Destiny: Rise of Iron Reviews
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.
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.
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
Much like "The Taken King" before it, avid fans of Destiny are already playing "Rise of Iron" and enjoying the new content. If you're one of the few shooter fans who hasn't tried Destiny yet, the value added by "Rise of Iron" makes the new Destiny - The Collection an easy recommendation as well. Those things being said, "Rise of Iron" feels thin in content and quality, especially when compared to last year's "The Taken King".
Unlike The Taken King, Rise of Iron isn't an essential reincarnation of Destiny, but it is an expansion that delivers on its promise of rejuvenating Bungie's shooter – even if it does refuse to step outside of the game's well established comfort zone. A few fun story missions, a great new Raid, and a suite of fresh reasons to get back to the grind for better loot should be enough to keep the ever-present darkness at bay.
Destiny: Rise of Iron is a decent enough expansion that fans will likely enjoy, but it feels lacking in wake of The Taken King. Time for Destiny 2, we think.
Destiny: Rise of Iron is another solid expansion from Bungie that, despite some lingering issues, offers a strong entry point for new players.
'Rise of Iron' doesn't just add Destiny missions, it makes the whole game better
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.
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.
Rise of Iron does a brilliant job in building up the legend of your Guardian, but offers very little innovation or advancement of the game's core features. Despite this, it stays true to what makes Destiny great – offering truly satisfying shooter encounters as a backdrop to a fantastic social experience.
A short campaign that's over before it begins, a familiar-feeling raid, and a long grind to the top are what makes up Bungie's latest Destiny expansion.
Rise of Iron offers a lot more of what we've already seen in the original game and though all this new features are nothing revolutionary, they still manage to keep fans of the Destiny busy.
Review in Persian | Read full review
'Destiny: Rise of Iron' is not a standout expansion but nor is it disappointing the way that 'The Dark Below' and 'House of Wolves' were. The production values remain high with the superb score, attractive Temple of Iron, new Crucible maps and so forth. On the other hand, the PvE content has mileage issues. It is still worth playing and even worth coming back to 'Destiny' for, if only for a short while.
Destiny Rise of Iron brings new challenges and unique customization, but it lacks depth.
"Rise of Iron" is great.
While perhaps not adding as much as returning players may want, Destiny: Rise of Iron provides a trip down memory lane that hopefully doesn't end here, and certainly features Destiny at its best to date.
While new armor and weapons are sprinkled throughout Destiny: Rise of Iron, we can’t escape the feeling that we’ve seen this all before.
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.
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.