Destiny: Rise of Iron Review Roundup

Destiny: Rise of Iron released last week, and critics have started to deliver their verdicts on the latest expansion to Bungie's first-person shooter. So far, the critical reception is mixed.

Along with new weapons, the latest expansion adds a new social space, Crucible mode, and cooperative arena. The new social area, Felwinter Peak, provides new vendors with gear and bounties. It needs to be reclaimed from Rise of Iron's new enemies and holds "a lot of secrets," creative lead Christopher Barrett said.

The new Crucible mode is similar to Call of Duty's Kill Confirmed, where you kill an enemy and have to collect a crest they drop. Additionally, once you complete the expansion's campaign, you'll be able to take part in Archon's Forge, a new cooperative arena which has rounds shorter than Prison of Elders, while being more robust than Court of Oryx.

Rise of Iron is the first Destiny expansion to skip the last-gen consoles. PS3 and Xbox 360 players will now have their characters progress separately on parallel paths.

We've collected a series of review scores and editor opinions from around the internet and compiled them in an easy-to-read list below. For a wider view of the critical reception, check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic.

• Game: Destiny: Rise of Iron
• Developer: Bungie
• Platform: PS4, Xbox One
• Release: September 20
• Price: $30

GameSpot -- 6/10

"As an expansion that revamped how Destiny actually played, last year's The Taken King was a major step forward for the shooter. But Rise of Iron feels merely like the other foot catching up to rest firmly in place. It feels timid. It feels safe. It feels like the last remaining breath before the possible sequel, as if Destiny is standing still and waiting for inspiration to arrive, rather than going out to find it." -- Mike Mahardy [full review]

Game Informer -- 8.5/10

"Rise of Iron provides a lot of choices to players. From the activity you engage in to the rewards you pursue, the expansion supports any level of engagement. While it doesn't offer the same breadth and reimagining of core systems found in The Taken King, Bungie's latest release has a sentimental tone that is refreshing. This adventure through forgotten legends stands strong on its own, and continues an unbroken string of content drops that have each made Destiny a richer universe." -- Matt Miller [full review]

GamesRadar -- 4/5

"It might not offer the huge, nuts-and-bolts content-dump that The Taken King did, but this is an expansion built in layers rather than breadth. It delivers enough new places to see and things to do, of such a high quality--and do not forget, this is me speaking before the raid--to give Destiny's overall ecosystem a worthy shake-up, but the various resonant means it offers to change the experience have even greater potential. If you're a long-standing Destiny player, it's almost certain to refresh and revitalise your daily visits. And if you're a curious newbie, there has (once again) never been a better time to jump in." -- David Houghton [full review]

Destructoid -- 7/10

"Destiny: Rise of Iron is a weird cookie. Bungie clearly put its live team in charge of this one, as there's nowhere near the amount of completely new-feeling stuff packed in as there was in Taken King--and with so many people getting winded, a step that big was really needed. Yet, if I assess Destiny right now as a total package, with four expansions under its belt and hundreds of [good] tweaks and patches, it's easier to recommend." -- Chris Carter [full review]

IGN -- 6.2/10

"Rise of Iron has just enough new content to keep me coming back for a while, but it feels like the bare minimum. When I wasn't absentmindedly grinding against reskinned enemies until I couldn't do it anymore, I was falling down the rabbit hole of side quests and trying out new weapons while patrolling the Plaguelands. The satisfying but still not groundbreaking raid is a decent reward at the end. I wish this expansion had focused more on fixing Destiny's repetition problems, because it has a few good ideas--but with all its pitfalls, this is just Destiny going through the motions." -- Kallie Plagge [full review]

Arcade Sushi -- 6/10

"Rise of Iron is a strange hiccup in Bungie's progress towards making Destiny a better overall experience. SIVA is an interesting villain that is ultimately never explained or explored. The majority of the content here is the actual Plaguelands themselves, and all there is to do is a couple of fetch-quests and patrol missions. Everything in this expansion seems to revolve around tedious grinding; grinding to finish the Iron Record book and get more rewards, grinding to get your light level up to do the raid. Whereas Taken King did so much to improve Destiny in every way, Rise of Iron feels like a big step back." -- Danny Saya [full review]