Destiny 2: The Witch Queen trailer confirms February release date and Hive Guardians using our powers against us

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen will arrive February 22, 2022 and introduce Hive Guardians which wield the same Light powers we're so used to. 

Bungie released the first full trailer for the upcoming expansion during today's big Year 5 showcase, following up on a PlayStation Store leak which first pointed to a February 22 release. Savathun is almost here, and she's got powerful friends.

The Witch Queen will add a new destination, Savathun's Throne World, inhabited by Light-wielding Hive Guardians who even have their own Hive Ghosts. We saw Hive using eerily familiar powers including a Sentinel Shield, Blade Barrage, and arc storms – all ripped straight from our playbook. 

The good news is we're getting some new weapons to take on these Hive Guardians, starting with Destiny 2's first-ever first-person melee weapon, the glaive. This energy weapon sports melee combos, projectiles, and defensive capabilities, so it sounds like a strong jack-of-all-trades. 

To get the glaive and other new (and returning) weapons in The Witch Queen, we'll need to learn the new weapon crafting system, which will apparently offer a more direct path to tailor-made loot than previous systems like the Umbral Engrams. Bungie teased that more weapons will be added to the crafting system in the future and that our weapons will get stronger alongside us as we use them in combat, which sounds mighty promising. 

To top it all off, The Witch Queen is doubling down on campaign content with the addition of a Legendary mode which limits respawns, empowers enemies, and improves rewards. You can clear the Legendary campaign solo or with a team, and the difficulty will scale based on your fireteam. "If you like games with standalone campaigns like Doom, Titanfall 2, God of War, and Halo, then The Witch Queen is for you," Bungie said at today's showcase. 

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Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

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