Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Review – Light Club

Ask me what it’s like to play Destiny 2, and I’ll spin you a tale of a game that boasts incredible gunplay, fun worlds to explore, and all manner of creepy space-ghouls to battle across the solar system. Ask me what it’s about, though, and I’d tell you that Bungie’s cosmic sandbox has a ham-fisted story where zombie super-soldiers protect humanity, and it’s told with all the grace of a whale with an eating disorder.

Lately though, things have been changing. Destiny: The Taken King represented the game at its very best, and the last two years have seen its sequel make good use of a seasonal model to tell more compelling and layered stories. Shades of grey have begun to permeate the worlds of Destiny 2, old enemies have become new allies, and a threat that has been teased for years has finally made her move.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen comes damn close to toppling Oryx from his throne as the Taken King of Destiny stories, but at the rate that this game series is expanding on its world with new content in its months-long seasons, it won’t be long before the Hive Queen Savathun usurps the position of her fallen brother.

While The Witch Queen expansion’s story may linger a little too long on setting up a devastating twist of the knife that represents a new paradigm shift for Destiny 2, everything else about this add-on is a masterclass in creating meaningful content that paves the way for the final expansions Lightfall and The Final Shape. The Witch Queen is a game that dips into the past of Destiny, cherry-picking content and gameplay elements from past events to make Savathun’s Throne World a more interesting location to explore.

It’s admittedly heavy on the grind with all the homework it throws your way, but the new location that you’ll complete your well-armed essays in is a gorgeous and eerie slice of spooky splendour. From the swamps of Mars to the looming citadel of Savathun’s palace, TWQ is a hub of activity that adds more variety to its zone with puzzles and mysteries that feel as if they were pulled straight out of one of the game’s infamous Raids.

There’s even a chance to explore one of the infamous Pyramid ships of the Black Fleet, a monolithic collection of ever-shifting platforms and arcane technology that combine to create a sinister location that’s crawling with Cabal forces. That’s only half the story though, because TWQ’s new content is enhanced by fine-tuning under the hood of Destiny 2.

The first primary example is Void 3.0, a complete rework of the dark energy subclass. Inspired by the Stasis subclass that was introduced in 2020’s Beyond Light expansion, Void energy can now be customised and tailored to create an experience that better suits your style of play, resulting in showdowns where it’s not uncommon to see Hive and Scorn faces atomised in a shower of dark matter energy. Another big upgrade to Destiny 2 is in the threat department, as the game introduces new Lucent Brood Lightbearers who can fight back against you by wielding their own Light power, and the new Legendary difficulty setting that kicks ass. Specifically, your ass.

Legendary difficulty scales up the overall challenge, slapping you down with brutal modifiers that add some much-needed tension to Destiny 2 while raising the stakes. You can still choose to play in the easier Classic mode, but if you’re looking for a Raid-like experience, Legendary mode is a tight and well-balanced option. While the odds are never truly in your favour, the game at least rewards you for your effort and feels challenging without being cheap.

Weapon crafting is also another fascinating addition to Destiny 2’s robust arsenal, although right now, it’s still too early to see how much of a tangible difference it makes in the grand scheme of things. Investment is the driving force behind being able to craft your own tools of destruction, and while the overall efficacy of these weapons are up for debate, there’s no denying that it’s unbelievably cool to visit Mars and use an ancient crafting table where you can tinker with the perks on the guns that you unlock.

There’s obviously more to dive into with this expansion, such as new strikes, at least one Exotic that shoots screaming worm-babies that explode into poison mist when they collide with enemies, and a very friendly parasitic worm that was once the property of a cunning Hive god. How Destiny 2 takes this Witch Queen-shaped ball and runs with it through various seasons that pave the way for its next expansion remains to be seen, but for now, this latest slice of gung-ho exploration into deadly territory is just what Destiny fans have been asking for.

Newcomers will likely get lost along the way, and while Destiny 2 has made great strides in mixing its meaty lore into player experience, it’s still burdened by vague hand-wavey nonsense that doesn’t provide the right exposition where it’s needed. Crucial events such as the infamous Collapse are once again teased but never expanded on and Savathun’s trickery barely cracks a few lore entries, resulting in a story that’s once again only really enjoyable for anyone who has several years of emotional investment in Destiny’s universe. That said, the potential to tell a great story is still there, and will likely be realized throughout the year if previous seasons are an indicator of what to expect.