The Destiny franchise has been an amazing concept from the first year it ever was published. A new type of MMO genre shooter that would stick around for the years to come and with the focus on console gamers. Even though the looting was top-notch, the classes were on point and the run-and-gun feeling was amazing, the developers never pulled off the story and the lore. From the moment, Bungie ripped themselves from Blizzard/ Activision, things were starting to point in the right direction. I can truly say that the latest expansion brings one hell of a story that’s definitely worth checking out…
The latest expansion “The Witch Queen” will take veteran players to the good old days, namely the period where The Taken King set off new standards for Destiny’s story. It had a great impact on the game and definitely moved the game forward. The Witch Queen expansion will again move the game forward as the expansion’s story delivered a plot we were all waiting for.
“The Kingdom in the Clouds” would be a fitting term to describe the new place you landed on.
Savathun, The Queen of Lies and sister of the defeated Taken King Oryx takes on the leading role in this expansion. There are a lot of happenings on Mars as the kingdom of Savathun closes in. As a guardian, you will no longer watch from the sidelines and you’ll take the battle head-on. Shooting yourself with a big cannon on top of the newly profound spaceship, makes you realize that this is no ordinary spaceship. “The Kingdom in the Clouds” would be a fitting term to describe the new place you landed on. A kingdom with a majestic Castle full of hidden pathways and secret corridors. Not only is the castle a maze on its own, but it’s also surrounded by a swamp full of tombs that houses known enemies.
The whole new area suits Savathun’s eariness perfectly. It’s like a haunted house placed in the bigger picture. The world feels strange, mysterious, and frightening at the same time even though some of these enemies aren’t unknown familiars. The atmosphere is truly brilliant and enhances your immersion into this new world. You’ll want to explore the dark secrets of this kingdom but not without being cautious. The development team did a great job in bringing this eariness alive.
“His personality makes up for the long grind that awaits you.”
Without spoiling too much, the main storyline is definitely accessible for new players. However, veteran players who played during The Taken King story arc will definitely be more pleased than newbies. There are a lot of references towards the Taken King and the development team made the story believable by taking all of the important factors into account. The main story will be presented in about 8 missions that take around 16 hours to complete. There’s a choice to play the campaign on “classic difficulty” mode or “legendary” mode. My tip: play Classic and re-play the story in Legendary, it will be a more pleasant experience. I’m very glad to see the game offering an easy mode and a very difficult mode. It reminds me of the Halo days where the campaign could be played on Legendary. Those were challenging, so you can be sure that this difficulty mode will be from the same kind of caliber. Just make sure to leave the story campaign on the side once in a while, so you can join public activities to heighten your gear level because you’ll need it. Some of the missions are gear level capped. You’ll also make friends with one of the Hive Ghosts that escaped the clutches of Savathun and offers his help to bring her down. Within this eerie world, he’s the funny guy that heightens your spirits after a long day of grinding. His personality makes up for the long grind that awaits you.
The Destiny franchise still sticks around with the same type of enemies as 8 years ago but they’ve tried to make the enemies a bit more interesting by giving the power of the Light to some of our enemies and it’s for the better. The Lucent Hive and the Lucent guardians are the ones who claim the stage for their own. The Lucent Hive is Hive but imbued/ protected by a fraction of the Light’s power. Lucent Guardians are 3 types of enemies, using a powered-up version of our own Guardian’s classes that need to be eliminated by crushing their Ghost into smithereens. It’s a challenge to confront an opponent that’s almost as strong as you but it sure brings some changes to the battlefield.
“The Void subclass has been reworked tremendously and it shows.”
Talking about changes, the moment you’ll start up your old Destiny account to see what the expansion has in store for you, you’ll realize that there are a lot more Warlock players running around and there’s a big reason for that. The Void subclass has been reworked tremendously and it shows. As a void Warlock, you now have access to a lot more sustainable skills or perks that heightens the survivability of your glass cannon Warlock. Different perks boost the amount of Grenade/ melee energy you’re retrieving from killing the bad guys and I can guarantee that these different new builds change the metagame for sure. There’s also the new Glaive weapon that can be upgraded with different boosts and perks. It’s a spear-like weapon that can shoot, shield and stab. In other words, the new weapon is a true Lucent Hive killer and it won’t leave your side that easily. It’s just a great fluent weapon to use.
Of course, you can expect new exotics and armor sets to grind for. This goes alongside a new Destiny Season that will give you a lot more goodies, the more you grind and spend your time in the Destiny universe. Even though I like the season pass system, it’s just too bad that you still have to pay for the season pass on top of the new expansion. Some of these battle pass systems aren’t game-breaking for players who can’t afford it, but I do believe that the premium season pass offers a lot more goodies that will definitely improve your gameplay experience.
“Different weapons also need some personal bonding to unlock even more perks…”
Of course, a new expansion also offers some new tweaks and fixes. The game is performing better than before and the development team did make some quality of life improvements such as the bigger amount of savepoints during a campaign. Something so obvious took years to be implemented within the Destiny franchise. Along with this expansion, also comes the dark sight ability that offers you secret paths and rooms along the journey. These mechanics allow the development team to make more platforming puzzles and these puzzles are a welcoming sight to get a little more variety in the campaign. Different weapons also need some personal bonding to unlock even more perks, that can be used on other weapons.
The expansion also came with a new raid that will give players a sneak peek of the upcoming story patches as the completed raid will show some extra information regarding Savathun’s plan. The Destiny franchise also had some room to create a multiplayer experience. There’s still the Crucible for all you PVP players but don’t expect to see anything new for the multiplayer modes in the latest expansion. The Crucible and Gambit still continue with limited maps and normal game modes. You can tell that the developers focused themselves on the single-player story-driven campaign, instead of the PVP multiplayer aspect.
Conclusion:
This is the time to dust off your Destiny 2 account and download the latest expansion that offers a decent story chapter and multiple new weapons and armor sets. The campaign is great and can be played in different difficulty modes. The development team delivered a decent package for us to enjoy but don’t expect anything groundbreaking. If you liked D2 before, you’ll definitely enjoy this latest expansion. New players will also enjoy this new expansion but they’ll have some work to do. Destiny 2 can feel a bit overwhelming if you’re starting off totally from scratch and so many things to do. Take your time, it’s worth the journey.
