Season of the Haunted is the newest season for Destiny 2’s Year 5 content and brings us back to a familiar location: Destiny 2’s first raid, Leviathan. Calus has returned and is attempting to harness the Nightmares on the Moon, first encountered in Destiny 2’s third expansion, Shadowkeep. We are sent to disrupt Calus’ plans to commune with the Darkness while also helping some of our old and new friends come to terms with their past, their nightmares. Battling refreshed foes and participating in the new seasonal activity, Containment, can sometimes feel overwhelming and too challenging. Luckily, there are services like the destiny 2 carry that can provide essential assistance during these trying times, helping to make the game a more enjoyable experience.
Does Season of the Haunted bring any new frights that justify a return to the seasonal grind? Or is the lack of new content and progression systems too scary?
Feeling Familiar
The Leviathan is the hot button topic in the Destiny community. Everyone is spending their time grinding public events to get a small chance at acquiring rare loot. Sound familiar? You probably just heard Nameless Midnight firing in the background because man, this sounds a lot like Destiny 2 Year 1. But it isn’t. Season of the Haunted brings the Leviathan location back, updating its aesthetic to reflect its darkness-corrupted state. Scorn and Cabal Loyalists fill the former raid encounter locations and the new seasonal activity, Containment, is the main attraction in the Leviathan. Let’s start with Containment.
Containment is easily one of the weakest seasonal activities we’ve had. I don’t know how Bungie hasn’t learned their lesson from previous activities like the Seraph Towers or Contact. Destiny players prefer matchmade activities! Look at how many people keep whining on Twitter or Reddit for Menagerie to come back. Standing around, waiting for enough players to spawn in your instance in order to do a successful Containment run is not fun. Finishing one run and then watching as everyone pulls their Ghosts out, ready to head to a different location is not fun. Matchmade activities allow players to get out of the activity and jump instantly back into queuing for the activity, usually within a few moments. Sure, there’s an alternate launch mode that prioritizes in-progress Containment instances, but once that session ends and everyone grabs the final chest, who actually stays behind?
It also doesn’t help that Season of the Haunted returns to the 3x6 upgrade tree, locking upgrades behind weekly quests and grinding the reputation track. I actually opened up the menu and audibly groaned when I saw it. I’ve said before that Bungie needs to change this system. Limiting players from having every upgrade on week 1 is understandable, but man, there’s gotta be a different way to do it. How many seasons has this upgrade tree been in? 4? Maybe 5? Not only does Containment being a public event make me not want to do it, but just seeing the monotonous and predictable grind for upgrades that I’ll have to do for the rest of the season demotivates me even further.
That’s not to say that the season is all bad. This season is arguably even better than last season in terms of story. The Nightmares were a missed opportunity in Shadowkeep but now, attaching them to characters we care about or need to learn more about, like Crow and Zavala, we can see the character arcs playing out in front of us. This is a great season for YouTubers who only upload game cutscenes. The individual struggles Crow and Zavala, and eventually Caiatl will deal with are relatable and sympathetic. Watching Crow wrestle with his Uldren origins and how he overcomes them is satisfying and I’m excited to see where the story goes next. Whatever the story and lore team is on, give some of that to the gameplay design team. A+ work on the story for Season of the Haunted.
Reputation Tracks: Iron Banner Edition
Saladin returns, his menu updated to the same reputation track as seen in all of our other vendors. Iron Banner has also received quite the update. Iron Banner only appears in a season twice now, but rank bonuses from wearing Iron Banner armor, cosmetics, and completing challenges help Iron Lord hopefuls get those rank rewards. Speaking of Iron Lords, there’s even a new seal and title, “Iron Lord,” that can be acquired and equipped upon completing a series of challenges. This title joins Conqueror, Dredgen, and Flawless as another title that can be gilded each subsequent season. However, the biggest change to Iron Banner isn’t the loot focusing or the reputation track, but the return of Rift, a game mode from Destiny 1. Increased respawn times, changing to a round-based system, and a new map all make this new Rift quite a bit different from the original Destiny 1 Rift. It’s good to see that Bungie is no longer neglecting the casual PVP fanbase. New map, new loot, and a new game mode are good signs, but we’ll have to see how Bungie will further update the Crucible and Iron Banner. All in all, Rift, although controversial, is a breath of fresh air in a game mode that has been using the same game type for years.
Solar 3.0: a fiery mess or a blaze of glory?
I didn’t talk a lot about Void 3.0 in the last Destiny 2 review and I’m realizing what a huge mistake that was. Void 3.0 was groundbreaking, earthshattering, and fundamentally shifted the meta within Destiny. It made us stronger, gave abilities restricted to specific classes to all, and added a new layer of customization to our Light subclasses. Solar 3.0 hopes to do the same, but for our Gunslinger, Dawnblade, and Sunbreaker classes. Although not as fundamentally impactful as Void 3.0, the new Solar abilities and updates are no less meta changing. Blade Barrage is back to being a useful super, Titans can throw hammers that deal big damage AND heal them, and Starfire Protocol is now a useful exotic. Is Solar 3.0 as strong as Void 3.0? Probably not, but it also may be too early to tell. Seasonal mods definitely help make Solar builds more viable (Classy Restoration has become a bit of a crutch for every Destiny YouTuber and their mom) but it will remain to be seen whether being able to throw a giant bundle of dynamite that might kill the user is as good as invisibility in the future. For now, I’m enjoying Solar 3.0, even if I’m a little sad that Hunters still lack survival options outside of invisibility.
Just another Destiny season
Season of the Haunted is really a mixed bag overall. It brings back old favorites like the Leviathan raid location and Season of Opulence weapons like Austringer and Beloved, but also swings and misses with an overused upgrade tree and underwhelming seasonal mode. The story is great and Solar 3.0 is cool, but beyond Iron Banner getting rid of the old RNG token system, there isn’t really anything new gameplay wise to experience. Public events are never as good as matchmade activities, crafting is still a grind to do, and Leviathan returning doesn’t do much beyond present a new patrol space to walk around in. Maybe Solstice will fix this? Maybe being able to spawn a giant scythe was enough? I’d argue no. Season of the Haunted is, to me, a relatively underwhelming season, and of all of the seasons that might be worth skipping to try other games (like Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes *cough* shameless shilling *cough*), this might be it. Season of the Haunted doesn’t scare me away due to how scary it is, but how apathetic I feel about it. I guess watch the cutscenes when they come out? Try Solstice when it launches? It is just another Destiny season.
5/10
For more information about Destiny 2: Season of the Haunted, visit: https://www.bungie.net/7/en/Seasons/SeasonOfTheHaunted
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My name is Matt Tran and I have been playing video games since I could remember holding a controller. I've always been a hardcore gamer growing up, from the hectic MW2 and Halo 3 lobbies, my many journeys through several Halo clans and my current exploits with my Destiny 2 clan. I love shooters and RPGs and overanalyzing every component of every game I've played, from weapon stats to ideal perks. When I have time to play other games, I currently play Genshin Impact and Star Wars Squadrons.
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