Ever since Destiny 2 shifted to a more consistent schedule for content drop through the live service model, the existing yearly events that Bungie implemented in the past seamlessly fit each into a different Season based on the time of the year. Season of the Lost was the only exception due to it lasting a total of six months, which meant that Bungie had to launch both Festival of the Lost and The Dawning in the same Season. Currently, Season of Plunder is in its first week of Festival of the Lost, which unfortunately launched with multiple issues that ended up affecting the overall experience for many players.
The general consensus is that this year's Festival of the Lost feels quite disappointing due to there only being a new Haunted Lost Sector and the fact that the event was shipped with a plethora of major or even game-breaking glitches. This is not the original design for this event, as Bungie's first iteration of Festival of the Lost was conceived for the vanilla Destiny 2 era, back when Mercury was still available, and thus its main activity loop was completely different and was called The Infinite Forest. Because of the lack of additions in this year's version of Festival of the Lost and the state it was in at launch, Bungie should try and make The Dawning a flawless experience ahead of Lightfall.
Why Destiny 2's Dawning Event Matters Before Lightfall
Compared to the latest iteration of Solstice of Heroes, now simply called Solstice, Festival of the Lost's novelty is lost rather quickly when one discovers the new lines of dialogue from Eido and the Drifter and plays through the EDZ Lost Sector a few times. On top of that, the new Event Card system is already proving to be a hot point of discussion within the community because it's yet another way for Bungie to paywall event rewards, which are very limited outside of paid ones.
For example, the Mech armor sets currently available in the Eververse store, just like any other cosmetic set Bungie puts out for Destiny 2, are either to be purchased with Bright Dust or Silver, the paid in-game currency. Festival of the Lost weapons are available at the end of every Haunted Lost Sector, but in terms of cosmetics there are only very few that players can get for free, and most of them are simply different masks for the event.
Lightfall will launch approximately a couple of months after the Dawning event in Season 19, making it a crucial benchmark for what to expect from the launch of the expansion and seasonal events throughout 2023. Furthermore, in order for Bungie to build more hype for Destiny 2's new expansion, Season 19 and The Dawning will be crucial, as one of the most common causes for the reduced player count in the game is burnout. Considering that many Destiny 2 activities can feel similar to one another and that the game has a problem with FOMO, the fear of missing out, some players tend to play throughout the whole year.
The Dawning is a more relaxed event in the sense that there isn't a specific activity to run to get the rewards, but rather players can easily play whatever they want and just complete bounties and deliver cookies to get everything. To make The Dawning a seamless experience, Bungie should refrain from shipping the event alongside mid-Season patches that could cause glitches like in Festival of the Lost. Destiny 2's Lightfall already has the onus of being the successor to The Witch Queen, hence why a happier community ahead of launch can help.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
