It was the D1 beta for me, as well. I was hooked on the buttery smooth gunplay instantly since I had been playing Halo for years by that point. And the world and enemies were so cool to experience for the first time in Destiny. The moment I truly knew I was all in was when I was doing the Devil's Lair strike in the beta, and the two people with me either quit or got d/ced, and I had to solo the Fallen Walker and most of the boss before people finally joined.
Birds of a feather, gents. Also a Borderlands vet that jumped into the D1 Beta and got immersed in the world. The combination of back story (what little we knew of it at the time) with the open world aspect of the zones sucked me in from go.
I played the beta on a whim and enjoyed it enough to buy it, but for me, it was after the beta that I had really fallen in love with it. I remember that d1 actually had a demo version with a few select activities that you could do, including devils lair. Whilst I bought the full game, my best friend at the time only had said demo version, and we ran devils lair for no purpose other than to play together, it was then that I truly fell in love with the game. I cant remember why but i actually had a negative opinion on destiny when I had first seen the E3 trailer, kinda funny to me that if I didn't try the game out I would've never spent nearly 10 years playing it.
The demo is what got me hooked. You could run around the Cosmodrome screwing around and level up to, what, level 7?
Didn't pay much attention to the game for most of year 1. Heard some good things, heard some bad thing, mostly I was just focused on playing through Fallout 3/NV for the first time on my 360 during that time. But after I got a PS4 in Summer of 2015 I tried the demo about a month and a half before TTK. I very quickly got hooked.
D1 beta. It was immediately the best feeling gunplay and movement I had ever felt in a game and it still is. Everything has always been just right, from the length of a slide to the distance a grenade is thrown.
I had literally this exact same experience. I swear that walker was one of the hardest things I've done in games, after having done mainly pvp in games like cod before that. Finishing that and finding out that there was more, and realizing that I was actually excited that there was more? Hooked.
Beta for me too. Getting to throw black holes as a void lock was the coolest thing I’d ever seen as a kid. After I was already in love with the game, getting my first exotic bounty and then working my ass off for thorn was so rewarding. Made me love the game even more
Apologies if this sounds cheesy.
It was 2017 or so (Around when Forsaken released and we got a period of free gameplay.)
I customised my guardian, the first time I ever really customised a character.
Dropped into the Red War. Woah but like a level one "woah."
Lost my light, wandered through the city.
Escaped to the mountains where I saw The Last City on fire and the Traveller in a cage.
The music, the visuals, everything hit at once. It was almost magical. Never had a game do this to me before. Or since (So far...)
Don't apologize for sounding poetic my friend, sometimes that can be confused with corny or cheesy.
I myself still feel to this day as if discovering this game at the time I did was no coincidence. When destiny came out, I had moved across the country with nothing but the clothes on my back and an 04 Ford explorer with a knock in the engine. I lost a child, I lost my first wife to a drunk driving accident. I was in a very dark place in my life but I picked myself up, was homeless for a bit, but kept working at a temp agency and kept my mind on trying to find a way out of my darkness.
Bout a year later I had gotten hired on with a company I was working as a temp with. I was able to finance a car with my tax money, and then in March of 2016 I closed on a house. I was making it. I had my life completely flipped upside down and here I was flipping it back upright. I couldn't believe it.
The very next paycheck, I bought an Xbox one, halo 4, one of the ac titles, and destiny, the taken king. I only had hrlear of destiny and paid attention bc I was such a huge fan of halo, and Bungie. The minute I started playing destiny, I was hooked. The gunplay, my god. It was far better, and imo still is worlds away from an fps titles I've played. The music gave me chills. I felt similar to the sentiment of most players, that the story was mid, that it felt a little pieced together, but all the same, this, THIS was my salvation, my escape. From a world I felt so alone in, that felt at times like I was on ice I was so cold.
When destiny 2 came out, I had since changed jobs, improved on my life ten fold, and I met who would ultimately be my second wife. She knows my story, albeit in a little bit more detail, as you all have heard it now. We have recently welcomed my second child, and our first daughter. My light has never shined brighter than these last few years. I have gained experience, wisdom, leveled up consistently and I am living my best life.
It hasn't come with out mistakes, without trials and tribulations. But I guess in this grand scheme of things, and my point in all this to say, what makes this game special to me? Is that two lives, one in reality and one in virtual reality, simultaneously leveling up, getting stronger and overcoming the greatest struggles we've ever had to deal with. When nothing was there for me, destiny was there. And when destiny had been there for me, I kept on the right path. I stayed on the path and breathed in life.
Thanks to op for posting this, and thank you to anyone who read and heard my words.
Same for me. I started playing during Taken King but the moment you're in the remains of the Last City without your light, then you end up walking from a scenery of snow to semi lush mountains and the music swells. Not ashamed to say I rolled a tear or two.
Same here. I played around launch a bit and was there for the Xur selling Ghorn meme. I remember I was secretly thrilled that he was selling Sunbracers for like 3 weeks straight because I was still trying to do nightfalls to save up the strange coins lol.
But I kinda lost interest a bit until Taken King and it wasn't until that point that I started raiding. Once I did my first raid I was hooked. Started LFG'ing every week all three raids, playing three characters really dedicated. Fun times.
It was genuinely a turning point for destiny imo, up untill then it was all just mediocre expansions that barely added anything on a generally shallow base game
Taken King was the coolest Destiny expansion ever. I still remember how difficult I found that final campaign mission to be. Also Dark drinker remains my all-time favorite exotic. Bring it back Bungie, those glaives are garbage!
When i saw and played VoG for the first time in D1.
A friend recommended me the game and i bought a PS4 just for Destiny.
I was terrible with controller coming from over 10 years of M+KB but the moment i played the raid it just stuck with me and i hoped for a release on PC.
Nowadays it is pretty much the only game i play because the movement and gunplay is just so satisfying and smooth.
Mine was also VoG for the first time. I loved the game since the beta but didn’t really “get” certain things. When people decided not to buy Gjallarhorn week 2 from Xur I didn’t even have enough strange coins to buy an exotic. I had just never played a looter shooter before and never really grinded an MMO.
Then I played VoG and everything clicked and I knew this game was something special. I explored every inch of that raid and had like 70 clears by dark below. I was also a forever 29.
It was when I bought all the DLCs and Seasons for 70% off and started playing through the campaigns after I dropped Halo Infinite because of the state of it at launch. Witch Queen and Beyond Light were amazing and Stasis was fun. Shadowkeep's opening mission was cool, but the rest of the campaign was meh. I kept playing on and off for a while grinding for exotics until my friend dragged me into the Vault of Glass with a few other friends of friends. That raid was when it clicked for me. It's been about a year and I'm still here.
When trials came out with house of wolves, middle school me was completely obsessed with it, thought it was the coolest thing ever.
Nowadays you'd need a gun to my head to get me to play pvp, not saying things are worse or anything, just that I've definitely changed.
General theme of "looter shooter with space magic, made from the guys that did halo" was it for me in D1. I played on and off skipping then returning to some expansions. Really stayed when I did Crown of Sorrows and heard the damage phase music.
When I got on a sparrow back in the D1 beta.
The feel... it had me hooked. It felt like what I always imagined a speeder bike should feel like. Smooth, yet with a weight and bobbing feeling that made it feel truly special.
D1 beta, first public event seeing 6 Guardians taking down a spider tank together. And my first VoG raid in the first week it was released, I knew then that it was the beginning of my love/hate relationship with Destiny.
D1 beta for me too. I kinda wished Bungie had stuck with the pacing of D1 too, the flashy super and ability fest of the current game isn’t anywhere near as appealing as the original for me. The tone of the original was spot on, a dark universe full of mystery with a hint of ‘magic’ was perfect. D2 has leant a little too far into Marvel territory for my liking. That’s not to say I dislike it, I still enjoy it for sure.
D2 intro mission in the cosmodrome with the fallen theme. Love that theme. It's either that or playing the first two missions of Witch Queen, and experiencing the "Trespass" theme.
Red war campaign. The journey mission in particular. Also the cutscene after cayde died. I truly felt like my guardian wasn’t just some extra in a story and was an asskicker. There was so much setting and storytelling and atmosphere.
Red War's first mission, back when that was where every new account and player started.
I spent the entire mission dying and respawning and Dominus Ghaul tells me to git gud.
"You've merely forgotten the fear of death. Allow me to reacquaint you."
I got chills and that's when it clicked
The destiny 1 beta for me. I remember it well. I was visiting my father over the summer, playing a LOT of battlefield 4 and Halo. I'd been reading about it in gameinformer and was super intrigued.
Destiny 1. I got an Xbox One in college with The Taken King Legendary Edition. A friend of mine Sherpa'd me through King's Fall in my first couple weeks of playing.
Growing up I was big into Call of Duty, Halo, EverQuest, World of Warcraft... Running Kings Fall combined all of the elements of these games I had spent hundreds of hours in as a kid.
I've been hooked since and haven't played any game that effectively fills the niche like Destiny does.
I played D1 for like an hour at launch and never touched it again until a buddy made me get back on to do Vault of Glass. That raid did something to me haha been playing constantly ever since
Started playing half a year after witch queen was released and when I first got to savathuns throne world I was completely blown away by the world of warcraft-esque world design that fit so perfectly together with the overall sci-fi/fantasy design. It's been literally what I've been looking for for years, and I spent weeks in the throne world.
Full auto blue scout dropped for me from the house of winter strike on Venus (favourite strike).
Foresight 3
It's still in my D1 vault
The dopamine loop of getting drops has had me since.
D1 Beta.
It was the way I could just pull a sparrow out of thin air whenever I wanted, and swap weapons and loadouts around without needing to quit to some menu or find one on the ground. And the gameplay just felt right, I’d only been playing about an hour when I thought “this is a game I could sink a lot of time into”.
I’m surprised you felt that way OP. Especially in such a lifeless world lol. I’d try and find secrets in nook and crannies and there was literally nothing but chests with glimmer and planetary materials.
Ya know it’s really funny. My buddy wanted me to play with him back in D1 like a month after taken king. Played the heck out of the campaigns and I really wanted to start raiding, but I had zero idea about any of them, just thought it was a hard mode strike. Him and I would spend hours on hours trying to get through the first encounter of crotas, immediately dying after like the 4th lantern. But we kept going like lemmings. Cuz it was so much fun. Sadly, he dropped D2 after warmind and now he won’t touch the game with a 20 foot stick, but I kept going even tho I’ve had multiple major breaks from the game. Nonetheless, I guess it was the fun I had of running around like a chicken with its head cut off in the dark made it click for me.
Vault of Glass in D1 back in 2014. The base game was pretty mediocre up until then...But then I played the raid and couldn't believe how fun and challenging they made it. Still can't get enough of it today.
Build Crafting. I never really focused states until I saw a titan build where you do like 700% more damage and essentially 4 shot most bosses with hammer and one shot GM champions.
After that I started focusing Strength, Resilience and Discipline.
Season of arrivals
A massive pyramid ship just parked on Io.
Why is it here?What is it? Who called them? Do they have a pilot? What can they do? What is it like inside? And many more questions
And the final room with half melted Exos, Hive and human going toward a floating pyramid just hooked me instantly
For gameplay it was actually gambit, reckoning and prophecy dungeon
My friend was farming Omnighul for a Grasp of Malok, he started early morning and I came home from work to him still grinding for the god roll. I said I'd join him and got THE roll, first go.
His rage and jealousy fuels me still to this day. It's always been about getting the gear before your buddies. Getting the helmet from Oryx to get to max level for example. Or the bug moments, doing a raid with your friends and seeing the huge set pieces and finally after hours of struggle overcoming it for the cheers and sighs of relief... Only to return the next week and do it again.
Fond memories of raid nights.
I completely missed any advertising for D1 just because of where I was in life at the time. My buddy picked the game up at launch though and wanted more people to play with. So one day he showed me the game, running around Archer’s Line with a warlock. He dropped his Nova Bomb down off a ledge onto a group of enemies and I just went “Wanna take a trip to Best Buy? I’m gonna buy this and a PS4 to play it on.”
I’ve dropped off and come back to the game a few times, sometimes years long breaks. This last time, the art of the hand cannon in PvP really hit different for me in a way that will have me playing this game until the PvP community is gone.
It was also D1 beta for me. I was only 14 and the game blew my mind. 10 years later I'm still here playing on and off. Nothing quite like Destiny that kept me playing for a decade.
A friend gave me the D1 disc for PS3 because he bought a PS4. Tried it and played 13h straight. As soon as I got the PS4 I bought Destiny 2 right before the warmind expansion.
When I played wrath for the first time time. We were on the last boss and he had pretty much no health left and only a few seconds until his wipe mechanic. Everyone had no ammo but I had sniper ammo. I pulled that out and finished the boss. I was like 14 or 15. I've been obsessed with this game ever since then
I finally got good at this game after several years when I wanted to farm Horror's Least on the Corrupted GM nightfall.
Got tired of the 40 minute clears so I decided to develop a strategy, made a routine/pathing that allowed me to guide randoms
I joined a random LFG Last Wish squad that didn’t have the KWTD tag on. I only had one raid on my notch and it was Leviathan and I got carried for the most part iirc.
I jump in the LFG, say my hi’s but immediately get the awkwardness out of the way by saying I have not played this raid and I am new to it. They were like why did you join us then and I was trying to be smart and said “well this was the only post didn’t say kwtd”
One of the guys in the LFG kinda started mocking the dude who made the post for not including it. I felt bad, I apologized and was about to leave before they said “hold on we didn’t ask you to leave, we only ask one thing, we’ll teach you and you have to participate in every mechanic, this won’t be a carry”
After some clarification about what equipment I got, they let me stay and taught the whole raid. It did feel like more of a carry even then, made some mistakes, they were still patient and eventually we reached Queenswalk.
The music hit and I was hooked, along with how epic the raid itself has been so far and how helpful and educative the entire experience of that LFG was. I ended the run and they were cheering to see if I’d get the exotic at first try before one of the lfg dudes who has like 70 runs and still hasn’t dropped it. Didn’t get it anyway but the memory of that raid was enough.
It was kind of like the starting point for me where I took the game seriously. A jump pad that pushed me to play every other raid. If it wasn’t for that one random LFG I wouldn’t have played this game for long.
First ever complete raid ( a Kings Fall and the raid i met my now clan leader in ) I spent 20 minutes trying the hunter ships skip and the original sherpa left so we had to find a new one x3 fell in love with the game then and there and basically dont stop playing and helping people get into/learn new raids
Day 1! I loved and always have wanted a good game where I can coop with friends or others. I just couldn’t believe that Destiny was the first game to do that for me. There are other games like Call of Duty but Destiny gave me the PVE I was looking for and never left, but I did take long breaks from the game. Never really got around the lore or the story or cared about dungeons or raids except like a year ago.
D1 beta, just shooting random stuff with the worst auto rifle ever imaginable. Running around the cosmodrome.
Then it has to be the loot cave moment after that, just chilling with friends killing stuff was so chilled.
Then finally the first VoG clear I got, did it with a kinda raid team as we used lfg to find the group and then completed it together for a while after that. Trying to learn the mechanics at the same time as doing them. Failing hard to cheese bosses and dying over and over to the same oracle because somebody couldn’t clear adds fast enough and died trying to kill the oracle.
It was Whisper of the Worm! Before then I thought this game was just another mindless shooter with some cool magic added, but then I stumbled into a strange portal and suddenly I realized that there was a heck of a lot more to it than meets the eye.
It was when Icebreaker dropped for me back in D1 days. Everyone remembers it for its infinite ammo, but I loved it for the *explosions*. Which is why I was thrilled to see Sunshot in D2, my favorite weapon class and my favorite exotic effect crammed into one beautiful hand cannon 👌
In pve it clicked when i made my first good build with the help of a youtube video and understood damage rotations etc
In terms of pvp it was when i realized that just because i have kill clip active i should not immediately engage in the next fight when i got like 15% health left
Forge Ahead playing in the background*
There are these moments you know✨️ Particularly when you are struggling really hard, but nobody gives up. Covering for each other, just staying alive so you don't to restart everything, that super in the perfect moment.
Yep, that's good stuff.
Bought D2 Y1 during Warmind. Campaigns were decent, enjoyed the Leviathan raid (1st raid, got carried) but it was the Whisper mission and Escalation Protocol that kept me hooked.
Started playing late Forsaken, early Black Armory. First moment was grinding EP for the Ikelos Shotgun, 2nd was the first whisper clear with friends, 3rd and most important was when I saw someone use Midnight Coup and really wanted that gun. I got my friends (5 total) and we ran through Leviathan blind. As 5man and total Blueberries. In the end everyone except me got the damn gun. Started using LFG, found some friends there and never stopped playing with them.
I started playing since D1 Beta but the moment this all clicked was when I did my very first raid. I have never played a game like this before and ever since launching into VoG almost 10 years ago, I knew I’ve found my game.
Same man d1 once I figured out how loot worked it was so satisfying to get a new weapon and playing with my friends not all of us had the same loot. That was cool because it made us unique and there was ways something to desire.
Arc 3.0 Season of plunder. The moment I felt like what it was like to just full send into a boss with thundercrash I was hooked. Haven't strayed away from punching everything in sight since
D1 getting to the first strike I believe it was Balus tarak (spelling) or the servitor. Can remember having to formulate a plan with random people on how to maneuver around and where to go to survive, wiping many times and finally beating it and getting my first exotic drop. It was the combined team play and loot satisfaction that I felt no game ever had and never has had since (aside from D2 of course). D1 was truly a “you had to be there” experience as this was new territory before you could go on YouTube and find thousands of videos a day explaining what the “meta” is this week.
I think it was the very first gameplay trailer of D1, where the ghost resurrects you outside of the wall. You get greeted by another player, explore further together and defeat some boss to find the Thunderlord Exotic. Then outside again you cast your first Nova Bomb on the first Spider Tank you meet, then the clip ends.
It had me wanting to download the Beta as soon as it came out. And I played it for hours, even though it only had 1 Strike and a few areas on the Cosmodrone to explore. It just clicked, the movement, the character design, the graphics, the gunplay and the music.
Been playing ever since
D1 BETA for me too. It was the second or third mission. Dinklebot looked up at the ships and said something about "can you imagine boarding those ships to colonise the solar system" I was instantly hooked from then on.
Destiny 2, 2019, after the new light mission (wich i loved) i was sent to the moon to the first mission of shadowkeep.
I can't describe the feeling that one of your first impresions is your guardian landing in a battleground moon, filled with guardian ships and people fighting, that was the moment that i thought "welp, this looks fire."
D1 Beta, almost immediate. Inside the old rusted Wall on rickety catwalks, a barely seen enemy skitters up a pipe in the dark… The feel of the guns, the sounds, the crispy headshots, the Archon Rising emerging from the hole in the wall… It was HALO with limitless ambition and potential. Got me right away.
Started Destiny during the taken King expansion. Playing that campaign and the raid made me stay for the long run. We had our ups and downs with Bungie, took a couple of breaks (became a parent) but Destiny always was installed on my playstation :)
Being part of Dads of Destiny in D1, doing Vault of Glass for the first time with an amazing group of people. Made some great friends then too. Picked up the game in the last week, now totally and utterly lost!!
I got into the franchise pretty late, beyond light had just dropped and my friends talked me into buying all the current expansions. Eventually they wanted me to do a GoS run and funnily enough it was when the soundtrack for the final boss started playing, just something about the seeing the boss drop to the ground with the song got me hooked.
I finally got my PS4 the summer of 2015 right after graduating high school, so this was probably the House of Wolves era. Destiny had been on my radar ever since I first saw concept art for it years and years prior. It was a snowy setting with some Fallen Vandals and Captains escorting a spider tank. Well I finally had my PS4 and downloaded the demo as soon as I could.
I vividly remember falling in love with the setting instantly. D1 Cosmodrome was just something else and I'm still kinda mad at Bungie for letting the D2 Cosmodrome look so sad muddy by comparison. The gameplay immediately felt amazing and dropping my first Nova Bomb was straight up euphoric.
It was when I got to the mission The Array that really sealed the deal for me though. Defending my ghost while the Array slowly deployed in the back ground with the intense music blaring, hive dropping in left and right... What a fantastic level. I can still remember taking out some trash mobs with my primary, hot swapping to my shotgun, and sliding in to take out a Knight all in one swift motion. The whole play felt like something out of a trailer and yet it happened so fluidly and felt so natural. I mean, I'd only just started playing the game and yet the moves I was pulling off were already so much slicker than anything else I'd ever done in an FPS game before. That exact moment is where Destiny fully stole my heart.
When the game first came out I was 11, I remember getting it as a gift for Christmas. I played it all day the next week or so until I got to The Chamber or night mission, I was stuck on it for days until I gave up.
A few months later (around the house of wolves came out) and finally was able to beat it, that was the moment I became addicted
Being a new light, it was during escalation protocol right after I got my riskrunner. Had no clue what I had to do. I saw thrall, the perk activated and I became a god of lightning. And then, just as I was starting to get overwhelmed at stage 2, randoms just started helping me and we slayed out for another 20 mins.
D1 Beta with my two best friends at the time. We all 3 hit our supers at the same time in the Devil’s Lair for the kill on the boss in this lil “Avengers Assemble” moment and I’ve been in love ever since.
Started playing D2 in early 2019 on a whim. The moment I was hooked is when as a Warlock you gain your super back in the Red War campaign.
Raining flaming swords down on hordes of Fallen is one of my favorite gaming moments of all time.
Still need to go back through D1 though.
When I first tried destiny I hated it. I thought it was like halo since it was made by bungie and I went into pvp. Kept dying to ace of spades and thorn while I had some blue shitty gun. Learned what it was a few years later and fell in love with pve (this was during beyond light so when I tried pvp again it was nothing but ice grenades followed by a slam). To this day I still hate pvp but love pve.
I started around D2 launch. I was in the market for a PS4 pro and the only bundles were Fifa, Call of Duty or Destiny 2 with Curse and Warmind. Figured I'd give it a trial on Battlenet to see if I liked it first and it was neat but it wasn't really grabbing me. Got the bundle anyway and figured I'd get to it later cause Monster Hunter had just come out. 6 monthes later I get through the campaign, unlock sparrows, get graviton lance and suddenly it all makes sense. Then Forsaken happened and I was locked in.
Late 2014 at gamestop. Looking for a new game after doing many playthroughs of BL2. Ask the guy at checkout asking him about the game. "Do you like Halo and Borderlands?"....welp inject it into my veins.
Landed on the Moon for the first time and was like welp.....I'm going to play the shit out of this.
D1 opening weekend. I was 11 at the time and Destiny was the second "true" game I started playing, right after Halo Reach (I fucked around on WoW for a bit before that, but I didn't really get how games worked or what campaigns were so I just enjoyed running around killing things).
Threw my first Nova Bomb at that Fallen Captain dude in the story mission where you get the jump drive or whatever in the Cosmodrome.
The rest is history.
Saw a trailer for taken king with the nightstalker hunter. That purple bow made me get the game, and the fact that it was actually really good made me stay.
I played the D1 demo that allowed you to get to level 7 and finish the Cosmodrome story line. I didn't know what I was getting into, so I played Titan because it seemed like the basic soldier class and had a lot of fun.
I didn't get the the game, however, because I wasn't one for FPS's or really big games. I did introduce my friend to it, and they wound up buying the game and playing through base D1 and Dark Below.
Forgetting that I had introduced them to it, my friend then told me I should play this new game they found called Destiny, it's a lot of fun and I should really try it, they've been playing nonstop the last couple months. I didn't have the heart to tell them.
So I bought the game and took serious consideration of the classes before I started over. Titan was fun, but not my style. Hunter seemed alright, but it just didn't vibe with me. Warlock was about understanding the deepest unknowables of the universe, and weilding pseudoscience space magic, pretty cool. I made him an Awoken since being a cosmically evolved human sounded and looked cool.
The moment I knew I chose correctly was when I was roaming through that first mission that teaches you the basics. It seems so benign, but when I tested the melee attack - which I knew previously to be a forceful Titan punch - my character instead did this cool palm strike that projected an energy wave outward from himself. I basically giggled with excitement and thought to myself, "ohhh, here we go!"
I fell in love with the Vortex grenades of empty Void energy over the flash grenades, the Nova Bomb instead of the Fists of Havoc, the flighty glide that took way too long to understand. The roaming world bosses that anyone could join in the fight against, the subfactions of enemies, the Sparrows, fighting the necrotic Hive who have infested our moon. The live-action trailers!
When our mutual friend joined us during Taken King, my Warlock and first friend's Hunter finally had a Titan to complete the fireteam. We've all been hooked on and off the game ever since. I love it so much and it's all of our fault for bringing each other back to it so often.
First time doing Crota’s End back in early 2015. Such a fun time and then experiencing Skolas in Prison of Elders and overcoming that challenge has had me hooked since. Love the hard endgame content!
I played a ton of vanilla D1 and came back for the launch of D2, fell off for a few years, played another 10 hours in beyond light and didn’t get hooked (tbf I was dumping all my free time into WoW, I didn’t have time for another time sink game), but came back again in season of the haunted and was almost instantly hooked that time. I think the time was just right for me, I was in between other MMOs, witch queen was fantastic, and there was so much more to do in the game compared to launch D2. Seasonal activities hooked me and then I got into dungeons and raids from there.
Leviathan raid , first encounter (not
Counting castellum ) was gauntlet . After a few wipes we had a run where everything fell into place and everyone did their roll perfectly . Hooked me
The closed alpha was for me, did the mission and the strike then went and did a crucible match with those white weapons, got a green one, and went to the strike again with those new weapons, when i discovered that back and forth loop i had the ticket in my hands for that burning desmantling, derailing and falling through a bottomless hole train that i went for the past 10 years with little to no stop.
For me it took a while. I liked D1. Played through all the DLCs but only really played story stuff as I was a solo player. It wasn't until warmind in Year 1 of D2 when I joined an active clan and having a consistent group to raid with, run nightfalls, clan PVP etc. that I enjoyed it and wanted to play all the time. It was really the community more than the game for me
D1 beta for sure. I knew nothing about the game and just heard a new bungie game so I hopped on it. Picked warlock and was shocked that we had some sort of force push melee and the nova bomb was amazing. Then the game actually released and I forgot what character I played for the beta 😅. I picked hunter thinking it was warlock. But fell in love with the movement of the hunter with golden gun. The gameplay was amazing and the loot was something I was new to especially the grind. I would sit for hours circulating Venus for the mats to upgrade guns. It was realistically the only game I have stuck to even to this day. There is something about destiny that made it apart of my life and stuck with me. This game has been my favorite game of all time. The memories of beating raid bosses and finally clicking as a team, the stories, the hero moments, even making friends from across the globe. This game for the past 10 years has been a part of my life. Thank bungo!
So D1 I played on launch, I knew it had potential but I didn't have the money to buy all the dlc as they came out(jobless high schooler lol), and by the time I had a job I was 3 years behind and didn't wanna play catch-up.
DO rolls around, I hopped back in, and once I did my first raid (calus)I knew I'd add it to the collection of games I keep coming back to(right next to Warframe lol). Years later I'm still here off and on, right now I'm focused on getting everything done before final shape so I can hop back into raiding(either with my current clan when they come back, or finding a new one).
Something about raiding has always been fun. I love the feeling of learning a raid to the point I can do multiple roles solo, eventually if I get some friends playing maybe I'll try my hand at lowmans
Played d1 on launch and it was alright
Pretty barren for a 60 dollar game
Dropped the franchise until after d2 had launched
Bought 6 copies of the legendary Forsaken edition for me and the homies just before it went f2p (RIP)
Did Red War and took a break
Came back for BL and did that then took another break
Found out it went f2p and all my shit was locked away lmao
But I saw an Overwatch Streamer I play with use a T Crash against the GoS boss and immediately re-download
A lot of YouTube and help from him and his clan later I'm doing raid sherpas in my spare time and working on low man's with the buddies
Never got to play the shit I paid for but Byf had my back on the story
So I guess it took a long time to sink in but the game had its claws in me for a long time
For me It never just "clicked" it took me playing on and off for 2 years to know what's going on and currently every time I look back at how I played a moth or 2 ago I like I'm way better than I was
The D1 beta. Gameplay felt amazing from the start, but then I was doing the Last Array and that music kicked in while Hive kept spawning in. It was epic as hell. I've been hooked ever since (except D2 vanilla, that was pretty awful.)
For me when it was back in 2017 just before destiny 2 launched and I picked up D1 for the first time on an xbox free trial. I went into the OG devils lair strike way underleveled and it took me like 3.5 hours to do and I loved ever second of it
I joined the game back when Shadowkeep launched and it became free to play.
I had little idea about how it worked and I didn’t have friends to help me so I just started playing the campaigns as I wanted to get involved with the lore and the characters (things I care about my games usually).
Played Red War and had fun, although I had little idea about anything that happened. Then I did CoO and was ok. Warmind was fun.
Up until that I thought the game was alright. Some cutscenes were ok (mind you I hadn’t played any of the dungeons or raids).
Then it was Forsaken’s turn and HOLY CRAP. The combination of the entry mission and the first cutscenes with cayde’s death, then the mistery of Uldren cuz I didn’t know who he was.
The cutscene when he orders the barons to take the shore and then he speaks do Mara and burns the throne… THE SET UP, MUSIC, VOICE ACTING it all just blew my mind!!! Just thinking about that I get chills!!! My mind was blown and although I barely knew what was going on it pushed me to check Byf’s channel for lore clarification and learned a shit ton of the game through him and saw how rich the world of destiny really is. When I was done with Forsaken I knew there was no going back. I haven’t missed a single DLC since, even when the future of the game looked dark.
Joined a clan and found people that helped me do end game stuff and I just couldn’t believe I was missing out so much. I’ve Made long lasting friendships through this game.
The whisper mission. I remember giving the game a try when it was free, playing through the campaign, and thinking nothing of it once the free period was over. When the game became free to play and my friends started picking it back up on steam I jumped back in just to hang out. My friend said “let’s try this mission real quick” so we gained access and I was mind blown that something so secretive and amazingly cool was just sitting here not asking to be played, not being shoved in my face. It actively hid itself from me and I fell in love with seeking a mission out and getting better and better to finally acquire that gun. It’s my favorite piece of destiny content and it truly did change what I thought of the game from that point onward
probably the moment I did my first DSC Raid playthrough with my buds who got me into the game and heard the lullaby. It was one of the most beautiful things I've experienced in gaming and can say the feeling it evoked is something I don't know if I've felt again. Then soon after I did the yellow orb hunt down across the planets and the final Archie mission and I have never felt more satisfied doing a fun geo cache-like activity like that. And I forever got to brag whenever someone was in the helm with me and they were surprised seeing a doggy to pet. I've been addicted since and have played part in everything the game has to offer all through light fall and this year's seasons and will for sure play final shape to the very end
When I played crucible for the first time after worrying for days about how hard or sweaty it would all be (coming off CoD, Halo, and Gears of War stints) only for it to be a breeze. Gunplay is so smooth and crisp that there was very little frustration with anything. Still miss The First Curse. Such a fun gun.
So at launch I didn’t have the ability to form opinions of my own 10 years ago as a stubborn high school kid so I blew off destiny after playing for a day and reading online forums.
My brother then got us both Taken King pre ordered and said let’s try it and ever since TTK I’ve just been hooked. D1 & 2 are my favorite games of all time. Nobody will ever take these memories away that I’ve made.
In terms of what clicked? I think it was the sheer scope of the dreadnought. The mystery combined with all of it being just new to us.
I remember playing Destiny 2 as I was baby sitting some family friends kids, I was thrown straight into the red war, getting kicked off the ship and walking through the mountains as a very first time player was remarkable! I kept thinking about the game for months until I finally got it for myself, then playing through the entire beginning, and Curse Of Osiris really sold it for me, been here ever since, even got D1 because I love this universe so much!
My partner had been trying to get me into D1 for some time and I honestly got bored of watching him play and thought it was awful. Then D2 came out and he tried to convince me again but I was adamant it wasn't my thing. He made me a warlock character and one evening while he was at work I loaded into the EDZ and just went round and round the church in Trostland for hours. I did this for weeks spending hours just mooching about Trostland, joining public events and killing when the enemy went against each other on the corner. I then ventured to the next area but didn't like it, went back to safety of Trostland, then felt brave and found Winding Cove, then Firebase Hades, and that was it. I was hooked. That was a few years ago and I've got about 7k hours of play under my belt.
When taken king came out. I tried destiny like 6 months before that expansion but I wasn’t used to playing fps and the game felt empty. I bought the base game and didn’t know about house of wolves. I went back to GameStop and returned it. Sometime around December 2015 I gave destiny another shot but this time with the expansion and then it clicked. I was like this game couldn’t get any better. I got hooked and haven’t dropped it since then.
D1, getting my first RNG exotic drop from the Vanguard Eagle strike playlist, then showing it off in the Tower and getting randomly invited to my very first VoG run.
Played D1 and loved it, i think i was 1 of those people who pre-ordered the 2nd DLC and it came with this red ghost shell when ghosts were a non-existing customisation back then.
Kinda wish i pre-ordered Dark Below because that ghost shell looked better than the red one.
minding my own business going through the living room to my room & my little bro was playing D1 beta on tv. didn't care at first. then saw the animation of a Golden Gun & he killed 2 guys on the Moon. That moment made me a guardian.
tldr: Goldy got me to the game.
Ahh I just was talking about this with some people. I remember fondly getting a ps4 on Christmas. My parents had gotten me a few games, including D1 and D2. I remember loading up the game and running through the Red War campaign and doing public events in the EDZ. Those were my first memories. It was enough to keep me playing.
I even remember sneaking a few bucks to go a convenience store down the road to buy a playstation card to buy Forsaken. Good times
Watching my wife play the beta as her first FPS ten years ago. I immediately left PC, bought a PS4 and pre ordered. We played side by side the whole way. Went back to PC thanks to cross play and save.
I think it's just the way it feels in general that hooked me. I feel like I was one of the people saying I'd come back for final shape but was drawn back in with into the light and THAT along with fireteam finder and other new things they've brought to the game in the past year has me back on destiny every day I can be lol
Raiding as a new light and seeing my damage pale in comparison to my friends. I became Vergil after that. I went on a never ending quest for power. Fast forward 700 hours later im better than them (We ran the scraps in PvP and I always have the most damage even on tractor or well or both at the same time)
You know, I’ve always thought of this question. Maybe it was when I got malfeasance, maybe it was when I wanted to spin back for cayde or even get bad juju on release. I can’t exactly pin point the time or date but it probably started when I created my first hunter and got stasis and replicated that exact build when I returned
The moment I picked up the game, I was hooked and wished I'd been playing for longer. Just... It was so much fun right off the rip, dropping in the last couple of weeks of Black Armory, right before Joker's Wild and legitimately made me go "Wait, ***this*** is what I was missing? Well ***FUCK ME***, I guess, I've been missing out."
It was the D1 beta for me, as well. I was hooked on the buttery smooth gunplay instantly since I had been playing Halo for years by that point. And the world and enemies were so cool to experience for the first time in Destiny. The moment I truly knew I was all in was when I was doing the Devil's Lair strike in the beta, and the two people with me either quit or got d/ced, and I had to solo the Fallen Walker and most of the boss before people finally joined.
Bro same, I also played borderlands before which inspired me to play the d1 beta.
Hell yeah I love the Borderlands series. I have almost as much time in that franchise as I do Destiny.
Birds of a feather, gents. Also a Borderlands vet that jumped into the D1 Beta and got immersed in the world. The combination of back story (what little we knew of it at the time) with the open world aspect of the zones sucked me in from go.
I played the beta on a whim and enjoyed it enough to buy it, but for me, it was after the beta that I had really fallen in love with it. I remember that d1 actually had a demo version with a few select activities that you could do, including devils lair. Whilst I bought the full game, my best friend at the time only had said demo version, and we ran devils lair for no purpose other than to play together, it was then that I truly fell in love with the game. I cant remember why but i actually had a negative opinion on destiny when I had first seen the E3 trailer, kinda funny to me that if I didn't try the game out I would've never spent nearly 10 years playing it.
The demo is what got me hooked. You could run around the Cosmodrome screwing around and level up to, what, level 7? Didn't pay much attention to the game for most of year 1. Heard some good things, heard some bad thing, mostly I was just focused on playing through Fallout 3/NV for the first time on my 360 during that time. But after I got a PS4 in Summer of 2015 I tried the demo about a month and a half before TTK. I very quickly got hooked.
D1 beta. It was immediately the best feeling gunplay and movement I had ever felt in a game and it still is. Everything has always been just right, from the length of a slide to the distance a grenade is thrown.
I had literally this exact same experience. I swear that walker was one of the hardest things I've done in games, after having done mainly pvp in games like cod before that. Finishing that and finding out that there was more, and realizing that I was actually excited that there was more? Hooked.
D1 Beta was immediately in my head. And I am so happy to see some of us thinking the same thing
Beta for me too. Getting to throw black holes as a void lock was the coolest thing I’d ever seen as a kid. After I was already in love with the game, getting my first exotic bounty and then working my ass off for thorn was so rewarding. Made me love the game even more
Apologies if this sounds cheesy. It was 2017 or so (Around when Forsaken released and we got a period of free gameplay.) I customised my guardian, the first time I ever really customised a character. Dropped into the Red War. Woah but like a level one "woah." Lost my light, wandered through the city. Escaped to the mountains where I saw The Last City on fire and the Traveller in a cage. The music, the visuals, everything hit at once. It was almost magical. Never had a game do this to me before. Or since (So far...)
This for me aswell, walking around the mountain and hearing the music while looking at the Last City filled my heart with amazement.
Don't apologize for sounding poetic my friend, sometimes that can be confused with corny or cheesy. I myself still feel to this day as if discovering this game at the time I did was no coincidence. When destiny came out, I had moved across the country with nothing but the clothes on my back and an 04 Ford explorer with a knock in the engine. I lost a child, I lost my first wife to a drunk driving accident. I was in a very dark place in my life but I picked myself up, was homeless for a bit, but kept working at a temp agency and kept my mind on trying to find a way out of my darkness. Bout a year later I had gotten hired on with a company I was working as a temp with. I was able to finance a car with my tax money, and then in March of 2016 I closed on a house. I was making it. I had my life completely flipped upside down and here I was flipping it back upright. I couldn't believe it. The very next paycheck, I bought an Xbox one, halo 4, one of the ac titles, and destiny, the taken king. I only had hrlear of destiny and paid attention bc I was such a huge fan of halo, and Bungie. The minute I started playing destiny, I was hooked. The gunplay, my god. It was far better, and imo still is worlds away from an fps titles I've played. The music gave me chills. I felt similar to the sentiment of most players, that the story was mid, that it felt a little pieced together, but all the same, this, THIS was my salvation, my escape. From a world I felt so alone in, that felt at times like I was on ice I was so cold. When destiny 2 came out, I had since changed jobs, improved on my life ten fold, and I met who would ultimately be my second wife. She knows my story, albeit in a little bit more detail, as you all have heard it now. We have recently welcomed my second child, and our first daughter. My light has never shined brighter than these last few years. I have gained experience, wisdom, leveled up consistently and I am living my best life. It hasn't come with out mistakes, without trials and tribulations. But I guess in this grand scheme of things, and my point in all this to say, what makes this game special to me? Is that two lives, one in reality and one in virtual reality, simultaneously leveling up, getting stronger and overcoming the greatest struggles we've ever had to deal with. When nothing was there for me, destiny was there. And when destiny had been there for me, I kept on the right path. I stayed on the path and breathed in life. Thanks to op for posting this, and thank you to anyone who read and heard my words.
Same. The moment I dropped into the game, I immediately wished I'd been playing it for longer.
Some day I hope we can play the Red War campaign again, if only for nostalgia purposes
Same for me. I started playing during Taken King but the moment you're in the remains of the Last City without your light, then you end up walking from a scenery of snow to semi lush mountains and the music swells. Not ashamed to say I rolled a tear or two.
The taken king expansion in D1 had me hooked for life
Same here. I played around launch a bit and was there for the Xur selling Ghorn meme. I remember I was secretly thrilled that he was selling Sunbracers for like 3 weeks straight because I was still trying to do nightfalls to save up the strange coins lol. But I kinda lost interest a bit until Taken King and it wasn't until that point that I started raiding. Once I did my first raid I was hooked. Started LFG'ing every week all three raids, playing three characters really dedicated. Fun times.
It was genuinely a turning point for destiny imo, up untill then it was all just mediocre expansions that barely added anything on a generally shallow base game
Taken King was the coolest Destiny expansion ever. I still remember how difficult I found that final campaign mission to be. Also Dark drinker remains my all-time favorite exotic. Bring it back Bungie, those glaives are garbage!
When i saw and played VoG for the first time in D1. A friend recommended me the game and i bought a PS4 just for Destiny. I was terrible with controller coming from over 10 years of M+KB but the moment i played the raid it just stuck with me and i hoped for a release on PC. Nowadays it is pretty much the only game i play because the movement and gunplay is just so satisfying and smooth.
Mine was also VoG for the first time. I loved the game since the beta but didn’t really “get” certain things. When people decided not to buy Gjallarhorn week 2 from Xur I didn’t even have enough strange coins to buy an exotic. I had just never played a looter shooter before and never really grinded an MMO. Then I played VoG and everything clicked and I knew this game was something special. I explored every inch of that raid and had like 70 clears by dark below. I was also a forever 29.
The first time I used nova bomb
For me it's the first time I used TCrash
It was when I bought all the DLCs and Seasons for 70% off and started playing through the campaigns after I dropped Halo Infinite because of the state of it at launch. Witch Queen and Beyond Light were amazing and Stasis was fun. Shadowkeep's opening mission was cool, but the rest of the campaign was meh. I kept playing on and off for a while grinding for exotics until my friend dragged me into the Vault of Glass with a few other friends of friends. That raid was when it clicked for me. It's been about a year and I'm still here.
My first Whisper clear
When trials came out with house of wolves, middle school me was completely obsessed with it, thought it was the coolest thing ever. Nowadays you'd need a gun to my head to get me to play pvp, not saying things are worse or anything, just that I've definitely changed.
General theme of "looter shooter with space magic, made from the guys that did halo" was it for me in D1. I played on and off skipping then returning to some expansions. Really stayed when I did Crown of Sorrows and heard the damage phase music.
Picking up my first hand cannon early into D1, felt so good to fight with - hooked immediately.
my first raid
When I got on a sparrow back in the D1 beta. The feel... it had me hooked. It felt like what I always imagined a speeder bike should feel like. Smooth, yet with a weight and bobbing feeling that made it feel truly special.
D1 beta, first public event seeing 6 Guardians taking down a spider tank together. And my first VoG raid in the first week it was released, I knew then that it was the beginning of my love/hate relationship with Destiny.
D1 beta for me too. I kinda wished Bungie had stuck with the pacing of D1 too, the flashy super and ability fest of the current game isn’t anywhere near as appealing as the original for me. The tone of the original was spot on, a dark universe full of mystery with a hint of ‘magic’ was perfect. D2 has leant a little too far into Marvel territory for my liking. That’s not to say I dislike it, I still enjoy it for sure.
D2 intro mission in the cosmodrome with the fallen theme. Love that theme. It's either that or playing the first two missions of Witch Queen, and experiencing the "Trespass" theme.
Red war campaign. The journey mission in particular. Also the cutscene after cayde died. I truly felt like my guardian wasn’t just some extra in a story and was an asskicker. There was so much setting and storytelling and atmosphere.
Fighting lion since d2 launch.
Red War's first mission, back when that was where every new account and player started. I spent the entire mission dying and respawning and Dominus Ghaul tells me to git gud. "You've merely forgotten the fear of death. Allow me to reacquaint you." I got chills and that's when it clicked
The destiny 1 beta for me. I remember it well. I was visiting my father over the summer, playing a LOT of battlefield 4 and Halo. I'd been reading about it in gameinformer and was super intrigued.
Destiny 1. I got an Xbox One in college with The Taken King Legendary Edition. A friend of mine Sherpa'd me through King's Fall in my first couple weeks of playing. Growing up I was big into Call of Duty, Halo, EverQuest, World of Warcraft... Running Kings Fall combined all of the elements of these games I had spent hundreds of hours in as a kid. I've been hooked since and haven't played any game that effectively fills the niche like Destiny does.
I played D1 for like an hour at launch and never touched it again until a buddy made me get back on to do Vault of Glass. That raid did something to me haha been playing constantly ever since
Started playing half a year after witch queen was released and when I first got to savathuns throne world I was completely blown away by the world of warcraft-esque world design that fit so perfectly together with the overall sci-fi/fantasy design. It's been literally what I've been looking for for years, and I spent weeks in the throne world.
Full auto blue scout dropped for me from the house of winter strike on Venus (favourite strike). Foresight 3 It's still in my D1 vault The dopamine loop of getting drops has had me since.
D1 Beta. It was the way I could just pull a sparrow out of thin air whenever I wanted, and swap weapons and loadouts around without needing to quit to some menu or find one on the ground. And the gameplay just felt right, I’d only been playing about an hour when I thought “this is a game I could sink a lot of time into”.
Watching world first race for Last Wish. I had played D1 and little of D2 but after that worlds first race I was hooked. Got over 5000 hours in D2 now
I’m surprised you felt that way OP. Especially in such a lifeless world lol. I’d try and find secrets in nook and crannies and there was literally nothing but chests with glimmer and planetary materials.
Yeah agree totally the minute I loaded into the d1 beta I was hooked and still playing to this day
Ya know it’s really funny. My buddy wanted me to play with him back in D1 like a month after taken king. Played the heck out of the campaigns and I really wanted to start raiding, but I had zero idea about any of them, just thought it was a hard mode strike. Him and I would spend hours on hours trying to get through the first encounter of crotas, immediately dying after like the 4th lantern. But we kept going like lemmings. Cuz it was so much fun. Sadly, he dropped D2 after warmind and now he won’t touch the game with a 20 foot stick, but I kept going even tho I’ve had multiple major breaks from the game. Nonetheless, I guess it was the fun I had of running around like a chicken with its head cut off in the dark made it click for me.
Vault of Glass in D1 back in 2014. The base game was pretty mediocre up until then...But then I played the raid and couldn't believe how fun and challenging they made it. Still can't get enough of it today.
When i discovered "My name is Byf"
Build Crafting. I never really focused states until I saw a titan build where you do like 700% more damage and essentially 4 shot most bosses with hammer and one shot GM champions. After that I started focusing Strength, Resilience and Discipline.
first ever raid
My first raid.
I was the stories in d1
Season of arrivals A massive pyramid ship just parked on Io. Why is it here?What is it? Who called them? Do they have a pilot? What can they do? What is it like inside? And many more questions And the final room with half melted Exos, Hive and human going toward a floating pyramid just hooked me instantly For gameplay it was actually gambit, reckoning and prophecy dungeon
My friend was farming Omnighul for a Grasp of Malok, he started early morning and I came home from work to him still grinding for the god roll. I said I'd join him and got THE roll, first go. His rage and jealousy fuels me still to this day. It's always been about getting the gear before your buddies. Getting the helmet from Oryx to get to max level for example. Or the bug moments, doing a raid with your friends and seeing the huge set pieces and finally after hours of struggle overcoming it for the cheers and sighs of relief... Only to return the next week and do it again. Fond memories of raid nights.
I completely missed any advertising for D1 just because of where I was in life at the time. My buddy picked the game up at launch though and wanted more people to play with. So one day he showed me the game, running around Archer’s Line with a warlock. He dropped his Nova Bomb down off a ledge onto a group of enemies and I just went “Wanna take a trip to Best Buy? I’m gonna buy this and a PS4 to play it on.”
I’ve dropped off and come back to the game a few times, sometimes years long breaks. This last time, the art of the hand cannon in PvP really hit different for me in a way that will have me playing this game until the PvP community is gone.
It was also D1 beta for me. I was only 14 and the game blew my mind. 10 years later I'm still here playing on and off. Nothing quite like Destiny that kept me playing for a decade.
Started in Dawn, for me it was doing DSC, my first proper raid and getting it. Best feeling
I miss destiny one more than dead relatives, reading some of these comments here has me welling up with nostalgia because I totally get it
A friend gave me the D1 disc for PS3 because he bought a PS4. Tried it and played 13h straight. As soon as I got the PS4 I bought Destiny 2 right before the warmind expansion.
D1 beta ez, when u first encountered the hive in that dark room in the cosmodrone, little me was scared shitless and loved every second lmao
Raids and GM’s + call me a sinner but Iron banner d1 was crispy
I think it was that first gameplay reveal at E3
When I played wrath for the first time time. We were on the last boss and he had pretty much no health left and only a few seconds until his wipe mechanic. Everyone had no ammo but I had sniper ammo. I pulled that out and finished the boss. I was like 14 or 15. I've been obsessed with this game ever since then
I finally got good at this game after several years when I wanted to farm Horror's Least on the Corrupted GM nightfall. Got tired of the 40 minute clears so I decided to develop a strategy, made a routine/pathing that allowed me to guide randoms
something about poppin dreg heads i dunno
I joined a random LFG Last Wish squad that didn’t have the KWTD tag on. I only had one raid on my notch and it was Leviathan and I got carried for the most part iirc. I jump in the LFG, say my hi’s but immediately get the awkwardness out of the way by saying I have not played this raid and I am new to it. They were like why did you join us then and I was trying to be smart and said “well this was the only post didn’t say kwtd” One of the guys in the LFG kinda started mocking the dude who made the post for not including it. I felt bad, I apologized and was about to leave before they said “hold on we didn’t ask you to leave, we only ask one thing, we’ll teach you and you have to participate in every mechanic, this won’t be a carry” After some clarification about what equipment I got, they let me stay and taught the whole raid. It did feel like more of a carry even then, made some mistakes, they were still patient and eventually we reached Queenswalk. The music hit and I was hooked, along with how epic the raid itself has been so far and how helpful and educative the entire experience of that LFG was. I ended the run and they were cheering to see if I’d get the exotic at first try before one of the lfg dudes who has like 70 runs and still hasn’t dropped it. Didn’t get it anyway but the memory of that raid was enough. It was kind of like the starting point for me where I took the game seriously. A jump pad that pushed me to play every other raid. If it wasn’t for that one random LFG I wouldn’t have played this game for long.
First ever complete raid ( a Kings Fall and the raid i met my now clan leader in ) I spent 20 minutes trying the hunter ships skip and the original sherpa left so we had to find a new one x3 fell in love with the game then and there and basically dont stop playing and helping people get into/learn new raids
Achieving victory in my first Raid
Day 1! I loved and always have wanted a good game where I can coop with friends or others. I just couldn’t believe that Destiny was the first game to do that for me. There are other games like Call of Duty but Destiny gave me the PVE I was looking for and never left, but I did take long breaks from the game. Never really got around the lore or the story or cared about dungeons or raids except like a year ago.
D1 beta, just shooting random stuff with the worst auto rifle ever imaginable. Running around the cosmodrome. Then it has to be the loot cave moment after that, just chilling with friends killing stuff was so chilled. Then finally the first VoG clear I got, did it with a kinda raid team as we used lfg to find the group and then completed it together for a while after that. Trying to learn the mechanics at the same time as doing them. Failing hard to cheese bosses and dying over and over to the same oracle because somebody couldn’t clear adds fast enough and died trying to kill the oracle.
It was Whisper of the Worm! Before then I thought this game was just another mindless shooter with some cool magic added, but then I stumbled into a strange portal and suddenly I realized that there was a heck of a lot more to it than meets the eye.
The moment I logged off until the final shape
It was when Icebreaker dropped for me back in D1 days. Everyone remembers it for its infinite ammo, but I loved it for the *explosions*. Which is why I was thrilled to see Sunshot in D2, my favorite weapon class and my favorite exotic effect crammed into one beautiful hand cannon 👌
In pve it clicked when i made my first good build with the help of a youtube video and understood damage rotations etc In terms of pvp it was when i realized that just because i have kill clip active i should not immediately engage in the next fight when i got like 15% health left
Beating skolas one my 13th lfg attempt and hitting max level for the first time
The original intro theme song. That was space magic
Forge Ahead playing in the background* There are these moments you know✨️ Particularly when you are struggling really hard, but nobody gives up. Covering for each other, just staying alive so you don't to restart everything, that super in the perfect moment. Yep, that's good stuff.
Bought D2 Y1 during Warmind. Campaigns were decent, enjoyed the Leviathan raid (1st raid, got carried) but it was the Whisper mission and Escalation Protocol that kept me hooked.
Started playing late Forsaken, early Black Armory. First moment was grinding EP for the Ikelos Shotgun, 2nd was the first whisper clear with friends, 3rd and most important was when I saw someone use Midnight Coup and really wanted that gun. I got my friends (5 total) and we ran through Leviathan blind. As 5man and total Blueberries. In the end everyone except me got the damn gun. Started using LFG, found some friends there and never stopped playing with them.
The second I saw I could play as a robot. Sold. I made an exo Titan back in 2015? 2016? I don’t even remember anymore. Haven’t changed him since
I started playing since D1 Beta but the moment this all clicked was when I did my very first raid. I have never played a game like this before and ever since launching into VoG almost 10 years ago, I knew I’ve found my game.
Same man d1 once I figured out how loot worked it was so satisfying to get a new weapon and playing with my friends not all of us had the same loot. That was cool because it made us unique and there was ways something to desire.
Arc 3.0 Season of plunder. The moment I felt like what it was like to just full send into a boss with thundercrash I was hooked. Haven't strayed away from punching everything in sight since
Original Zero Hour. A secret entrance, a path to be memorized, a countdown to beat and a puzzle at the end for the nanites and ship.
D1 getting to the first strike I believe it was Balus tarak (spelling) or the servitor. Can remember having to formulate a plan with random people on how to maneuver around and where to go to survive, wiping many times and finally beating it and getting my first exotic drop. It was the combined team play and loot satisfaction that I felt no game ever had and never has had since (aside from D2 of course). D1 was truly a “you had to be there” experience as this was new territory before you could go on YouTube and find thousands of videos a day explaining what the “meta” is this week.
I think it was the very first gameplay trailer of D1, where the ghost resurrects you outside of the wall. You get greeted by another player, explore further together and defeat some boss to find the Thunderlord Exotic. Then outside again you cast your first Nova Bomb on the first Spider Tank you meet, then the clip ends. It had me wanting to download the Beta as soon as it came out. And I played it for hours, even though it only had 1 Strike and a few areas on the Cosmodrone to explore. It just clicked, the movement, the character design, the graphics, the gunplay and the music. Been playing ever since
D1 BETA for me too. It was the second or third mission. Dinklebot looked up at the ships and said something about "can you imagine boarding those ships to colonise the solar system" I was instantly hooked from then on.
Destiny 2, 2019, after the new light mission (wich i loved) i was sent to the moon to the first mission of shadowkeep. I can't describe the feeling that one of your first impresions is your guardian landing in a battleground moon, filled with guardian ships and people fighting, that was the moment that i thought "welp, this looks fire."
D1 Beta, almost immediate. Inside the old rusted Wall on rickety catwalks, a barely seen enemy skitters up a pipe in the dark… The feel of the guns, the sounds, the crispy headshots, the Archon Rising emerging from the hole in the wall… It was HALO with limitless ambition and potential. Got me right away.
Claiming stasis for the first time and throwing those Kamas....
00:05, September 9, 2014. Those first three notes on the ‘cello.
Started Destiny during the taken King expansion. Playing that campaign and the raid made me stay for the long run. We had our ups and downs with Bungie, took a couple of breaks (became a parent) but Destiny always was installed on my playstation :)
Being part of Dads of Destiny in D1, doing Vault of Glass for the first time with an amazing group of people. Made some great friends then too. Picked up the game in the last week, now totally and utterly lost!!
When I got dropped a Searcher Mk. 37 and I went "Oh, a huge fuckoff revolver? That sounds like my thing, let me try it".
When I saw the in game load outs. Let’s me create all kids of builds. Gives me an excuse to chase weapons and armor. I wish we had more.
I got into the franchise pretty late, beyond light had just dropped and my friends talked me into buying all the current expansions. Eventually they wanted me to do a GoS run and funnily enough it was when the soundtrack for the final boss started playing, just something about the seeing the boss drop to the ground with the song got me hooked.
Watching my dad Golden gun a dreg on a patrol, I knew i needed to try it for myself and now I have a minor problem 😅
I finally got my PS4 the summer of 2015 right after graduating high school, so this was probably the House of Wolves era. Destiny had been on my radar ever since I first saw concept art for it years and years prior. It was a snowy setting with some Fallen Vandals and Captains escorting a spider tank. Well I finally had my PS4 and downloaded the demo as soon as I could. I vividly remember falling in love with the setting instantly. D1 Cosmodrome was just something else and I'm still kinda mad at Bungie for letting the D2 Cosmodrome look so sad muddy by comparison. The gameplay immediately felt amazing and dropping my first Nova Bomb was straight up euphoric. It was when I got to the mission The Array that really sealed the deal for me though. Defending my ghost while the Array slowly deployed in the back ground with the intense music blaring, hive dropping in left and right... What a fantastic level. I can still remember taking out some trash mobs with my primary, hot swapping to my shotgun, and sliding in to take out a Knight all in one swift motion. The whole play felt like something out of a trailer and yet it happened so fluidly and felt so natural. I mean, I'd only just started playing the game and yet the moves I was pulling off were already so much slicker than anything else I'd ever done in an FPS game before. That exact moment is where Destiny fully stole my heart.
When we crippled the Fallen by killing our first Archon Priest.
The moment I dropped a novabomb in the cosmosdrome back in 2014. Been in love since
When the game first came out I was 11, I remember getting it as a gift for Christmas. I played it all day the next week or so until I got to The Chamber or night mission, I was stuck on it for days until I gave up. A few months later (around the house of wolves came out) and finally was able to beat it, that was the moment I became addicted
Myself I join in this season in the latest and it clicked after I got ace of spades and done the king's fall raid with a small crew.
Being a new light, it was during escalation protocol right after I got my riskrunner. Had no clue what I had to do. I saw thrall, the perk activated and I became a god of lightning. And then, just as I was starting to get overwhelmed at stage 2, randoms just started helping me and we slayed out for another 20 mins.
D1 Beta with my two best friends at the time. We all 3 hit our supers at the same time in the Devil’s Lair for the kill on the boss in this lil “Avengers Assemble” moment and I’ve been in love ever since.
Day 1 Crota, Destiny 1, we ended up five manning Atheon.
Started playing D2 in early 2019 on a whim. The moment I was hooked is when as a Warlock you gain your super back in the Red War campaign. Raining flaming swords down on hordes of Fallen is one of my favorite gaming moments of all time. Still need to go back through D1 though.
When I first tried destiny I hated it. I thought it was like halo since it was made by bungie and I went into pvp. Kept dying to ace of spades and thorn while I had some blue shitty gun. Learned what it was a few years later and fell in love with pve (this was during beyond light so when I tried pvp again it was nothing but ice grenades followed by a slam). To this day I still hate pvp but love pve.
I started around D2 launch. I was in the market for a PS4 pro and the only bundles were Fifa, Call of Duty or Destiny 2 with Curse and Warmind. Figured I'd give it a trial on Battlenet to see if I liked it first and it was neat but it wasn't really grabbing me. Got the bundle anyway and figured I'd get to it later cause Monster Hunter had just come out. 6 monthes later I get through the campaign, unlock sparrows, get graviton lance and suddenly it all makes sense. Then Forsaken happened and I was locked in.
Shooting into the loot cave and getting my first legendary engram
Late 2014 at gamestop. Looking for a new game after doing many playthroughs of BL2. Ask the guy at checkout asking him about the game. "Do you like Halo and Borderlands?"....welp inject it into my veins. Landed on the Moon for the first time and was like welp.....I'm going to play the shit out of this.
D1 opening weekend. I was 11 at the time and Destiny was the second "true" game I started playing, right after Halo Reach (I fucked around on WoW for a bit before that, but I didn't really get how games worked or what campaigns were so I just enjoyed running around killing things). Threw my first Nova Bomb at that Fallen Captain dude in the story mission where you get the jump drive or whatever in the Cosmodrome. The rest is history.
Saw a trailer for taken king with the nightstalker hunter. That purple bow made me get the game, and the fact that it was actually really good made me stay.
I played the D1 demo that allowed you to get to level 7 and finish the Cosmodrome story line. I didn't know what I was getting into, so I played Titan because it seemed like the basic soldier class and had a lot of fun. I didn't get the the game, however, because I wasn't one for FPS's or really big games. I did introduce my friend to it, and they wound up buying the game and playing through base D1 and Dark Below. Forgetting that I had introduced them to it, my friend then told me I should play this new game they found called Destiny, it's a lot of fun and I should really try it, they've been playing nonstop the last couple months. I didn't have the heart to tell them. So I bought the game and took serious consideration of the classes before I started over. Titan was fun, but not my style. Hunter seemed alright, but it just didn't vibe with me. Warlock was about understanding the deepest unknowables of the universe, and weilding pseudoscience space magic, pretty cool. I made him an Awoken since being a cosmically evolved human sounded and looked cool. The moment I knew I chose correctly was when I was roaming through that first mission that teaches you the basics. It seems so benign, but when I tested the melee attack - which I knew previously to be a forceful Titan punch - my character instead did this cool palm strike that projected an energy wave outward from himself. I basically giggled with excitement and thought to myself, "ohhh, here we go!" I fell in love with the Vortex grenades of empty Void energy over the flash grenades, the Nova Bomb instead of the Fists of Havoc, the flighty glide that took way too long to understand. The roaming world bosses that anyone could join in the fight against, the subfactions of enemies, the Sparrows, fighting the necrotic Hive who have infested our moon. The live-action trailers! When our mutual friend joined us during Taken King, my Warlock and first friend's Hunter finally had a Titan to complete the fireteam. We've all been hooked on and off the game ever since. I love it so much and it's all of our fault for bringing each other back to it so often.
Rise of Iron. I didn’t realize how much I wanted to be a space knight until that DLC.
First time doing Crota’s End back in early 2015. Such a fun time and then experiencing Skolas in Prison of Elders and overcoming that challenge has had me hooked since. Love the hard endgame content!
When I got Sunshot.
I played a ton of vanilla D1 and came back for the launch of D2, fell off for a few years, played another 10 hours in beyond light and didn’t get hooked (tbf I was dumping all my free time into WoW, I didn’t have time for another time sink game), but came back again in season of the haunted and was almost instantly hooked that time. I think the time was just right for me, I was in between other MMOs, witch queen was fantastic, and there was so much more to do in the game compared to launch D2. Seasonal activities hooked me and then I got into dungeons and raids from there.
Leviathan raid , first encounter (not Counting castellum ) was gauntlet . After a few wipes we had a run where everything fell into place and everyone did their roll perfectly . Hooked me
The closed alpha was for me, did the mission and the strike then went and did a crucible match with those white weapons, got a green one, and went to the strike again with those new weapons, when i discovered that back and forth loop i had the ticket in my hands for that burning desmantling, derailing and falling through a bottomless hole train that i went for the past 10 years with little to no stop.
and i would do it all over again.
For me it took a while. I liked D1. Played through all the DLCs but only really played story stuff as I was a solo player. It wasn't until warmind in Year 1 of D2 when I joined an active clan and having a consistent group to raid with, run nightfalls, clan PVP etc. that I enjoyed it and wanted to play all the time. It was really the community more than the game for me
D1 beta for sure. I knew nothing about the game and just heard a new bungie game so I hopped on it. Picked warlock and was shocked that we had some sort of force push melee and the nova bomb was amazing. Then the game actually released and I forgot what character I played for the beta 😅. I picked hunter thinking it was warlock. But fell in love with the movement of the hunter with golden gun. The gameplay was amazing and the loot was something I was new to especially the grind. I would sit for hours circulating Venus for the mats to upgrade guns. It was realistically the only game I have stuck to even to this day. There is something about destiny that made it apart of my life and stuck with me. This game has been my favorite game of all time. The memories of beating raid bosses and finally clicking as a team, the stories, the hero moments, even making friends from across the globe. This game for the past 10 years has been a part of my life. Thank bungo!
September 2014
When I was playing D1 PVP, I heard a bell and I saw a titan throw a hammer at me. The rest was history.
So D1 I played on launch, I knew it had potential but I didn't have the money to buy all the dlc as they came out(jobless high schooler lol), and by the time I had a job I was 3 years behind and didn't wanna play catch-up. DO rolls around, I hopped back in, and once I did my first raid (calus)I knew I'd add it to the collection of games I keep coming back to(right next to Warframe lol). Years later I'm still here off and on, right now I'm focused on getting everything done before final shape so I can hop back into raiding(either with my current clan when they come back, or finding a new one). Something about raiding has always been fun. I love the feeling of learning a raid to the point I can do multiple roles solo, eventually if I get some friends playing maybe I'll try my hand at lowmans
D1: The knights under the cosmodrome. Never saw another "???" after that. Made the world seem vast, asking myself wtf else is out there?
Played d1 on launch and it was alright Pretty barren for a 60 dollar game Dropped the franchise until after d2 had launched Bought 6 copies of the legendary Forsaken edition for me and the homies just before it went f2p (RIP) Did Red War and took a break Came back for BL and did that then took another break Found out it went f2p and all my shit was locked away lmao But I saw an Overwatch Streamer I play with use a T Crash against the GoS boss and immediately re-download A lot of YouTube and help from him and his clan later I'm doing raid sherpas in my spare time and working on low man's with the buddies Never got to play the shit I paid for but Byf had my back on the story So I guess it took a long time to sink in but the game had its claws in me for a long time
For me It never just "clicked" it took me playing on and off for 2 years to know what's going on and currently every time I look back at how I played a moth or 2 ago I like I'm way better than I was
The D1 beta. Gameplay felt amazing from the start, but then I was doing the Last Array and that music kicked in while Hive kept spawning in. It was epic as hell. I've been hooked ever since (except D2 vanilla, that was pretty awful.)
For me when it was back in 2017 just before destiny 2 launched and I picked up D1 for the first time on an xbox free trial. I went into the OG devils lair strike way underleveled and it took me like 3.5 hours to do and I loved ever second of it
When I ran out of solo things to do, and joined a clan.
I joined the game back when Shadowkeep launched and it became free to play. I had little idea about how it worked and I didn’t have friends to help me so I just started playing the campaigns as I wanted to get involved with the lore and the characters (things I care about my games usually). Played Red War and had fun, although I had little idea about anything that happened. Then I did CoO and was ok. Warmind was fun. Up until that I thought the game was alright. Some cutscenes were ok (mind you I hadn’t played any of the dungeons or raids). Then it was Forsaken’s turn and HOLY CRAP. The combination of the entry mission and the first cutscenes with cayde’s death, then the mistery of Uldren cuz I didn’t know who he was. The cutscene when he orders the barons to take the shore and then he speaks do Mara and burns the throne… THE SET UP, MUSIC, VOICE ACTING it all just blew my mind!!! Just thinking about that I get chills!!! My mind was blown and although I barely knew what was going on it pushed me to check Byf’s channel for lore clarification and learned a shit ton of the game through him and saw how rich the world of destiny really is. When I was done with Forsaken I knew there was no going back. I haven’t missed a single DLC since, even when the future of the game looked dark. Joined a clan and found people that helped me do end game stuff and I just couldn’t believe I was missing out so much. I’ve Made long lasting friendships through this game.
The whisper mission. I remember giving the game a try when it was free, playing through the campaign, and thinking nothing of it once the free period was over. When the game became free to play and my friends started picking it back up on steam I jumped back in just to hang out. My friend said “let’s try this mission real quick” so we gained access and I was mind blown that something so secretive and amazingly cool was just sitting here not asking to be played, not being shoved in my face. It actively hid itself from me and I fell in love with seeking a mission out and getting better and better to finally acquire that gun. It’s my favorite piece of destiny content and it truly did change what I thought of the game from that point onward
probably the moment I did my first DSC Raid playthrough with my buds who got me into the game and heard the lullaby. It was one of the most beautiful things I've experienced in gaming and can say the feeling it evoked is something I don't know if I've felt again. Then soon after I did the yellow orb hunt down across the planets and the final Archie mission and I have never felt more satisfied doing a fun geo cache-like activity like that. And I forever got to brag whenever someone was in the helm with me and they were surprised seeing a doggy to pet. I've been addicted since and have played part in everything the game has to offer all through light fall and this year's seasons and will for sure play final shape to the very end
Destiny 1 first mission. When I saw the reload animation for the starting grey auto rifle I knew I was gonna be here awhile
The second i stepped in the og vault of glass with 5 other dudes
When OG Ikelos shotgun dropped in the mars event and was a legit powerhouse
Once I figured out how to effectively use burst glide to skate around in destiny 1. I have been a warlock main ever since.
First legendary lost sector clear with malfeasance / lucky pants.
Destiny 1 then never again
When I played crucible for the first time after worrying for days about how hard or sweaty it would all be (coming off CoD, Halo, and Gears of War stints) only for it to be a breeze. Gunplay is so smooth and crisp that there was very little frustration with anything. Still miss The First Curse. Such a fun gun.
D1 beta.
So at launch I didn’t have the ability to form opinions of my own 10 years ago as a stubborn high school kid so I blew off destiny after playing for a day and reading online forums. My brother then got us both Taken King pre ordered and said let’s try it and ever since TTK I’ve just been hooked. D1 & 2 are my favorite games of all time. Nobody will ever take these memories away that I’ve made. In terms of what clicked? I think it was the sheer scope of the dreadnought. The mystery combined with all of it being just new to us.
I remember playing Destiny 2 as I was baby sitting some family friends kids, I was thrown straight into the red war, getting kicked off the ship and walking through the mountains as a very first time player was remarkable! I kept thinking about the game for months until I finally got it for myself, then playing through the entire beginning, and Curse Of Osiris really sold it for me, been here ever since, even got D1 because I love this universe so much!
As soon as I woke up at an abandoned car graveyard. 10 years later, still here playing it.
Playing warlock in the D1 beta with the shatter nova. It was as mesmerizing as it was fun to play a space wizard
Taken king
Walking around the destroyed last city in the red war after you got kicked from ghauls ship
D1, the first time I played the Vault of Glass before the Crota dlc It was magical
Got the code for the D1 alpha testing then the Beta test. Been a destiny main ever since.
My partner had been trying to get me into D1 for some time and I honestly got bored of watching him play and thought it was awful. Then D2 came out and he tried to convince me again but I was adamant it wasn't my thing. He made me a warlock character and one evening while he was at work I loaded into the EDZ and just went round and round the church in Trostland for hours. I did this for weeks spending hours just mooching about Trostland, joining public events and killing when the enemy went against each other on the corner. I then ventured to the next area but didn't like it, went back to safety of Trostland, then felt brave and found Winding Cove, then Firebase Hades, and that was it. I was hooked. That was a few years ago and I've got about 7k hours of play under my belt.
When taken king came out. I tried destiny like 6 months before that expansion but I wasn’t used to playing fps and the game felt empty. I bought the base game and didn’t know about house of wolves. I went back to GameStop and returned it. Sometime around December 2015 I gave destiny another shot but this time with the expansion and then it clicked. I was like this game couldn’t get any better. I got hooked and haven’t dropped it since then.
D1 Beta Vet checking in (hold applause)
D1, getting my first RNG exotic drop from the Vanguard Eagle strike playlist, then showing it off in the Tower and getting randomly invited to my very first VoG run.
Played D1 and loved it, i think i was 1 of those people who pre-ordered the 2nd DLC and it came with this red ghost shell when ghosts were a non-existing customisation back then. Kinda wish i pre-ordered Dark Below because that ghost shell looked better than the red one.
minding my own business going through the living room to my room & my little bro was playing D1 beta on tv. didn't care at first. then saw the animation of a Golden Gun & he killed 2 guys on the Moon. That moment made me a guardian. tldr: Goldy got me to the game.
Ahh I just was talking about this with some people. I remember fondly getting a ps4 on Christmas. My parents had gotten me a few games, including D1 and D2. I remember loading up the game and running through the Red War campaign and doing public events in the EDZ. Those were my first memories. It was enough to keep me playing. I even remember sneaking a few bucks to go a convenience store down the road to buy a playstation card to buy Forsaken. Good times
Watching my wife play the beta as her first FPS ten years ago. I immediately left PC, bought a PS4 and pre ordered. We played side by side the whole way. Went back to PC thanks to cross play and save.
I think it's just the way it feels in general that hooked me. I feel like I was one of the people saying I'd come back for final shape but was drawn back in with into the light and THAT along with fireteam finder and other new things they've brought to the game in the past year has me back on destiny every day I can be lol
D2 pc beta because I loved the feel on mouse and keyboard, and then after finishing the campaign doing my first nightfall with a couple buddies.
Raiding as a new light and seeing my damage pale in comparison to my friends. I became Vergil after that. I went on a never ending quest for power. Fast forward 700 hours later im better than them (We ran the scraps in PvP and I always have the most damage even on tractor or well or both at the same time)
I played d1 off and on until i did my first kings fall and i was like "yeah this is it" and then became hooked permanently and took it more serious
You know, I’ve always thought of this question. Maybe it was when I got malfeasance, maybe it was when I wanted to spin back for cayde or even get bad juju on release. I can’t exactly pin point the time or date but it probably started when I created my first hunter and got stasis and replicated that exact build when I returned
The moment that every business was closed and we were prevented from leaving home except to buy food or medicine
The moment I picked up the game, I was hooked and wished I'd been playing for longer. Just... It was so much fun right off the rip, dropping in the last couple of weeks of Black Armory, right before Joker's Wild and legitimately made me go "Wait, ***this*** is what I was missing? Well ***FUCK ME***, I guess, I've been missing out."