Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

Bugs and PvP aside, The Witch Queen delivers the best version of Destiny 2 yet.

Bungie continues to improve its shooter MMO with the best story campaign it has yet produced and a whole lot of great additional content to keep players engaged.

There's still work to be done on the game at large, but The Witch Queen is a massive step in the right direction. The campaign alone is worth the price of admission.

Eight years after those first clumsy beginnings, the series isn’t about Hope for the Future anymore. The Destiny I’ve always wanted is here.

The Witch Queen is not only the best and most complete version of Destiny 2, it's the foundation for something better still.

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.

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.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is the expansion that players have been awaiting for years.

The Witch Queen fundamentally changes a lot of Destiny 2. There's weapon crafting, a new area to explore, a new raid coming, tons of weapons to grind for, and plenty of sandbox changes that shake everything up. But the writing isn't on par with some previous expansions.

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.