Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Review (PC): A Queenly Gambit

Destiny. It’s the game I’ve put literal thousands of hours into. Ever since the Taken King era of Destiny, I’ve always been confident that Bungie had the chops and talent to put together some fantastic content in a game that had a seriously rough first year. The Dark Below and House of Wolves each had one or two things that were great, but they offered very little to anyone who wanted a traditional campaign. That’s where The Taken King came in and showed that Bungie really could make some amazing single-player content when they put the time and effort into things. Since then, the only campaign we’ve had that even came within spitting distance of The Taken King was Forsaken, and that was four years ago. Shadowkeep and Beyond Light offered some decent content but weren’t all that impressive in the gameplay or story department. Some fun seasons here and there bolstered the longevity of these eras of the game but ultimately weren’t all that memorable once you rolled the credits on their campaigns.

It’s why The Witch Queen has a lot to live up to. Four years of lackluster content and frustrating choices regarding the game’s monetization are following this expansion and as such, anything short of fantastic would just be another nail in the giant coffin that Destiny 2 has been building ever since its more recent decisions. Lucky for Bungie, the investment in more talent at their studio has paid off, but this triumph comes with one particularly significant caveat.

For now, however, let’s talk queens.

We’re not on Earth anymore, Guardian

You can always count on one thing when a new Destiny expansion drops: beautiful new locations to explore. Even though Beyond Light was a bit of a forgettable time, Europa was a gorgeous place to explore and had a couple of nice places like the Braytech Exoscience Facility to dig through. In The Witch Queen, we get the Savathun’s Throne World, which is a refreshing new bit of scenery that we’ve not seen before. The landscapes are a series of contrasts, with the entire exterior section of the Throne World feeling like a giant moat you have to cross before you enter the queen’s domain for the first time. The Quagmire is a mass of caves and hidden areas that feel like they can extend forever, while the Miasma is probably the closest you’ll get to actually exploring a swamp in space. The land itself is suitably dark and dank, with plenty of greens and earthy tones that make the entire place feel suitably alien.

Contrasted with the dark, murky land you’re exploring is the Sanctum of the Brood Queen, which is a massive, imposing palace that can be seen at almost any distance. The structure is an eerie bluish-green hue that adds to the dreamlike atmosphere of Savathun’s domain. There are statues and plenty of shrubberies that contrast against the hordes of Hive that patrol the area, creating a nice contrast between the stolen Light that’s being used and the macabre design of the Hive themselves. To say it’s anything short of captivating would be a disservice to the art team’s work on this expansion. Because of this, Savathun’s Throne World is probably the most interesting place to visit since the Dreaming City in the Forsaken era of the game. Not a single place in the entire Throne World looks the same and as such is great to just vibe in if you feel like looking at some amazing architecture and beautiful landscapes.

Weapons and armor will be hit or miss for some, as they do feel like a mixed bag of ideas that definitely suggests that Bungie has an endless well of ideas for new stuff. The best-looking weapon is without a doubt the new weapon archetype: the Glaive. The Enigma, the first glaive you’ll obtain, has a pretty simple design but is elegant all the same, being nothing more than a long stick that shoots a knife at range. It’s that simplicity that is indicative of what make’s this expansion’s aesthetic work so well; the elegance of contrasts all around the game makes it a feast for the eyes.

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Legendary Ambitions

If you’re hoping for a return to form for the campaign, you’re in luck. The Witch Queen has probably one of the best pieces of single-player content in all of Destiny 2‘s lifespan. There are no punches being pulled in The Witch Queen, as the game is quick to throw you into action as soon as the opening cutscene ends. Right away, it’s obvious that these missions are much better than anything we’ve gotten in the past couple of years. To begin with, The Witch Queen is the first Destiny expansion ever to have selectable difficulties; you get the choice of Normal and Legendary difficulties right off of the bat. Seeing as how I’ve played every major expansion’s campaign, I figured that Legendary would be appropriate for a first run through this campaign. Let me tell you, Legendary difficulty is no joke.

Every encounter is designed to really push you to your limits and really get you to think about what sort of build you should have. But even with a really good subclass setup, Legendary difficulty will really push you to your limits, regardless of how good you are at the game normally. Enemies are plentiful and hit extremely hard; even a single red bar enemy can be the death of you if you get too complacent in a fight. Prepare to wipe dozens of times during any fights with Majors, Bosses, or even the newest threat: Lucent Hive. And don’t think that you can roll in with your friends and just roll through Legendary with no issues. Even when running with a full fireteam, enemies hit hard and have even more health to compensate for the increased player count, making for some incredibly tense encounters later on.

Certain Boss encounters and combat arenas feel much more desperate when you realize that if anyone Guardian wipes completely, you all go back to the checkpoint. It makes for some incredible rushes when you and your friends just barely kill the boss before it kills your friend for the fourth time in a row. If you aren’t communicating while fighting a boss, get ready to wipe dozens of times because of some really nasty encounter design. The mission that will probably get lots of players the most will be “The Ghosts,” as its boss fight is probably the toughest on Legendary mode. Really, whether you’re playing solo or with a group, you do need to invest time in creating a good build that’ll keep you alive in some of the rougher parts of the campaign. And you have plenty of options with the release of the new Void 2.0 rework; this is probably the biggest change to Destiny 2‘s gameplay yet, as light subclasses have begun to evolve.

Without a doubt, the rework added to the quality of the campaign, as without it, you’d have a less kinetic experience. Each of the Void subclasses available got this rework, allowing for plenty of wacky shenanigans that can be done when you build something wholly your own. I main a Titan, so I had the pleasure of utilizing the Aspect Bastion to keep myself alive while annihilating droves of enemies with Controlled Demolition in the other slot. It made for some great moments where even while being kicked to fifteen below the power cap of the mission, entire swaths of red bar enemies lit up when smacked by a shield throw that used Controlled Demolition. Despite sweating for about 65% of the campaign, the Void rework made even the most agonizing parts enthralling and exciting all the same.

Really, if there’s one major issue that Legendary difficulty in particular has, it’s the abundance of one-shot attacks that some bosses. Despite how great the challenge can be for the seasoned Destiny 2 player, getting one-shot by a hard to dodge attack does not feel good. If you aren’t playing at your absolute best, you will see that failure screen constantly. This is probably the only real gripe with the Legendary campaign that will turn away any casual players; if you aren’t a fan of feeling on the back foot and getting flattened because of one mistake, then consider playing on the standard difficulty. Even without the Legendary modifiers, The Witch Queen‘s campaign is still plenty of fun to run through, as the enemy density is still there. However, it should be noted that while this campaign is probably the most fun for veterans of the series, it ultimately isn’t anything radically different from what we’ve gotten before.

You’re still shooting stuff, capturing points, bringing items to locations to use them, and other mainstays of Destiny‘ 2’s campaign design. They’re all bolstered by the aforementioned encounter design, beautiful environments, and the new Void rework, but aren’t anything radically different. This will definitely break purchases for some, as the core of the campaign is using a lot of what’s been done before. But there are plenty of strong elements in the campaign that make it worth looking at some gameplay to know whether or not to opt in. Even though bosses have frustrating one-shot moves, they still feel epic and are set up well throughout the mission.

After the campaign is done, you get a bit of post-game content to work through, which ultimately amounts to just some side quests via the Evidence Board to complete. After completing all of those, there’s an exotic glaive quest you can do that will give you a unique glaive for the class you’re playing as, and an exotic weapon quest that adds more story to the main campaign. There’s also the Wellspring activity, which has you completing objectives that change if you’re “attacking” or “defending. Specific weapons do drop from this activity and change on a daily rotation. Now, while this is a decent amount of content to work through, it’s ultimately no different than anything you’ve done before.

The main difference is that there’s usually some good lore attached to these quests that flesh out the events of the main story some more. Whether or not you had a good time with the campaign’s story will decide how you feel about this content, as you’re still just killing stuff and running around the Throne World. The only other content to note is the Relic, an object that allows you to craft weapons from obtained weapon frames. The process is fairly straightforward but requires lots of grinding to obtain exactly the kind of weapon you want; there’s lots of potential but as it is right now, the system feels like it needs tweaking to make it a much more satisfying experience. Bungie has mentioned that changes are coming, so there’s hope for weapon crafting yet.

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A magical tale (sort of)

Destiny‘s storytelling has definitely improved throughout the past couple of years, and The Witch Queen is no different, but there is a massive caveat to the improvements. To preface this particular gripe, it needs to be said that The Witch Queen‘s story is really interesting and engaging. The expansion starts off by engaging the Cabal Empress Caiatl and her troops on Mars; this exciting mission ends with your Guardian launching themselves at Savathun’s ship and subsequently entering her Throne World. From there, the story is about unraveling the secrets behind her procurement of the Light from the Traveler and what that means for the future of you and your fellow Guardians. Without a doubt, the entire opening of the expansion sets up lots of questions for anyone that has been around since the beginning of the series.

Ever since the original campaign that the game launched with had her far away in the background, we’ve never gotten any payoff to anything set up until now. Savathun is a character that has been mentioned since the strike “Savathun’s Song” existed long ago in the base version of Destiny 2., and it’s only now that we’re finally going head to head with her. The payoffs we get are fantastic, as they shake up the pre-established concepts of the series to their absolute cores; Guardians, Light, Darkness, Ghosts, all of these terms take on different meanings once you get a decent way into the campaign. Nothing feels the same once you clear the final mission and you’re musing on everything you’ve just witnessed. The uncertainty that the campaign introduces to the world makes for some moments that just give you pause because of what they imply. Seeing cool-headed characters like Ikora have their convictions questioned and having to push onward makes for some excellent character drama.

Now, the mystery of Savathun and how she was able to obtain Light powers for her and her Hive could be in itself an interesting story. But there’s one glaring issue that hangs over this expansion’s entire story. If you haven’t been keeping up with every piece of seasonal content, you might be a bit lost as to what is going on and why it’s going on. The Witch Queen is very dependent on you being a diligent Guardian and playing all of the seasonal content of the last year, as many details will be lost to you if you haven’t been keeping up with the story content. If you’re a new player or a returning Destiny 2 player who took an extended hiatus from the game, you’ll be completely lost when any of the major revelations happen. This particular flaw only serves to highlight how shortsighted Bungie’s “vaulting” of content really is; without any way to experience any of the older content, you’re missing out on years of build-up that have only just paid off.

It really is a shame as the story, despite not being too special, is at the very least satisfying for anyone who’s been keeping up with the franchise for years. However, the vaulting of older content really hurts the quality of this story and leaves little to no room to actually make up for it. No, that dinky little timeline feature on the Director screen is not an ample substitute for playing the content and actually watching the cutscenes. When this particular caveat is removed, The Witch Queen probably has one of the strongest stories we’ve seen in Destiny in a long while and is a good indicator for things to come. It’s just frustrating that it also signifies how nonsensical the Destiny Content Vault is with every good expansion that drops.

This might make some of the more exciting moments of the campaign fall flat for anyone who isn’t deep into the lore of Destiny. Sure you can enjoy this expansion with very little insight into the story, but the biggest moments of the expansion really do rely on you having some kind of investment in the years-long struggle between the Guardians and Savathun.

Return of the Queen?

The Witch Queen leaves me feeling very mixed. On the one hand, it’s probably the best content Bungie has put out in years, but on the other hand, Bungie has hurt its own story and future prospects for similar content with the presence of the content vault. Is it worth it to play The Witch Queen if it’s just going to be shoved in the Destiny Content Vault in a couple of years? That’s hard to say. The new additions to the gameplay and the excellent encounters make it a blast to play through, but there’s not much evolution in regards to the overall design of the content. You’re still shooting enemies, popping supers, holding points, and bringing heavy objects to certain points and using them there. If all of that hasn’t appealed to you in the past couple of years of Destiny 2‘s lifespan, then this expansion won’t change your mind.

However, if you’re willing to overlook Destiny 2’s current state and the way it treats its older content, then The Witch Queen is worth looking into. It’s a high-quality expansion that has given Destiny 2 another shot in the arm when it desperately needed it and will probably rank up there with some of the more memorable eras of the franchise. There’s a sense that Bungie is improving both their storytelling and their content, but they should probably reconsider how they approach their older content if they want the next couple of expansions to land particularly well.

The Witch Queen, for now, is another significant milestone in the vast and messy franchise that is Destiny.