For so long as there have been Destiny and Destiny 2 expansions, these expansions have adopted a particular system. The add-ons have at all times been standalone choices with new weapons and a brand new playable vacation spot, dropping gamers into a brand new story kind of unbiased of what got here earlier than. Each included a pile of latest content material and a recent story marketing campaign, however they have been much less like subsequent chapters for a dwelling recreation than semi-discreet new modules bolted onto an current, sprawling complete. The Witch Queen adjustments all that; fairly than connecting one thing new and separate onto Destiny 2 with no context, it as a substitute is an natural, evolutionary outgrowth. This is Bungie’s stay recreation molting, rising from a cocoon as one thing higher, smarter, and extra full than it was earlier than.Back when it was first discussing The Witch Queen, Bungie known as the growth’s new story “the definitive Destiny campaign.” Despite being advertising and marketing converse, that assertion has turned out to be true–Destiny expansions are largely constructed on multi-mission story choices, however The Witch Queen’s marketing campaign stands alone amongst its predecessors. It is, with out hyperbole, one of the best marketing campaign Bungie has launched for the sport, eclipsing even the most-loved releases of the previous, like Forsaken or The Taken King. This is what folks like about Destiny, boiled down into approachable missions you possibly can play alone or with pals.
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Now Playing: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Video Review
Destiny campaigns lean towards the straightforward finish of the spectrum, giving gamers an on-ramp into the extra complicated choices that basically outline the sport: its six-player raids and three-player dungeons. The drawback with this method has at all times been that, whereas the early elements of any given Destiny 2 growth really feel good–the recreation is nothing if not extraordinarily satisfying when it comes to easy taking pictures mechanics–they aren’t actually indicative of what makes the sport good. Destiny 2 has actually been outlined by its raids, that are stuffed with sensible mechanics that require adept groups to be taught the foundations, set up roles, talk intentions, and work collectively just like the intricate elements of a clockwork system. You do not actually get a way of what is nice about Destiny 2 till you play its finest content material, which is at all times the high-level stuff that may be robust to get to.Gallery The Witch Queen upends that, clearly taking cues from raids, dungeons, and different high-level content material to convey those self same emotions and experiences to its story. Fights aren’t simply massive arenas with bullet-sponges that must be chipped away at; they’re fast-moving conditions stuffed with combatants that usually have you ever working your mind to unravel a puzzle or develop a method when you’re additionally figuring out targets and prioritizing threats. One standout second has you preventing a boss who’s resistant to your assaults and chases you thru a darkened maze. Your job is to seek out and destroy the hidden crystals powering the boss’s defend, however they’re nestled off in darkish corners someplace, guarded by smaller foes. It’s virtually not possible to see your path, however you possibly can shoot glowing orange pustules protruding of partitions to spray their incandescent goo everywhere in the floor, lighting your approach. So you are working from an enormous monster, blasting his minions, looking the objects that may help you harm him, and attempting to mild your approach via a maze. Levels drip-feed you new mechanics and concepts all alongside the best way in order that all of it comes collectively within the boss combat, and matched with Destiny 2’s already wonderful fight basis, it makes for an intensely fast-paced, hectic expertise.The marketing campaign is crammed with these standout moments, with wonderful stage and area design all through, and every mission feeling considerably completely different from the others. Along with nice ranges, although, Bungie has additionally introduced a slate of useful quality-of-life enhancements, like further checkpoints and the brand new “major encounters” approach. Much like the inclusion of the brainier raid-like mechanics, this is another page borrowed from endgame content–major encounters are big fights with a clear start and endpoint, where you can refill all your ammo beforehand so you’re prepped for what’s coming, and where you get a big pile of equipment rewards at the end. Each of these arenas feels like a significant event, one that will challenge your abilities and give you a big feeling of accomplishment once you’ve bested it.That’s especially true when playing the story campaign on the new Legendary difficulty, which is a phenomenal addition to the overall package. Because they’re geared toward being on-ramps for new players, Destiny story campaigns tend to be easier experiences than most of the rest of the game. Bungie acknowledged, however, that veteran players have the weapons and experience for a significantly tougher fight, and the Legendary campaign obliges beautifully. It caps player Power levels beneath the recommended maximums while adding a few key modifiers and other tweaks, raising the stakes by making everything just that much more lethal. The tactical consideration of protecting yourself and taking down important targets before they can seriously threaten you–coupled with the smart mechanics and encounter design–make for an excellent challenge that is consistently, exquisitely harrowing.That high-intensity threat feeling is amplified further by the inclusion of a major new enemy in the Hive Lightbearers, mini-boss-like foes who show up at key moments and in major encounters. These new foes wield the same space magic superpowers as players, invoking a sort of middle ground between playing against computer-controlled enemies and playing against other humans in the competitive portion of Destiny 2. What’s more is the Lightbearers are legitimately deadly; whenever they show up, they completely rewrite the situation of which they’re a part. They demand you assess the new threat and alter your strategy accordingly, lest you be annihilated by a burst of lightning or cut in half by a flying Captain America-like energy shield. The Lightbearers add an extra dimension to The Witch Queen’s story encounters that further shifts the usual Destiny 2 paradigm, forcing you to use what you know of your own capabilities to counter those of your enemies.Gallery The story, too, is among the better ones Destiny 2 has told, largely because it’s not a standalone addition to the game that came out of nowhere, but the culmination of years of storytelling, and particularly the last four seasonal stories that appeared in the game in 2021. Since before the release of the Beyond Light expansion, the trajectory of the Destiny 2 world has been altered by the gravity of Savathun–an eons-old godlike alien whose modus operandi is manipulation through lies and deceit. After literal years of Destiny 2 players seeing Savathun’s machinations play out in small-scale altercations, The Witch Queen brings her plans to fruition.It’s a pretty good story, all things considered–one that is conscious of players investing in the game, not just for the last year, but at least since the release of Destiny 2 in 2017. It makes use of key elements of Destiny 2’s deep lore, bringing some of the strangest and most interesting aspects of the universe to the forefront, and recontextualizing things we thought were settled about the story. After more than a year of build-up to this exact moment, The Witch Queen is both a satisfying unification of the threads Destiny 2 has been weaving for a long time, and great at dropping intriguing clues that keep you invested. Like Beyond Light, though, it excels most when it’s focused on its characters and the conflicts between their ideologies and the threats they’re facing.The Witch Queen upends what we have long accepted about key elements of the game, in particular our relationship with the immortality-granting “good” pressure often called the Light. When the Hive, an alien dying cult recognized just for conquest and genocide and arguably humanity’s biggest enemy, additionally declare the ability of the Light, it shakes everybody to their core (though the participant character, who not less than has a number of strains this outing, stays sadly stoic more often than not). The finest moments of the marketing campaign are when the participant’s Ghost, their stalwart companion and the character manifestation of their reference to the Light, explodes with rage at seeing that energy within the fingers of the Hive. Watching different characters who’ve handled the Light with non secular reverence questioning these beliefs and decisions helps make the stakes really feel extra essential than simply taking pictures one other massive alien earlier than it could do some type of magic ritual to destroy everybody’s lives. The Witch Queen feels prefer it issues past what you are taking pictures; it is affecting the individuals who make up the muse of the sport.The wrestle of Destiny 2’s story and its expansions is that a lot of the required context to make sense of it exists in lore passages dropped as taste textual content on the weapons you discover or in particular lore books you unlock–it has lengthy been an issue with the sport that its finest tales have a tendency to not occur within the recreation you are truly enjoying. Bungie has gotten loads higher about this in the previous few years, and The Witch Queen might be one of the best job it is ever performed of blending its nice lore concepts with the precise participant expertise. But it nonetheless struggles with the truth that it is attempting to convey complicated in-universe ideas to all players–from those that’ve learn all of the lore to the brand-new of us simply leaping into the sport for the primary time.Although it definitely tries, The Witch Queen cannot fairly thread that needle; it compromises the complicated stuff in an try to make issues clearer for gamers who have not been within the recreation lengthy sufficient to ascertain context, and in so doing, it undercuts the impression of some components for many who’ve been round the entire time. What’s extra, even the simplified story is not easy sufficient to hold new gamers through–so the compromises find yourself weakening the story for each audiences. While this chapter makes clearer sense than some previous ones have, it is nonetheless finest loved by individuals who have a agency grasp of Destiny’s long-term story and lore, and even then, it has its complicated spots.Still, there’s loads of nice story being advised right here. Following the marketing campaign, there’s an entire host of issues to do within the new vacation spot the sport provides, Savathun’s throne world, which is stuffed with secrets and techniques to uncover, extra missions to play, and weapons to earn. The Witch Queen additionally provides a brand new weapon-crafting system that gives an entire new ingredient to the standard loot chase that defines Destiny 2. The system typically feels a bit too grindy in its earliest iteration–a lot of unlocking weapons and their varied upgrades nonetheless requires an enormous reliance on random drops–but Bungie has already introduced plans to make changes to alleviate that concern. Still, the system provides loads of cool new issues to chase and customise, bringing a recent angle on the ever-present loot chase that defines the sport. After a number of days with it, I’ve developed a model of the brand new first-person melee weapon, the Glaive, that I like, and I’ve loads of plans for brand spanking new auto rifles and scout rifles. Using the grind to make precisely what you need out of your arsenal is an addition to Destiny 2’s loot system that feels prefer it’s paying off my investments and incentivizing customization, and it is an incredible new side of the sport’s underlying system.There are a number of extra adjustments to Destiny 2 with The Witch Queen that elevate the sport, like changes to the Void participant subclasses that provide an entire lot extra freedom to make loadouts, and tweaks to the Gambit exercise that make it extra aggressive. Those changes, too, really feel like Destiny 2 persevering with to evolve as Bungie hones it to its absolute best model.Along with extra story choices and kit, The Witch Queen provides a brand new raid to Destiny 2 as a part of its providing, known as Vow of the Disciple. Destiny raids have lengthy been spectacular affairs in recreation design and artwork route, providing some unimaginable multiplayer shooter gameplay. Vow continues that custom as one other wonderful providing, a becoming next-level cap to an excellent growth that continues so as to add much more to Destiny 2’s gameworld. Its mechanics borrow a bit from previous raids in ways in which play into its general themes, giving it a extra acquainted really feel than some Bungie’s different choices on this division. Our Day One raid try additionally suffered a bit, thanks to a couple bugs throughout boss fights that might slam a strong run to a halt. But principally minor frustrations have not marred one other extraordinarily enjoyable, high-intensity multiplayer providing in Vow of the Disciple.Delving into all its new options, new missions, new places, and new raid, The Witch Queen has been extraordinarily spectacular and a ton of enjoyable. The centerpiece is the laudable story marketing campaign, making loads of the sport’s finest design extra approachable for quite a lot of characters, however The Witch Queen additionally invokes one of the best elements of Destiny’s previous, as well–like the secret-laden, dense, and engaging places present in The Taken King and Forsaken expansions. The Witch Queen is a large step ahead for the sport, the end result of a latest historical past of nice refinements and additions, leading to a Destiny 2 that is in its finest type but.