For all the gamers out there, Sept. 20, 2016 marked another virtual journey. Of course, I am talking about Bungie and Activision’s latest installment to Destiny, called Rise of Iron.
Despite year one of Destiny flopping in its hype like a fish out of water, the game has evolved over the previous expansions and has started to somewhat live up to its hype. The expansion promises new story missions, patrols, multiplayer maps, a game type, strikes and the holy grail of all things Destiny: a shiny new raid. Who wouldn’t be excited to get their hands on this?
Initially, the game lived up to the levels of hype. I hopped into orbit, loaded the first new story mission and was filled with anticipation for what unknown things lay ahead of me. One thing I noticed was that the structure of the individual missions had been altered slightly. Each mission felt longer than the average level and did not seem as monotonous.
However, the new story that Bungie had promoted so well is disappointingly short. The whole conflict with SIVA and the Devil Splicers, although made grave through an underwhelming amount of cut-scenes, came across as trivial. There were only five missions — at most, that is an hour of content.
Taking another look at the five missions, the slight alterations to the mission structure doesn’t seem to be enough to overcome the fact that it is still Destiny. You move through the level, kill everything you see and at the end, there is a mini-boss or event you have to defend or attack without dying. There were a few moments of innovation and unfamiliarity, but overall it’s still the same old game.
The new combat area, The Plaguelands, is a refreshing addition to the game. With it comes new patrols and a new public event area known as Archon’s Forge. This arena, although extremely repetitive (no surprise there), is something new and worth doing for those sweet, sweet engrams.
If PvP is your thing, this expansion also includes a new game mode, “Supremacy.” It’s pretty much just the “Kill Confirmed” game type from the Call of Duty franchise. The additional crucible maps are fantastic, which is not a surprise since Bungie has been making phenomenal multiplayer maps since the days of Halo 2.
I have yet to do the raid, though it will undoubtedly be the most challenging and fun addition to Destiny. The story is disappointing, but it shows the fanbase that Bungie is moving in the right direction. Bad content is better than no content and Rise of Iron is far from bad content.
Along with the side quests, new crucible mode and maps, patrols, strikes and a raid, Rise of Iron is a welcome addition to Destiny. The add-on scores seven strange coins out of ten. It is essentially the same grind with a few new features, and that can either be incredibly exciting or horribly boring depending on whether or not you liked the Taken King DLC.
Contact CU Independent Arts Writer Benjamin Vernon at benjamin.vernon-1@colorado.edu.
