Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Review in Progress

Fate has always struggled to balance its rich knowledge between action-packed campaigns and segments, which sometimes border on nonsense, and item descriptions and “grimy” values ​​in which many of the most important details in its world are erased. Even if you have been following the story for a long time, it will be understandable if you have almost no idea what is actually going on most of the time. But Bongi has invested the last few years in this change, presenting significant story developments and characters that feel more three-dimensional than they have been in the past. Nowhere is this more prominent than in The Queen of Witches, who for the first time not only tells a plausible story but an actively convincing story.

The star of the show is the queen of witches herself – Savathûn, the goddess of the hive of deception – who managed to claim the almighty power of light for herself and for a hive girl. But her story is much more than the usual monster of the week show where we pass a tank through her face and excite on her body in a glorious way. Instead, we know its life and motives, realizing that it is more than a purely evil entity that aims to destroy us – and as events unfold, we gain a large number of twists and turns that cause the roller coaster ride. Much more fun. There are still plenty of references to characters and literature that make it difficult for the plot to follow the plot if you have not followed closely the destiny smuggling of Destiny in the last year especially, but it is almost inevitable at this point and does not stop this story from being entertaining even if you play catchup.

The campaign is not very long (I managed to get through it in a period of 24 hours with the most difficulty), but it is unique, difficult and I invented more than any Destiny campaign before it – so much so that it is not even close. The biggest addition is the Become Legend mode, which increases combat difficulty and adds challenging mechanics like limited resuscitation for team members. For those who prefer not to blow up the campaign immediately, Become Legend serves as a daunting and rewarding adventure that makes Sweaton and the like feel like a force to be reckoned with and makes the victory ultimately much sweeter, especially since the loot you get out of it is worth the hassle.

The campaign also includes the notable addition of puzzle mechanics to levels and boss battles that have closed almost exclusively behind Raids and the final game content of Destiny up to this point. Now, instead of just standing on a plate or scanning an object before shooting the boss to death, you may have to remember a set of symbols and fight in the hallways of the palace in search of the door with a matching set before the boss can be damaged. These interactions never come close to anything as complex as proper raid mechanics, but rather feel like a perfect entry level for more casual players or those looking for a less sweaty experience. They also make all the difference, because completing the campaign is no longer a matter of thoughtless running and shooting for a few hours before the credits roll. Now you have to deal with a strange platform and hidden magic while avoiding fire from some of the most rude bad guys.

Speaking of the bad guys, one of the new challenges you will face is the terrifying and frightening light-bearing hive: immortal monsters with many of the same abilities that your character has. In fact, they can even be revived to no end by their spirit to fight you over and over again, which is really scary. In combat, these hive guards can turn on the light to slam you with destructive scribes, many of whom can kill you in one fell swoop. Victory over these formidable enemies requires a clever shooting game, patience, and most importantly, remember to run fast and smash the enemy spirit before he can revive them. A new and challenging type of enemy that forces you to think about how you approach such an encounter is exactly what fate needed to improve the fighting. Throwing them down and then smashing their spirits into my hands was the highlight of my time with the Queen of Witches.

Once you are done with the campaign, there is a whole new area to explore in the world of Savathun’s throne, a pocket dimension that is a magical representation of another world of her mind. The Patrol Zone is quite similar to things we’ve seen before in Destiny, but it has my favorite character: Fynch, the Hive Ghost who betrays his rogue to help you save the day. This cheeky little conscientious objector serves as your guide throughout much of the Witch Queen’s action and is utterly replete with memorable one-liners in one of the best voice performances Distini has ever enjoyed. This makes exploring God’s brain hive much more enjoyable, even when you are doing the usual chores like patrols and lost sectors.

Of all the new frontiers the Witch Queen offers, none of them are as enticing as the coveted weapon creation feature, which is a happy backbone for RPG nerds like me. Now, instead of relentlessly grinding the same activities over and over again hoping to achieve this perfect weapon with all the right perks you have been looking for, you can simply create it to your exact specifications. However, there are some caveats. First, doing so is unnecessarily complex as you might expect from Destiny, forcing you to juggle a bunch of new coins with confused names in such a hilarious process that you’ll get a whiplash straight from the fast battlefield. . And secondly, building your perfect weapon requires (wait for it) a great deal of grinding! That’s right – the new system that allows you to avoid grinding for the perfect weapon is replaced with another grinder to increase the level of a medium weapon until it is strong enough to create its final shape. The good news is that now you at least always know there will be a final and predictable end to grinding instead of playing endlessly in the hope that RNG will be kind to you, but killing thousands of enemies and completing dozens of activities just to advance a single weapon level is still quite climbing.

The weapon creation system also affects almost every aspect of how you play Destiny later on, in that you are now likely to use less ideal weapons in order to rise to the level of those you would like to fine-tune through creation. And since one of the ways you get the resources needed to create is by using randomly ejected (and usually bad) weapons until you fill a progress bar, my loading was usually a weird mix of weapons in their awkward adolescence stage before they become useful for the end game. It infuses some amusing variety into day-to-day activities, but also means that you rarely use the weapon you enjoy for most of the time you progress extensively.

One totally welcome addition to The Witch Queen is a new weapon archetype called glaive, which is a polar arm that can be used to block incoming fire, attack melee enemies and shoot bullets to hit others from a distance. It’s been a few years since Destiny got a new and worthy type of weapon, and that’s shaking things up a lot as the first melee / range hybrid option. So far the experiment is a glamorous success! Glaives are very fun to use, play a major role in the Destiny Weapons ecosystem, and do not feel overwhelmed at the moment (until someone necessarily exhausts a completely broken structure to take advantage of, as is the tradition at this point).

The second major change in the sandbox is Void 3.0, a remake of one of the four power types that guards can choose from. After Stasis’s capabilities were introduced with Beyond Light in 2020, the legacy capabilities of Void, Arc and Solar all felt out of balance – and sometimes even completely unprofitable. Void 3.0 is an attempt to fix this in part by bringing one of the other ability groups into a relationship with Stasis. The new customization options have completely changed the way I thought about my Void capabilities and I have the necessary advantage that my guardian will not play in the same way as any other guard by my side. Now two characters using the same sub-class may be equipped with two completely different super abilities, grenades and perks that fundamentally change their behavior, which mixes things up well in both PvE and PvP.

The downside is that it is only a partial repair, as the other two sub-classes (Arc and Solar) remain very much in the dust. Seeing them in the wild was a rarity in the days following the release of the Witch Queen. Bungy said she plans to bring the other sub-classes into the couple over the next year, but in the meantime the meta remains very unbalanced in a way that deters you from using half of the capabilities offered.

And this is a trend that arises quite often when playing the Queen of Witches. While almost every inch of added content does everything right, its shortcomings are instead defined by what is not. This is perfectly embodied by the complete absence of add-ons for both Destiny’s PvP modes and PvE / PvP Gambit hybrid mode. Once you get out of the great campaign and the new content around it, which you will almost certainly have to do during the grind to the end of the game, you will find that nothing has been added to Crucible – neither new game modes nor a single map. This is also not a new trend as Bangi has largely left their PvP options to rot on the vine, even removing eleven huge maps from their playlists without replacing them and lasting almost two years without adding a new one. Similarly, Gambit maps have been reduced to just four, and only minor changes have been made to it over the years although this is easily the most unpleasant situation Destiny has.

We once expected Crucible maps and occasional game mode to be added with each major content release, but The Queen of Witches is another expansion that largely ignores the issues. It’s getting harder to ignore that when Crucible and Gambit stand as big cornerstones of what players are likely to do.

Another thing missing from The Witch Queen is any kind of enhanced introduction for new players, which is especially painful given that this expansion makes an already convoluted world even more complex with weapon creation and Void 3.0. If you still do not know how to play Destiny 2, the chances of you understanding it without a very kind and patient friend are immeasurably small. I wish everyone would enjoy the truly amazing things the Witch Queen has to offer, but while it sure will excite existing Destiny fans, it’s also hard to recommend it to the ignorant in its current state.

I’ll be playing The Witch Queen every day ahead of the March 5 raid and I’ll definitely have more to say as soon as I see all that this fantastic expansion has to offer. Look for our final review once I have had a chance to conquer what is sure to be the most daunting challenge of the Queen of Witches, even after a full campaign in them.