Ahead of the launch of Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, veteran players were preparing for what was to come by hoarding bounties in a bid to be as powerful as possible and shortening the length of the Power level grind.

This is not necessary for new or returning players as you will level up rather quickly, but we want to issue a warning – players are not prepared for the story beats Bungie drops in The Witch Queen.

We will be avoiding spoilers (we are treating anything revealed in trailers as fair game though) in this review as we are of the opinion that talking about anything other than the bare minimum will ruin the experience for players new and old.

She’s finally here

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen fires its opening salvo by reintroducing Mars and putting us in front of Savathûn herself in the first mission of the game.

The jumping off point for the story comes when players discover that Savathûn has managed to steal the Light. Not only that, but the Hive God of Cunning and Lies has also created Lucent Hive, enemies imbued with the Light.

So starts a long investigation into how Savathûn came by the light and what she plans to do with it. Players take on the role of a psychic detective using Deepsight, a new ability, to reveal secrets Savathûn doesn’t want known in her Throne World.

Deepsight opens up new paths, but the most interesting way its applied is in puzzles. Some puzzles are simple requiring you shoot symbols that appear, others are more devious and had us breaking out the paper and notepad to solve them.

Throughout the campaign Savathûn’s plan gets a little more clearer and ultimately players find out what the Hive God’s plan is. With that having been said as we type those words and having completed the campaign, we still aren’t confident enough to say that, “Savathûn is doing this”.

The loop

What is truly impressive is how well everything flows in this expansion, particularly the gameplay loop.

In the past, Destiny 2 expansions have employed a loop that becomes dead boring after a while. That loop sees a player completing a mission and then having to go out into the wider world to grind out Power levels so as to be able to face the next mission without becoming a paracausal bug on a windshield.

The Witch Queen is different in that each mission is comprised of two to three encounters. At the end of each of these encounters loot rains down on players, helping them up their Power level more easily. There are at most two points in the story where you will need to grind out levels but this will take you no more than an hour each time and they can be completed within the Throne World so that you can immerse yourself in the stunning spaces Bungie has created.

As for mission variety, you will still be heading to a point, fighting a boss and collecting something but what happens between that is where Bungie has reached new heights. There are puzzles, there are secrets, there are environmental dangers, there is just so much to see and do, a second playthrough may just be required.

Furthermore, the soundtrack and world design for each mission were clearly given a lot of thought. When you enter a dark corridor the music gives you a sense of foreboding and even if there is nothing there, you always have this uneasy feeling that something is watching you.

There are also new weapons and armour to collect. Weapons can now drop with a perk called Deepsight Resonance which allows you extract traits and perks for use in other weapons. It’s an interesting if somewhat laborious loop but it fits into the Destiny 2 grind rather nicely as progression is mostly passive.

The reworked Void 3.0 subclass also warrants a mention as players can now create loadouts where abilities and weaponry come together to turn your Guardian into an unstoppable explosion machine, an invisible damage dealer or a defender. We’re incredibly excited about how Bungie plans to expand this for Solar and Arc subclasses throughout this year.

It’s a playable movie

Over the last year Bungie has been working hard to make its story more appealing and more importantly, bringing that story into the game.

The Witch Queen is the culmination of those efforts and missions are more like acts in a movie. To back this up, cutscenes have been polished and are more frequent, the dialogue is incredibly well written and the performances from the voice cast are superb.

Voicing Savathûn is Debra Wilson who is just perfect for the role. Every word that comes out of Savathûn’s mouth is perfectly executed and Wilson manages to strike fear and dread in players with a single phrase at one point.

Similarly, Ikora Rey’s voice actress, Mara Junot, has made the character her own and we are now fully invested in Ikora Rey and her efforts to save humanity.

Even Nolan North who voices the player’s Ghost gives a fantastic performance here.

There is something in the water at Bungie these days because everything has come together beautifully.

https://youtu.be/PYM7KDrx_Ho

Technically speaking

Despite an hour long wait to get into the game on launch, The Witch Queen’s launch has gone off largely without issue.

That having been said, we have noticed some issues with performance on PC and there are numerous bugs being encountered by PlayStation 4 players detailed here.

We know that Bungie is working hard to address the bugs that have been encountered and given how things have played out in the past, we shouldn’t have to wait too long for fixes to come down the pipeline.

Conclusion

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is the best campaign Bungie has released in Destiny history. All told, the campaign should take you 4 – 6 hours if playing on Normal difficulty and each of those hours is spent exploring the campaign and the new destination.

While we grew tired of hearing “We’re listening” whenever there are issues with the game, this expansion stands as testament that Bungie is indeed listening.

Missions are well paced, the environment art is stunning and we’ve only really just scratched the surface of what is to come in the next months and years of Destiny.

Now, we have to address the elephant that is content vaulting.

Whether we like it or not, The Witch Queen will eventually leave the Destiny 2 realm but, when that will be is likely far in the future, at least four years given that Forsaken has been vaulted four years after its release.

While a lot can change in that time as it stands, Witch Queen has a countdown over its head and that doesn’t feel good.

With all of that having been said, if you even had a passing interest in Destiny, The Witch Queen is the expansion you should dive into. Don’t worry about not knowing the lore as this expansion serves as the perfect place to dive into the vast tomes of the Destiny universe.

This really is a sci-fi epic that everybody should experience.

Disclaimer: Review code for Destiny 2: The Witch Queen was purchased by the reviewer.