I have been in love with the Destiny universe since my boyfriend got me the Rise of Iron package including all previous expansions. I started playing this game on the weekend of the Beta for COD Infinite Warfare (Don't judge) and I haven't stopped since. I even got into clans in D2 and have been running my own since last year. I've been defending this game and Bungie for such a long time, but this season was such a let down. Yes, the campaign was amazing, a little short for my taste, but it was nonetheless a great campaign. The first week or so of Shadowkeep was great. Season of the Undying? Not so much. The majority of my clan and a lot of people in the forums agree - it is truly heartbreaking. It's a shame to see a game that I loved investing time into, turn into something that is aggravating and feels like a waste of time instead. Below is a reworked version of something that I posted in my clan's discord when the Undying Mind was unleashed on us. It was prompted by everyone voicing their disappointment with it...that was before I had looked at it and yeah, that was a weak finale, Bungie. The season already started under a bad sign. [u]1. Pre-Season Leaks[/u] It leaked that the gear for the raid was a lazy reskin of an old Eververse set. Even though Bungie tried to get out in front of it after Guardian Con, it still remains to be a sad reskin. As someone whose core focus is raids this is a slap in the face. Kinda like Trials of the Nine never returning for PvP players I guess. [i]Meanwhile, Eververse received A+++ treatment. [/i] [u]2. Raid launch.[/u] Let's not beat the dead horse that is contest mode on console. The frame drops for the last encounter in the raid, the insane amounts of lag fireteams constantly have to deal with [on PS4], are a painful experience. Raid design? Beautiful! But overshadowed by other issues with the raid. Aside from the armour, contest mode & frame rate issues: [u]3. Raid Loot Economy. [/u] No heavy weapon (Divinity tied to the raid which is a nice touch), an insane focus on weapon drops (from my experience) instead of a balance between weapons and armour. Challenge mode? Well, it's nice for the triumph, completely useless for loot, unless you are looking for yet another primary or energy weapon to infuse. --> Instead Bungie should have at least included masterworked raid armour as a potential drop from challenge chests. Where is the incentive to do them? --> Overall, the raid is quite the disappointment, if you factor in all the issues with the final encounter as well as the loot system [u]4. The crucible.[/u] The activity Bungie left lying around for a long time, received one completely new map. As much as I love Widow's Court and Twilight Gap, they are old Destiny 1 maps. Another lazy attempt at adding "new" content. (Yeah, let's not mention the new, fun, fresh IB quest --> that is sarcasm by the way). Momentum Control is certainly fun but if that is the best bungie can do with the time they've had for the crucible? Then it simply doesn't look good. Sure, comp got reworked, control 6v6, rotator 6v6 and rotator 4v4 were added as well, but overall, given the time Bungie has had to work on this. It's not exactly a show of force. or "amazing" as Shaxx would shout. [i]Speaking of old voice lines:[/i] [u]5. Vendors[/u] Vendors did not receive a refresh, Hawthorn is still greeting Guardians with her old "You took out Ghaul!" Line (Yeah, the forums are kinda over it as well), even Saladin is throwing the same old weapons our way. [u]6. Seasonal Activity.[/u] Fair enough, it's seasonal for a reason, so remove it if it really improves the game overall. The activity itself? Dull after a few runs, even the menagerie had rotating bosses that kept it fresh for at least the first three weeks. Here? Defeat the same boss over and over again, do the same mechanics twice in order to get to the boss encounter. Replay factor? Almost nill. Uninspired "finale" with the Undying mind. Are we really shocked at this point? Considering how little thought, effort and love Bungie seems to have poured into this season? [u]7. Brightdust Economy.[/u] Make bright dust available through bounties, fair enough. Limit these bounties to Vanguard, Crucible & Gambit weekly & repeatable bounties? Absolute BS. Especially if you look at the prices in the Eververse store at the moment. Who, in their right mind, grinds out Gambit & Vanguard activities once they have reached level cap? Instead, Bungie could have tied this to Banshee bounties as well, potentially even the seasonal activity. Where will players spent more time? Doing Gambit or the actual seasonal activity? Alternatively, Bungie could have kept Eververse bounties. [u]8. Armour 2.0, Season Pass & Artefact.[/u] Now, this is where Bungie’s focus was this season ([i]Aside from refreshing & reworking their Cash Cow - Eververse[/i]). Armour 2.0? Fair enough, there is enough in the community about that. Season pass? 100 levels? Alright. Certainly could have been more for hardcore players. Alternatively, improved rewards for ranking up past rank 100; Bright dust, bright engrams, ascendant shards, etc. Artefact? Cool idea, but really so cool that it justified pulling resources from the rest of the game to focus on that? We will see. Speaking of engrams, what is this bullshit with “Nostalgic Engrams”? [u]9. undying title[/u] Interesting idea there, Bungie. Making the title only available to people who grind out these, so-called, ritual weapons. Who really needs these weapons? Who would be grinding them out if they weren't attached to a title? I know I wouldn't, hell, I still have open quests from the last few seasons. That's my decision, I think it's kind of ridiculous to make us grind these out for this season's title. What exactly do they have to do with the Vex? Are they Vex themed? Sorry, but I may have missed this. It was bad enough making us play the Vex Offensive into the ground...then again, that may have been the only way to get people to engage with this activity. I know that people who I play with won't be getting the title because they found the Offensive to be too mind numbing. I, most likely, won't be getting it because I now have 3 weapons to grind out within 6 days. Because I made the mistake of focussing on teaching Destiny 2's raids, this season especially Garden of Salvation, to new and old clan members. To me, personally, this was one of the weaker seasons. Once again, Bungie attempted to ‘fix’ certain aspects that weren’t broken and forgot to focus on the ones that actually count for the community. [u]This, “finale” with the Undying mind? Honestly, I am not even a little surprised. It’s sad, since I expect so much more from this game and this studio that claims to listen to its community[/u]. We will see what the future season brings, but considering the sandbox and imbalances on console, there are more issues that I am sure others will be mentioning. The ones I listed above were simply the ones that grind my gears the most. Thank you for reading this, if you made it through this novel.