I’ll give you a quick answer to why it’s being given out for free: because it sucks. Well, at least it has a strong reputation for sucking and the hope is that maybe just maybe people will try it for free and then buy the expansion for it. Free is the best way to convince people that bad PR doesn’t mean the game is bad. So let’s get as much people to download it and keep the free game because at least then we can brag about how many people have downloaded our game.

I kept hearing people say “I won’t even get it if it’s free it’s so bad.” I like free things and I’m willing to give any game a try especially if it’s free. So I did. And I lasted just after the starting area to decide that there was nothing that I liked about the game. It had a rocky start, as I was trying to stream my adventures only to realize for some reason XSplit wasn’t working with it. Then it locked up on me.. maybe 4 times in 10 minutes as I was trying to get started on the game. Maybe I went into it with a biased point of view after those miserable first minutes, but I really really tried to keep an open mind about it.

I play FPS games. I’m not even too terrible at them. I found the aiming to be jittery even after messing with the sensitivity. (I’m a low sensitivity player when it comes to shooters). Maybe the game just wasn’t made for my pickiness when it came to sensitivity. I found the entire game to be jittery and I didn’t like it. I don’t like menus that shake on me when I’m trying to use them. Most of my problems with the game are probably UI related. Then I created what I thought looked like a really cool character, only I couldn’t figure out how to turn the character to really get a good look at her. Nope. Strike 2? (I’m losing count at how much I hate about the game even before I really get started playing.)

My son, who had already hit max level with his game needed to come over to help me. This was the down point of the game. The map wasn’t popping up with my objective on it and there was no indication of what I was supposed to be doing at several points in that starting area. By the 5th time he needed to come over to help, I had already given up on the game. Maybe I’ll pick it up when I’m bored sometime… but probably not.

So to those who are asking “Why Destiny 2 is free?”, there is your answer. I didn’t find the story compelling. In fact, I couldn’t even tell you anything about the story aside from your home has been destroyed. The graphics are mildly pretty and the landscape is decent to look at. I enjoyed that there was some difficulty in shooting the enemies and my patience wore out quickly waiting for them to come out of hiding so I could shoot them. I saw my son and husband play the first one and I thought I could totally get into that. This one is a shadow of that game; a money grab out of hopes that people would have the same awesome reaction as it did for the first one. Or at least purchase the second game just because they liked the first one without any concern if they were putting out crap because at least they got their money. It’s still free for a few more days (November 18th is the last day), so you can give it a try. But don’t say no one tried to warn you.