The expansion of hopes, dreams, and expectations has crept ever closer in the past few months. The culmination of a storyline that Bungie has teased for years.
Savathûn, the Witch Queen, and her ploy to make the light her own, hit all of us a week and a half ago.

Since igniting my Destiny 2 passion months ago, I have only known that the Witch Queen expansion is coming. Who the Witch Queen is and what the story is about were foreign to me. Gradually as we got closer to the release, I learned more of the Witch Queen, Savathûn, and how Bungie snuck her into the story throughout Destiny 2.

Before getting into day one of the campaign, I need to talk about why this expansion is so exciting for me. Witch Queen is the first expansion I have been there from release. Learning and experiencing new content without a million videos on it made me giddy with excitement. On top of that, all the previous expansions were gifted to me by someone else. Witch Queen, however, I purchased myself. There is something special about getting the first expansion that you yourself spent money to buy. Finally, Witch Queen brought a legendary version of the campaign alongside the normal version, which for Destiny was a first. The extra rewards given throughout the legendary campaign enticed players to complete it as quickly as possible for a better and faster level-up grind. Personally, the challenge of a legendary campaign is what excited me the most about it.

For context, difficulty in Destiny gets determined by power level, an average of your current gear (weapons and armor). Each activity has a recommended power level that you should be at to have the best time. Being under the power level of an activity increases its difficulty. The legendary campaign forced players to be 15 power level below the recommended. Meaning you dealt less damage while taking increased damage. Even low-tier enemies could one-shot you.

One hour before the Witch Queen’s release, the excitement amongst everyone is palpable. Everyone is eagerly awaiting the launch, I was very much one of those. Perhaps a little too excited. But can you blame me? I had no idea what to expect. 7 pm strikes, still waiting. “Servers are at a capacity”. To be expected with the volume of players (1 million pre-orders at the very least). I resided to waiting for hours to load in. But to my surprise, about 10 minutes of waiting and the first Witch Queen cutscene started. All that excitement boiling over, I felt like I was 9 years old again getting told we were getting takeaways for lunch.

All that preparation did not prepare me for what I was about to experience. The storytelling and campaign feel to Witch Queen were unrivaled. All previous campaigns felt like child’s play compared to the Witch Queen campaign. My excitement mixed with confusion and anxiety for what was to come grew as each mission progressed. The selling point that tipped the campaign over the edge at being by far the best was the twist in the storyline after the penultimate mission and the final mission’s fight against Savathûn. Regarding the normal version I have no idea, but on legendary this fight was no joke. All the build-up of Savathûn’s character and how strong she is, even before obtaining the light, was showcased in this fight. You barely had a second to rest while this fight progressed and was not dying without immense effort.

Did I stay up until 4 am to complete the campaign? Of course, and it was worth it. I spent about an hour on the final mission alone. The difficulty of the legendary campaign is what I wanted. In some cases, it pushed me to the point of frustration. It is a good kind where you desperately want to complete the mission, and once you do, it feels like a true accomplishment. I have to give massive credit to Bungie for a campaign that had it all.

Had the content ended there, I would have been satisfied, but there is still a lot more to come. Seasonal missions, exotic quests, weapon crafting, day one raid and wellspring (a few hairs got pulled out while playing this game mode), and much more are on the table for our enjoyment.

A small gripe I have, which might get some hate, is on the legendary campaign rewards given throughout and at the end of the campaign. Sure it makes reaching the power level cap for the Day one raid a lot easier for players. However, it eliminates a large portion of grinding for the raid, something I would have loved to do. Upon finishing the campaign, you need to play another hour of power level grinding, and you will hit the cap for the raid. Yes, this gives time to focus on other aspects, especially with the introduction of weapon crafting. I would have preferred to do them in tandem, making for a true grind. But that is just my opinion, and I admit I am in the minority in this regard.

Gripes aside, I am in love with the Witch Queen expansion so far. I can not wait to see what they have in store for us down the line. The next focus is the Day One raid happening tomorrow at 6 pm UTC (Saturday the 5th of March). I will be participating for the first time, and I could not be more thrilled. I wish good luck to all those participating, and I will see you all on the other side!