For a while the Destiny 2 community has made it clear the seasonal model is stale. What this means varies from person to person, but even Bungie recognized the desire for something different, resulting in the current Episode model. These promised to be different, with one of the biggest difference being a three act structure.
Instead of spending half the season doing weekly missions, and the other half playing catch up, the narrative is broken up into three parts with a couple weeks to catch up. Bungie’s hope is this would result in players having more to do throughout the year, something that never really came to pass, especially with the third act.
While I call attention to Episode: Echoes conclusion, in reality I am talking about the entire third act. Unlike the first two acts, which suffered from their own problems, act three manages to feel uninspired, pointless, and rather frustrating despite being an inconsequential amount of content.
This all started a few weeks ago when the weekly quest asked players to do the new Exotic mission, Encore. Ignoring the concerns about difficulty, as that is always going to vary depending on the person, I don’t mind the Exotic missions being part of the story because I am going to do it anyway.
Déjà vu
My hope was Bungie would use the time they saved for something better, yet that never occurred. Instead, that is basically all act three had to offer. It wouldn’t even be so bad if everything was presented at once, something Bungie confirmed will occur in Episode: Revenant, though it’s all specifically designed to force repetition.
The first run is part of the narrative, and gives Choir of One. Getting the gun unlocked the usual three weeks of catalyst quests where players need to do something, plus beat Encore on Expert (making these retroactive is great to see). Week two adds another run to the narrative, plus the research specimen is hidden with one of the “secret” chests, which is naturally the one that unlocks focused decoding and later asks for kills from inside Encore, with those who find everything unlocking a set of collectibles.
Fun Puzzle
This continued into the final week where another run was needed, with another specimen being hidden in the final “secret” room. For those not burnt out of Encore, finishing the main narrative results in an encore Epilogue where players are asked to find another set of collectibles hidden throughout Encore.
In a lot of ways this is the biggest issue with the seasonal model. The best way to play this content is to actually not play until everything releases. I think doing it weekly I finished Encore eight times, compared to the four or so needed to do it all after release.
Unfortunately, this approach is so much worse than other Seasons because it’s unavoidable. Anyone who wants to complete multiple characters needs to redo it each time. Friends will undoubtedly want to play with their buddies, forcing them to reschedule, or adapt. Not to mention the sense of dread players who hate this type of thing feel knowing the entire latter third of the narrative is behind multiple runs of content they’re intimidated by.
Worst still is the narrative’s conclusion. Usually Seasons feature a narrative that is largely filler. That isn’t to nothing happens, but things like Season of the Plunder work better for content that won’t be playable long term. A lighthearted story that slowly advanced the narrative, though largely exists as a way to foreshadow Nezarec’s return (Root of Nightmares).
With Echoes it feels like part of a larger arc. Perhaps it will play out in the remaining Episodes, though in its current form it will create confusion if/when Bungie chooses to return to it. Not to mention being an underwhelming conclusion to a lackluster act for the first Episode.
I still have hope the future will be brighter. Bungie’s updated Roadmap features some much needed improvements, Episode: Revenant has a lot more going for it, plus teasing Icebreaker as the Dungeon exotic has many fans intrigued. Even Encore has some engaging puzzles, plus the hidden speed run mode is exactly the type of content hardcore players love. It just doesn’t show a solid grasp of why people want change in the first place.
