Хэллоуин среди нас!

Boo! Ha, scared? Halloween, the day of the autumnal equinox, the favorite undead, vampire, aliens, serial killers, boring nerds, and pranksters holiday is coming very shortly! Of course, a festival of such magnitude is spread all over the world, in all spheres of life. Although what could be a more stupid joke than all those bad events that happened in2020?...

Either way, Halloween is a reason to team up with friends, have fun, and be scared! Surely, the gaming industry is participating. There are more than enough separate titles about the adventures of evil forces, and even more so we are not going to dwell on singleplayer projects. But competitive games also have themed events, and we even sometimes wait for a whole year for some of them.

What about this year? Maybe it's time to return to a long-abandoned title for the sake of some arcade gameplay? Let's check it out

Apex Legends: Fight or Fright

The most splendid (sorry, Fortnite) battle royale of our times, even in spite of the publisher, knows how to delight fans. Seasonal passes, frequent updates, a bunch of things planned (the recent leak of heroes hinted to at least four in the next few seasons), new maps and updated current ones, and, most importantly, tons of events. Of course, Halloween is no exception. This time it's Fight or Fright.

Players enter the nighttime Kings Canyon, the same as last year, but improved. The event's mechanics are easy and recognizable: a good old catch-up game. The squad was killed? You are now Shadows. Your task is to prevent the living from reaching the escape pod.

Of course, with the new characters (Loba and Revenant), we also get new gameplay and, surely, some new skins. Apex provokes you to play, and the event is really fun and interesting. So why not? You can try it with friends until November 3, while the next day there's a new season to come out, as well as the new character, and the game becomes available on Steam.

RAINBOW SIX SIEGE

In general, Rainbow Six Siege knows how to scare even without themed events. You can be sitting quite in the corner, camping, waiting for the target, and then a dude with a huge hammer breaches through the wall, crashing everything with thunder sounds and flying textures, and kills you.

This year in R6S, we find ourselves in Frost's nightmare. On the redesigned Theme Park map, players will confront each other in a not much of an original mode: just throw grenades at the opponent, and then shoot them. But you can get a whole bunch of funny skins.

Surely, this is not the best event R6S had. Last year we witnessed Doctor’s Curse, a great and really spooky event everyone played with pleasure, and a year before that the game's event had completely grown into a separate title — Rainbow Six Quarantine.

Doctor’s Curse is an analog of 'hide and seek' but with two unbalanced teams, superpowers, a night map and tons of fun and horror. You can read more about Quarantine here:

All we know about R6S Quarantine: Trailer, Gameplay, Storyline

Dota 2 DIRETIDE

No, they didn't release it. Although, judging by the information from the dataminers, they really wanted to. Do not forget that even the largest companies, no matter how much money they earn, do not work at full capacity during the coronavirus era. Valve, however, gave us a bunch of things: a huge and extended Battle Pass, an updated Dota Plus system, and a new hero is expected within a few weeks.

And it's totally okay that the legendary Diretide won't be out this year. Why legendary? Back in 2013, Valve released Diretide for the first time: a Halloween-themed mode consisted of several stages: farm candies, run away from Roshan, and then kill Roshan. The gameplay seven years ago (my God) seemed innovative, but after the Aghanim's Labyrinth, Diretide would look dull. And for succeeding in Diretide, Valve gave away elite awards and it is still not clear: did everyone really love the even for the gameplay or for the valuable prizes?

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ  VOLVO GIVE DIRETIDE ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ 

Rocket League's Haunted Hallows

Didn't expect this one? As in the Apex Legends' case, Rocket League's developers often spoil their fans with interesting events, and especially with the Halloween ones. What's your first association with a car and spooky scary skeletons? Yep, Ectomobile from the "Ghostbusters!"

The Haunted Hallows update unlocks access to exclusive missions so you can get the very Ecto-1 and themed skins. And a bunch of other cool awards. Although there's no extraordinary new gameplay, you can definitely have fun here.

Overwatch Halloween Terror

The annual Overwatch Halloween Terror is there also. Blizzard first showed us this event in 2016, and since then, it has appeared on schedule, bringing joy and fun to the fans of the game.

During the event, we get updated themed maps, new skins, terrible enemies, and, most importantly, a way to have fun far away from the serious matchmaking. However, fans might like to see something new from Blizzard. Gifts and limited skins are good, but for the fifth year in a row, it can get boring.

Bonus: Left 4 Dead 2

Do you know when L4D2 was released? 11 years ago. E-le-ven. And it's still one of the funniest and scariest horror co-op games there are. Moreover, at the end of September, the game has had a huge update. Interestingly, the add-on was developed by third-party devs, but Valve agreed to officially take the DLC into the family.

The game definitely deserves attention. And if you haven't played, you should definitely try it. A legendary classic, amazing game. Here are some recommendations: use headphones, invite friends, play at night. You'll definitely get entertained, while the soundtrack will get your blood frozen.

FORTNITEMARES Midas' Revenge

And finally, of course, the main game is known for internal events. Fortnitemares, the new edition of the annual Halloween event, is more a nod to Fortnite's single-player mode (did you know that the game's original idea was to become the next evolution stage for Minecraft, with monsters at night, resource farming, and base defense?). In Midas' Revenge, we will confront zombies in cooperative, Halloween-style, getting prizes for succeeding.