Destiny 2’s Ash and Iron Backlash: Steam Reviews Tank as Players Call Out P2W and Gear Wipes

Why This Blew Up This Week

I’ve ridden Destiny 2’s highs and lows since vanilla, and this week’s mood swing hit different. My feed lit up with posts calling it “the worst week in the history of Destiny,” and for once the vibe wasn’t just typical subreddit doom. Since the Ash and Iron update landed around September 9, recent Steam reviews flipped hard into the red. Players aren’t just annoyed-they’re grieving a game they feel is slipping away.

• Recent Steam sentiment turned overwhelmingly negative post-September 9.
• Players say the new Portal grind + premium battle pass boosts flirt with pay-to-win.
• Meta churn, vaulting, and perceived “gear wipes” keep erasing player investment.
• Reports of bugs and instability in Ash and Iron pour gasoline on the fire.

Breaking Down the Backlash

On paper, Destiny 2 still looks healthy on Steam-lifetime reviews sit around 79% positive. In practice, the mood swing since Ash and Iron is brutal: players point to a marked surge of negative reviews after September 9. The “Edge of Fate” page looks even grimmer, with recent positivity hovering near 10% and several days with zero positive takes; September 15 alone saw 50+ negative hits. The headlines from user reviews aren’t subtle: “no soul,” “the worst update I’ve ever seen,” and “buggy” come up again and again.

What triggered it? The Portal system is the current lightning rod. The loop demands a hefty grind to hit decent drops, yet the premium battle pass adds a Portal Engram Boost and an Activity Score Boost II that stacks up to 15% over the season. That translates to faster power acquisition and better yield for paying players-exactly the sort of time-to-power advantage Destiny has mostly avoided selling outright. As one player put it, Bungie is “encroaching into pay to win territory.” This is a PvE-first game, yes, but when the model rewards paid acceleration in the exact activity you’re meant to grind, it breaks the social compact Bungie spent years defending.

Layered on top is old frustration that never really healed: constant meta shifts that bench your hard-earned Exotics, a seasonal treadmill that makes builds feel temporary, and content vaulting that has you paying to re-earn what you once had. Some players even describe “gear wipes” and score resets that make long-term investment feel pointless. Whether every claim is precise or not, the sentiment is consistent: Destiny keeps asking you to start over while charging for the privilege.

The Real Story: Trust Is the Resource Bungie Is Burning

Bungie has danced on this line before. Weapon sunsetting detonated community goodwill in 2020 and got reversed after blowback. The Destiny Content Vault nuked entire zones and campaigns to “keep the game lean,” then slowly sold us slices of legacy content while Eververse grew and dungeon keys turned into a separate SKU. Players grumble, then stick around because the gunplay is peerless and raids are art. But the Portal boosts feel like a new threshold: a monetized advantage inside the new grind loop, not just cosmetics and convenience.

The bugs don’t help. When an update lands with instability, it magnifies every monetization sore spot. Paying for a pass that accelerates a buggy loop is a rough pitch, and the Steam reviews reflect that frustration more vividly than any community manager thread ever could.

What Gamers Need to Know Right Now

• If you’re returning: hold for patches. See if Bungie addresses Portal boost balance and major bugs before throwing money at a season.
• If you’re active: you don’t need the premium pass to play, but the boosts will change your time-to-reward. Decide if that trade-off aligns with your line on P2W.
• For build crafters: expect more meta volatility. Locking into one exotic identity is risky until Bungie clarifies its philosophy on long-term viability.
• Wallet check: avoid bundling up-front. Bungie’s best course correction is to decouple gameplay boosts from the premium track; wait to see if they blink.

Why This Matters Beyond One Bad Week

Destiny 2’s longevity depends on players believing their time isn’t being wasted. Every vault, reset, or convenience upsell chips away at that trust. Crossovers and flashy updates—Star Wars-themed or otherwise—won’t fix it if the core loop feels like a treadmill with a toll booth. With no clear “Destiny 3” in sight and Bungie’s other big project lacking a firm date, this sandbox is the studio’s reputation on the line. If the team walks back the Portal boosts for paying players, stabilizes Ash and Iron, and communicates a durable gear philosophy (no more stealth sunsetting-by-design changes), the review spiral can reverse. If not, expect the “in mourning” mood to calcify into quiet churn.

TL;DR

Ash and Iron didn’t just land buggy; it pushed premium battle pass boosts into the new Portal grind, and the community is calling it pay-to-win. Add years of meta churn and vaulting fatigue, and the Steam reviews went nuclear. Bungie’s next move needs to be decisive: pull gameplay-affecting boosts from the paid track, fix the bugs fast, and rebuild trust—because the gunplay alone won’t carry a live service that feels like it’s taxing your time.