It has been centuries since mankind’s first encounter with The Traveler, and several more after the great Collapse. The Darkness threatens our existence, as well as all the other alien races we have encountered. It is up to us to fend off the Darkness and any other threat to the civilizations that The Traveler has assisted.

I have known about Destiny before it was released in 2014, and I had a good opinion from the trailers I had seen, but at the time I did not have any means of playing it. Now with the release of Destiny The Collection, containing every single piece of Destiny’s phenomenal releases, including the newest expansion, Rise of Iron, I have finally been able to traverse the environments that the developers from Bungie have provided for the fans, and I have not been disappointed.

Destiny is referred to on the wikia as an “Open-world, first-person shooter with persistent-world elements”, and I think you may as well throw MMO and ARPG into the classification, because you will be creating your own character, equipping armor and guns, uncovering your story, while running around Main Cities and on missions with other players from various countries, shooting at bad aliens who threaten to destroy civilizations. The scope of genres that Destiny covers is relatively huge, but it’s all interweaved so seamlessly, it may as well have it’s own genre, it feels like an original idea and I love it. I had so much fun with the challenges in the missions, and discovered even a uniqueness in death animations, unless I was just lucky.

One time, during a mission in the new expansion, I felt amused by the fact that one of the enemy footsoldiers was too scared to come back up some stairs to face me after I had picked off his friends. His head and torso was unfortunately behind a beam in front of me, but his lower legs and feet were in full view, so when I decided to be silly and shoot off his toe, it in fact killed him and caused him to jump into the air. The knee is no longer the deciding factor for adventuring anymore it seems.

Being a newcomer to the game, even after 2 years, I was at first worried that I might be overwhelmed with all the content that Destiny now has to offer, but it did not. It’s “approach” was gentle and “relate-able”, which is something an RPG needs so that you can identify with the character which you have designed to be your avatar. Without giving away too much for those who may not have played the game yet; as the starting mission progresses, which serves as a tutorial, you are gradually given backgrounds on the story of Destiny. You are a Guardian and your role is to protect the Earth and any other settlement or civilization from the evil Darkness. While doing this you need to defend against other aliens such as The Fallen, The Hive, Cabal, and Vex, and then later on thanks to the Taken King expansion, a group of enemies called The Taken.

Rise of Iron

Rise of Iron went live on 20 September 2016 and is the first DLC not available to PS3 and Xbox 360. Players who buy Destiny The Collection, as mentioned before, will get the entirety of Destiny, including Rise of Iron, and also a Level 40 character boost so that you can jump straight into the Rise of Iron expansion, along with a special edition weapon called the Iron Gjallarhorn, however, people who pre-ordered the set, or even just the expansion, also got the weapon as well as an amazing Sparrow vehicle called the Iron Gjallarwing.

Rise of Iron comes with more of everything that you would love in Destiny. Firstly, it’s come with a new Campaign. The premise of Rise of Iron revolves around a renowned faction named the Iron Lords, a group of legendary Guardians who formed before the forming of The Last City. A hundred years before the Present Day, they sacrificed themselves to contain a technological plague of sorts named SIVA. Unfortunately, Lord Saladin was the only one to make it out alive of the SIVA Replication Chamber, the root of it all. With signs of SIVA returning thanks to a House of Fallen, Lord Saladin is rallying the Guardians to Felwinter Peak, the home of the Iron Lords, to help him eradicate SIVA once and for all.

To achieve this, Rise of Iron brings new items and gear which can now increase your Maximum Light up to 385. The Eververse vendor offers new Ornaments, Emotes and other additions too. A new raid has also been brought into the fray, which will test to see if you are powerful enough to withstand the Wrath of the Machine! Player vs. Player has also been updated, by bringing new maps, a new Supremacy mode, and finally, private matches to the Crucible, and I must say, PvP is just as much fun as the Campaign.

Destiny Companion

Something really cool that is worth mentioning is the Destiny Companion App for your Smartphone, which is available on both the Apple Store and Android Play Store. With this App you can access your Destiny Profile, your Destiny Characters (with a detailed representation of your currently equipped gear), you can inspect your Stats, view your Grimoire, access Vendors and a bunch of other neat little features, like interacting with your Destiny friends or checking your Mail. A lot of effort has gone into both the Destiny game and how you can experience “it on-the-move”. Well done Bungie!

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Conclusion

The story is captivating and the role you play in it adds a sense of honour. The gameplay is impressive, and keeps you on edge with the battles you fight with the enemies, and the graphics and music suit the overall feel of the game and even add to it. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent playing Destiny and will certainly be playing it more with every chance I get!