Destiny: Rise of Iron: Your Light is a Dragon.
Back when it was originally released Destiny wasn’t the game that many were expecting Bungie to release. It’s managed to see much success despite that however, attracting some 30 million players, a number that’s grown steadily over its 2 year lifetime. As a long time player myself it’s easy to see why as Bungie has been fervently dedicated to its player base since day 1, working hard to improve the experience and retain its fiercely loyal player base. Rise of Iron, which rumour has it will be the last expansion before Destiny 2 is released next year, brings us more of what made the previous expansion great but I’m not sure it’ll be enough to keep players coming back for another 12+ months.
Rise of Iron explores the history behind the Iron Lords, a group of guardians who formed shortly after the collapse to do battle with guardians who decided to subjugate humanity rather than defend it. After they brought down those early warlords they sought to rebuild civilisation and did so using any tools they could find. Once such tool was SIVA, a self-replication technology developed during the golden age. Despite Rasputin’s attempt to disuade them otherwise (including orbital bombardments on their armies) the Iron Lords almost unleashed a plague upon themselves. It was only through the sacrifice of all the remaining Iron Lords, save for Saladin and Efrideet, that they were able to seal it away. However the Fallen have found their way into the SIVA bunker and are using it to rebuild their machine gods, posing a dangerous threat to humanity once again.
As you’d expect from a console-based expansion Rise of Iron doesn’t bring with it any graphical improvements, looking just the same as it did on launch day. The UI elements have been given an overhaul once again, making things just a touch more usable and intuitive. The majority of the new content is in the Plaugelands which, being right next to the Cosmodrome, means it’ll feel familiar to any year 1 guardians making their return. The aesthetic is very much of the “future technology plague” vibe with vibrant reds and pitch blacks dominating the colour palette. This is a welcome change to the Taken King’s muted colour palette, something which tended to wear you down after spending so many hours trapped inside the dreadnought. All in all it’s still a very pretty game but it is starting to show its age, especially when compared to some of the latest PC titles.
The core game mechanics are unchanged, save for the few tweaks that have been made in the numerous patches since the previous expansions release. You’ll still be running around, shooting things and ducking for cover to regenerate your health. The light level progression remains the same however the routes to maxing yourself out are more varied, making the grind a little more palatable. There’s a few little quality of life improvements which make things a little easier like the infusion system now giving you all of the light level of a piece of gear rather than a fraction, saving on the grind considerably. Other than that Rise of Iron will feel very familiar to long time players and, honestly, I don’t think there’s much wrong with that.
Rise of Iron’s campaign is probably half as long as the Taken King’s was which, if I’m honest, was a bit disappointing. I had managed to convince my friend who originally got me into Destiny to come back for this expansion and we managed to knock the whole thing out in a single afternoon. Sure I’ve definitely got my money’s worth given the amount of time I’ve spent on it since completing it but I felt the Taken King expansion was around the right length. That and the fact that it tied much more tightly into the overall narrative and raid whilst Rise of Iron has it as a kind of aside. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of the story has been held back for use in content releases over the coming months to keep everyone coming back.
I have to admit that I felt the light grind was a little harder this time around than when compared to previous expansions. This is possibly because I couldn’t cheat my way to a higher light level with exotics like I did previously. However after talking to my brother he put me onto a few methods to get me the light levels I needed. Sure it was still a grind but at the very least I was seeing gradual progress. Combine that with a few raid runs, completing the incredibly complex Outbreak Prime quest and a few exotic engrams and I’m back to feeling like the guardian I was in expansions past. Of course I’m still very far away from the cap (now at 400 thanks to the recent patch) but at the very least I don’t feel like a guardian running around covered in tissue paper armour with a BB gun.
This expansion’s raid is probably the easiest I’ve ever played through although I think that has more to do with the maturity of the community and game more than anything else. Previous raids were plagued with cheese strategies, mechanics that would break at a hint of lag or mechanics that many people just failed to understand. This particular raid seems to be free of any such things, focusing instead on team work, co-ordination and communication. Sure the raids I’ve been in have still had their share of problems but they’ve all been recoverable, unlike the numerous hours I spent in Vault of Glass.
I also managed to find time to play through the recent Iron Banner which was a much more streamlined experience. Rather than having to get emblems, class items and boosts to make sure you’re getting all the rep you can it’s all done automatically now. It took me a couple afternoons playing to get to max rank which also netted me a few good boosts to my light level. Indeed it seems the theme of Destiny’s latest expansion is streamlining, something that all mature MMORPGs have been taking on board of late. For an old hat like myself it’s a welcome change, allowing me to spend the little time I have left on games and still make meaningful progression.
As always the Destiny told during your play through is only scraping the surface of game’s lore with all the good bits being held behind grimoire cards. For certain games I don’t mind this however I do understand how many would see Destiny’s story as shallow and unfinished. To be sure there are many things Bungie could do to improve it, and honestly should have done by now, like making the grimoire cards readable in game or simply fleshing out more things in cut-scenes or in-game dialogue. Still it’s enjoyable to see more of the world revealed to us, even if that’s through walls of text you can only read on Bungie’s website.
Destiny: Rise of Iron is another helping of what long time fans of the series wanted: more missions, another raid and a bevy of new loot to lust after. The base game which kept me playing for so long remains the same, Bungie intent on not fixing what isn’t broken. The various aspects that have been streamlined are welcome additions, making playing the game of Destiny just that much easier. The campaign could have been longer and more tightly integrated into the overall narrative of this expansion. The storytelling in the game could use some love as well; something that, done right, would elevate Destiny well beyond its current station. Overall Rise of Iron is an evolution of the franchise and time will tell if there’s enough meat in it to keep players coming back until the next expansion, or Destiny 2, drops.
Rating: 9.25/10
Destiny: Rise of Iron is available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One right now for $44.95 on both consoles. Game was played on the PlayStation 4 with around 40 hours of total play time reaching light level 373.
Destiny: The Taken King: Oryx Has Come For Your Light.
Destiny was the first game to break my staunch opposition to playing first person shooters on consoles. Being a long time member of the PC master race meant that it took me quite a while to get used to the way consoles do things and had it not been for Destiny’s MMORPG stylings I might not have stuck it through. However I’m glad I did as the numerous hours I’ve spent in Destiny since then were ones I very much enjoyed. The time between me capping out at level 32 and the release of the House of Wolves expansion though was long enough for me to fall back to DOTA 2 and I missed much of that release. The Taken King however promised to completely upend the way Destiny did things and proved to be the perfect time for me to reignite my addiction to Bungie’s flagship IP.
Six of you went down into that pit, looking to end the dark grip that Crota held on our Moon. His death rung out across the galaxy, sending ripples through the darkness. His father, Oryx, felt his son slip from this plane and immediately swore vengeance upon you and the light. Oryx has appeared in our system aboard a mighty dreadnought, capable of decimating entire armies with a single attack. Slayer of Crota it is now up to you to face Oryx as he and his Taken are swarming over the entire solar system and threaten to snuff out the light once and for all. Are you strong enough to face this challenge guardian?
Graphically Destiny hasn’t change much, retaining the same level of impressive graphics that aptly demonstrate the capabilities of current generation console hardware. There has been a significant overhaul to the UI elements however with the vast majority of them looking sharper and feeling a lot more responsive. It might sound like a minor detail but it’s a big leap up in some regards, especially with the new quest/mission and bounty interface. It’s the kind of stuff you’d expect to see in expansions like this and I doubt we’ll see any major graphical changes until Destiny 2.0.
The core game is mostly unchanged, consisting of the same cover based shooter game play with the RPG elements sprinkled on top. Every class has been granted a new subclass meaning that each of them now has one that covers each of the elements (fire, void and arc). The levelling and progression system has been significantly overhauled, providing a much smoother experience to levelling your character up both in level and gear terms. Many of the ancillary activities, like the Nightfall and Exotic Bounties, have also been reworked to favour continuous progression rather than constant praying to RNGJesus. Additionally there’s been many quality of life improvements which have made doing lots of things in Destiny a lot easier, much to the relief of long term players like myself. This is all in concert with a campaign that’s about half as long again as the original, making The Taken King well worth its current asking price.
The new subclasses might sound like a small addition but they’ve given new life to a lot of aspects of Destiny. Each new class essentially filled a hole that was lacking in the other two, allowing each class to be far more versatile than they were previously. The only issue I have with them so far is that the new subclasses feel a lot better at more things than their predecessors do which means pretty much everyone is solely using those classes now. Sure the Defender Titan’s bubble is still the ultimate defensive super however it pales in comparison to the toolset that the Sunbreaker has at their disposal. This might just be my impression given my current playstyle (mostly solo) and may change when I finally attempt the raid this week.
The revamp of the levelling system is probably the most welcome change. Unlike before where your level was determined by the light your gear had the new maximum level is now 40, achievable through grinding XP like any other RPG. Then once you hit the maximum level you have your Light Level which is an average of your gear’s damage output and defensive capabilities. As it stands right now that’s pretty much the only thing that matters when you’re attempting an encounter and so the higher your light level the easier it will be. Whilst it’s not a huge change from the previous system it does mean that there’s quite a lot more variety in terms of what gear you’ll end up using. This also means that a lot more pieces of gear, even those lowly blues which we used to disassemble immediately, are now quite viable.
This comes hand in hand with a revamp of how you can obtain gear in the game. Whilst there are still guaranteed ways of obtaining gear through marks (now Legendary Marks which are slightly hard to come by) you’ll mostly be looking for engrams. The engram rate has been significantly increased and when you get them decrypted they’ll roll a random light level in a +/- range of your current light level. This means that, in order to progress, it’s best to equip your highest light level gear and decode engrams. Doing this I was able to get myself to light level 295 in a relatively short period of time, more than enough to attempt the raid. This, coupled with the new avenues to better gear, mean that progression is far smoother than it was before.
The revamped quest and bounties system has everything in it that guardians have been asking for from day one. There’s now a separate tab that has everything in it, allowing you to track objectives so you can quickly see your status without having to pop out into the menu. This has allowed Bungie to include multiple questlines that all run simultaneously, something which was just not possible before. Many of these quests will help you get solid boosts in your light level and, if you follow some of the longer ones, unlock some of the best gear in the game. By far the stand out piece, in my mind, is the heavy sword which (when fully levelled) makes PVE encounters a breeze and the crucible a punchbro’s dream.
The Taken King expansion also gets massive kudos for fleshing out the lore of Destiny significantly. Part of this comes from the extended campaign missions that take you deep into the world of the Hive and the Taken but there’s also dozens of new bits of information scattered throughout the world (accessible through ghost scans). The Books of Sorrow provide a lot of background detail to all the races and their involvement with the Darkness as well as providing some insight into the events that led up to the Traveller’s current state. I’m still picking through it myself but it’s honestly great to see Bungie fleshing out this world as there’s so much potential here and I’d hate for it to go to waste. Additionally Nolan North replacing Peter Dinklage as the voice of your ghost is a welcome change, as is the addition of many more hours of voice acting from all the central characters.
Destiny: The Taken King is the expansion that all guardians had hoped for, bringing with it all the improvements that were sorely needed. It’s a testament to Bungie’s dedication to this IP as the amount of extra content they’ve released for Destiny in just one year is, honestly, staggering. The changes they made with this latest expansion have improved the experience dramatically, both for casual players and the hardcore alike. If you’d been staving off playing Destiny then now would definitely be a great time to give it a whirl as this is the game many are saying it should have been at launch. For long time guardians like myself it’s what was needed to bring me back to the fold and keep me playing for a long time to come.
Rating: 9.5/10
Destiny: The Taken King is available on PlayStation3, PlayStation4, XboxOne and Xbox360 for $79, $79, $79 and $79 respectively. Game was played on the PlayStation4 with approximately 20 hours of play time, reaching light level 295.
Reaction to Destiny’s DLC Shows How Few Have Played MMORPGs Before.
World of Warcraft might have been my first MMORPG but in the decade that followed I’ve played my fair share of titles in that genre. Few of them have managed to make me come back after the initial play through (indeed I think only EVE Online has) but I’m readily familiar with the idea that my character is a kind of temporal thing. All those hours I put into getting them to max level and then kitting them out with gear will likely all amount to naught when the next expansion comes out. If it didn’t I wouldn’t have much incentive to keep playing as completely maxing out a character would be a one time deal. However if you were to take the reaction to Destiny’s latest DLC it would appear that the majority of its playerbase thinks the opposite, which is strangely out of touch with reality.
I’ll admit that in the beginning Destiny’s loot system was inherently flawed. Things like Legendary engrams turning into green items meant that you had to pray to RNGesus twice in order to get the purples you desired, something which wasn’t fixed until months after launch. The raid was also just as bad as even if you ran it every week there was no guarantee you’d get the drops you needed to make it to level 30. Indeed I never did, despite my vault now being filled with 7 chatterwhite shaders (one for every week I ran it). However I still managed to progress my character in other ways, maxing out all my weapons and completing several of the exotic weapon bounties.
Then the DLC dropped and it seemed like I’d be starting from scratch again.
Except I wasn’t. Sure my exotics weren’t automatically upgraded and the new max level was 32 but I was able to complete all the new content (bar the raid) as my 29 self with my pre-DLC weapons. I even got randomly invited to the new raid with a bunch of guys just because I had everything maxed out and whilst we didn’t get past the second boss it was still awesome to give it a go without having to do anything. Once I got my head around all the new systems available to me it didn’t take long for me to figure out that I was a few strange coins, vanguard marks and commendations away from surpassing my previous level cap of 29. In fact I did just that over the weekend and I am now a proud member of the level 31 elite.
By comparison taking my level 90 paladin in World of Warcraft to level 100 took me the better part of 2 weeks and he wasn’t even ready to run the raid at that point. For the last week or so I’ve spent the majority of my time in that game gearing him up (increasing his iLvl which is directly equivalent to the Light level in Destiny) in order to be able to do the new raid. I was finally able to do it late yesterday afternoon after almost a day in game time of doing various dungeons, gathering up the crafting mats and getting lucky on a few drops. In Destiny to accomplish the same feat I didn’t have to do any of that. I simply completed a quest chain, did the weekly runs and spent a small portion of my strange coin haul on upgrading my chestpiece. It was honestly one of the most pleasant levelling up experiences I’ve ever had in a MMORPG.
I’ll forgive anyone who doesn’t recognise Destiny for the MMO that it is being angry that all their playtime has been for naught (well, mostly) but eventually they’ll have to recognise that, yes, you’re playing one and this is what happens. Bungie made the levelling up process pretty painless, so much so that a filthy casual like myself was able to bash his way to 31 in the space of a weekend. It’s not like all that gear I’ve got is automatically useless anyway either, I’m still rocking my Vision of Confluence and Atheon’s Epilogue most of the time since I haven’t found a good replacement and I think that’ll hold for some time to come. The worst part might’ve been spending 14,000 glimmer and 14 strange coins on upgrading my 2 exotics of choice but that’s nothing when glimmer is everywhere and I’ve had 50+ strange coins for weeks.
It’s probably just the loud minority having their voices heard the most in this respect as I’m sure the vast majority of all the players are actually enjoying the new content rather than bitching about it. Indeed I was content to keep my big mouth shut about it after getting some time to sit down with it over the weekend however it seems that the games churnalism sites have latched on to the faux outrage with reckless abandon. In all seriousness I hope that those who are bitching about the DLC put their money where their mouth is and walk away as it’s only a matter of time before the next DLC and I’d rather not have to listen to people whine about all their time being “wasted”.
It’s Been Almost a Year, But My PS4 is Finally Getting Used.
Ever since I bought my PlayStation4 a year ago it’s sat there next to my TV, begging me to play it. The problem is that pretty much every game that I would play on it has also been available on PC and since that’s my platform of choice the PS4 unfortunately falls by the wayside. It also doesn’t help that the one launch title that I wanted to play, The Witness, has since been delayed to “when it’s done” status which means we’re not likely to see it for some time to come. However one of my mates convinced me to go and play Destiny with him and since it won’t be available on PC for sometime I figured this would be a good chance to give the PS4 a burl.
For starters it seems that the PS4 exhibits some rather strange behaviours when it’s not connected to the PSN, usually when it requires an update. I was trying to put the disc in to get everything going but, for some reason, it just wouldn’t grab it. I’m not sure if this is because Sony don’t want you installing games offline or something like that, but it was rather frustrating to see what I had assumed would be default functionality turned off when it couldn’t contact home. A quick Google shows that this particular issue has plagued others as well, although what leads to it happening seems to be somewhat random.
Another gripe I have is the game installation and update process. Whilst the initial installation seems to be relatively painless (it just does it in the background) the update process is rather cumbersome. You’ll automatically get any updates for the game added to your download queue however you don’t apply them from within the game. Instead you have to wait for the download to finish, find the download (a chore in of itself) and then tell it to apply. You can’t simply sit in the game, watch the download and then apply the update from there like you could with the PS3. Honestly it feels like a huge step backward in terms of usability and I’m not hopeful that it will ever get changed if it’s still like this almost a year down the track.
The gaming experience is pretty good, however. It didn’t take long for me to get into a party with my mate and to get voice chat going although the quality of the included mono headset is probably about as mediocre as you can get. I was somewhat sceptical about the new controller design, it looked a little goofy, however it does feel very comfortable in the hands. The stick buttons were a little hard to push down (a little annoying as that’s sprint in Destiny) but that might just be them needing a little breaking in before they become usable. I didn’t get a chance to check out the inbuilt sharing features unfortunately as that’s something I definitely want to see in action.
I’ll probably touch more on the PS4 experience in the greater Destiny review (coming in the next couple weeks) however my first impressions are good, if marred by some issues that really should have been sorted out by this point in time. Whilst I lament the fact that it’s sat there for the better part of a year unused I’m at least somewhat happy that it has managed to provide a good gaming experience once I did find a title for it. I’ll develop a more fully formed opinion of it whilst I bash my way through Destiny and will hopefully be finally able to tell you if it’s worth buying or not.
Better late than never, right?