Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

The highest compliment I can give any game is when I have to force myself to put the controller down to put my thoughts in a review. Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is that game. Somehow Bungie took a game that I play daily, for hours a week, and made me want to play it more. It's always good getting new content with seasons and past expansions, and I have loved all Destiny 2 additions. However, The Witch Queen feels like we have entered a new age. The Witch Queen has proven that no one is better than Bungie at what they do. The Witch Queen takes every aspect of Destiny and improves on it, and then some. While Destiny is always getting better, The Witch Queen is the best piece of Destiny content ever created.

Destiny 2 The Witch Queen lifts Destiny 2 to new heights with a spectacular story, a large amount of content and many improvements to gameplay. Destiny 2 is finally what it was always supposed to be and shows that Bungie is still at the top of its game when it comes to creating beautiful environments and visual storytelling. Whether you're thinking about returning to the franchise or picking up the game for the first time ever, The Witch Queen is a brilliant starting point for your new adventures.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen expands, improves, and refines everything that already works extremely well, proving that this game as a service is still far from exhaustion. Moreover, it offers an engaging new journey, important revelations, and a turning point that only builds on promise for what lies ahead.

The Witch Queen is an especially robust expansion, with a particular focus on customizing the play experience and rewarding longtime players’ investment in story and systems. If it’s not the most welcoming moment for players to jump in, that may be a price the developers at Bungie are willing to pay at this point. The long-running story arc that opened in 2014 is gradually steering toward a climax, and it’s possible the developers are increasingly interested in building a ride for those who have been in the vehicle for a while now.

After a series of only half-successful expansions, Bungie has managed to hit the mark with The Whispering Queen, enriching its Destiny 2 with the best campaign ever.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen represents the highest peak the franchise has seen in years, if not ever. Held back by some grindiness and nigh-inpenetrable plot gates, it’s one of the smoothest FPS experiences available today, thanks to its best story yet and a host of gameplay adjustments.

The Witch Queen is a terrific addition to the Destiny 2 canon, finally balancing the combat and the story to near perfect levels. There’s so much here to enjoy, breathing new life into Destiny as a whole. Absolutely brilliant.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen feels like something built for the veterans, for the long-standing fans. It’s both a culmination of years of story and prelude to something much bigger.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is the next chapter in an already exhilarating game, a chapter that in and of itself reiterates and expands on the existing excellence of the core game. With a thrilling new campaign, an exciting new weapon, the addition of crafting and its impact on the weapon economy, and an upgraded subclass, The Witch Queen is Destiny at its all-time best.

After a strong couple of years, Destiny 2 has hit a new high in The Witch Queen. It’s undeniably the best expansion for the MMO shooter yet, with narrative payoffs both surprising and earned, a fantastic campaign, and fun new gear to chase and build. Destiny 2 Year 5 is off to an excellent start, and the future has never been brighter for the franchise.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is an achievement in storytelling for Bungie, which somehow has two more expansions still to come for its ongoing game. The Witch Queen is a must play for fans of the series, casual or otherwise, as it's an intriguing story that is well told, exudes confidence, and hints at an even brighter (or darker) future that's still to come.

I’m admittedly still a bit lost when it comes to how all of the upgrade systems, subclasses, and secondary objectives and tasks work. And I’m sad that — as usual — I’ll miss out on the new raid mission for lack of being able to schedule a big team of friends to get together for multi-hour play sessions. But perhaps this is just the cost of doing business as a casual Destiny player.

More than a collection of new gear, The Witch Queen is a significant moment for the story – and, to a lesser extent, the mechanics – of Destiny. [Issue#13, p.80]

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is a good expansion, combining an excellent campaign and raid with a decent content offering, even though not much of it feels exactly new. Destiny 2: The Witch Queen may not be the best overall expansion in Destiny history, but this queen sure does put on a good show while it lasts.

Despite its shortcomings as an entry point for new players, there's a lot packed into The Witch Queen worth appreciating – we haven't even mentioned the new Glaive weapon type that combines melee with long-range attacks, the hugely enjoyable new Lost Sectors, or the overhaul to the Void subclass, bringing it more in line with Beyond Light's Stasis. This pushes the number of viable types to "two", which isn't great, but Arc and Solar should be getting a similar upgrade in the (hopefully) near future. Seasonal content will continue to deliver story as 2022 wears on, but obviously the quality of it cannot be judged yet – the expansion isn't even complete at the time of typing, what with the new Raid yet to drop. Still, this is Destiny 2 at its very best and a pleasingly vital expansion to what remains a superb game.