Home Gaming Hands on with Destiny’s latest expansion, Rise of Iron

Hands on with Destiny’s latest expansion, Rise of Iron

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I’ve just recently returned from Bellevue, Washington, where I was lucky enough to go hands on with the latest Destiny Expansion and probably the last one before Destiny 2.0 is released.

Rise of Iron is landing for everyone on the 20th of September and with it comes a brand new campaign, strikes, multiplayer mode, maps and a Raid. Plus obviously a ton of new weapons, enemies and a brand new social space by the name of Felwinter Peak.

Due to Activision and Bungie’s staggered embargo, I’m not allowed to talk about certain aspects today so we’re just going to head into the new campaign and the 2 strikes that I went hands on with.

Campaign

First up we headed straight into the brand new campaign which started off with you being tasked to defend a mountaintop from a band of Fallen who for some reason have decided they need that peak and you’re the only one around able to stop them.

The campaign kicked off as I was dropped onto the summit in the middle of a blizzard and being told to grab a cable car ride to the top. Now Destiny has been criticised before for the missions being very similar, as you need to go to a point, scan the point and then protect it from waves of enemies.

King of the Mountain changes that with the first part landing you in the middle of a blizzard and as you’ll see from my video below I got disoriented for the first few seconds due to the snowstorm obscuring my view. Once I found the cable car, I pushed the button to start it up and then had to fight off waves of enemies.

So same same but different.

However the fact that I was moving up the mountain made the mission feel very different due to the ever-changing environment, verticality and difficult visibility.

Taking on the Fallen single-handedly is still as much bad ass fun as it always has been and while you’re not invincible by any stretch you’re definitely still more than a match for them on Felwinter Peak.

Before long you reach the top of the mountain and start mopping up the stragglers and the first big story twist happens: Your old enemy Sepiks Prime from the very first Destiny strike suddenly appears, alive and well.

Well he’s back, but at the same time he’s different. Sepiks has been altered and his new name is Sepiks Perfected. He has a red glow and instead of blue balls of death heading your way it’s now red balls of oblivion. If you keep your head out in the open for a bit you can see that Sepiks looks like he’s infected with something.

And that really is the entire story of the campaign. You head through the following six missions working out exactly what has happened and why and in the end we get to understand the rise of the Iron Lords and who they really were before their fall.

The entire campaign (bar one small side mission) is played on earth through some familiar, yet different regions as well as an entirely new region called the Plaguelands. As far as Destiny stories go it’s good and the storyline is definitely explained better in-game and without you having to rely on reading up on all the lore on a mobile device.

There is a new batch of enemies in the campaign that fit into the storyline and in the end it still feels very much like Destiny. And that’s not a bad thing at all. Here, take a look at me bumbling my way through the first mission of the campaign.

But the campaign of Destiny has never really been its selling point, as it probably has the best endgame on the market at the moment.

Strikes

Rise of Iron brings with it two strikes. Well one and a half to be fair. The half-a-strike is a re-mastered version of The Devils Lair where you get to fight through the now altered map until you reach the infamous Sepiks Perfected.

The second strike and far more interesting one for me, takes place in the Plaguelands as you head deep into the belly of the enemy to find what is probably the most bizarre pair pf enemies yet in Destiny.

First up you have an Ogre but without that deadly eye that shoots lasers at you. He’s chained into the middle of the room and then he breaks free and begins rushing towards the closest sound he can find while lashing out with his massive tree-like arms.

In the same room you have a Fallen Priest who has turned that massive Ogre eyeball into a handheld weapon and while the blind Ogre is rushing around trying to smash you the Priest is taking aim with that eyeball. If you don’t pay attention to both enemies at the same time, you’re going to come up short.

It’s a lot of fun and I am looking forward to going through the strikes again on “You’re crazy man” difficulty. Take a look at it below:

Conclusion

Hey wait what do you mean conclusion? You haven’t talked about the new multiplayer modes, the new raid or even the new areas of the map really?

Yeah as mentioned earlier, there is a strangely staggered embargo on all the other information. Well except for the raid that is as none of us got to play that for obvious logistical reasons.

Keep an eye out on the site as more information is coming soon, but for the Destiny regulars out there let me know if two new strikes and a new campaign is enough to make you dust off your copy of Destiny and head back into that world again.

Last Updated: September 12, 2016

3 Comments

  1. Jonah Cash

    September 12, 2016 at 20:27

    Head back to the world he says!?!? I haven’t left yet!! I am pre ordered and waiting with bated breath. They will probably add something that pisses me off enough to leave the game for a few months. If they don’t then I will be in the game till they stop making new content for it, hell I might still be playing it even without new content.

    Reply

    • Allykhat

      September 13, 2016 at 08:44

      There should be something interesting happening today. They usually add something or do something special the reset before a release….

      Reply

  2. Allykhat

    September 13, 2016 at 08:45

    So. Damn. Keen.

    It’s actually killing me not looking at the spoilers.

    Reply

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