Destiny: Rise of Iron Review

We’re now almost a week into Destiny: Rise of Iron and after months of speculation and anticipation, it felt more like rise of bronze. The final expansion follows the acclaimed The Taken King and what could have been a grand exit turns out to be just another Lord of Wolves. While there is new gear and higher light levels to keep experienced gamers active, it’s really just new goals while using same tactics. While the campaign was good and fresh, it’s too short to even be sweet. If you haven’t played any part of Destiny then here’s a quick rundown of what you’ve been missing and it’s a lot.

Destiny is a game created by Bungie and starts off on Earth after it’s become a battlefield because of several factions known as The Fallen and The Hive. As one of three select classes, you go on missions that take you to the Moon, Venus, Mars and recently Saturn to fight even bigger threats. You're accompanied by a floating little eye known as a ghost that is the responsible for maintaining all the knowledge you may need and summoning your ship or sparrow. After three years and several expansions, Bungie has clearly separated itself from its popular Halo franchise that it created for Microsoft years ago.

It’s quickly rose to rival the other first person shooters such as Call of Duty and Battlefield with its incentive to keep players involved and not just with multiplayer. Destiny has found a way to keep players playing by giving random pieces of armor, light level weapons and various other items. The most attractive part of this game is a co-op mission known as Raids that serves as the closing point of an expansion and the most difficult boss level.

This expansion begins with a prelude about the last Iron Lord, Lord Saladin and how he came to be the last of his clan. A secret has been kept from the Vanguard and now that secret has been found by the Fallen who seek to use it for their benefit. The event forces Lord Saladin to face his demons and bring in veteran gamers to his legendary home known as the Iron Temple located on Earth. This starts you on your quest to become an Iron Lord and putting to rest the past that has haunted Lord Saladin for centuries. It all sounds like it was going to be a winner but it barely delivers after putting in several hours.

The campaign was probably one of the shortest of all the expansions any experienced gamer will be done with two hours without paying attention to the story. There's a new strike playlist available and open to players over light level 350 which provides better rewards. The best improvement the game has is when you attend public events because you get anything from Legendary marks to Legendary engrams instead of motes of light. The light level is considerable with being raised to 385 and the new gear is attractive; especially with the resurrection of the famous rocket launcher, The Gjallarhorn. The what happens now is what happens when the Iron Banner event arrives and we see what new gear is available.

I give this expansion a 5 out of ten because it doesn’t offer much but it does give gamers something to do to pass the time. The campaign was too short for my taste and they kept the main focus on Earth instead of going somewhere new like another planet. Nothing is new with the bounties but there is one new bounty to look for and the new gear is cool and powerful. Gamers new to the franchise may love it but experienced gamers might be disappointed but at least it’s something to do until the new game comes out. Destiny 2 will be arriving next year and it’ll be interesting to see what will happen after everything is done with this final expansion.