Underwhelmed with Rise of Iron Story (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Thursday, September 22, 2016, 19:07 (2983 days ago) @ BeardFade

I feel like time was disregarded entirely. How is it winter? Why not have an introduction that recaps what was accomplished in the Taken King and sets up some period in which summer ends and winter began? Give me some explanation as to how the Cosmodrome transformed so much for the first two missions. Or give me some explanation that the Earth is actually largely inhabitable but the Traveler keeps the temperatures warm enough that the City isn't buried in snow, but the Plaguelands right next door are (granted this wouldn't account for Widow's Court or Memento though). Just give me something.

All of these points, plus your original post, to me look like evidence of something I've suspected; RoI is the work of a far smaller team than some of us might expect. There's no doubt that Bungie invested moderately in a few areas. New cutscenes, new VO, plus a decent chunk of output from the art team (new locations, enemy skins, gear), plus whatever the raid team has cooked up. But in terms of new playable content, this is not a large expansion. There's a new patrol space, but there's nothing new to do in that patrol space, aside from the Archon's Forge which as far as I'm concerned is just slapped together with very little development or iteration. The majority of the story missions lack the clever encounter design or set piece moments that made the TTK missions feel like such a step up in quality from year 1 Destiny.

I'm tempted to say that RoI, like every Destiny release aside from TTK, suffers from "Over-promise, under-deliver" syndrome. To be clear, I don't want to come across as overly down on the expansion. It's fine. I'm enjoying myself. There is fun stuff in it. I just don't think RoI warrants they months of hype and build-up that Bungie (and let's be honest, Sony) have been putting out there. It isn't a major release.