If you last played Destiny 2 at its launch back in 2017, Destiny 2: New Light — now called Destiny 2: Free-to-Play — could be a great way to get back into it. In fact using Bungie's Destiny 2 cross-save function you can easily bring your characters in from anywhere to join the party.
You're free to do that. I did and having my character standing in the new Tower in the raid gear is a phenomenal sight to behold. But, if you're coming back to Destiny 2 after some time away, you should make a new character for the best experience. Here's why.
This is my rifle
Destiny 2: New Light starts new characters off with a Destiny 2-ified version of Destiny's tutorial mission back on Earth, letting you get to grips with the controls and the Destiny universe in one short, well made, mission.
Destiny 2's launch tutorial mission covered the destruction of the original game's Tower in the Red War. That was a blow to fans of Destiny expecting the status quo and set up the first year of content. However, for new players coming into the series it adds nothing, and that's not where Destiny 2 is at now.
The mission in the Russian Cosmodrome sets up the world of Destiny as a whole much better and talks more about how Destiny is trying to set the game up as a live game. It's an accurate, if better looking, recreation of the original game's tutorial, giving you the phenomenal Khvostov 7G-02 auto rifle and setting you lose in a series of detailed corridors to mop up the game's opening enemies.
It's a fun and engaging reminder of why Destiny is such a good franchise and you can feel the impact of every single bullet and every melee hit. Throughout the 20 minute tutorial, I found myself slowly falling in love with the game all over again.
Free content
Then, you're spat out into the new Tower at light level 750, ready to take part in any content from the first two years of Destiny 2, in the same position as any characters that have been ported over from other areas.
It's a bold move from Bungie, but it means that the ideal way to play — in my opinion — is to jump in and start fresh with a new character, digging into a wealth of free content to catch you up to where the game is at now before you're even asked to put the money down for Destiny 2 Shadowkeep.
It's a generous move, and it lets you escape one of the biggest problems with MMO titles: coming back to the game after a year's gap to find all of your equipment outdated and obsolete, and no idea how to play your character. It's a phenomenon that's scared me away from World of Warcraft's later expansions and has scared me off of returning to many live games that I've fallen out of touch with. It's good news then, that Bungie has not only foreseen this problem, but sidestepped it by putting a new funnel in place to get players into position.
So, with New Light, be bold, put your main character on pause for a bit and jump in with a new character to help you find your feet again.
