Seasonal events are always an exciting aspect of any online game. They bring some welcome decor change to familiar areas and give you something new to do to break away from the normal daily grind.
Destiny 2 has a range of different events that run in rotation, bringing some new quest lines, activities, and in the case of Halloween, a pretty awesome makeover of the Tower. Games like Destiny 2 need players to return daily and an event like this is a perfect reason to log back in if you haven’t played in a while.
The Halloween 2022 update for Destiny 2 offers quite a bit of content. A new season pass style system that can be purchased for the same price as a normal season pass. Surely this means there is going to be quite a bit of meat to this update if you are going to be paying $10/€10.
Bugs & Microtransactions
If the Halloween update could be summed up in two words, it would be bugs and microtransactions. Who needs fun when you can give Bungie some of your money for cosmetics!
Bugs are a part of software development and so long as the developers work to fix them, we should be understanding. In the case of the Destiny 2 Halloween update, these same bugs existed last year. They quite literally took the same broken game mode from last year and just used it again, without fixing one of the most annoying bugs that will force players to wait around for 1-2 minutes for the new Halloween game mode to end after you complete the requirements.
After you play the new game mode you are sure to spot several bugs. One thing that works perfectly however is all the notifications to remind you of all the nice cosmetics you can get if you drop $10 on the event pass.
I made time to spend a large portion of my day getting stuck into this event and I nearly purchased the event pass when I logged in due to the excitement. I have already passed level 100 for the current season so a new pass to keep me busy is fantastic. After 2 hours, I realized I had wasted my time even playing this event. There is absolutely no substance to it. The game mode is bugged. The rewards, even if you pay $10 are not worth it and the feeling of having Eververse cosmetics jammed down your throat sours the taste of an event that should be a lot of fun.
This is an Event to Sell Cosmetics, Not Entertain
The new game mode introduced in this event is free to play and cosmetics are optional. If you don’t like it, don’t play it right? Opinions like this are dime a dozen when developers or publishers unleash greedy practices on the player base. I want to play this game but when you feel like you are just being advertised to and feel like this experience is entirely based around trying to take your money without providing you any fun, why stay playing?
Games should be fun first and foremost. As soon as that balance shifts and games become cash leech first, throw in some half-baked fun as an afterthought and the game becomes a more bitter experience.
I want to play games to have fun. The Halloween facade is so transparent here. This Halloween event is not about giving players a fun new game mode to draw players away from other games. It’s a shallow face over what is essentially a way for Bungie to try and sell you some cosmetics. Video games are one of the most amazing forms of entertainment and greedy practices like this are ruining the fun and worst of all, are still profitable!
The Halloween update for Destiny 2 is something that I just can’t play anymore. I was looking forward to it but the entire event reeks of greed and shows little care for the player base. Bugs from last year should not exist. They had plenty of time to introduce a new event pass to pull in some extra money but couldn’t fix the bugs.