Destiny: Rise of Iron Reviews
Destiny's uneven final expansion fails to build on The Taken King's advancements.
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.
Assured creativity and a smart eye for systemic refreshment make for a confident and classy expansion.
With each expansion, Destiny grows in depth and replayability; Rise of Iron focuses on player choice in what each individual might enjoy
Rise of Iron can be something more than run-of-the-mill, if you can get there
In its third year, Destiny is showing signs of exhaustion, as it retreads old ground and struggles to find inspiration.
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.
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
Combining such a wealth of things to do with the already excellent shooting produces a fantastic package for long-term fans and newcomers alike – it’s just a shame it’s taken 24 months to finally get to this point.
At the end of the day, Destiny: Rise of Iron is more of the same. If you are new to the series, there has never been a better time to jump on board, especially at the premium for the base game with all expansions. Fans of the series will fall prey to the Destiny itch that has kept them hooked for hours on end. However, those who have felt burned or quickly lost interest after The Taken King can easily wait for Destiny 2 – there isn’t much new to draw you in.
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.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The biggest disappointment of the expansion comes in the form of the new social arena, the Archon’s Forge. Billed as a mix between the Prison of Elders and the Court of Oryx, Bungie made some unfortunate design decisions when putting the forge together. They’ve since fixed one of those, making it easier to get SIVA Offerings (which you need to activate the forge), but the instanced event still suffers from a lack of connected players. This is one event that feels like it would have been better used as its own instance in the game (like the Prison of Elders), but instead the Court of Oryx approach leaves a lot of players to tackle their Offerings on their own, which defeats the entire purpose of the encounter. This makes it tougher to take on the more difficult events in the Forge, which has been a huge turn-off for a lot of players so far.
Destiny: Rise of Iron is a weird cookie. Bungie clearly put its live team in charge on this one, as there's nowhere near the amount of completely new-feeling stuff packed in as there was in Taken King -- and with so many people getting winded, a step that big was really needed. Yet, if I assess Destiny right now as a total package, with four expansions under its belt and hundreds of [good] tweaks and patches, it's easier to recommend.
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.
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.
'Rise of Iron' doesn't just add Destiny missions, it makes the whole game better
The latest in the series is proof that ‘Destiny’ will never end
Rise of Iron is an average expansion. While the new raid is fresh and fun, this DLC lacks the depth of narrative and lore that was found in The Taken King. Overall, it's enjoyable but there's not much content: Destiny is in desperate need of something new for its second chapter, due on the next year.
Review in Italian | Read full review
With the long term in mind, Rise of Iron is a great addition to Destiny. They’ve embedded secrets, past references, and nostalgia in ways that few other games can, because few other games retain this strong of a community for years following their initial release.