Sometimes, an expansion can totally knock it out of the park. Other times, it can just act as a magnifying glass to the structural problems of its parent MMO.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is the latest expansion for the overall great Destiny 2- but for as much good as the expansion does it doesn’t really combat the greater issues of Destiny 2, which can be a big burden for the MMO shooter.

What should be a really fun and cool romp turns into this nagging feeling at the back of your mind- one that the game’s plus points just aren’t good enough to overcome.

Still, Destiny 2 was due for a mechanical shakeup- almost any news out of the MMO  is more related to its habit of locking away old content, so the idea of a new expansion was a chance to finally see what new blood could be put into the game.

As other MMOs release amazing expansions so big they crash the game, how does the Witch Queen stack up? Read on and find out.

Still, it brings something that Destiny 2 has sorely needed in recent months- a good story. Thanks to the game’s sunsetting of previous content, it’s really struggled in terms of having anything to do unless you were already roped into the Games-As-Service loop of just wanting missions to grind more loot.

The missions in The Witch Queen are genuinely interesting, as you deal with the fallout of the machinations of Savathun, the game’s titular Witch Queen. As you do missions throughout the game’s story it’s really cool to see the Vanguards reflect on their relationship with the Light. The only downside to this is the fact that if you’re a new player, you just don’t have the same hooks as people who were allowed to play the game’s story before it got sunsetted.

In any other case it’d totally be the onus of the player to play the game’s story ahead of the release of The Witch Queen. But by sunsetting so much story content Bungie’s made it clear this story isn’t important- right as they drop an expansion that makes you think “actually, maybe this story was important after all”.

New Toys

Story aside, The Witch Queen does add new ways to interact with the loot in Destiny 2. I’m a big fan of the new crafting system- these allow you to essentially make the gun you want, instead of having to constantly reset to get the best affixes.

The problem is that, much like anything else in Destiny 2, the crafting is tied to grinding. You’ll want to carry your gun with you through missions to level it up, unlocking perks. Thankfully just having the weapon out when you clear a mission gives you XP, but if you’re the anal-retentive type to obsess about not using a weapon until its “complete”, prepare for a lot of discomfort as you carry a sub-optimal pistol with you through the game’s playground of environments and missions.

There’s also the new melee weapons- Glaives. With no exaggeration, these are my favorite new thing in the Witch Queen. Destiny’s melee gameplay has always felt to the weaker side, and the sheer amount of fun you can have with Glaives makes up for that as you use powerful combos and even deploy shields.

A Flawed Diamond

I genuinely like that The Witch Queen is experimenting with new ways to enjoy Destiny 2. While the gun crafting is a little grindy, earning perks by leveling up is way more enjoyable than constantly rolling the dice on a Strike or a Raid. The fact that melee players got anything at all is also a huge deal, and I can’t wait to see if we might even get more melee updates down the line.

Still, the core flaw of Destiny 2 is a result of what Destiny is. The game’s story is hard to get into when you just don’t care about who any of these characters are- and let’s face it, the number of pre-sunsetting players probably isn’t that huge either. Considering the fact that the story is pushed so hard in the game’s marketing, the fact that there’s no way to properly experience it is just disheartening and makes the expansion feel watered down if you’re a newer player.

If you’re a new player who doesn’t care for the story of Destiny, absolutely give The Witch Queen a go- it’s more Destiny in all the best ways, and the new features are sure to give you plenty to do as you craft that perfect gun or do sick glaive combos.

But if you were one of those players who’d heard about the galactic space opera of Destiny, maybe give this one a miss unless you fancy doing a wiki dive beforehand.