I play a lot of Destiny. I love it. I’ve been playing it since the beta, so it makes sense that I would have quite a bit to say whenever the good folks over at Bungie create some new DLC.
We’re in the 4th and what could possibly be the final bit of DLC before Destiny 2 and it’s called “Rise of Iron”. In the “Rise of Iron” we are now addressing a new scourge and a new ally has come to help us in the usually vague but knowledgeable Lord Saladin. You may know Lord Saladin from the Iron Banner, he’s the guy with the cool silver and gold wolf armor that sells us all the Iron Banner gear we play hours and hours of Iron Banner for. Yeah, that guy. He comes to us in need of help when SIVA, a mysterious nano technology has more or less gone rogue and all of our enemies such as Hive, The fallen, Cabal and the Vex are all fighting us and each other in trying to understand how to utilize SIVA and create weapons for universal domination.
Enter the Guardians again for another series of battles and a new raid. Now that I’ve covered the basic story, let’s get into it. I’ve played Rise of Iron for a solid week straight and overall the experience was pretty good. Just like TTK (The Taken King), Bungie did a really good job of opening up the game and expanding the levels and once again creating a great user experience for those who are veteran players and those who are just starting out. As good as Destiny is, it isn’t perfect. There are things to like and there things to dislike. I’ll explain and see if you agree with me.
Things to Like
New Guns and Gear – Destiny has always been strong at having a large variety of guns, gear and armor. This hasn’t changed at all. There’s still a shitload of new stuff to get via quests, the raid or random drops. You can still mix and match and create the best guardian for every situation. Exotics and Legendary still reign supreme but you can still use blue level weapons and gear that are very useful and in some cases more so than legendary. So grab everything you can use it, infuse it or break it down.
Crucibles – The crucibles got new game modes and maps as they always do when the DLCs come around. Differences this time? You now have private matches that you and your friends can engage in without matchmaking (which is fuckin dope because I pissed off so many of my friends playing this mode) and then there’s Supremacy. Supremacy is basically a team game where your kills become “crests” which you have to collect to score. Either your team can collect your crests from kills which you will get the credit for or the other team can but if they do your kill will be denied and count for nothing so killing and getting your crests adds an element of urgency to an already intense match and I’m loving it.
Wrath of the Machine Raid – As with every new addition to Destiny, the raid is what everyone waits for because it involves 6 people and it’s usually the most difficult part of the game. There’s so much excitement with the raid because of the mechanics involved and difficulties of the enemies, final bosses and of course, raid loot. This raid is no different from any other but this time around the raid is much shorter in length and doesn’t require nearly the mechanics that all of the others have required but don’t let that fool you, this raid is extremely intense. This is more like a Horde mode raid and you’ll love it, just not at first. There are enemies everywhere in every boss fight and I’m not kidding. You’ll see. The raid as always is easily the best part of this new DLC.
Things to Dislike
Light level system – The light level system in ROI is the worst part of this BY FAR. Most events have a minimum light level of 350 – 370 and getting to those levels from 335 isn’t easy and it required a lot of cheesy glitches and repetitive grinding (which we all hate) just to level up. If you get engram drops then your level will only change by 1 or 2 levels (only if they’re decrypted because encrypted engrams don’t go past light level 340) this makes for a really, really long day of grinding with a minimal gain and that really sucks. Makes you not want to play the game truthfully and Bungie has still not fixed this. Why?
The Story – The story in Destiny is confusing if you don’t refer to the grimoire lore for your information. Aside from that, the story is vague but we do know it’s all about SIVA and the Iron Lords. You have the missions to do involving SIVA and the Iron Lords and it’s kind of fun to face the new Splicers, Dregs, SIVA infected enemies and more but don’t try to figure this story out. You’ll only feel dumber than you did trying to figure it out before. Just play the game, you already know how.
The repetitive grind – Bungie still has done almost nothing to really remedy this. Destiny players understand that to some degree there’s going to be a “grind” when it comes to leveling up your guardian but they’ve done nothing to make that grind more entertaining. They could easily fix this by adding incentives to current content. Change the old raids and have it give out some exclusive gear or a shitload of strange coins. Change the frequency of the nightfalls, exclusive public events, something. I know it’s easier said than done but a game of this type requires it. Bungie, FIX IT.
Should you buy ROI?
If you like Destiny and you intend to keep playing it then yes, you should. ROI is a really good expansion overall although Bungie screwed its players with the light level system. The Wrath of the Machine raid is the shit. It’s super fun more so than any other raid previously just because of how engaging the action is. If there’s no other reason to play the ROI at all then the raid should be that reason. It’s that good. Lastly don’t be a quitter. You’re gonna hate yourself if you don’t play everything that Destiny has to offer before Destiny 2 comes out. It has it’s faults no question about it but I can only come to the conclusion that playing Destiny means you have to want to break your controller or play until your bored to death but if the last two DLC’s that have come out are any indication of how good things are going to be then I suggest that you keep playing. I’ve been having fun. Go Iron Lords.
