Slightly more than a year has passed since Destiny 2: Beyond Light came out. The hype has been building for Destiny 2: The Witch Queen for quite some time now with Bungie teasing numerous story payoffs and numerous changes to the game that would revitalise and refresh it.
Fans of the franchise have been awaiting Savathûn’s arrival for a very, very long time and Destiny 2: The Witch Queen delivers above and if you’ll excuse the pun, beyond, what was expected.
First and foremost, if you’re a new player, the onboarding process for Destiny 2 is still quite frankly as abysmal as ever. “New Light” players will still have to go through the confusing set of missions which do the bare minimum at explaining the game’s mechanics. Once you’re through this, you’ll be right in the abyssal depths of Destiny 2: The Witch Queen’s content and chances are, if you haven’t read up on the game or don’t have a bunch of friends that have brought you up to speed with the game’s story, you won’t know what’s happening. You’ll be left floundering in the deep with a multitude of questions and might be completely put off the game because of this.
If you’re new to the game, take my advice and try to find a group of friends or players who are willing to teach you everything. And I mean everything. Destiny 2 has a ridiculously complex story but one that has had so many payoffs during Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, you’ll want to experience all of that.
Now, circling back to Destiny 2: The Witch Queen itself for the seasoned veterans. Players have been trying to prepare for this content for a while now. Increasing their power level, hoarding bounties and more. The standard fare for when any expansion drops to be quite honest but all of this readies you for the game’s usual grind and not for the story itself. Destiny 2: The Witch Queen’s story is the best part of the entire expansion and thankfully, it isn’t by any means short.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light’s main campaign was only around 6 hours long however Bungie drip-fed more content into the game over time as per usual. Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is significantly heftier with Savathûn’s throne world taking centre stage for a longer time. There are 8 major missions and a lot of side content to get through. Players will be taken back to Mars (which was removed from the game for some time as the Darkness took a hold of more locations) and encounter Savathûn herself. Not only has Savathûn made her appearance but she’s somehow managed to steal the Light and imbue her Hive minions with the power of the Light. Savathûn has essentially created Hive “Guardians” and this is far more impressive than I ever thought it’d be.
Fighting against enemies that have the same type of abilities that you have makes for an interesting experience and one that will certainly get players hyped up. It sure did the first time I saw it happen in-game. Lucent Hive is not to be trifled with.
Players will have to figure out just how exactly Savathûn got a hold of the Light and what her plans are. A new ability known as “Deepsight” comes into play here and players will need to use this to solve puzzles and more in the Savathûn’s Throne World.
All of that sounds great on paper but Destiny 2 has suffered from problems with storytelling in the past. Thankfully, the way the story has been told this time around has been revamped a bit. Instead of having to complete a mission, and then go back out to grind out daily or weekly bounties or activities to increase your power level, you will now get rewards that will keep you going. The grind has therefore been decreased somewhat to keep the momentum of the story going and this is extremely welcome.
The substantial story content is filled with a tonne of spoilers and story beats that talking about it here would absolutely ruin it. If you are in any way interested in Destiny, Destiny 2 and the rich lore backing this game, you will be in for a treat. Play through the Destiny 2: The Witch Queen campaign and you’ll see for yourself what I mean here. Bungie is finally taking the game in the right direction with regards to storytelling. They are also making use of cinematic storytelling a lot more here.
Bungie has also outdone themselves with the environmental design once again. If you thought Europa was great in Destiny 2: Beyond Light, you’ll love the new, unsettling, more psychologically hectic Throne World areas and missions. There’s been a lot of thought put into the environmental design as well as the music and sound effects. It’s eerie, creepy and incredibly well done while still featuring some of the Hive aesthetic we’ve become accustomed to over the years. Everything about the environmental storytelling, voice acting and story content was perfectly woven together. The voice acting, Savathûn’s in particular, was fantastic throughout the story campaign.
The actual gameplay of Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is still as familiar as ever but with a fresh coat of paint slapped on top once again. Destiny 2: Beyond Light introduced Stasis and Destiny 2: The Witch Queen has now introduced “Void 3.0” with additional subclass changes to come in the near future. There’s also a new weapon type known as the “Glaive” and it’s quite visceral in action with both long and short range attacks.
The game now also features crafting! Destiny 2 has finally got with the times and introduced a mechanic that other MMO players have had for ages. Unfortunately though, crafting in its current state is lacklustre and is seemingly incomplete. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done here but it’s clear that Bungie is still experimenting with this and will be dedicating more time to it in the future. For now, though, players can craft the specific perk roll that they want on a weapon (Not all) and that should satiate some of the player base even if there are caveats attached.
There’s a new raid where players will face off against an enemy that is unlike anything they’ve seen before. Talking about this, again, delves too deep into spoiler territory though and it’s best experienced by yourself. Unfortunately, this does involve getting 6 players in total together and then heading into the Vow of the Disciple Raid. This does exclude players who don’t have a group of friends to raid with so if you are one of those, you’ll have to try to find randoms to raid with. Hope it all goes well in that case! Thankfully though, this raid isn’t as intense as some of the previous Destiny 2 raids so it is doable and hopefully the community will be able to help some solo guardians experience the story here.
Playing the new “Legendary” difficulty campaign the second time around means that you’ll actually have to use strategy and new load-outs to defeat enemies and mini-bosses. This is where using crafting and the new Void 3.0 subclass changes come into play a lot more and it’s a welcome addition to the game.
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen does a lot right. The story, the environments and the gameplay come together to craft an enjoyable tale. The additional weapons and new crafting mechanics keep the grind going without letting it become too stale. By the time players are starting to get bored of the new content, a new season along with new seasonal activities and even more content should be rolling in. There are still problems with the grind outside of the campaign with the limited number of Strikes and Crucible maps but alas, these will have to be addressed in the future it seems. Oh, and seasonal content will still be locked behind a season pass paywall so be sure to buy the Deluxe edition of Destiny 2: The Witch Queen if you’re in this for the long haul.
Now as I previously mentioned in my Destiny 2: Beyond Light review too, Bungie has this little thing known as “Sunsetting” and this is in my opinion, an incredibly terrible decision that sees content being removed and weapons being power capped. Sunsetting is still a blight upon the game and knowing that content will be eventually removed is completely disappointing. Rest in peace Destiny 2: Forsaken campaign content. The main reason I’m bringing sunsetting up is that Destiny 2: The Witch Queen relies heavily on the game’s lore built up over the years. Not having previous content in the game hampers the success of the story and it’s a shame that this is the case. Rest in peace to the Prophecy dungeon and rest in peace to the Presage too. Alas, I digress a bit here but knowing that one day, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen’s content might be sunset too makes me a tad disappointed given how great the campaign is.
In summary, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is an expansion that’s well worth picking up. It’s a testament to Bungie’s ability to pull off the unexpected. Destiny 2: Beyond Light started the move towards a more streamlined, quality of life improved, more enjoyable Destiny 2. Destiny 2: The Witch Queen continues this and heavily improves on other aspects of the game. Everything might not be smooth sailing and there have been teething issues with the expansion but Bungie has also been quite vocal in their “This Week at Bungie” blog about this.
Bungie has been in communication with the player base about upcoming changes to the game and how they intend to keep community feedback and suggestions at the forefront of their updates to the game. Destiny 2: The Witch Queen isn’t perfect. It also isn’t a “The Taken King” level expansion but rather, another large step in the right direction and if Bungie keeps at it, Destiny 2 fans will be extremely pleased. This expansion is definitely worth picking up and still gets a solid recommendation from me. Bungie, please keep improving on Destiny 2!
- Developer: Bungie Inc
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, Google Stadia, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows
- Publishers: Bungie Inc, Activision
Reviewed on PC
Enjoy the review? want to read more of our reviews? then click right here to be whisked away to the realm of our opinions.
You must be logged in to post a comment.