Destiny: Rising is shaping up better than I expected

Well, I can't believe that I'm saying this, but Destiny: Rising is actually pretty fun. It's not perfect by any means, but it's remarkable how much it feels like I'm playing Destiny on my phone. Now, I gravitate toward Destiny: Rising during idle time and sneaking 10-15 minutes during breaks. It's not in any position to take me away from Destiny 2 proper, but it provides a quick Destiny fix and plays well enough that I'm willing to overlook some of the more annoying aspects of mobile games.

Destiny: Rising presents a respectable slice of Destiny 2's spirit on mobile, even making a few surprising improvements in some areas. That said, there's no getting around the fact that this is a true mobile-made experience, complete with predatory microtransactions and most of the other warts that haunt phone games. NetEase nailed the control and gameplay front, but under that, there's a sea of rare currencies, single-digit percentage reward chances, and even what appears to be several subscriptions, all aimed at getting players to fork over some dough. Even with all that, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having fun with Destiny: Rising.

Alpha test perks

Before I get into my time with Destiny: Rising, I think it's important to know that the alpha test experience isn't wholly representative of the final product. And that's for better and for worse. There weren't any major barriers preventing progression through the game's narrative or systems, but there were features that were intentionally absent, like microtransactions (which conveniently hide what resources and premium features actually cost).

Inversely, alpha testers also had the opportunity to receive a slew of daily login and overall participation rewards. These were often extra handfuls of resources, ensuring there was never a drought of materials or currency for testers. Additionally, some milestones provided free access to in-game subscriptions that further increased rewards. No doubt these freebies will be absent from the release version of Destiny: Rising, and who knows how much those subscriptions cost and how grindy the game is without them.

The game is legitimately fun

All that said, I've been having a blast with Destiny: Rising. The game even served admirably as my main Destiny outlet during a week-long vacation to Disney World. I wasn't skipping Pirates of the Caribbean to play, but it went a long way in winding lines and while relaxing back at the hotel.

Everything a Destiny player might expect is on show and available in Destiny: Rising, from Strikes to PvP and even Raid-like challenges. Aside from the content you can launch into through a menu, Destiny: Rising doesn't skimp on the other familiar trappings of Destiny games, like open destinations, hub zones, public events, and discoverable secrets. The mobile game also isn't afraid to experiment, like a quest that ends in a high-speed Sparrow chase and an on-rails shooting segment.

There's no shortage of content to pursue in Destiny: Rising, but that only matters if the game is fun to play. Thankfully, I can say that if you enjoy the general gameplay and progression found in Destiny 2, then Destiny's first mobile outing is pretty similar. Players will still build their armory of weapons, manage the mods and power of said weapons, and then use those weapons to shoot aliens, hopefully resulting in the acquisition of a new gun. Destiny: Rising adds the twist of managing and growing a roster of existing Guardians, each with unique abilities and weapon preferences.

Mobile Destiny can feel this solid?

If you play Destiny 2, you'll feel right at home with Destiny: Rising. While there are some notable differences between the two games, like no option to crouch and semi-limited loadouts, Destiny: Rising really works some magic to make gameplay feel natural. That even goes for the touchscreen controls. While I initially spent some time using a Backbone controller on my iPhone to play, I quickly got used to using touch controls when I didn't feel like lugging around another accessory.

The most important parts of gameplay, moving, shooting, and ability use, all feel great, though it's much easier to gracefully combine these actions on a controller. Some niceties are built into the game for touchscreen players, though, like an auto-sprint option that can be toggled on and off easily while exploring larger destinations. Using the touchscreen is totally functional, more so than many other mobile games I've played, but using a controller makes Destiny: Rising play almost identically to Destiny 2, and I find that remarkable.

Sparrow Racing League, anyone?

Impressively, Destiny: Rising features an entire campaign alongside a wide assortment of activities that can be started anywhere via the menu. I have some bones to pick with the campaign, which I'll get to, but those are primarily about performances, presentation, and lore accuracy. The mobile game surprised me with a lengthy campaign offering memorable and fun moments to play through. It's just that the narrative surrounding these moments needed to be stronger.

The diversity of available activities, on the other hand, is strong. Are you one of those Destiny players who miss the days of the Sparrow Racing League? Well, Sparrow Racing is an Event in Destiny: Rising. The same goes for Clan challenges called Pack Ops and a Gwent-like card game called Shadowshaper Duels. There are also several variations of more conventional Destiny gameplay, including multiple Strikes and other varied activities that reward various materials.

My favorite activities thus far have been the variations of Singularity. The enigmatic Nine and Xûr host a series of forays into the roguelite genre. Each activity has multiple difficulty options, and as players progress through an attempt, they can choose from an assortment of randomized buffs after each successful round. The activities typically last for seven to ten rounds, featuring a boss at the end. In addition to completion rewards, players also earn currency to put toward a long-term skill tree for the mode.

The UI looks great on the surface

Learning the systems and discovering what's available in a mobile gacha game can be overwhelming, and Destiny: Rising's UI does some things exceedingly well while others fall short. A small UI window shows players their current objectives, and you can use your Ghost to access a more comprehensive menu system (a lot like Destiny 2). Under the icon for your Ghost, there's another that takes you to an activity hub. This hub works a lot like the way I imagine Bungie wants the upcoming Portal feature to work in Destiny 2, featuring recommended activities on a front tab and offering access to all available activities on various other tabs in the interface.

Between these two icons and the minimap itself, which can be tapped on to reveal a larger map and POIs, there's also an icon on the left side of the minimap that takes players to the Draw menu to pull for characters or gear. I like how the interface looks on the screen; there aren't too many options, and everything looks clean enough that it never feels like the screen is too busy with UI elements. That said, the Ghost icon has way too much stuff crammed into it, and the layout doesn't always make sense. 

For example, there are options in the Ghost menu for activities, Draws, and the map. The icons near the minimap are just shortcuts, but they function better as out-of-the-way, direct ways to access this content. It makes less sense to jump through the Ghost menu, yet the options are still there, crammed with everything else. Events like Sparrow Racing and Shadowshaper Duels make even less sense, as they're in the same place as login rewards and other gifts. This location, again, is accessed through the expanded Ghost menu.

Destiny: Rising's story needs some work

While I can argue that the UI is mostly fine and that only some of its placement doesn't make sense, I can't look past the painfully dull and poorly presented story. While the solid gameplay and a well-put-together opening tutorial mission help overlook some of the awkward writing and delivery, by the time players get a full loadout of weapons and start meeting some supporting characters in the central hub zone, it starts to wear thin. 

Unfortunately, voice acting and the evolving narrative never get much better, and it gets more egregious the more you realize how much of the voiced content was AI-generated. NetEase has stated that the AI voice work is simply a placeholder until the game is finished, and I will note that if that's true, Destiny: Rising may have just as much, if not more, voiced content at launch as Destiny 2 has currently. Of course, as I mentioned before, a lot of that content just isn't that interesting.

Generally, the story is about Wolf, the newest Guardian to awaken, finding his bearing amongst his fellows. Though Wolf is technically the main character, as new characters are introduced (and become earnable through the gacha system), a few quests or a dedicated adventure serve as an introduction and sometimes allow players to try out the new Fireteam member. However, the story mostly revolves around the interactions between the human defenders of Jiangshi Metro and the mixed community of Haven, a settlement with Guardians flocking to its Tree of Light.

This setup could offer some interesting stories, especially considering some of the Jiangshi Metro citizens don't harbor the best feelings towards Guardians. However, things never develop further than characters speaking their emotions and sending you off towards the next firefight.

The lore is a whole other issue

NetEase noted from the start that Destiny: Rising would be set in an alternate universe of the franchise, after the collapse but before the City age. While describing the game as an alternate universe works like a lore get-out-of-jail-free card, there are still some glaring lore and consistency issues within the game.

Probably one of the biggest gripes I have in this corner is the Fallen NPC that hangs around Haven. Even if this is an alternate universe where nothing I know about Destiny matters, the game sets up the Fallen as this arch-rival race of space pirates that are set on looting and pillaging a weakened humanity. If there are Fallen working with humanity in Haven, then the leaders in charge are grossly incompetent and far too trusting. As for the Fallen themselves, from their perspective, humanity is wounded and on the back foot; humanity "took" the Traveler. What do Fallen have to gain by joining their enemy, and is it worth the inevitable risk?

Another thing that bugs me is tying powers of Light to relics instead of a Guardians Ghost. In Destiny games, Guardians typically channel the Light through their Ghosts to manifest abilities. In Destiny: Rising, Ghosts still choose from among the dead to create immortal Guardians, but they seemingly can only channel the Light if they're lucky enough to stumble upon a relic. This, of course, happens to Wolf during the tutorial, but this creates a world where countless Guardians are awoken by a Ghost who didn't find a relic. What does that look like? They're just functionally immortal and that's it? 

At least if there will be Fallen ex-patriots or new rules for Light, explain it, please. The Fallen character in Haven simply notes it's following the "Great Machine," but that's just a thin excuse to justify an existence to ensure players can quickly identify Fallen technology throughout the story. Similarly, if Destiny: Rising is set during an era when the Light was weaker, and abilities had to be channeled through specific powered relics, okay, but tell me about it. This is a game working within an existing franchise; if something is different from that existing, preceding franchise, then please tell me why.

The grind might be rough

As I mentioned earlier, the alpha test had some benefits, including several tracks of login rewards and similar tracks for participating in select activities and events throughout the testing period. While this constant flow of materials ensured pretty much all of my earned characters could fully develop abilities and gear, things certainly won't be the same when the game finally releases.

The grind will likely be real, not only for desired materials but also for specific characters or weapons. In Destiny 2, a much-maligned modifier exists called Match Game. Match Game ensures that elemental shields are vastly empowered against anything that isn't a matching element. In Destiny: Rising, it seems like a version of Match Game is always on. This is exponentially worse if weapons are below level for the foes you're fighting. I found myself in a story mission against enemies with Void shields but only had access to Solar and Arc damage on my Guardian. It took several clips of auto rifle ammo before I broke the shield and could damage the enemy normally.

This annoyance also applies to Destiny: Rising's version of Champions, Shinka. These enemies also have shields and specific effects that are painful to play around without the desired weapon types to counter. For example, a Spread Shinka is best countered by a Guardian wielding a weapon with an explosion radius, like a rocket launcher. As Guardians are limited to the type of gear they can equip, you may not have anyone capable of wielding one, and that Shinka fight will be long and arduous, if not downright impossible.

Progression is also limited by resources, which should be familiar to mobile players. Here, that means Guardians can't unlock their full potential until you've earned multiple copies of the same one. Similarly, weapon level, mods, and a generic character level also contribute to overall power and naturally require resources to advance. That means players might reach a point where they need to be level 50 to participate in an activity needed to progress the story, but they've run out of the materials required to push them from level 40 to 50. In that case, players would either run whatever activity provides the desired resource or break down and get some via a microtransaction.

Better than expected, worried about monetization

Altogether, I still admit that I've been having fun with Destiny: Rising. I'm not blind to the probable inevitability of it blindsiding me with a flood of microtransactions and progression gates when it finally releases. Still, I can't deny that it's been a joy to play. 

I know it's a fool's longing, but I do genuinely hope NetEase leans back on what appears to be a whole lot of hidden microtransactions (or disabled annoyances that will push players toward microtransactions upon final release). Even if they incorporated a system much like the one alpha testers received, where players were substantially rewarded for ongoing participation in the game, that would be huge. Beyond that, I think in-game subscriptions that provide additional loot are a bit too far unless it too was incorporated into some loyalty reward system. 

I'm anxious to see where Destiny: Rising goes from here; it is now entirely on my radar. It will be interesting to see how NetEase responds to alpha testers, as several extensive surveys have been issued in-game, each rewarding a juicy stash of rewards. Monetization and microtransactions were among the first things players were curious about, so no doubt many noticed the same things I did and voiced their opinions also as I did. 

Most recently, NetEase announced a beta test for Destiny: Rising, allowing even more people to experience and trial the game. For me, it's proved itself a competent entry into the franchise; it just has to stick the landing.

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