Support NeoGAF

[Lothars]

For other people who finish the hour of lackluster campaign and one new strike, there's not much. Not everyone cares about collecting 20 almost identical pulse rifles or a slightly different shotgun.

I don't agree I think the Campaign even though it was a little short was really well done.

 

[TRios Zen]

I legitimately felt that TTK addressed a lot of the short-comings of vanilla Destiny and improved the presentation and flow of the game in general. I recommended it to any of my friends that had become uninterested in the original Destiny.

But because it already was addressed, ROI didn't need to do that and therefore doesn't feel as substantial a change to Destiny. I've also felt that mission structure post the Iron Tomb is convoluted.

The guys I mostly play with were LL 265 by Wednesday afternoon and completed the Raid Saturday morning. I have nowhere near the time nor dedication to do that. They rated this a really good expansion; 8-9 I'd guess from their feedback. For the less entrenched player like myself I think a 6-7 is probably fair.

 

[Gator86]

I don't agree I think the Campaign even though it was a little short was really well done.

It felt like they reverted to Destiny 1 almost immediately - lots of dry dialogue about characters who aren't especially compelling, a complete lack of humor or personality, rehashed areas after the first mission, tons of guarding ghost while he scans something, short and forgettable missions.

The entire arc was too condensed. Here is this horrific, legendary substance that destroys everything it touches, including the iron Lords. It will take all of your... Oh wait, you already stopped it. Nevermind. It felt like they made a campaign on the lowest possible budget with the smallest team because they knew they had to include one. It wasn't terrible, but outside of the first mission and final encounter in the last mission, it was astoundingly forgettable.

 

[gbpackers25]

I've been enjoying the expansion a lot so far. I'm at LL350 right now so I'm trying to grind my way up to a level that will let me play the raid with less frustration.

 

[Foxxsoxx]

It felt like they reverted to Destiny 1 almost immediately - lots of dry dialogue about characters who aren't especially compelling, a complete lack of humor or personality, rehashed areas after the first mission, tons of guarding ghost while he scans something, short and forgettable missions.

The entire arc was too condensed. Here is this horrific, legendary substance that destroys everything it touches, including the iron Lords. It will take all of your... Oh wait, you already stopped it. Nevermind. It felt like they made a campaign on the lowest possible budget with the smallest team because they knew they had to include one. It wasn't terrible, but outside of the first mission and final encounter in the last mission, it was astoundingly forgettable.

Yeahy problem with the story is that there is absolutely no build up to SIVA at all. You find out it exists and then you immediately stop it, which defeats the entire purpose of even caring.

Cool concept badly executed. Also the plaguelands is deceptively small. You have a lot of empty areas of sparrow padding that make it seem bigger than it really is. Ugh, so much potential but fiddling around in a barren factory setting (again) is really the best they could come up with?

 

[Reckless Onion]

Already bored with it. Wish I didn't buy it. The recycling is getting ridiculous. Hopefully destiny 2 ends this shit

 

[Bold One]

SIVA seemed like a perfect Kojima plot-device, really under-utilised, hopefully it shows up on some gear stuff and really transforms people's weapons and armour

 

[Kor of Memory]

It felt like they reverted to Destiny 1 almost immediately - lots of dry dialogue about characters who aren't especially compelling, a complete lack of humor or personality, rehashed areas after the first mission, tons of guarding ghost while he scans something, short and forgettable missions.

The entire arc was too condensed. Here is this horrific, legendary substance that destroys everything it touches, including the iron Lords. It will take all of your... Oh wait, you already stopped it. Nevermind. It felt like they made a campaign on the lowest possible budget with the smallest team because they knew they had to include one. It wasn't terrible, but outside of the first mission and final encounter in the last mission, it was astoundingly forgettable.

I think I said this in the OT, but Bungie needs to stop making these big bads that supposedly have this power to actually kill guardians permanently.

Because we know, from a gameplay perspective, that it doesn't apply to us, and it takes the wind out of their sails.

SIVA could supposedly kill guardians/ghosts, but apparently that doesn't apply to me, I guess i'm special, despite the fact that I'm standing in swarms of these little nano-machines.

It just feels like such a lame plot device. You know what actually made the Splicer Fallen feel cool? the fact that they were capturing hive to experiment on. That made the splicers seem powerful, cool, and a threat.

It was a great example of show, don't tell.

 

[Twilight Gap]

I feel like the problem with Destiny is that all of these "threats" have not been intimidating enough. Oryx can take things...but all he takes are enemies I don't care about. Why do I care if the Cabal are terrified of him? Skolas can unite houses to attack the city...but we never even see the city or the threat of the Fallen there. Those random people I have never met aren't paying for my engrams, so they can fuck off.

This SIVA dude can corrupt things and whatever and we see his chewing gum shit strewn all over Old Russia, but then what? There was never anybody there anyway. It's like a spider buildindg a web in an empty building. At that point, who fucking cares if the spider decides to eat a bunch of ants in the building? They're experimenting on Hive? Awesome, those guys fucked up our moon so they're assholes. SIVA can have them.

All of the urgency in Destiny is a "what if" or a "this could happen again" or "this already happened" instead of a "this is happening right now and we have to stop it. And if it is actually happening right now, the Ghost or someone else is telling it to us over the comms while we kill trash mobs who make you wonder what difficulty the Guardians back in the day were playing on if they couldn't headshot a few Dregs and Vandals.

What are we fighting for? To push back the Darkness from the Traveler? Bungie hasn't even said Darkness since Vanilla Destiny. We're just fighting random aliens because they've mysteriously shown up on our doorstep to... fight the other aliens for us. As a Guardian, why is that my problem?

 

[Bold One]

STAKES!

FTFY

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

6/10 from Gamecentral:

http://metro.co.uk/2016/09/27/destiny-rise-of-iron-review-nothing-new-under-the-sun-6154989/

In Short: The stuff that is genuinely new is very good, but there’s so little of it that the sense of déjà vu, in a game that is already so repetitious, becomes overwhelming.

Pros: The new Raid and Strike are great, as are the larger scale battles. Some neat new armour designs and a definite improvement in boss battles.

Cons: Apart from the Raid it’ll only take you a few short hours to see most of the new content, and even half of that is obviously recycled – including the new Crucible mode.

 

[Vault Dweller 111]

It's fine. Not nearly as good as Taken King, and much less to do after you beat the main story. But it's fine for what it is.

I thought I would get more into it but I'm still choosing Overwatch over Destiny most of the time. I'm not sure if that speaks to ROI quality or Overwatch quality.

I still want to raid eventually.

 

[jaaz]

I can't see how Bungie expects this "expansion" to last until this time next year, when Destiny 2 is supposed to be released. They need to release Destiny 2 in the first or second quarter of 2017.

 

[gbpackers25]

I can't see how Bungie expects this "expansion" to last until this time next year, when Destiny 2 is supposed to be released. They need to release Destiny 2 in the first or second quarter of 2017.

They'll probably do another content drop in the spring like they did this past April

 

[R0ckman]

Really want fallen as a playable race for destiny 2

But I agree with Zoba, nothing you do in this feels that urgent. Oryx was the only thing that came close. I'm not sure why they couldn't fo something cool like Taken guardian boss fights even that would have helped a bit.

 

[Z3M0G]

How much were the first two DLCs that were included in the season pass? Same price as this?

 

[Falcker]

R* has made half a billion dollars from microtransactions, GTA V doesn't exactly quality as microtransaction-less.

Bad example.

To clarify, my gta5 mention is in response to this.

The writer is out of his mind if he expects ROI-like content drops to be free.

I never claimed gta5 had no microtransactions nor intended to imply they didnt, I was merely saying gta5 got large high quality content drops for free which the person I was responding to implied was outrageous for their reviewer to think possible for Destiny despite having its own in game shop.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

How much were the first two DLCs that were included in the season pass? Same price as this?

They were $15 each or you could get both with the season pass for $25 I think.

 

[Lothars]

To clarify, my gta5 mention is in response to this.



I never claimed gta5 had no microtransactions nor intended to imply they didnt, I was merely saying gta5 got large high quality content drops for free which the person I was responding to implied was outrageous for their reviewer to think possible for Destiny despite having its own in game shop.

Yeah but your point is wrong. GTA online was always advertised to have free online expansions and they had microtransactions since the game came out. Destiny didn't. So I don't think it's a reasonable point.

It felt like they reverted to Destiny 1 almost immediately - lots of dry dialogue about characters who aren't especially compelling, a complete lack of humor or personality, rehashed areas after the first mission, tons of guarding ghost while he scans something, short and forgettable missions.

The entire arc was too condensed. Here is this horrific, legendary substance that destroys everything it touches, including the iron Lords. It will take all of your... Oh wait, you already stopped it. Nevermind. It felt like they made a campaign on the lowest possible budget with the smallest team because they knew they had to include one. It wasn't terrible, but outside of the first mission and final encounter in the last mission, it was astoundingly forgettable.

I guess but I don't really agree. It's not a mission included in the main campaign but I though the quests were really well done and are some of the best in destiny especially the Khvostov and Ghalljorn missions.

 

[Lingitiz]

I can't see how Bungie expects this "expansion" to last until this time next year, when Destiny 2 is supposed to be released. They need to release Destiny 2 in the first or second quarter of 2017.

The idea I hope is that because the live team was the one making RoI, they can now transition to content drops at a more frequent rate like they were intended to do.

 

[Trace]

To clarify, my gta5 mention is in response to this.



I never claimed gta5 had no microtransactions nor intended to imply they didnt, I was merely saying gta5 got large high quality content drops for free which the person I was responding to implied was outrageous for their reviewer to think possible for Destiny despite having its own in game shop.

GTA5 is an outlier among outliers. They've made more money on microtransactions than the vast majority of games have made. It's also been years since release, with no significant single-player changes. Destiny doesn't really compare at all, since it has more than double the single-player content since release.

 

[Exploratory]

Seeing people in here complaining about the length of the campaign in relation to ROI's worth seems a bit redundant at this point in time.

This is year three! By now, unless some people are extremely new to Destiny - the 'ENDGAME' is, and will continue to be the most important part of this franchise.

Granted, the game needs a story-line to maintain cohesion - an explanation of what's going on in the universe, but the line ends there.

For someone to invest in a purely multiplayer experience, then banking on gaming the story-line for 20+ hours with same initial enthusiasm - that's absurd!

I feel like my 30 bucks have been well spent - I've got the jest of what's going on - just let me grind; give me my fucking weapons so I can wreck shit in MP...that's Destiny!

I don't want 20 hrs. I want more than 2.

 

[benzopil]

GamingBolt 5/10

After significant in-roads over the past year, Destiny feels like its regressed with Rise of Iron. This would have been a great time for exceptional story missions and replayable content that wasn't completely frustrating. For its price, Rise of Iron should have offered a lot more and taken more risks.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Welp

Long story short. Awesome expansion for Destiny players

Probably wont move the needle for those who arent regulars unless they are coming in from Vanilla

In that case you pretty much have a mountain of content that has been released since Vanilla

To be fair the reviews cant really take into account what drives long term play in destiny

The "content" isnt even finished with its rollout as there are secrets to be found, maybe a few hidden quests and missions, 3 upcoming events that do add content in a sense to keep players busy and then the final set of updates that are anticipated to bring everything they have made with the original game back into relevance

Maybe thats still not enough for the most critical of people on here but the reality is that Original Destiny is winding down towards the eventual release of Destiny 2

Despite whatever harsh criticisms there are as a Destiny regular I have yet to not enjoy my daily casual play AND my hardcore sessions.

 

[Z3M0G]

They were $15 each or you could get both with the season pass for $25 I think.

And that's what RoI should have cost, from the sound of it. Maybe $20.

 

[Falcker]

GTA5 is an outlier among outliers. They've made more money on microtransactions than the vast majority of games have made. It's also been years since release, with no significant single-player changes. Destiny doesn't really compare at all, since it has more than double the single-player content since release.

I mentioned other games that are closer to destiny's model, I don't think text needs repeating but guild wars 2 is a pay to play game with expansions sold at retail and a micro transaction shop but it offers much more in terms of free content patches and server support compared to destiny.

Yeah but your point is wrong. GTA online was always advertised to have free online expansions and they had microtransactions since the game came out. Destiny didn't. So I don't think it's a reasonable point.

It is a reasonable point, what is happening here?

My statement was other games put out larger free updates than Destiny, that's all it was and I provided games that do as much and all people want to do is make excuses as to why they don't count in some arbitrary way like "they already said they would provide free updates" like it somehow disqualifies it.

Many other games give content patches larger than these expansions, that was my point and it's not unreasonable to expect content like what was provided in this expansion for free considering the success of the microtransactions shop and the amount of content in this expansion which is recycled. That is what the arstechnica reviewer argued anyway.

Can't tell if I'm not being clear enough or if people are attempting to be obtuse to avoid trying to provide an actual rebuttal as to why these games provide more for less consistantly.

 

[bidaum]

GamingBolt 5/10

I completely agree particularly with the story critiques. Rise of Iron's writing barely even qualifies as a story to me; no twists or turns or unexpected situations... it's just basically: SIVA exists and is bad -> Defeated SIVA GG. In Vanilla Destiny at least there was nuance. Obviously that nuance was the result of some pretty big changes going on internally, but there was stuff to tease your imagination at least. I'm sure it's hard over at Bungie, and my story complaints may seem like they're damned if they do and damned if they don't, but Destiny seems on life support until 2 comes out.

 

[DrROBschiz]

I completely agree particularly with the story critiques. Rise of Iron's writing barely even qualifies as a story to me; no twists or turns or unexpected situations... it's just basically: SIVA exists and is bad -> Defeated SIVA GG. In Vanilla Destiny at least there was nuance. Obviously that nuance was the result of some pretty big changes going on internally, but there was stuff to tease your imagination at least. I'm sure it's hard over at Bungie, and my story complaints may seem like they're damned if they do and damned if they don't, but Destiny seems on life support until 2 comes out.

Ehh I never understood the desire to push story so hard

They really do have better writing and depth in the grimoire

Would have been smart to weave it into the game more but the story behind why that didnt happen is well documented

Destiny 2 is going to be a very interesting beast. I wonder what decisions they will make in the forefront

I tell you what I dont plan on ever seeing a hollywood level story in Bungie games despite them having some talented writers and Im happy to see the gameplay be the forefront of their focus

 

[The Goat]

I've yet to do the raid, but as far as content for ROI, I'd say it's ok. I'm sick to death of the reskinning, and I hope it's the last of it we see. I understand the necessity of it, so its not lost on me, but I need some new shit to shoot.

I've hit the light wall at 354. Time to grind strikes.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

And that's what RoI should have cost, from the sound of it. Maybe $20.

Yeah, it's honestly hard to say even in relation to the other content they've sold. The Taken King added a LOT at $40. It also fundamentally affected the rest of the world with Taken showing up in vanilla patrol areas and strikes. Added whole new subclasses etc. For this to come in at just $10 less while not having all that much more content than TDB or HoW (I'd say it feels like 1.5x one of those) does feel like a bit much. Especially when a lot of the extra stuff beyond the story missions, strike, and raid (like the Gjallahorn mission and new exotics) are things that in my opinion should just be free content for an ongoing live game like this.

Destiny 2 is going to be a very interesting beast. I wonder what decisions they will make in the forefront

I imagine the campaign mission template they've set up during TTK and RoI is pretty much exactly how Destiny 2's campaign will play out. The question is if they'll actually manage to do anything interesting with the actual writing.

 

[DrROBschiz]

I've yet to do the raid, but as far as content for ROI, I'd say it's ok. I'm sick to death of the reskinning, and I hope it's the last of it we see. I understand the necessity of it, so its not lost on me, but I need some new shit to shoot.

I've hit the light wall at 354. Time to grind strikes.

Considering where they are at with this game Im pretty happy with what they squeezed out of it

Destiny 2 is the big dog now so its nice to still have competent Destiny gameplay available to me in the meantime

Yeah, it's honestly hard to say even in relation to the other content they've sold. The Taken King added a LOT at $40. It also fundamentally affected the rest of the world with Taken showing up in vanilla patrol areas and strikes. Added whole new subclasses etc. For this to come in at just $10 less while not having all that much more content than TDB or HoW (I'd say it feels like 1.5x one of those) does feel like a bit much. Especially when a lot of the extra stuff beyond the story missions, strike, and raid (like the Gjallahorn mission and new exotics) are things that in my opinion should just be free content for an ongoing live game like this.


I imagine the campaign mission template they've set up during TTK and RoI is pretty much exactly how Destiny 2's campaign will play out. The question is if they'll actually manage to do anything interesting with the actual writing.

The largest issue there is the the most interesting pieces of writing are done very much in the background. I know they are influenced heavily by dark souls but at least every bit of lore is represented in game

In bunch the same way you find all the compelling story in tidbits (mostly in the form of text ingame, in descritions and quests, and a shit ton outside of the game for the grimoire)

Which is why games like Dark Souls and Destiny have all these youtubers breaking down the lore with various videos

 

[tebunker]

And that's what RoI should have cost, from the sound of it. Maybe $20.

I kind of agree since I only ended up paying $15 I feel like it isn't too bad.

TDB and HOW were $20 each though and $35 combined. This does offer more than TDB, and maybe a hair more than HOW. So $25 wpuld have been more reasonable and $20 being perfect.

It does, however, add a lot for regular players, and lets be honest thats all they are doing. Trying to keep folks engaged until the sequel.

I'll play this through the new years and barring a spring update, I will probably be good.

There is just something about this game in particular that is great to play with one or two other people.

I still personally like the Plaguelands more than The Dreadnought.

I am torn on Archon's forge. It needs some tweaking to surpass COE and COO. Perfected offerings are near impossible atm, while the other two are a breeze.

Gear is great and the brought back a lot of older gear. Its a loot game and that is very important.

You can still play older content from TTK and get high level gear, so thats nice. There are rumblings that an update some other year one content may be coming.

We haven't even gotten to the changes wih Iron Banner and Trials. I think Supremacy is a fun pvp mode, hell my wife likes it. So overall a lot of value to the regular player. I agree, though, that it shouldve been a hair cheaper.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

The largest issue there is the the most interesting pieces of writing are done very much in the background. I know they are influenced heavily by dark souls but at least every bit of lore is represented in game

In bunch the same way you find all the compelling story in tidbits (mostly in the form of text ingame, in descritions and quests, and a shit ton outside of the game for the grimoire)

Which is why games like Dark Souls and Destiny have all these youtubers breaking down the lore with various videos

I think they can keep that. For example, I feel like TTK's writing was fine and the overall balance between the story and gameplay was great. It expanded on a character we see all the time but don't know much about (Cayde-6), introduced a threat with some history and even a bit of motivation (Oryx wanting revenge for Crota), and managed to expand the lore heavily in the grimoire specifically with Books of Sorrow.

Conversely RoI tries to expand on Saladin and the Iron Lords but it kind of fails to do anything interesting or sufficient with them. I don't think he sufficiently explains what the deal with the Iron Lords even really was or what it means to be one which is odd considering he makes you one. Like what does it really mean to be an Iron Lord? He himself has just about the most generic personality ever. Like imagine if instead, he had Shaxx's personality or better yet, if Shaxx had factored in to the story at all and butted heads with him and how he's handled this whole thing. SIVA is introduced as this huge threat that he's been keeping a watch out for all these years and then bam it's done. Like you don't need another half hour of cutscenes to improve a lot of that and it would add so much more emotional investment to the universe. You can still keep the more in the weeds details and history in the grimoire for people to discover while delivering an interesting breezy plot in the now.

TDB and HOW were $20 each though and $35 combined. This does offer more than TDB, and maybe a hair more than HOW. So $25 wpuld have been more reasonable and $20 being perfect.

Oh shit were they that much? That's kind of crazy thinking back.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

i don't disagree with that i just think it's odd to opt out of destiny's end game when the front end of it has never been its strong point - and even the taken king can be debated because after the main storyline you're thrown into a long laundry list of repetitive quests.

but at least rise of iron could have had more of those. it does feel like it drops off of that quick and throws you back into the strike grind too soon, and like i said i'm not keen on that either. but i'm playing at a much different pace than i used to as well.

It's a closer comparison to House of Wolves

Yeah I had the same issue with TTK but at least that had several interesting strikes. And the end game, if you're not into PVP is just the raid, which you basically do over and over again.

 

[Twilight Gap]

Yeah I had the same issue with TTK but at least that had several interesting strikes. And the end game, if you're not into PVP is just the raid, which you basically do over and over again.

That's true. i'm really not too fond of the new strike. the first encounter is set up in a nice place but now everyone skips it. and then the middle section feels very aimless. the premise of the boss fight had potential but the arena isn't very interesting playspace and it's not as mechanically complex as i wish it was. the remixed Sepiks strike on the other hand is nice but that's obviously recycled content.

I don't know. Rise of Iron is exactly what I expected it to be, but there isn't enough of it there, if that makes sense.

 

[Enclose]

The recycling is getting ridiculous. Hopefully destiny 2 ends this shit

This. Absolutely desaster this expansion. Biggest mistake from my side to buy this.

 

[Z3M0G]

IGN video review if not already posted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaXaX6wYf6k

"Rise and Fall" - 6.2

What are we fighting for? To push back the Darkness from the Traveler? Bungie hasn't even said Darkness since Vanilla Destiny. We're just fighting random aliens because they've mysteriously shown up on our doorstep to... fight the other aliens for us. As a Guardian, why is that my problem?

D2 better get back on the main lore that the story started on... The Darkness, and The Traveler. I can't believe they just completely AVOIDED that plot line for the 2 years to follow.

I hope their plan isn't to always focus the mainline games (D2, D3, etc) initial story missions on Darkness/Traveler and then DLC/Expansions always focuses on side stories like HoW/TTK/RoI have done...

 

[Drewboy64]

What are we fighting for? To push back the Darkness from the Traveler? Bungie hasn't even said Darkness since Vanilla Destiny. We're just fighting random aliens because they've mysteriously shown up on our doorstep to... fight the other aliens for us. As a Guardian, why is that my problem?

Man, EXACTLY.

I don't have any context for why my character is motivated to help out. i'm just a dead guy that came back to life - why do I care about "The Darkness," whatever that is? And why does everybody seem to know about the darkness, the traveler, etc., but they refuse to talk about it?

If you want to create mystery, make it seem like there's SUPPOSED to be mystery. If you want my character to be a badass, give him a REASON for doing what he does - show me innocent children being slaughtered by Fallen in the last city, or something.

 

[Z3M0G]

Man, EXACTLY.

I don't have any context for why my character is motivated to help out. i'm just a dead guy that came back to life - why do I care about "The Darkness," whatever that is? And why does everybody seem to know about the darkness, the traveler, etc., but they refuse to talk about it?

If you want to create mystery, make it seem like there's SUPPOSED to be mystery. If you want my character to be a badass, give him a REASON for doing what he does - show me innocent children being slaughtered by Fallen in the last city, or something.

I would love a leak of the original Destiny story... the one they scrapped before piecing together what we ended up getting.

 

[Drewboy64]

I would love a leak of the original Destiny story... the one they scrapped before piecing together what we ended up getting.

Same.

I know Joseph Staten wrote the original story that got scrapped, but I think there was also a guy named Joshua Rubin who quit and went on to write for TellTale Games' Game of Thrones. Seems like Destiny could've had a phenomenal story if they let it

 

[SkullplateMurray]

Eurogamer's Rise of Iron review just went live:

Rise of Iron is a strangely appropriate swansong for Destiny's past few years. It's a re-dressed stage for more moments with friends, but also a slog through more of what has made Destiny feel so frustrating - some of which the main team at Bungie, rather than the smaller crew which made this, had already moved past.

Full article here

 

[Mossybrew]

Also the plaguelands is deceptively small. You have a lot of empty areas of sparrow padding that make it seem bigger than it really is.

This is true for pretty much all of the original planets as well. They are just rooms connected by corridors (in which there is zero content) in essence. Really looking forward to see how Destiny 2 improves on overall map design and size.

 

[Melchiah]

The one thing I really dislike about the expansion is how Forge is handled. You can only have one SIVA offering at a time, and you can't use the mobile app to transfer one from the vault while you're there.* You also lose them if you fail, unlike in the Court of Oryx. On top of that, you have to use a SIVA key to access an ongoing battle, and even for battle you initiated yourself, if you don't move to the arena immediately.


* EDIT: The same goes for all other items, like Skeleton Keys, when you're doing a Strike list.

 

[Twilight Gap]

Just bought the soundtrack for the expansion and I'm thoroughly disappointed. Marty's absence is already starting to show through the lack of memorable motifs. The best track is arguably the Sepiks Redux, which is just a sloppily orchestrated cover of the original with electric guitars thrown over top. it's hard to fuck that up. The title theme for the expansion itself seen throughout the soundtrack has some weight and is well written despite being safe and generic; it's comparable to a free to play medieval MMO's title track. I guess I could say the only other stand out themes are Elegy and the very beginning of Young Wolf as it loops beautifully in the Temple, but then the track itself goes off the rails into an obnoxious march, which seems to be a pitfall about 70% of the rest of the soundtrack falls into after it introduces a promising melody. In the context of the game, they work as "cinematic background noise" for action sequences, but one of Marty's staples was blending that necessity with melodies that were still recognizable. All I hear is a mish mash of percussion and string riffs I'd expect from amateur composers who think tthat's all there is to cinematic action music. That's weird to me because Michael Salvatori should know the deal by now. I hear his signature style throughout, but he's clearly lacking the anchor that Marty was, and on its own the staying power of these cinematic themes don't reach movie levels, which I could at least say for Halo 5's soundtrack which also experienced this problem.

I'd honestly be worried for Destiny 2's soundtrack at this point if there's a chance the original motifs are going to be replaced. Very few themes added since Marty's departure stick out at this point. I'd have no reservations saying the majority of this expansion's score is noise.

edit: here's the soundtrack link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfrtX-foWUA

Compare anything here to the excellent arrangement and instrumental complexity seen in The Union. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkNBJsx3WLs

 

[hikarutilmitt]

The one thing I really dislike about the expansion is how Forge is handled. You can only have one SIVA offering at a time, and you can't use the mobile app to transfer one from the vault while you're there.* You also lose them if you fail, unlike in the Court of Oryx. On top of that, you have to use a SIVA key to access an ongoing battle, and even for battle you initiated yourself, if you don't move to the arena immediately.


* EDIT: The same goes for all other items, like Skeleton Keys, when you're doing a Strike list.

To be fair, the most recent hotfix makes this pretty much a non-issue. Splicer keys are easy to get and you don't need a ton, so the 10 per character/vault limit isn't a big deal. Offerings now ALWAYS drop from a quarantine mission unless you already have one in your inventory and drop a lot more frequently from the AF itself. The times we have multiple people in it, now, chaing many, many more offerings than before.

Just bought the soundtrack for the expansion and I'm thoroughly disappointed. Marty's absence is already starting to show through the lack of memorable motifs. The best track is arguably the Sepiks Redux, which is just a sloppily orchestrated cover of the original with electric guitars thrown over top. it's hard to fuck that up. The title theme for the expansion itself seen throughout the soundtrack has some weight and is well written despite being safe and generic; it's comparable to a free to play medieval MMO's title track. I guess I could say the only other stand out themes are Elegy and the very beginning of Young Wolf as it loops beautifully in the Temple, but then the track itself goes off the rails into an obnoxious march, which seems to be a pitfall about 70% of the rest of the soundtrack falls into after it introduces a promising melody. In the context of the game, they work as "cinematic background noise" for action sequences, but one of Marty's staples was blending that necessity with melodies that were still recognizable. All I hear is a mish mash of percussion and string riffs I'd expect from amateur composers who think tthat's all there is to cinematic action music. That's weird to me because Michael Salvatori should know the deal by now. I hear his signature style throughout, but he's clearly lacking the anchor that Marty was, and on its own the staying power of these cinematic themes don't reach movie levels, which I could at least say for Halo 5's soundtrack which also experienced this problem.

I'd honestly be worried for Destiny 2's soundtrack at this point if there's a chance the original motifs are going to be replaced. Very few themes added since Marty's departure stick out at this point. I'd have no reservations saying the majority of this expansion's score is noise.

edit: here's the soundtrack link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfrtX-foWUA

Compare anything here to the excellent arrangement and instrumental complexity seen in The Union. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkNBJsx3WLs

The metal cover for Sepiks Prime (Sepiks Redux) is actually a fan-created cover from year 1. And it's fantastic for a little bit of flavor once in a while.

To be honest, The Union is still one of the best video game arrangements for "cinematic" music, for sure. But from ROI I'm in love with Shadow of the Walker. It has a nice, slow build-up to some excellent drums and flute work. When it comes up during Archon's Forge or even during a quarantine mission, it gets me pumped to be a badass and smash things with a flaming axe.

 

[Melchiah]

To be fair, the most recent hotfix makes this pretty much a non-issue. Splicer keys are easy to get and you don't need a ton, so the 10 per character/vault limit isn't a big deal. Offerings now ALWAYS drop from a quarantine mission unless you already have one in your inventory and drop a lot more frequently from the AF itself. The times we have multiple people in it, now, chaing many, many more offerings than before.

It's good to know they drop from the guarantine bounties. Still, it would be far more convenient, if you could transfer all the expansion items with the mobile app. It's just an entirely needless hindrance, that makes me wonder what's the reasoning behind it.

It would also help in finding people to play with, if you could spot an ongoing Forge battle from afar, like you can in the Dreadnought. I usually play with my friends once a week, so random companions are needed for the two other characters.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

I like it because it's more Destiny, and I want to keep playing more Destiny. If you want to play more destiny is it worth checking out? Definitely. Is it on the same level as Taken King? Nuh uh. And Bungie's pretty much been saying that between the lines.

But in terms of hours it gives, compared to your average game out there, is it worth $30? Absolutely.

 

[designgears]

This expansion feels a little small for 30 euros, I'm curious how the reviews will pan out. At this point I'm more likely to jump back in with Destiny 2, especially since I'm not the type of person that plays with a group or raids every week.

DLC feels small, refuses to play core content of DLC.

 

[hikarutilmitt]

It's good to know they drop from the guarantine bounties. Still, it would be far more convenient, if you could transfer all the expansion items with the mobile app. It's just an entirely needless hindrance, that makes me wonder what's the reasoning behind it.

It would also help in finding people to play with, if you could spot an ongoing Forge battle from afar, like you can in the Dreadnought. I usually play with my friends once a week, so random companions are needed for the two other characters.

This I agree with. I never understood not being able to transfer completed Runes and now Siva Offerings with the API. Hell, you can't even transfer the PoE treasure keys anymore, and those were able to be for a while.

I'm wondering if there was some kind of exploit for duplicating them and people just endlessly duplicated the keys to get HoJ rank and get more weapons.

 

[Twilight Gap]

To be fair, the most recent hotfix makes this pretty much a non-issue. Splicer keys are easy to get and you don't need a ton, so the 10 per character/vault limit isn't a big deal. Offerings now ALWAYS drop from a quarantine mission unless you already have one in your inventory and drop a lot more frequently from the AF itself. The times we have multiple people in it, now, chaing many, many more offerings than before.



The metal cover for Sepiks Prime (Sepiks Redux) is actually a fan-created cover from year 1. And it's fantastic for a little bit of flavor once in a while.

To be honest, The Union is still one of the best video game arrangements for "cinematic" music, for sure. But from ROI I'm in love with Shadow of the Walker. It has a nice, slow build-up to some excellent drums and flute work. When it comes up during Archon's Forge or even during a quarantine mission, it gets me pumped to be a badass and smash things with a flaming axe.

Yea i'm aware it is a fan cover which is why it sounds exactly like one.

The track you mentioned sounds very Halo Reachy to me but still doesn't really have a melody that comes to mind.