Players say Destiny 2’s new Portal system has turned the game into “negative fun.”
If you’ve been following Destiny 2 news in the past few months, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about the new Portal system that came with the Edge of Fate expansion. It’s now the core hub for all progression: you run activities through it, earn your Power increases there, and pretty much everything important funnels back into it. It replaced the older, more open-world system that let you explore and grind your way across different planets.
Since launch, Bungie has tried to respond to the heat. Nerfs were rolled back, rewards were buffed, and some of the more frustrating Portal changes were reversed after player backlash. The upcoming Renegades expansion is even skipping the previously planned Seasonal Power reset.
But despite those changes, players are still saying the real issue isn’t just the tuning, it’s the Portal itself.
Players Say Destiny 2 Can Still Be Fun As Long As You Stay Out of the Portal
This latest round of feedback comes straight from a popular Reddit post titled, “I went back into the Pale Heart to do some grinding… the problem is 1000% the Portal,” that quickly gained traction among Destiny players.
“Ever since EoF, I’ve found myself hating the game. I hate the fact that you need to constantly be playing at max difficulty for your time to matter. I hate the modifiers that prevent you from using your builds,” the post reads.
“I had genuinely thought that they had somehow ruined the game on its most basic level. That Destiny was just gone, and this ‘negative fun’ mess was all we had left.”
The user shared how they returned to the Pale Heart and ended up having a great time doing things they actually enjoyed, grinding Prismatic Aspects, running the Overthrow activity, and farming bounties. But that enjoyment hit a wall fast.
“…suddenly four hours had passed. And on top of all of that… I was having fun. I was really, really having fun. Unfortunately, the 15 to 20 drops I earned over all that playtime were all old gear and 200 light. And none of it counted towards my weekly seasonal pursuits. I was enjoying myself, but the game was actively trying to push me away from that style of play and into the awful little curated mess in the Portal.”
For many, this hits the nail on the head. Bungie keeps updating the Portal, but everything outside of it just doesn’t matter anymore. And that’s the problem. One user said, “I don’t want them to slowly bring [a] stripped-down version of things to the Portal. I want the Portal things brought to the huge game that’s currently stuck in limbo!”
Another echoed, “The Portal killed all the fun for me. I really hate it. It does not feel like Destiny anymore.” Others called out the lack of matchmaking for solo players, arguing that so much of the world feels dead because progression only happens in one place.
One comment argued, “The game was supposed to be an open-world game, not a lobby simulator. If it was so impossible for them to keep this game expanding with destinations and such, they should have just developed D3.”
And on what players want from destinations, a user explained, “The entire game needs to be more like the Dreaming City. Secrets, relevant bounties, multiple locations to explore, and working with other players to complete public events. To this day, it is still a location I visit regularly, even though it has no loot incentives.”
It doesn’t help that Destiny 2 just hit its lowest Steam player count ever, with many calling for a Destiny 3, which is nowhere in sight. Today, the developer announced that there will not be an increase in the Power level cap during Renegades.
For now, the community seems united around one point: Destiny 2 can still be fun, it’s just trapped behind a system that tells players where and how they’re allowed to have it.
What do you think? Do you agree that the Portal system is killing the fun, or has Bungie’s course correction started to help? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
