Destiny: Rise of Iron

While it doesn’t offer the same breadth and reimagining of core systems found in The Taken King, Bungie’s latest release has a sentimental tone that is refreshing. This adventure through forgotten legends stands strong on its own, and continues an unbroken string of content drops that have each made Destiny a richer universe.

Destiny: Rise of Iron is an excellent addition to Bungie’s open-world shooter, but is held back by a weak story, and a leveling meta that requires a bit of grinding. Overall, Destiny looks, sounds, and feels better than it ever has, and there has been no better time to be a Destiny player.

The foundation of the gameplay mechanics is still intact, which is what makes it accessible for anyone to pick up and play and is the basis for a lot of our Destiny addictions.

Not the biggest Destiny expansion, but certainly one of the most confident and classy. [Dec 2016, p.72]

Destiny: Rise of Iron is a fairly solid DLC package for the price. The addition of a short, but fairly cool storyline is appreciated, as you learn more about Lord Saladin. The endgame has lots to do too, with new areas to explore, new items to find, and new adventures to be experienced.

Rise of Iron is a solid expansion to Destiny that may bring back even the most jaded fans. It's a great addition to a good game, that is fun for both new players and those who've been a Guardian for three years.

Rise Of Iron offers players enough new content to stay interested. The new PvE missions, strikes, and raid are fun to play through. If you're into Destiny, Rise Of Iron is definitely worth your while.

Rise of Iron isn't the most innovative nor biggest expansion pack that Destiny have seen, but still it's a fun one, bringing some fun to those players that want to return to this universe despite the repetitiveness of the formula.

Although it doesn't include as much content as we would have liked, Rise of Iron turned out to be a fun expansion, full of tweaks and small changes to stuff that used to make us angry. The new raid is a hoot and the redesign of the Iron Banner feels very welcome.

If "Rise of Iron" is Bungie's last injection of content into Destiny, it is underwhelming and will need serious support to sustain the player base for the rest of this year and next. That being said, if you want more Destiny (but not much more), "Rise of Iron" is for you.

Not a standout expansion but nor is it disappointing the way that 'The Dark Below' and 'House of Wolves' were. The production values remain high with the superb score, attractive Temple of Iron, new Crucible maps and so forth. On the other hand, the PvE content has mileage issues. It is still worth playing and even worth coming back to 'Destiny' for, if only for a short while.

If you love Destiny, Rise of Iron gives you enough new content to keep you invested and interested Bungie’s online shooter. But for more casual players like me, you won’t find anything here to really excite you. It’s just more. It’s all at the quality you’d expect, but little of it breaks through as exciting, creative, or daring.

I wish this expansion had focused more on fixing Destiny’s repetition problems, because it has a few good ideas — but with all its pitfalls, this is just Destiny going through the motions.

It feels timid. It feels safe. It feels like the last remaining breath before the possible sequel, as if Destiny is standing still and waiting for inspiration to arrive, rather than going out to find it.