Apex Legends botches return of its best event for Halloween

The new Halloween event in Apex Legends has been bogged down by so a number of factors, leaving fans disappointed with the fan-favorite occasion this time around.

Apex Legends has an incredible track record with seasonal events – from the inaugural Halloween event Fight or Fright, to the winter-themed Holo-Day Bash, Apex has brought something new and exciting to the table every year.

While these shakeups from the norm are usually well-received, this year’s Monsters Within event has been put under the community’s microscope after several unpopular decisions by Respawn.

Spanning from the system of unlocking skins in the event, down to the Shadow Royale Limited Time Mode only being available for a single week, players have had plenty to gripe about this time around.

Problems with Apex Legends’ Shadow Royale LTM

For many players, the alternate game modes associated with seasonal events are the highlight of the season. This year’s event sees the return of Shadow Royale – a mode that allows players who have been eliminated from the game to support their squad as a ghostly apparition.

While in this form, players can’t shoot any weapons or use equipment, but they can hunt down enemy players via increased movement speed, melee attack damage, and the ability to bust through doors.

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Though the mode is functioning as intended, many members of the community were let down by the discovery that it would only be in the game for one week of the event, instead of being available throughout the whole thing, a choice that has been drawn an overwhelmingly negative reaction from the playerbase.

“They really just didn’t seem to care about this event,” one user said on Reddit.  Another added: “Also why the f**k has shadow royal only been available this week?”

Another downside, depending on the player, is that it’s Shadow Royale – as opposed to Shadowfall. The latter, from the original Fight or Fright event, is preferred by many players, mainly because it is a solo experience rather than squad based.

There’s also the issue of the Event challenges for week three of Monsters Within. Players expected to see goals that they could achieve in Shadow Royale during its brief stay in the game, but instead have been met with nine tiers of Arena-based tasks to complete.

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Apex player u/Sleepy151 points out that the Arena challenges aren’t bad, but that the problem lies in directing traffic away from the Limited Time Mode: “I’ve never really been opposed to the arenas challenges…but having a non-LTM related challenge the one week we get an LTM is incompetent, to say the least.”

On top of this, when the Monsters Event started, players were giving daily challenges to complete in Shadow Royale – despite the mode not being available for two weeks yet.

Respawn has been active in responding to player feedback throughout this season, but whether or not they’ll address the reception of this event remains to be seen.