Destiny 2
Bungie
Season of the Wish begins in Destiny 2 today, the last season of the game ever, technically, as it moves into an “episodic” model next year after The Final Shape with longer stretches of content but disconnected storylines.
It has been a long, long live service road full of ups and downs, and I wanted to go back through the years and rank all the seasons from best to worst. This is, of course, my own personal opinion, and I’m sure many will disagree. But for my money (and it was a lot of money), here’s what I remember the most about the good times and the bad.
Dawn
Bungie
1. Season of Dawn (2020) – Powerful story moment with the return of Saint. A great weapon slate and way to farm it through Sundial. What I consider my favorite time with the game short of expansion releases themselves.
2. Season of the Chosen (2021) – Absolutely loved the start of the Caiatl storyline, the introduction of Battlegrounds (unpopular, perhaps, I know), the weapon collection, the idea of forging partnerships rather than murdering the Big Boss at the end.
3. Season of the Witch (2023) – Record playercount lows? Doesn’t matter. Objectively, this is an incredible season with loads of solid PvE content in the form of Altars and Spire, and the culmination of Eris’ long, long Hive journey.
Opulence
Bungie
4. Season of Opulence (2019) – I know this would be some people’s number one, but as good as Menagerie was, this was also when Destiny barely had any story content in a season, and I think Menagerie would not have been quite as beloved without the “seven weapons per run” chest glitch. But obviously it remains the gold standard for seasonal activities, and it did also have a raid back in the Activision support studio days.
5. Season of the Seraph (2022) – Another more recent season, excellent activities and a very solid story arc bringing together two massive forces in the Destiny universe, Clovis Bray and Rasputin.
6. Season of the Forge (2018) – Another old school season. I think we do forget how dull Forges themselves could be, and how bad it was to farm them. But great weapons, a fantastic raid, excellent season.
Destiny 2
Bungie
7. Season of the Lost (2021) – This is when Bungie started to get more creative with its seasonal offerings, and I’m not sure if it counts, but adding Dares of Eternity as the free “midgap” activity in the extended season was a fantastic addition.
8. Season of Arrivals (2020) – While this season was mainly based on a public event for an activity, it was a very good public event! Also some excellent story beats with the arrival of the pyramids on the soon-to-be-vaulted locations, causing their evacuation. A looming sense of dread was pervasive.
9. Season of the Risen (2022) – I really loved this slate of weapons especially, and as much as people hate Battlegrounds, I still really like them. Good story beats as well here.
10. Season of the Splicer (2022) – I mean this gave us Chroma Rush, and some decent activities. I wasn’t wild about the Mithrax/Eido stuff here and there were some threads that didn’t pay off.
Destiny 2
Bungie
11. Season of the Haunted (2022) – I loved the return of the derelict Leviathan, but the activity was way too repetitive and by this point, I was tired of the “deal with trauma” storylines, which we got three times over here.
12. Season of the Worthy (2020) – Okay, now we’re getting a bit bad. Cool weapons but based on a public event that was horrific and incredibly easy to fail if a single invisible guy stood on one plate. But it did give us Warmind Cells which we didn’t appreciate enough at the time.
13. Season of Plunder (2022) – Something about this season was just…off. Feels like maybe this was the height of power creep and so we blazed through what were otherwise pretty solid activities. The pirate thing felt a bit out of place and the Eramis return was not satisfying.
14. Season of Defiance (2023) – I mean decent enough for an expansion-attached season (you’ll see more of those below) but I will never forget how bad Amanda’s death was handled.
Destiny 2
Bungie
15. Season of the Deep (2023) – This was this past year and featured an exceptionally dull six man activity and a promising three man activity that was absolutely butchered by difficulty selection and exotic quest to become almost unplayable by the end of the season. Also fishing was funny for two days, but enormously annoying thereafter.
16. Season of the Hunt (2020) – An okay story but the Hunts were bizarre 30 second boss fights and the entire thing didn’t quite work, even if it would be our first introduction to Savathun Osiris, which we wouldn’t know until later.
17. Season of the Drifter (2019) – Some people’s worst season, but now I actually appreciate the thought that went into actually developing Gambit more. And the story stuff here was actually good. But The Reckoning, pre-nerfs, is my least favorite Destiny activity in history.
Destiny 2
Bungie
18. Season of the Undying (2019) – I mean, I almost feel bad putting it here. What hope did it have? This was the first expansion-attached season ever and was just one activity with a slightly modified boss for the finale. I liked the armor and weapon aesthetic, I guess, which appears to be returning in Season of the Wish, to some extent.
???. Season of the Wish (2023) – ??? We shall see.
So, that’s my list. Spam me with yours on Twitter. Twitter Blue, probably, as you’ll need the extra characters.
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