Destiny: Rise of Iron (PlayStation 4) Review

What does Destiny: Rise of Iron adds to the core game? First off, a "new" race called the Fallen. New is used lightly here, due to them being almost identical to current enemies, but with a dark and creepy black skin over them - plus, several slightly re-skinned locales, a brand new massive patrol area called the Plaguelands that contains plenty of fun new activities, a new main quest line, several strikes, and a new raid. There is plenty to do and see here.

If you're familiar with Destiny and its Iron Banner Tournament, you'll most likely be familiar with the Rise of Iron's main character. The main story focuses on Lord Saladin, and gives offers a look into the history of the Iron Lords, a group of heroes who roamed the lands before the Vanguard, protecting the world from a super weapon called 'SIVA'. Well, SIVA is back and Lord Saladin is one of the few people left in the world who knows how to stop it. The story is fairly interesting in comparison to the main quest line, but when there wasn't much to compare to in the first place, it's not much of an accomplishment.

As with any Destiny expansion, plenty of brand new armour and weapons have been introduced, raising the total light level to 385, which means that grind is back, and it's as frustrating as ever. Thankfully, the Infusion feature does finally mean that player characters won't all look the same, as it's now possible to combine any two pieces of the same class - keeping the stats/visuals of one weapon, while increasing it to the damage/defence rating of another.

Everyone loves wasting time in Patrols, right? This is where you'll be spending a good chunk of time here, as a brand-new Patrol area has been added on Earth, called 'The Plaguelands.' It's fairly similar to what fans are used, too, since it's a vast, open area, where you can explore and pick up simple missions along the way. Bungie have added two new ones called Quarantine, and a new type of Assassination mission. Both are relatively simple (go to an area, kill the target, control the area, etc.), as well as a quality source of experience.

Besides adding few new locations and missions to play around with, a brand new public event called 'Archons Forge' has been included. To participate in the Forge, one must collect SIVA donations that are dropped randomly (and rarely) by enemies. Each donation lets you participate once, and, thankfully, anyone can join in after a single donation. It then boils down to a bit of teamwork, since you need to kill every enemy in the area and then the boss at the end - fairly simple, but incredibly enjoyable… and fantastic for loot!

Finally, we have the brand spanking' new raid called 'Wrath of the Machine.' It brings with it a bunch of new mechanics, and, thankfully, only two platforming sections, which are still ungodly frustrating. This new raid seemingly focuses more on the combat side and eliminating everything in front of you. In other words, this is relatively simple compared to previous raids, yet still an enjoyable experience, well worth tackling with a group of friends.