Bungie’s yearly Halloween-themed event, the Festival of the Lost, has brought along some excellent loot upgrades and a bunch of technical difficulties that have put players in a complaining rather than a celebrating mood. The event has been set for the period between October 21 and November 11, and during that time, the feedback from the communities is going to be very mixed. There will be players in a good mood because of the anticipated enhanced drops of gear and rare weapons, while others will be expressing angry feelings about the bugs and missing content.
So, what is it that the Festival of the Lost has in store for us this time? All the drops during the event will be at +1 Tier, that’s the big surprise. This is very good news for all those who want to get their power levels up quickly. Besides, the rare Holofoil weapon drops will be at +2 Tier along with the matching armor pieces. Certainly, there is a great deal of power coming for the players who want to max out their guardians. The event is open to everyone who has not purchased the expansion; that is always a nice gesture to the free-to-play community.
It is the case of the new activity though – where it has become really difficult for players to fully enjoy it. Users have been posting comments about game-breaking bugs and soft locks. Player frogman3412 is frank when he writes, “Can we fix the soft lock glitch in the new gamemode haven’t gotten to complete 1 yet cause of emote stunning.” And he is not alone, BHoehn adds, “I haven’t been able to complete a single instance of any portal activity in this event.” Ouch!
The technical issues are numerous. Gears Of Magic points out the vault situation: “Why can’t you put weapons in your vault places?” while Dino just says “Fix the vault space issue jeeezzzuuuusssssss.” It looks like even the most basic inventory management is out of order during what should be a festive time.
But the most controversial topic? The missing Super Black shader. The issue has become a major battleground among Destiny 2 players. User ogasadguy highlights the issue with a comment: “Had a group of friends waiting to finally get their hands on Superblack… just to find out after playing this game for 8 hours straight that it isn’t earnable this season.” Some gamers are labeling this as a “massive fail” and “huge mistake” by Bungie. Big_chuch21 even goes as far as saying that it was “the only reason I reinstalled the game.” That is indeed a very disappointing situation.
On the contrary, there are still players who are being able to get the rare Holofoil weapons that Bungie has promised. _pathfindertom_ is asking, “So when do the Holofoils drop? Because I haven’t got a single one yet.” That raises the question of the actual drop rates for these so-called “rare” weapons.
Another point of concern that has been raised is the matchmaking system. Redskinrich1 expresses his frustration about Fireteam Finder being “horrible” when trying to get to A tier, while theJthatmatters suggests, “Make matchmaking A tier. Dealing with fireteam finder run and run makes grinding awful.” The social systems appear to be collapsing under the pressure of the event.
Despite all the tech glitches, some players are still managing to have fun. Twist Ledgendz, a support hunter, recounts, “the spooky alters is actually really fun when it works, doesn’t soft lock or break” and goes on to call the weapon perks “interesting.” And FloridaFlubber, with a bunch of lively emojis, sounds truly happy about it. So, perhaps it is not all bad, after all?
The timing of the event has also been questioned. The Tower’s Tailor and Mitch Alpiner had a little disagreement about the schedule, with Mitch stating, “This was scheduled for an earlier time and held due to ongoing issues, then posted manually.” This implies that Bungie was aware of the problems but chose to launch regardless.
What is really incredulous is the number of gamers who talk about reinstalling the game just for this event and then being met with these problems. That should be a significant hit on player retention rates. People are less likely to return and/or spend money on silver if their experience after a break is one of a broken game.
The community’s general consensus is that Bungie should prioritize fixing the existing issues over releasing new content. As PYPNight puts it: “I know I haven’t been very fond of the direction the game has been going but pls tell me the activity is fixed.” A lot of players are willing to show great mercy if the core experience is performing well.
Then, where does that put the Festival of the Lost 2024? The loot incentives are irrefutable considering the increased gear tiers and rare Holofoil weapons. Nonetheless, the broken activities, missing shaders, vault troubles, and matchmaking issues create a situation where hesitance in diving into these issues until Bungie has dealt with at least some of them is the best recommendation. The event lasts until November 11, hence fixes are possible, but the players’ patience is clearly running out with what looks like an unfinished product. We can only hope that the developers will turn this spooky season around for the better before it is too late.
PlayStation and Xbox players alike are experiencing these issues.
