Destiny 2: The Witch Queen. The best Destiny we’ve ever had.
Well it’s been 3 weeks since The Witch Queen came out and MAN, has it come out swinging. I wanted to take time to enjoy all aspects of the new expansion, from the new story, void 3.0, the raid, the new repeatable activities (I’m never doing wellspring again once I get all the weapons done), and even some of the seasonal story missions. Well, it took me 3 weeks but I think I’ve experienced enough to write up a review/blog about it. Starting with the meat and potatoes of an expansion, the story.
Where to start? The writers over at Bungie really dusted off the old ‘Halo 1 & 2’ level of storytelling here. Every set piece was beautiful. From the throne world in general, to the different temples Savathun kept for her family, to the final boss fight area. It felt unique, different, COLORFUL! Something that was sorely missing on Europa. While they had the chance to make it look like Oryxs throne world (I mean they are all connected right?) It had character. Even the in mission dialogue, usually a messy way to dump less important information, was clean and, with the banter of Finch, our hive ghost friend, fun. I found myself on MANY occasions stopping to look at the world around or talking back the characters. The story is just the right amount of answers while giving us NEW questions. The tagline of the story was *survive the truth*. There were twists in the story I wasn’t expecting and I read the leaks. In one cutscene (those that have played it know the one) they turned the whole of destiny story and lore upside down. I bet Byf was pulling his hair out knowing that half his videos were now wrong.
The difficulty options (of course I played on Legend) was a great touch as well. It made it more worthwhile to team up with a friend to tackle the story and, in doing so, made it more of a group experience. This has set up a standard that I was not expecting after Beyond Light, and I’m scared to see if they can keep this steam going with Lightfall and leading up to. Which brings us to the seasonal story, Season of the Risen. Unlike last year the seasonal story is running in tandem with the expansion story and you know what? It works. Seeing the different sides of this fight with Savathun and her “light up goons” as Finch calls them. I think most of us would agree that Season of the Hunt was NOT a solid season, even if it did give us Crow. But to give us a season that ties in to the major story rather then something completely separate, is working. I hope to see a more coherent story this year with the other seasons. Considering this whole year is leading up to what could be an even BIGGER universe changing event.
The story is great, ya but what about gameplay? Destiny is THE MMOFPS, so with out the guns, abilities, and places to use them, you just end up with…a FPS with a good story. Well, the guns this season, are amazing. In BL I ended up using most of the same weapons I’d been using (with the exception of Biting Winds. I love that bow). This time, I hardly kept AND keep, the same weapons on. So many options and play styles that, for the first time, feel GOOD to switch up. I was a bow/AR main most of my Destiny career. I’ve been SMG/Glaive, SMG/AR, AR/Glaive, Bow/Glaive, and tons of other combos, all to test new things. The weapon crafting however, is….meh. I haven’t used any crafted weapon other the the Glaive and the exotic SMG, and have only made weapons to finish triumphs. Maybe I just haven’t had the proper time to grind out the weapons, or maybe because all the materials needed to craft just overload me. I know a lot of people are complaning about the system and the low mat caps, low drop rate of “red” weapons, and, again, vault space. But I do think the ‘economy’ of all that will balance out eventually. I do have a bow (surprise, surprise) that I’m leveling up to use in PvP. As for Void 3.0, well, I’m a void hunter main now. And that hurts me to say as a forever Blade Barrage main. But the new sub-class just works well. It synergizes with weapons so well that I try to keep a void weapon on. I can’t wait for the other sub-classed to get the same treatment (Bungie has said one a season, presumably giving themselves a one season buffer in case one of the sub-classes needs extra time). Then I may go back to solar hunter.
As for the activities, well we have PLENTY of that this year. the repeatable story missions (called Empire Hunts in BL) are back and better, since the story was better. We have a new “mini raid” that lets you go thought the first little bit of the raid, which is nice since not everyone has the chance to raid. The Wellspring, which feels like blind well 2.0, is fun, but also frustrating. You see the exotic Glaive is locked behind a mission that requires you to craft 2 of the wellspring guns. The problem is, you may not even get A gun, let alone a red one for the pattern, and you need TWO, for a total for 4 guns to drop with red border. The worst I had was farming for 5 hours to get 2 of the ARs, nether the craft able ones. Others have had worse. I’m sure once I’m not worrying about the drops I’ll have more fun. But for now, F@$% Wellspring. Most everything else is still there, other then the Empire Hunts and some things not being Pinnacles any more. Strikes are still there but with the battlegrounds from Chosen in the playlist now. I’d be interested to see if any of them become Nightfalls later on. The two new strikes are awesome. Its great to see NEW content rather then bringing D1 stuff. Crucible is…… still there. Not much has been done to poor PvP for a long time. Hell, even some of the best changes they made to Trials last year were silently rolled back and turned it back into a sweatfest. They did bring back 2(?) maps so, thats nice. To be honest they NEED to do something about PvP. As much as I say Destiny is a PvE game with PvP tacked on, if they are going to keep it there they need to pay attention to it. Give it some love. Maybe thats what they will do with the final season this year since they will be done with sub-class 3.0. Crucible 2.0. Gambit…..exists. Not much to say that hundreds of others haven't already said. Also, I have a bone to pick with Gambit until I get Dregen anyway. So I’m a little salty (I’ve been working on it, for TWO YEARS Bungie. No one uses supers in Gambit any more!!)
Which brings us, to what I was saving for last. The raid. Vow of the Disciple.
Wow.
My second day one race and first one blind (first one was VoG. We still didn’t make it in the door). When I tell you, this was the best gaming experience I’ve had, I have 25 years of gaming under my belt. The fun of seeing this raid for the first time (quite possibly the first ones other then Devs. A lot of teams were getting error coded and we just sailed in) and boy is it beautiful. While we fell short (very short) of a day one clear, we came back and kicked its butt later that week. Again, Bungie is just flipping everything we thought we knew about the lore and giving Byf a job for the next 20 years, just from this raid alone. Rhulk is by far Bungies BEST boss design ever. We asked for a boss to stop us from sitting in a well and melting and they gave it to us.
This boy moves. The whole time DPS is going, he’s moving. Its a different experience and I LOVE it. I have nothing but good things to say about the raid. Yeah they had some server issues but its an online game. Thats going to happen. I’m sorry you’re favorite Destiny streamer didn’t win. Why are they your favorite anyway? I should be your new favorite. Scrambledjoe on Twitch. Come watch me and the guys of TBR (Teabag Before Revival) have fun. *Shameless plug over*
Over all, I’m going to piss a lot of D1 Vets off with this, but this is the best Destiny we have had. I’m sorry if you thought Taken King was better, but Taken King was what SAVED Destiny after content drought from the launch (House of Wolfs was a nice little mini game). So every one sees Taken King with nostalgia goggles for what it did to save the game. And we should always be thankful for that. But its time to move on.
The future of Destiny is finally here. And its bright
For now, until the Light falls.
