Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate dropped to “Mostly Negative” reviews on Steam, following now-reverted Portal nerfs, and players calling out grindy progression.
Destiny 2’s been in a rough spot since Edge of Fate launched in mid-July. The story landed well, but the system changes didn’t, with players running into a wide range of bugs, including player movement, new stats, and more. Last week, Bungie previewed the first major post-launch update, Ash & Iron. Among them were some nerfs to the Portal system and reward reductions for in Exotic missions like Encore, Starcrossed, and The Whisper.
The backlash was immediate. So much so that within days, the studio publicly walked the plan back, calling it “the wrong call,” and said the focus would shift to making Portal activities feel more rewarding instead of taking things away.
Amid that back-and-forth, the Steam user reviews for the Edge of Fate have now dropped down to “Mostly Negative.”
Destiny 2 Edge of Fate Drops Down To “Mostly Negative” Steam Reviews
On Steam right now, Edge of Fate shows “Mostly Negative” for recent reviews (24% positive, 240 total in the last 30 days). This means about 58 positives and 182 negatives. Since August 18, the day Bungie announced the Portal nerfs for the Ash & Iron update, we counted a total of 89 negative reviews and only 15 positive in that window.
Players say the new power climb is slow and repetitive, the Portal system has essentially killed the legacy content with no one playing older raids, dungeons, and the reward economy doesn’t respect the time you put in.
“A total trainwreck of baffling design choices, horrific progression, and a putrid amount of content,” one review reads. Another sums it up as “artificial grinding to boost player numbers.” A third calls the new loop “sunsetting with extra steps,” complaining they’re stuck running the “same easy 5-minute activity 100s of times.”
Several reviews also say the Portal feels thin and overly curated, fewer matchmade options, fewer weekly reasons to revisit raids and dungeons, and older drops losing ground under the new tiering. One player writes that missions “force you to use a very limited amount of ‘new’ or ‘featured’ gear.”
Even some of the positive take land on the same point: “Edge of Fate itself is great. The current state of the game, with all of the overhauls Edge of Fate brought… not as much so. If you’re buying this to play the campaign and raid, then you’ll be happy. If you’re buying this and associating all the changes to D2 with it… Then yeah, you’re going to hate it.”
Zooming out from the last-30-days snapshot, the overall Steam reviews aren’t rosy either. As of August 31st, the total Steam reviews for the Edge of Fate expansion are “Mixed” with 40% positive from 1,727 Steam-purchaser reviews.
Here’s a comparison between the Edge of Fate overall Steam review score and past Destiny 2 expansions:
- The Edge of Fate: Mixed (40% positive)
- The Final Shape: Mostly Positive (79% positive)
- Lightfall: Mostly Negative (31% positive)
- The Witch Queen: Mostly Positive (375% positive)
You can see the same push-pull on the r/DestinyTheGame subreddit. There have been several posts talking about how older activities are now empty. Players say queues for legacy raids and dungeons take longer, and matchmaking drops them into half-full lobbies. “Spent 20 minutes trying to fill a Witness checkpoint this week. Two months ago, the fireteam would be full in less than 5 minutes on a Tuesday morning,” one post reads.
Bungie did confirm that it will be adding older raids and dungeons to the Portal system in the future. As for what’s next in Destiny 2, all eyes are on the Ash & Iron update, which launches on Tuesday, September 9, less than ten days from now.
What’s your experience been like since Edge of Fate launched? Will you be trying out the Ash & Iron update? Let us know in the comments below!
