Season of the Want feels nearly over, regardless of lingering on till June. It’s on monitor to exit as one of the crucial tepid seasonal experiences in latest Future 2 reminiscence, sidestepping any pomp and circumstance surrounding the final official season. And that’s a bummer, contemplating Bungie beforehand promised some important adjustments for Season 23.

Following the upcoming The Last Form growth in June, the sport will change to a brand new format known as Episodes. Whereas Season of the Want ought to have been a swan music of the seasonal mannequin, showcasing years of applied enchancment and teeing up what gamers could be enthusiastic about with the brand new episodic format, it’s simply been fairly forgettable. 

That is regardless of Bungie previously addressing some ache factors in an August post-Lightfall State of the Recreation communication. Notably, there was an acknowledgment that the sport’s tried-and-true seasonal construction had grown stale. Bungie vowed that adjustments had been in movement and that Season 23 would reap the reward of earlier gameplay, narrative, and seasonal construction experiments. It could be an enormous understatement to say Bungie overpromised.

Guarantees are straightforward to make

Seasonal supply has been a dialog within the Future 2 neighborhood for some time now. After honing the idea up via the primary half of Lightfall, gamers had been prepared for some change. Seemingly, Bungie heard this suggestions and addressed it a number of months following Lightfall‘s launch. 

Within the State of the Recreation’s quick phase about seasonal construction, Bungie defined, “we’ve been working behind the scenes to shake up the Seasonal paradigm this 12 months to subvert participant expectations and make every Season really feel distinctive.” The studio added that Seasons 22 and 23 would enable extra content material and story flexibility to interrupt the mould. 

Following up on this sentiment, in a passage titled “Reinforcing Our Objectives for the Yr,” the very first level paints further hype for Season 23 particularly. “Whereas there’s at all times room for us to revise and enhance, the neighborhood’s response has strengthened that we’re heading in the right direction with norm-breaking efforts like [Deep Dives], and we’ll be rolling out one thing very new and totally different in Season 23.”

Deep Dives, after all, had been Future 2‘s first severe experiment with rogue-lite components. After every spherical, the exercise allowed gamers to select from a set of buffs and full non-compulsory goals to extend issue and rewards. This experiment appears the obvious inspiration for Season 23’s The Coil exercise.

However Bungie didn’t simply promise totally different seasonal actions; it additionally vowed that the ultimate two seasons would immerse gamers with a newfound goal and make it really feel just like the franchise was evolving every week. “We’re taking the suggestions to coronary heart and loading this 12 months up with essential moments designed to seize gamers’ imaginations and transfer the saga ahead with every beat.”

Guarantees are onerous to maintain

So, the place did all these lofty guarantees lead? Nicely, to not all that a lot. Season of the Want did add The Coil as an exercise, which is superb, however that appears like the value of admission. I count on every season to have a enjoyable, gimmicky exercise. When that doesn’t occur, it sucks, however when Future 2 delivers on what I’ve already been educated to anticipate, it doesn’t really feel revolutionary.

Exterior of The Coil, Season 23 additionally added Riven’s Lair, which is only a super-short model of The Coil. Other than these comparatively distinctive entries, Season 23 presents a Dungeon, an Unique mission, and a seasonal story that largely includes busy work or getting talked at — you realize, the identical stuff as most different Future 2 seasons. And it’s not simply that this feels prefer it may have been any outdated season within the recreation; there have been some stumbles in Season of the Want.

The most important offender is probably going when Bungie by accident spoiled the top of Season 23. In a dialog with an NPC, a bit of textual content clearly supposed for one more vacation spot unceremoniously ruined a forthcoming twist nonetheless weeks away. As unfulfilling as that was, it felt par for the course in a season that repackaged outdated Forsaken growth missions as seasonal story and demanded gamers re-engage with boring, dated actions like The Blind Nicely.

Season 23 appears like a missed alternative. The backdrop considerations Mara Sov, want dragons, and the enigmatic fifteenth want. The state of affairs is brimming with potential, to the purpose the place Bungie may have feasibly completed something it needed and defined it away with want magic. Gamers already know we’ll be heading contained in the Traveler for The Last Form; this was an opportunity to set the stage for that confrontation. As a substitute, we acquired the identical outdated music and dance. 

Season 23’s story is wholly consumed with displaying us that we’ll certainly observe the Witness into the Traveler, as we already know. Bungie sidesteps any intrigue it may’ve constructed with a gaunt, laser-focused narrative. In a nutshell, the fifteenth want is the one means we will observe the Witness. Conveniently, Riven may also help us make good on the want, however she gained’t assist till we recuperate her misplaced eggs that reappear on a weekly foundation. All of it performs out through a go to to the H.E.L.M., some throwaway reused exercise or mission, after which a return to the H.E.L.M. for a lore dump. Sound acquainted? 

Maybe all of that could possibly be forgiven if it felt like Season of the Want, the ultimate Future 2 season, was going out with a bang. If it felt extra like gamers had been participating in a cohesive plan to chase down the Witness as a substitute of simply doing inconsequential chores so somebody would magic us to the unhealthy man, Season 23 might need left me excited for what comes subsequent. At its greatest, it may have been a correct sendoff to the seasonal mannequin and a kick off into a brand new period of the sport. Because it stands, it simply appears like guarantees left unfulfilled.