When Destiny was first shown at E3 2013, I was not impressed. To me, the game looked like another space shooter with loot, chromatic aberration, and the typical space opera story we had seen a million times before. After 300+ hours of looting, shooting, and talking to people from all walks of life via raid and fire teams, I 'quickly' realized I was wrong about Destiny. Destiny: Rise of Iron is no exception to that.
With the dawn of Destiny's 3rd year comes the release of its 4th expansion, Rise of Iron. Unlike last year's entry The Taken King, Rise of Iron comes off as a lighter and more focused first step into Destiny's third year. Everything from the exotic loot quests, the new social & patrol spaces, and the interesting but light campaign—Destiny: Rise of Iron feels like the series has finally grown up a little. Instead of introducing wildly different mechanics and leveling requirements this time around, Bungie seemed to tighten up on what's been working so far with the series. In short, Rise of Iron definitely feels like the closing of the book on what we currently know as Destiny, and hopefully a look at what's to come.
While I enjoyed the new campaign, five missions just isn't enough. The story seems to drop off right as it's picking up steam, and to be honest, I'm still not sure who the villain is. Luckily the exotic weapon quests definitely make up for the lack of story in the campaign. If there's one thing Rise of Iron does right story-wise, it's providing a closer look and depth with you and your ghost's relationship thus far. Unfortunately, those moments are hidden behind scavenger hunts and rare weapon quests. Fortunately, these moments are really fun to play.
There's a lot to discuss with the introduction of Destiny: Rise of Iron, so I decided it would be best to sit down for a chat with Andrew Stretch and Anson Chan. We go over everything from the razor thin story, the frustrations with logging in, PVP, and what we expect to see in the inevitable "Destiny 2." Tell us what you think in the comments below.