Destiny: Rise of Iron Reviews
In its third year, Destiny is showing signs of exhaustion, as it retreads old ground and struggles to find inspiration.
'Rise of Iron' doesn't just add Destiny missions, it makes the whole game better
Rise of Iron isn't quite the game changer that the Taken King was last year, but it continues to build on the work-in-progress experience that Destiny has become. Looking at it peice by piece it's very easy to discount certain aspects of Destiny, but as a whole there isn't a better or more robust game that ties together single player, cooperative, and competitive multiplayer gameplay the way that Bungie has.
Destiny: Rise of Iron might not quite live up to what it should have been, but it gets very close. With a few more tweaks from Bungie, it might even get close to matching The Taken King.
Among the four expansions Destiny has had so far, this definitely ranks among the best showing the the developers have only continued to learn as the game grows.
The latest in the series is proof that ‘Destiny’ will never end
Rise of Iron isn't the most innovative nor biggest expansion pack that Destiny have seen, but still it's a fun one, bringing some fun to those players that want to return to this universe despite the repetitiveness of the formula.
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Destiny: Rise of Iron continues the Destiny tradition as it moves into its third year of content. Some may see it as a step back from last year’s The Taken King as it doesn’t feature new playable subclasses, but there is much more beneath the surface to Rise of Iron. This, along with making older Strikes relevant again help elevate Destiny once again without alienating any of its core player base. While the new raid was completed only a couple hours after being released, the Hard Mode and Challenges have yet to be revealed and should offer additional content for those players looking for the ultimate challenge.
The stuff that is genuinely new is very good, but there’s so little of it that the sense of déjà vu, in a game that is already so repetitious, becomes overwhelming.
Latest expansion doesn't move the game on, but has lots to like for returning fans
Destiny still has the same problems it’s always suffered from.
After significant in-roads over the past year, Destiny feels like its regressed with Rise of Iron. This would have been a great time for exceptional story missions and replayable content that wasn't completely frustrating. For its price, Rise of Iron should have offered a lot more and taken more risks.
I continuously caught myself completely zoned out and just enamoured by the sheer size of the ships and mile high structures constantly seen throughout the campaign.
Rise of Iron is an excellent expansion to Destiny, but it doesn’t have the same lasting impact on the game as The Taken King did. There’s not all that much for Bungie to fix this side of a fully fledged sequel, and so this DLC gets to focus on weaving a new story that delves into the game’s lore, providing hours of new content for the game’s fans to play time and again.
As the last full expansion for Destiny before Destiny 2, and a follow-up to The Taken King, Rise of Iron had big shoes to fill. It’s a shame then that it doesn’t.
It’s hard not to compare “Rise of Iron” to “The Taken King.” “The Taken King” was “Destiny’s” finest and most robust expansion. Even at its $40 asking price, it seemed like it was just shy of achieving full sequel status rather than an expansion. “Rise of Iron” doesn’t quite reach those heights, but it’s still better than other expansions like “House of Wolves” and “The Dark Below.” Bungie has learned from its experience. “Rise of Iron” mostly adds more of what “Destiny” players want. Year Two of “Destiny has been a huge success for players who want the game to head in the right direction. If this is indeed the final expansion, expectations will be high for “Destiny 2.”
Rise of Iron is an arrival, a remix, and a remembrance. It puts a sloppy bow on the Destiny we’ve been playing for two years, introducing a final chapter that will stretch until Bungie wipes the board clean and starts fresh with Destiny 2. It’s fun, in a funereal sort of way.
Rise of Iron has just enough new content to keep me coming back for a while, but it feels like the bare minimum. When I wasn’t absentmindedly grinding against reskinned enemies until I couldn’t do it anymore, I was falling down the rabbit hole of side quests and trying out new weapons while patrolling the Plaguelands. The satisfying but still not groundbreaking raid is a decent reward at the end. I wish this expansion had focused more on fixing Destiny’s repetition problems, because it has a few good ideas — but with all its pitfalls, this is just Destiny going through the motions.
Overall, Rise of Iron may not be as robust or as game-changing as The Taken King was, but it still has some has some worthy experiences that any Destiny fan would enjoy.
Rise of Iron is a rather pedestrian expansion to what has become a pretty great first-person shooter. If you're looking for more Destiny, then you can't go wrong by picking it up, but nothing here will convince lapsed players to come back. It's simply more of the same, but that's fine.