Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Xbox Series X Review

Destiny 2 launched back in 2017 and since then Bungie's massively popular game has seen its fair share of highs and lows. The Witch Queen is the latest DLC to add a brand new adventure but at the cost of removing other premium content. Players are well aware of the removal of Red War, Curse of Osiris, Warmind, and now Forsaken campaign missions. The Witch Queen delivers a massively enjoyable adventure that adds a new flood of lore that builds on where Beyond Light ended. Leaving the player to lament on whether the Light is even worth fighting for.
 

 

The main villain of The Witch Queen is Savathûn, a Hive god and sister to Xivu Arath, God of War, and Oryx, the Taken King. Serving the Worm Gods through subterfuge and trickery she prevented the Vanguard from contacting the Darkness with the campaign starting shortly after Mara's ritual during the Season of the Lost. After the Cabel attempt to destroy her ship the Guardian stops their attack and instead boards the ship to find that Savathûn is using the Light and imbued her loyal Hive Warriors, called Lucent Brodd, to use the same powers of the Guardian. The Guardian and the Vanguard must find out how Savathûn obtained this power and stop her from succeeding in her plans.

The narrative builds on Beyond Light by highlighting the misinterpretations between Light and Darkness. Often showcasing both sides in shades of gray rather than black and white but leaving the player before revealing anything massive. You're led to through hordes of Hive, with some using the Light against you and ending with a massive boss fight. It delivers what gamers have expected from Bungie and does it well. With terrific visuals, presentation, and music all leading to a pivotal end.

The new explorable area is Savathun's Throne World which has many layers to it. You have the swamp littered with Scorn, the Hive area bathed in light from Savathun with roaming mini-boss fights, and the deep underground. The inclusion of the Darkness ability Deepsight offers new puzzle challenges as you shift between different times and removal illusions along with challenging Hive battles as they use the same Light abilities the player can with similarly devastating results. The game does try to keep things dreadful with dark areas filled with luminous sacks but it causes more problems as for some reason your Ghost won't shine its light so you can see. 

Grinding does remain a huge part of the game and The Witch Queen still requires players to update their gear. The current level is 1510 minimum to fully complete the campaign but earning it is simple, just head into a strike and the game usually gives you the standard Light-level gear needed to progress. The biggest addition is the ability to Shape weapons or modify them using Reshape, with the first being a new addition called a Glaive. This polearm deals heavy melee damage and can shoot a powerful projectile that is slow.
 

 

Weapons with active Deepsight Resonance come with Attunement Progress, once filled through use you can obtain Resonant Elements for new weapons and modifications. But before you need to earn the patterns for these weapons and exotic elements for said items. This new feature definitely opens a window for building some amazing sets and could be expanded to add more diversity to weapons and if Bungie allows it, armor. However, it can also lead to more grinding which is at the core of Destiny but the sheer amount of things needed for grinding is becoming very high and the developers need to implement more avenues to obtain materials through more active situations. Public events and strikes are great but more rotation for Nightfall strikes would be ideal.

Where The Witch Queen does massively expand on is the Lost Sectors. These missions were usually tucked away unless you went searching for them, small bite-size dungeons that didn't offer much. Here the developers decided to include them as part of the story content to not only show the player the location of the 3 areas but go beyond in how they're presented. Each Lost Sector is uniquely designed with battles, puzzles, and ending with an excellent boss fight. Now Lost Sectors aren't just trivial areas you need to complete for dailies but instead engaging dungeons worth experiencing.

Bungie did change the Void subclass dramatically but so much that it has made Arc and Solar less appealing. Stasis was already extremely powerful but now Void brings the 2 subclasses on even levels but leaves the other classes in the dust. This could be Bungie's plan seeing there are other expansions that will likely focus on the other classes but for now Void and Stasis have become the best viable build, leaving Arc and Solar more like novelties. 
 

 

Despite all the expected positives of The Witch Queen, it delivers the same disappointments as the other expansions. The first is there's no matchmaking for the campaign but you can replay the missions on either Classic, which is a standard difficulty, or Legendary for a challenge and better rewards. Matchmaking for Destiny 2's story missions has been a heavily requested feature since the game's launch and it's still not available along with no matchmaking for raids. Yes, raids are meant to coordinate teams of Guardians but why not just offer the option for players looking to the risk with randoms? The same goes for Nightfall missions on Legend or Master difficulty, why is Bungie opposed to giving players the option for matchmaking?

As with the previous DLC content, the story missions from other premium DLC and the base Destiny 2 experience are no longer available. Considering how much time went into developing these missions along with the positive reception they all got it's perplexing that an option is not available to replay this content. It's especially hurtful seeing the timeline showing off the History of Destiny 2, all those incredible missions you cannot play. Some are available if you make a new character but there are only 3 slots and usually, gamers create 1 for each of the classes available to them so you have to wipe a slot just to play legacy content.

If you happen to dive into The Witch Queen without experiencing the previous DLCs you're given a small summary of what happened but not the complete story. But the worse part is that you're locked out of Nightfall missions if they happen to land on a premium DLC mission. Since these strikes are the only way to obtain powerful Exotic loot through matchmaking then you're out of luck. The Vanguard Ops only go up to 1350 and Bungie should offer an option for those without access to those DLCs. Perhaps offering more than 1 Nightfall mission per week is in order, 1 for each DLC and 1 for those without them, or giving the Vanguard Ops the same difficulty options.

Currently, the upcoming Raid is set for March 3rd but will update the review once it releases
 

 

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen delivers on all the same positives that the other DLCs and even the core Destiny 2 game did. The campaign is wonderful with incredible fights, atmosphere, areas to explore, and music. The story, while expected, still has that shocking twists and leaves the future in the air as you wonder how is humanity going to survive the upcoming threats. But even with the thriller campaign the same issues still plague the DLC; no matchmaking, removal of legacy content, and heavy grinding. The Lost Sector improvements are definitely welcomed and the new weapon crafting option offers more opportunities. The Witch Queen is an excellent expansion for long-time Destiny 2 players that provides exactly more of what players love and dislike.
 

Review Copy Provided

Adam Siddiqui,
Managing Editor, NoobFeed