Destiny had a rough launch during the initial weeks of release. A lot of gamers were looking forward to this online first-person shooter from the creators of Halo, one of the best first person shooters of our era. It must be said, a lot of gamers were disappointed the first couple of hours but thanks to some great expansions and patches, the experience got better and better. Rise of Iron is the new expansion and is Bungie’ way of thanking the loyal community.
A cinematic story
With a new expansion like this, comes a new story. This time we travel back to Earth and wander around in a new area called the Plaguelands. The Plaguelands is a snowy location on Earth where things went south. Your new Commander is Lord Saladin, one of the last remaining Iron Lords, tasked to take down the Fallen Devils called Splicers. During the campaign, Lord Saladin will guide you and give you insights into what happened here. Due to his epic dark voice, you’ll really feel like being part of something important.
During your adventure, you’ll learn a lot more about these mythic Iron Lords but you won’t have that much time poking around. The real danger comes from the Splicers who found a way to manipulate forbidden technology called SIVA. Since they activated this ancient technology that was once created to aid the human race, they transformed the Plaguelands into something that could come straight out of horror movie. The lands feature futuristic spikes of technology covered with tons of enemies to defeat. On paper, this world is smaller than the Dreadnought of The Fallen King expansion but thanks to some clever design and a lot of hidden paths, it actually feels like the Plaguelands are a lot bigger.
More Destiny, more fun
It’s an interesting location with an even more interesting enemy. The players have to face a new type of enemy called the Devil Splicer. This is a combination of a Splicer mixed with the deadly technology of SIVA. These enemies have to power to self-assemble and self-replicate thanks to the nanotechnology. Bringing those down is harder than any other enemy you’ll ever have to face. The Fallen are quick, attack in groups and are able to teleport thanks to their technology. They once worshiped machine gods but thanks to SIVA, the Fallen finally became the gods they were worshipping al that time. The task of the Guardians is to discover the power source of SIVA and bring down the enemies one by one.
It’s an interesting story and for the first time ever, it’s explained in epic looking scenes. Besides this, other characters truly talk to you and it feels like you really matter. It’s a big step forward and something the fans demanded for years. It’s great to see Bungie back in action story-wise but it’s a shame it doesn’t take you that long to complete the campaign.
New gear and light levels
With a new expansion comes new gear and weapons. Rise of Iron has a lot of new gear but it never feels like your old gear is useless, what was the case in other expansions. Since you can bump your light level, you’ll be working hard in order to create or collect the most powerful gear in the game, which will come in handy in the new Raid.
Besides new gear, the game also has some new multiplayer maps (Floating Gardens, Last Exit, and Skyline) that all have something unique to offer. The maps look great thanks to the SIVA storyline you’ll be fighting on Earth-like locations filled with the dangerous SIVA technology. In order to discover those maps, Bungie also added some new modes with Supremacy being the most fun new mode. This is Destiny’ ‘confirm the kill’ mode where you’ll need to take the fallen cube of your enemy in order to confirm your kill and score more points. Besides this, you’ll also be able to play a new Strike mode with three players. Strike is fun but I preferred Supremacy.
To complete the party, Bugie released a new public event called Archon’s Forge as well, which is a totally revamped horde mode. In here you’ll have to defeat wave after wave of enemies and bring down the boss at the end if you manage to be fast enough. If you’re able to bring down the boss, you’ll unlock Archon’s Forge themed armor, which really looks badass.
The Wrath of the Machines raid
With a big new expansion comes a new raid, Wrath of the Machines is the new raid for Rise of Iron and it’s perhaps the most brutal one we’ve ever seen in the Destiny universe. Without spoiling too much, the raid takes place on a corrupt section of the Cosmodrome Wall. The story is very vague and isn’t really explained to you but it’s clear that your focus should be on killing the enemies.
Right at the start, you’ll have to face off a boss and bring him down in order to open the gate to the true raid. This serves as a level indicator, meaning if you can’t bring down the boss with your fireteam, you’ll need to gain some more levels first. If you managed to defeat the first boss however, you’ll enter the rest of the raid, featuring tons of enemies and bosses to defeat. There’s also room for puzzle solving and platforming to give you that needed variation.
The biggest star of the raid is the final boss that we won’t spoil. But we can say for sure that this is some next level stuff. The way the developers created this fight truly demonstrates the power and positional of Destiny. It’s a shame we didn’t have more of these moments in the rest of the game but it’s safe to say that Wrath of the Machines might be one of the best reasons to pick up this new expansion.
Conclusion:
Rise of Iron offers a lot of great new content and a very impressive new raid. The story itself feels a little too short but thanks to the cinematics, it’s an epic journey anyway. Besides the story and the campaign, you can also play several new multiplayer modes and collect even more gear. If you’re not a fan of Destiny, this expansion won’t change your opinion but if you are a fan however, you simply need to play this expansion.
