemies and Gambit, most of Forsaken’s changes lie in its quality-of-life improvements. From the addition of in-game lore to random rolls for weapons and gear to an in-game accomplishment tracker, Bungie has done an excellent job bringing back popular features they nixed when jumping from Destiny to Destiny 2. The good news is that all players can enjoy these improvements whether or not they own Forsaken.

The following months also weren’t kind to Destiny 2 and its fans. First, fans starved for meaningful content wound up being sorely disappointed with Curse of Osiris thanks to lackluster rewards and the reality of what the "Infinite Forest" actually was: a technologically-impressive loading zone. It sounded cool on paper and was a technological achievement on the part of Bungie, but it unfortunately didn’t amount to much in terms of gameplay.

If there’s one problem with the Dreaming City, it’s the Blind Well. Working like the Court of Oryx and Archon Forge, players make sacrifices to draw out powerful enemies and, hopefully, earn powerful rewards. As in The Taken King, it’s an excellent idea for a mode that’s unfortunately executed poorly. As Fireteams can only hold three players outside of Crucible and Raids, who else you’ll get, if anyone else, is up to chance. It’s possible six other players with high-level gear will show up. It’s also possible for under-leveled players to hop in or even no extra players at all. The problem started with The Taken King and it’s disappointing Bungie hasn't addressed all these years later.

Destiny 2’s fourth expansion, Shadowkeep, and its most recent seasons have kept the positive momentum going. With the release of Shadowkeep, Guardians got to return to The Moon to take on nightmarish versions of many defeated foes. The main content additions also included two new strikes, one new Crucible map, two new-ish Crucible Maps and the "Garden of Salvation" raid. Shadowkeep also brought with it the reorganization of the Crucible and the launch of "Armor 2.0."

Destiny 2: New Light comes with all content and activities associated with Years 1 of Destiny 2. That includes Destiny 2, Curse of Osiris, and Warmind. New players can access these campaigns by visiting Amanda Holliday in the Tower’s hangar.

Thumos, The Unbroken is the boss in Destiny 2 that exhibits the sensitivity and emotional unpredictability of a Cancer. He is also 'friend-oriented' based on the number of allies he deploys in his boss bat

That mentality extends to the way Bungie is handling post-launch content. Season of the Undying sees waves of Vex arriving via a storm to take over the Moon. Watching them arrive is breathtaking, and the firefights that ensue are hectic and enjoyable. Then there's the new Vex Offensive activity, which allows players to travel back to the Black Garden to take on the Vex. It's a surprisingly robust seasonal activity and it'll be interesting to see what lasting impact the Vex have on the Moon once the Season is over.

Despite all the regression with the campaign and monetization and the rehashing of older content, Destiny 2 still looks quite good. The Moon is an atmospheric place to visit and traversing the caverns the Hive call home produces a sense of dread that other locations in the Destiny 2 experience can't provide. Meanwhile, the short visits into the Black Garden are gorgeous thanks to all the colors and lush jungle mixed with Vex machinery. Destiny 2 may be two years old now, but it's still looking good.

Forsaken’s plot is a refreshing break from the consistent ‘save the world’ plots of Destiny games, and expansions tend to throw at us. The tale is more personal and adds additional depth to the generic light vs. dark struggle that has permeated the series to this point. Forsaken represents a leap forward for storytelling in Destiny 2 player housing, surpassing the benchmark set by The Taken King .

Endless Vale, another Vex-themed map, is bordering on being a bit too small for 6V6. Those who might not enjoy the chaos of it might find it too claustrophobic, and prefer it in 3V3 where the classic middle peek at the beginning of the round is bound to get someone sni

The cycle of Destiny whiplash continues with Destiny 2: Shadowkeep. Like during the Destiny 1 era, we started with a lackluster opening, then got two awful expansions, got our significant overhaul, and now we're at the stopgap. Much like Rise of Iron , it's hard to shake the feeling that Bungie is just buying time until the inevitable next entry in the franchise. In this case, Destiny 2: Shadowkeep feels like Bungie is slow-walking to Destiny 3. The campaign ends up going nowhere, ending in an unsatisfying cliffhanger we likely won't see resolved for a while. Meanwhile, as great as the Moon is compared to its incarnation in the first game, there's no getting around the fact that we've already seen and paid for this before. The core gameplay is still the star of the show, the Moon is a fun place to play around in, the Strikes are imaginative and the new Seasonal Activity is a standout. But you can access all that without owning Shadowkeep (though the Seasonal Activity does require you to own the Season Pass). Destiny 2: Shadowkeep isn't bad, but it also feels wholly unnecessary when most of its selling points (Strikes, the Moon, Armor 2.0) can be played without owning it. This is one nightmare we didn't need to have.