Destiny is an odd beast that has had its fair share of ups and downs. After a decidedly disappointing first year filled with anemic content, most games’ player bases would have moved on to the next big thing. Not so with Destiny. Players continued to stick around and Bungie responded with subtle fixes that made the game more enjoyable for all. All the updates and tweaking culminated with last year’s expansion, The Taken King, a game-changing experience that turned Destiny into what it should have been at launch. It felt like the perfect set-up for a Destiny 2, but with that delayed to 2017, we have another expansion instead. Destiny: Rise of Iron serves as the closing chapter for Destiny before we move on. Does Rise of Iron serve as a perfect ending, or is this a step back from The Taken King?

Destiny: Rise of Iron tells the tale of the Iron Lords, a group of ten legendary Guardians who did much good to keep humanity alive following the Collapse. A hundred years before the events of Destiny, the Iron Lords sought to harness the power of SIVA, a nanotechnology linked to the Golden Age capable of self-replication and self-assembly. The Iron Lords tried to use it to rebuild humanity, but it turned out that SIVA posed a huge threat, ending in a fight with only Lord Saladin surviving. Now, the Fallen have discovered SIVA’s location and are hell-bent on using it to destroy The Last City and The Traveler. Lord Saladin requests your aid in avenging his fellow Iron Lords, and in destroying SIVA once and for all.

Rise of Iron’s premise is interesting. Unlike with The Taken King, there’s no primary antagonist; rather, the campaign is set up as a man vs. nature story where the Guardian must stand toe-to-toe against this nanotechnology. It’s a great set-up, and the first mission does a lot to create intrigue. It has a slow-burn feel to it as the Guardian slowly climbs Felwinter Peak. The reveal is ominous, and the mission carefully builds towards an exciting conclusion. This mission sets up what should be an exciting campaign, but it doesn’t; in fact, with the exception of the final mission, the rest of Rise of Iron’s campaign is relatively dull.

While The Taken King experimented with different types of mission design, Rise of Iron is content with repeating some of the worst mistakes from the original game. Players listen to audio as the level loads, kill some enemies, scan something, and then kill more enemies. It’s the same dull design that punctuated the boring vanilla campaign, and something The Taken King avoided like the plague. Though the final mission culminates in an exciting change of events, it can’t erase the tedious slog that comes before it. It doesn't help that the main campaign is over before you know it. Players will run through the extremely short campaign anywhere between one-to-two hours depending on difficulty and whether or not they're playing it with friends. There are some extra missions to be completed after the main campaign, but they don’t significantly build upon the narrative.

Destiny: Rise of Iron is an expansion to the main game and is thus expected to expand further on the structure we currently have. Probably the most exciting piece of new content is Wrath of the Machine, Rise of Iron’s new Raid, and true to their word, Bungie has crafted a truly one-of-a-kind mission that puts Guardians to the test. Like with previous Raids, teamwork is essential, and entering without a full fireteam of six players is a losing combination. Unfortunately, Bungie still refuses to incorporate any form of Raid matchmaking, forcing players to try and rally up five friends, or utilize third-party sources like Destiny Tracker to find players.

Rise of Iron also introduces an add-on to the Cosmodrome, the Plaguelands. Lying to the northeast of the Cosmodrome, this new patrol space is covered in snow, destroyed ships, and lava distinguishing itself from the rest of the map. There’s a new type of Patrol mission to try, Quarantine, and it’s also home to the Archon’s Forge, a new co-op activity that blends the best elements of the Prison of Elders and Court of Oryx. It’s a chaotic experience with plenty of rewards and stands as one of the better in-game activities. Rise of Iron is also good about rewarding players as the new Record Book keeps tabs of all your in-game accomplishments, and leveling it up rewards players with various goodies including new gear, shaders, weapons, and event a fancy new ship.

That’s all good, but the rest of Rise of Iron is mostly recycled content. The expansion comes with three Strikes, but only one of them is new. The Wretched Eye strike is excellent thanks to its variety, strategy, and a engaging boss encounter that forces Guardians to think on their toes. The other two? These are recycled Sepkis Prime and Phogoth Strikes with only slight alterations. This is rather disappointing considering that The Taken King also launched with three Strikes (four on PlayStation), but each one was unique to the experience. The Devil Splicers are supposed to be the Fallen race with a twist, but they end up coming off as just reskinned enemies. They’re slightly faster versions that sometimes release floating bombs if you get a headshot, but there’s nothing drastically different about them compared to the Fallen, especially compared to the Servitors, which are far more accurate now.

The final new addition to the expansion is a new social space, Felwinter Peak. It’s a fascinating location, but similar to the Tower and Reef, it doesn’t really have a purpose aside from your typical between-mission activities. They’re cool to look at, but constantly returning to them just to do things that should be easily completed via the menu, such as Bounties, is tiresome. Going into Destiny 2, it would be nice to see social spaces become viable.

Regarding the Crucible, there are getting three new maps (four on PlayStation 4), and a new multiplayer mode. Supremacy is essentially Kill Confirmed where killed players drop Crests, giving the team extra points, provided their allies don't pick collect their fallen teammate's Crests first. Other than that, the Crucible hasn’t undergone any drastic changes. If you love Crucible, then these new additions are going to please you, but if not, then Rise of Iron’s offerings won’t change your mind.

Other than that, the gameplay and visuals remain unchanged. We still get the same fantastic gunplay that Bungie is known for, and what made Destiny so addicting in the first place. As for the visuals, even though Destiny has officially dumped the last-gen platforms, there hasn’t been a significant visual upgrade. Probably the reason those consoles were dumped was due to the Raid, which features a lot of effects-heavy sections that already cause the framerate to drop on current-gen systems. If you’ve ever had an issue with the way Destiny played or looked, Rise of Iron won’t do anything for you.

Closing Comments

Destiny: Rise of Iron is a big step back from The Taken King. While The Taken King was willing to push Destiny forward with brand new ideas, features, and a ton of new content, Rise of Iron is perfectly fine with recycling what has been run into the ground. Whether that be the mission design that turned so many people against the game back in 2014, the reskinned enemies, or the lack of new Strikes, Rise of Iron feels more like a recycled experience than an entirely new one. That's not to say Rise of Iron isn't fun, as the underlying game mechanics that convinced people to stick around for so long are still there, and new Raid is superb enough to keep players going. Those that are already in love with Destiny will no doubt forgive Rise of Iron’s shortcomings and dig into the content, but for those on the sidelines, or are waiting for the right opportunity to fall in love with Destiny, Rise of Iron is a skippable experience that can be overlooked until the inevitable full-on sequel.