Like many, my Destiny 2 enthusiasm has had ups and downs. I’ll usually hop in every other season or expansion and try it out for a bit before inevitably going back to spending my time in another game. I rarely even get close to max power. But with The Witch Queen, things might be different. Thanks to a refreshingly engaging campaign, a new weapon type, and new endgame content, Bungie has knocked it out of the park with its latest expansion. Be sure to hit the video below to see all of the details.
Overview
Even though it’s been out for a couple of weeks, I don’t want to spoil any of the campaign’s story because it really is some of the best that Bungie has delivered. Often in previous expansions, I would just rush through the campaign as quickly as possible to get to the PVP experience. But this time, I found myself drawn in and engaged with the narrative and feeling a greater connection to the characters as the story unfolds.
Savathûn’s Throne World is a visually impressive environment with epic vistas throughout the landscape. Mixed with the ability of the Hive to use powers from the Light, it’s a visual delight.
Some of the story missions in The Witch Queen are surprisingly long with loot chests in the middle after defeating mini-bosses. This makes it feel more end-game-like than the usual story you just need to run through. It also just made the campaign take a while to complete in general.
One great new feature is a legendary version of the campaign available immediately if the normal campaign is too easy. Playing solo, the normal mode was challenging enough for me to be enjoyable and the legendary difficulty mode is a significant challenge. The legendary campaign will cap your power level to ensure it’s always a challenge and also offers more rewards with completion. I’ve made it through a few of the missions but have yet to complete it solo on legendary.
The PVE experience doesn’t stop with the completion of the campaign, though. There are plenty of side quests, missions, and characters to keep PVE interesting while you level up and unlock more weapons. There are also parts of Savathûn’s Throne World that I haven’t experienced yet, as I’m not a high enough rank with the new vendor.
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen: Video
And that story continues into the new raid that just went live this past weekend. Though it had some technical issues that marred the experience for some world’s first hopefully completionists, it’s gotten rave reviews from those who have participated so far. Like previous expansions, once the raid has been completed by anyone, the whole world shifts a bit with new story plots and events in the world available to all guardians. While I haven’t tried it myself, I’m looking forward to trying it out when I have the time. Raiding was a lot easier before I had kids…
Glaives
With the Witch Queen, Bungie debuted a new weapon type – the glaive. A massive pointy stick that is used in 1st person view, the glaive uses a combination of melee and ranged attacks to deal some significant damage to enemy combatants. As a void hunter, it’s a blast to turn invisible, run up to a powerful enemy and strike them down and then hop away or go invisible again to make an escape and reposition.
It’s Destiny, so The Witch Queen is still grindy
Of course, the core of Destiny 2 is still the same. It’s still a grind to get to the highest power level to tackle end-game activities. There is a nice variety of events to get you there with the Witch Queen, though. The new six-player Wellspring activity can be chaotic with the amount of red-bar enemies that spawn, but that also means the event feels like it moves quickly with plenty of action.
One part of that grind has always been seeking the “god roll” of a specific weapon as they drop with random perks. With the Witch Queen expansion, guardians can craft and choose their own perks for a new set of weapons. This way, you can build out the exact roll you want of a certain weapon. It requires some grinding to get the weapons plans and materials required to make a specific roll, but being able to craft one instead of relying solely on a chance drop is a great new feature.
PVP could use some love
And while Bungie has absolutely hit it out of the park with the campaign, the Crucible, or the PVP portion of the game, still feels a little stale in The Witch Queen without any new maps or refreshing changes. At its core, Destiny 2 really is a PVE game with some fun PVP built-in. I believe there will be some tweaks in upcoming seasons and as a player who enjoyed the PVP experience, I’m excited to see what is to come.
The Witch Queen: You can pay for features
One bummer, though not really surprising, is that to get some exclusive exotic weapons, you need to purchase the Deluxe bundle which is $80. In addition to the exotic SMG, the package includes seasons 16-19. Which, if you were to purchase all of those seasons separately would cost $10 apiece. If you missed the 30th-anniversary pack, that can also be picked up for $100 which includes even more exclusives that we took a look at in our review.
9to5Toys’ Take
If you’ve been considering getting back into Destiny 2 or joining in for the first time, now is a great time to do it. All players start at the same power level and there is some great energy in the community following the release of the Witch Queen.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the Destiny universe but many of my friends, just as I have, have moved on. Now I’m starting to see some of them log back in, and it’s making me excited to hop into a fire team and catch up while tackling the new raid.
Purchase Destiny 2: The Witch Queen
FTC: 9to5Toys is reader supported, we may earn income on affiliate links
Subscribe to the 9to5Toys YouTube Channel for all of the latest videos, reviews, and more!
