No Cayde-6 in Rise of Iron
One of the surprisingly great features of Destiny’s last major expansion, The Taken King, was the fleshing out of Cayde-6 who, up until that point, served little more purpose than being a vendor at the Tower. He is now a fan favorite full of humor and wit. Fans will never forget his incessant chatter and how he brought life into the adventure.
It’s a difficult thing to insert such a strong character to an already existing universe, especially when said universe isn’t known for having a particularly strong story in-game. While new quests, weapons, and abilities all sweeten the deal, it’s those rare moments when you get to really connect with a character that let an expansion truly shine. We can only hope that whoever steps up to the plate next within Rise of Iron, whether it be Lord Saladin himself or one of the new NPCs, brings as much character and life to the overall experience as our Exo buddy.
Raid Exotic
With each Destiny raid has come a brand new Exotic weapon. A testament to your trials and tribulations as you’ve overcome each new end-game challenge. The first was the Vex Mythoclast, a weapon that was (for short while, at least) a worthwhile badge of honor. That was followed by the Necrochasm which, while not horrible, wasn’t exactly the best weapon out there and the extreme random nature of obtaining the necessary parts for it made it a frustrating endeavor. The most recent of this exclusive club is the Touch of Malice, a solid scout rifle which grants the gift of unlimited ammunition in exchange for a bit of your life force.
Two great weapons out of three isn’t bad, but all of the weapons ended up being nerfed in one form or another. The Mythoclast was considered too powerful, Malice’s unlimited ammo made for some interesting combinations that Bungie felt were too OP, and the Necrochasm was blowing up too many people. On top of that, only one was an actual instant reward for completing the string of challenges necessary to obtain it: the Touch of Malice.
It’s easy to worry about what Bungie may do with Rise of Iron’s raid Exotic. Will it be a grand questline like that of the Malice, or will it be completely random? Will it be a powerful weapon that you can wield proudly? Or will it just look cool and be otherwise useless?
Too Fast to Run Through
Let’s just say this first, The Taken King was an absolutely amazing Destiny expansion. It went back and fixed a lot of the issues with the vanilla game and introduced some solid new mechanics and features. However, it wasn’t exactly long. While there were challenges added in and the developers did a great job tweaking the content and keeping things interesting for those that wanted to stick around, there’s a reason so many players are returning after a long hiatus. It didn’t take too long to run through the challenges of The Taken King, even if you took your time and stretched it over a few weeks. It’s worrisome that Rise of Iron may have the same issue.
Like The Taken King before it, Rise of Iron is introducing a new area, missions, raid, challenges, multiplayer modes, and gear. That’s sure to keep players tied up for a while, but what will happen when the well runs dry? The April update, which helped to revitalize the Destiny, came some seven months after the expansion. Hopefully Bungie has a game plan in place that will provide a steady feed of content to keep Rise of Iron alive.
The Collision-Themed Raid
The Taken King’s raid provided a focus on strategy and teamwork, something that hadn’t been seen since the Vault of Glass, Destiny’s first raid. The fact that you couldn’t go it alone and that everyone with you had to be on point made for a refreshing challenge that didn’t rely on bullet sponges and cheap tricks to test your skills. Rise of Iron’s Wrath of the Machine raid is taking things in another direction, with the upcoming challenge focusing on “collision” and your Light Level.
That particular bit about Light Level is the most worrisome. One of the issues that many players had with the base game were the bullet sponge bosses that required constant damage over any real skill. You just had to find a comfortable spot to sit so you can send bullets flying for what felt like forever until they finally dropped. Even if you figured out exactly how to easily kill a boss, it was a time-consuming endeavor. That was addressed in The Taken King, with bosses requiring strategy rather than brute force which made for some exciting fights that evolved as you progressed. A focus on Light Level can potentially mean that if you’re not matched, at the very least, you can be dealing with some OP bullet sponges.
Of course, Bungie has provided every detail on the upcoming Rise of Iron raid, and this can all be moot. But, for the time being, we hope that they can meld the need for power and the need for strategy.
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