Without a doubt, Halloween is my favorite time of the year. I can’t get enough of the creepy decorations, the spooky movies, the fall weather, and all that wonderful candy. And over the last few years, my excitement for Halloween has grown thanks to video games like Plants Vs. Zombies: Battle For Neighborville and Grand Theft Auto Online, which celebrate the spooky season with in-game events.
My favorite part of Halloween is the vibe and atmosphere of the season. You know that feeling of when you enter a Halloween store and there are people all around you laughing and trying on masks. Fake pumpkins and orange lights. The electricity of people getting scared and scaring others. It’s the best. And on Halloween night, surrounded by costumed adults and kids and creepy music and decorations, that atmosphere gets even better. I wish I could experience it for a few more nights, honestly. And thanks to video game events I can do just that!
The rise of service games has been met with skepticism and criticism. And I understand people’s problems with games that are always online and constantly updated. But Halloween events are a great bonus of so many games becoming online services. Watching all my favorite games, both on console and on my phone, switch into Halloween mode is exciting.
Overwatch, for example, always adds new costumes that look amazing and their Halloween gameplay events have been a perfect mix of spooky and fun. GTA Online also regularly does Halloween events, with one of the best game modes in GTA Online, Slasher, being added during one of these events. I love logging into these games around Halloween and seeing other players dressed up as ghouls and ghosts.
I was really surprised to find the new PVZ game, Battle For Neighborville might have one of my favorite Halloween events in recent memory. The entire hub world is decked out in pumpkins and ghosts. Creepy music is playing in the background and the time of day has been set to nighttime. Walking around that place reminds me of walking around Halloween night.
Many more games, like Destiny and World Of Warcraft, have Halloween events every year. What are some of your favorite Halloween events from the past few years?