Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Expansion Launches On February 22, 2022
Bungie celebrated their 30-year journey today by showcasing Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, their upcoming major expansion for Destiny 2. The expansion will be available on all Windows PC, Microsoft, and Sony gaming platforms on February 22, 2022. The announcement featured new cinematics, story, gameplay, and of course, new loot for the ongoing action MMO game that has been evolving since 2017.
To newcomers and those unfamiliar with Bungie’s current flagship franchise, Destiny 2 is an online multiplayer first-person looter/shooter space opera that is now free-to-play, barring any new expansions. In its original release, Destiny 2 was a fully paid game but Bungie changed their model in 2019 to bring in more players to their community. A number of expansions and updates have released since, some good and some bad, but it looks to be trending up with the latest Destiny 2: The Witch Queen expansion.
To those well-seasoned with Destiny 2, it seems like 2022’s The Witch Queen will live up to its hype to be the most successful expansion since Forsaken in 2018. The story revolves around Savathun, a character Bungie has been building for the past seven years, dating back to the release of the original Destiny game in 2014. There is a new spear/staff weapon called the “Glaive” that enables the player to “unleash powerful melee combos, projectile attacks, and a deployable energy shield”. A new location called “Savathun’s Throneworld” will be introduced as well as another to be added later that year.
Something that has been locked behind Bungie’s MMO gates was announced today, and that is weapon crafting. Bungie did not go into too much detail but they referred to weapon crafting as “a combat focused crafting and progression system. The more you use these weapons (the more objectives you complete with them), the more you’ll level them up and the more powerful they’ll grow over time.”
Long-time players have the right to be skeptical and wary, but I believe this might be the single most important update to the game in years as it focuses on rewarding weapons and weapon mechanics. Bungie wants us to feel like there is no better time than now to come back. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, sha–wait…the Gjallarhorn is back?!
Bungie saved the best for last, as they announced a special Destiny 2: Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack that includes a new Dungeon, four new emotes, an exotic ship and sparrow, exclusive ornaments, and the return of the Gjallarhorn, a highly anticipated exotic heavy rocket launcher that originated from Destiny 1. The anniversary pack will be available a bit sooner on December 7, 2021 and will give the players enough time to prepare for Destiny 2: The Witch Queen.