We tell you what fans of the popular shooter should expect.
Story Campaign
The creators of The Witch Queen are making a big bet on the story campaign. It is already called the most ambitious in the history of Destiny, and from the nearest analogs, single modes of DOOM Eternal and the best parts of Halo are noted. Newcomers to the series are advised to just try this particular campaign.
The main villain of the story was Savathun – the same Queen Witch. In addition, she managed to harness the Light and transfer its abilities to her subordinates. For a long time, she and her subordinates were in a black hole, and now she has returned. Savathun is considered one of the main villains of Destiny.
At the same time, the atmosphere is still much more interesting: Bungie tried to recreate the atmosphere of a “psychological thriller”. Many locations seem to “float”, and objects change – one thing may seem from afar, but another is closer. Also, all sorts of secrets are hidden throughout the levels – from small items to entire tasks. Some things are easy to find, and some things take a lot of work.
Another important innovation was the “Become a Legend” difficulty level. The developers compare it with the legendary difficulty from Halo, and they will let you play it from the very beginning – it is especially recommended for hardcore fans, promising a good balance and twice as much loot. Difficulty scales naturally with the number of players in the squad, so playing solo won’t be a problem.
Innovations and the Glaive
The developers of Destiny 2 from the studio Bungie, on the eve of the release of The Witch Queen add-on, held a closed DLC show for the press and bloggers. Most of the presentation was devoted to the passage of the second level of the campaign, where we were able to look at the key feature of the DLC – Ghosts on the opponents. Yes! Some enemies now have their own Ghosts that can revive them. So in the heat of battle, you must not only shoot the enemy, but also find and destroy his companion in time, otherwise, the enemy will rise in 10 seconds.
Also, since the enemies have mastered the powers of the Light, they can use skills familiar to the Guardians. The dynamics of the battles change noticeably, as the abilities of the opponents largely repeat those that the players use.
Bungie approached with great responsibility with the introduction of a new type of weapon. In The Witch Queen, it was the unusual sword of the Glaive, which can be used both in melee and ranged combat (yes, it shoots). In addition, if necessary, it is possible to activate the shield. For example, to revive a fallen ally.
The plot partially revolves around the Glaive – in fact, during the passage of the campaign, you will have to collect the ultimate weapon thanks to a special forge, access to which will be opened after completing the first mission of The Witch Queen. By the way, it will be available to all players – it is not necessary to buy DLC.
Weapon leveling is somewhat reminiscent of the RPG system of some of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim – the more often and efficiently you use the barrel, the faster and better you can make it. In the forge, you can choose perks, and then you have to complete special tests to receive the desired rewards and improvements.
We will not reveal the plot details of the expansion, but there are interesting events already at the very beginning. After the show, the feeling strengthened that The Witch Queen would finally be able to realize all the ambitions of Destiny 2 in the field of the story campaign. The developers are trying to use all the features of the shooter. Let’s hope that the passage will take more than five hours.
In passing, we note that the new raid Vow of the Disciple was released on March 5, which Bungie has made more accessible to players than ever before since day one by increasing the power cap of the competition to 1530. This means that once a player has reached the power level of 1530 without the artifact on his character, they were ready for the first-day experience. For a more professional touch, get the Vow of the Disciple Carry.
What else is worth waiting for with The Witch Queen:
- 14 new exotics: 8 weapons and 6 types of armor (half of the equipment with a stasis effect);
- reworking classes with Void. During the year, the Sun (Solar) and Electricity (Arc) will be remade. Each class now relies more heavily on elemental traits. For example, the hunter will become more like an energy vampire;
- the ability to replay missions in the campaign.
How to start playing Destiny 2
Since the launch of the second part, the developers have paid much more attention to veterans, but because of this, it is now almost impossible to start your first journey in D2 – removing old content, including old campaigns, does not help either. You have to study third-party guides to understand where to click at all and how not to get lost in this stream.
Along with this, Destiny 2 Development Lead Blake Battle believes that it is best for newcomers to Destiny 2 to start with the Witch Queen story campaign: “The Witch Queen will celebrate the seventh year for Destiny expansions, bringing to a logical conclusion the storylines from the first game and The Taken King. The themes covered in the new DLC are core to the universe and have been written and structured in such a way that newcomers can dive into the universe from this point. For fans of MMOs or first-person shooters who are interested in Destiny, my number one tip is to play The Witch Queen campaign.”
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen was released on February 22 for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series, and Xbox One.
