Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is the game’s best expansion yet

I have a love/hate relationship with the Destiny franchise. I’ve played every expansion, completed every raid, and consumed just about every piece of lore. There is a cool story behind Destiny and Destiny 2 and when an expansion drops, generally we get to see that story advance.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the Destiny franchise, most of these advancements are shored up with a pretty little bow at the end. You really have to dig deep to understand the vastness of the world that has been created.

Maybe we get a new area to run around in or a new activity, but the world for the most part stays the same.

Destiny 2‘s The Witch Queen expansion (Xbox, PlayStation, and PC) falls into the same tropes as before but also serves to potentially be the series’ best expansion to date.

The Witch Queen is putting the pain in “campaign”

One of the biggest issues with Destiny 2 expansions has always been the main story missions. They have always been pretty easy. It’s a hard line to walk to deliver content that is difficult while being engaging enough to allow casual players to experience the story.

In the past, that has meant that advanced players have been forced to trudge through missions with enemies you kill with one shot and bosses that are dead as soon as their health bars appear.

The Witch Queen takes a bit of a different approach, offering the main story campaign in two flavors. The normal campaign is a standard difficulty, perfect for new players and casuals alike.

The new legendary campaign is a whole different beast. Boasting a much higher difficulty that scales with the number of players on the fire team, the legendary campaign is all risk versus reward.

All in all, it took me about 10-12 hours to complete with one other player. Throughout that time we actually had to call in a third player to assist in some of the more difficult encounters.

This includes the last boss fight, which took us over 30 minutes and had us wiping a few times at the very end. As someone that regularly raids in Destiny 2 and completes grandmaster nightfall content, I absolutely appreciated the difficulty.

The Witch Queen changes things at a base level for Destiny 2

When it comes to how impactful The Witch Queen is on the overall story of Destiny 2, it’s either the first or second in terms of expansions, depending on how much you care about the story.

While the Forsaken expansion killed off everyone’s favorite character, introduced a new area, and made the weakest sub-class one of the strongest, The Witch Queen isn’t pulling any punches either.

We have a huge new pseudo planet to run around, but the story implications of the expansion feel like Destiny 2 is setting up its own “Endgame.”

One of the things touted earlier in the reveal of The Witch Queen was the fact we would be able to make our own weapons. With the forge finally in our hands, I can see why it may help me from keeping 500 guns in my vault down the road.

The concept is simple, you use specially marked guns until you learn how to make them. Once that is done, you can create one yourself and pick the perks you’d prefer.

As of right now, it is a neat gimmick, but if we get to a point where I can create a new version of my favorite old guns and change perks as needed, it will be a game-changer.

There is plenty to keep you busy in the Witch Queen expansion

Once the campaign is in the books, Witch Queen offers an absolute ton of extra things to do, on top of the new seasonal content (Season of the Risen) to complete. It is a little weird that the seasonal content takes place after the events of the expansion story, but can be the second thing you do within it.

If this review inspires you to play, keep that in mind. The additional content allows an absolute ton of extra endgame activities to keep yourself busy. I thought I played a bunch of them, but have barely scratched the surface.

Overall, if you have been considering returning to Destiny 2 or the thought of playing Destiny 2 has crossed your mind, The Witch Queen offers an amazing spot to return.

For existing players, this is absolutely the shot in the arm the game has needed when it comes to making the gameplay feel fresh. It’s worth the cost of entry on the campaign alone. Everything else is just icing on the proverbial cake.

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