The Real Reason Destiny 2's New Season Is Causing An Uproar
If there's one thing Destiny 2 is good at, it's being consistently inconsistent. The game will put out a season that a lot of players seem to enjoy, full of fun activities and interesting rewards to chase. But it seems Bungie — the studio behind Destiny 2 — can never string two of these good seasons together. Destiny 2 inevitably disappoints, kind of like it's doing right now with it's latest content drop, Season of the Worthy.
Why are fans so let down by Season of the Worthy? What could this particular season be doing so wrong compared to other seasons before? Unfortunately, the list appears to be quite long.
To start, the gameplay loop found in the new season is very similar to the one found in the recently wrapped up Season of Dawn. From December until earlier this week, players were tasked with defeating an enemy called the Cabal by participating in a large group activity, and by leveling up machines called "obelisks" across the solar system. Things are pretty much the same this season. Players are once again faced with a Cabal threat, and in order to take it on, they must participate in a large group activity and level up terminals inside bunkers across the solar system. It feels a bit copy-paste, and the player base isn't happy about it.
Next, Bungie appears intent on making mistakes it probably should've learned from in the past. Back when Season of the Forge dropped in late 2018, Bungie caught a lot of flack for including activities that players couldn't participate in immediately. It locked Forges behind a lengthy grind, and also set the first Forge at a high power level. This meant those buying Season of the Forge had no new content to play until they leveled up, and amazingly, Bungie did the same thing in Season of the Worthy. One of the new activities — Legendary Lost Sectors — is set too high for players to immediately jump in. The one activity players can partake in now is basically a glorified public event, so to those who dropped $10 on Season of the Worthy, the content is feeling very thin at the moment.
Unexplained changes also appear to be a Bungie hallmark, these days, and they're almost never received well. Player emblems had their stats removed to make room for a new stat-tracking system, angering many who'd worked hard to earn a certain number of dungeon or raid clears. Bungie, for whatever reason, never mentioned the change before the season started, and offered a less-than-satisfying response when asked about it. On top of that, a beloved character — Ana Bray — got an entirely new voice actress, who re-recorded all of the character's lines in the game. Bungie didn't let anyone know that change was coming, either — not even to give the new voice actress a shout-out.
And "ritual weapons" have mostly gone missing from Season of the Worthy. Ritual weapons are basically new weapons players can grind for over the source of a season. These items encourage players to take part in the game's core activities, like Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit. There is a grand total of one ritual weapon in the new season, and unfortunately, it's tied to Iron Banner, a player-versus-player activity that shows up roughly one time per month. Bungie set the expectation that every new season would have ritual weapons, but failed to let anyone know Season of the Worthy would break with tradition.
The part of the new season that's drawn the most ire, however, has to do with microtransactions. Many feel the loot in Destiny 2 has become less plentiful and less inspired since the game switched to a free-to-play model in October. The Eververse store, though — the shop where players can purchase items with real money — has only grown in size. Players took particular offense to a few new items now available in the store, which are themed around the Red Keep in the Shadowkeep expansion. To those unhappy players, the Red Keep-themed sparrows and ships should have been loot drops for completing Shadowkeep activities.
If there is one saving grace for Season of the Worthy, it's that players will soon see the return of Trials of Osiris. This hardcore player-versus-player mode was a hit in the original Destiny, and is finally returning after a whole lot of begging from fans. The big question is, will Trials of Osiris be enough to keep the player base happy? Scores of Reddit posts seem to indicate the Destiny 2 community is more angry now than it's ever been.
If nothing else, Season of the Worthy appears to have exposed a major flaw in Bungie's new seasonal content model. Every season thus far has been reliant on a large group activity, the completion of bounties, and the hope that players will spend real life money in the Eververse store. The Curse of Osiris expansion from early 2018 was dunked on at the time of its release, with players saying it might be Bungie's worst DLC ever. Now some are wishing the game would go back to content drops like that one, even if it means Destiny 2 receives fewer updates as a result.
We'll keep an eye on the chatter about Destiny 2's Season of the Worthy and let you know how Bungie responds to the backlash. We can't help but think some changes might be coming in the near future.