Destiny: Rising Is the Game I Wanted - But Not the Story I Hoped For

If you've been a fan of Destiny in recent years, you've likely heard about the rumored Destiny mobile game. It's been another one of the industry's worst-kept secrets, which was finally revealed as Destiny: Rising, a brand-new experience developed and published by NetEase Games and officially licensed by Bungie. As a die-hard Destiny fan I'm certainly interested in the upcoming mobile game, but after sitting on the reveal for a week, I'm still scratching my head at a few of NetEase Games choices. 

Same Song, New Dance

The first thing players will take immediate note of is the gameplay. The reveal trailer does a great job of showcasing what people can expect from the moment-to-moment gameplay in Destiny: Rising. It feels familiar with some obvious deviations here and there, but this is a mobile game, after all. I think the easiest way that I can describe it would be the Genshin Impact-ification of Destiny's gameplay.

This is exactly in line with what I was expecting and in my opinion, the best case scenario. What's the point of a Destiny-licensed game if it isn't going to feel like Destiny? I was worried that we'd see a strictly third-person perspective, an RTS, or even FPS gameplay that barely resembles Destiny. What we've seen of the game thus far, however, has piqued my interest enough to warrant my attention the second the game drops. 

Destiny: Rising is switching from your typical Destiny/MMO class-based onboarding and moving to a Hero-style setup. Instead of building out your Hunter, Titan, or Warlock, players will have a list of Heroes to select from, each with their own unique gameplay styles. In the ViDoc (seen below), the developers talk about this change in approach as providing an opportunity for more varied gameplay with each hero offering a unique gameplay experience. 

In my opinion, this switch to hero-based gameplay is the most interesting part of the pitch for Destiny: Rising. There's no denying that Destiny 2 in 2024 is a vastly different game than Destiny in 2014. Sure, it feels more like an MMO these days with things like a built-in LFG, loadouts, and more, but it's still Destiny.

A fresh take on the formula sounds fun and I love the idea of having interesting playable characters that break out of the mold and make us rethink what it means to be a Lightbearer. If Destiny: Rising can deliver a Destiny experience in a new and interesting way, I'm on board. As long as it feels good to shoot aliens in the head, collect cool loot, and explore the world, I think NetEase might have something really cool on their hands. 

With all this being said, while the gameplay premise is exciting to me, there are some major concerns that I do have. The first of which is changing Destiny's lore to fit the structure of a mobile game. 

Branching Pathways Out Of Darkness

Destiny: Rising is touted as "a brand-new adventure set in an alternate Destiny timeline, exploring a narrative in the post-Dark Age era." This immediately was something that I felt myself reel back from. I've always wanted to explore Destiny's pre-city era, it's got a lot of cool medieval themes and interesting characters. Destiny has a rich lore to pull from and this "alternate timeline" decision feels completely unnecessary.

I can understand wanting to split from Bungie's timeline to give the developers the freedom to tell their own stories without either developer stepping on each other's toes. Unfortunately, this means that NetEase can make changes to the timeline that feel wrong to me as a fan of what Bungie has established. I don't think I'll be able to look past it, at least not at first.

This new universe is apparent in the two videos we've gotten so far. Both the reveal trailer and the Developer Preview ViDoc show us glimpses of familiar places with new spins on them. One of the most obvious to me was the snippet of gameplay we got in the new social hub, Haven. In it, we speak with a friendly Fallen "Enforcer" named Kevarrh. This is obviously against established cannon, as we have only recently become friendly with the Eliksni in Destiny 2. Given the timeframe, the battle of Six Fronts, a massive and devastating Fallen assault on humanity, has either just happened or is soon to come. This is completely at odds with a friendly Fallen character in a human-centric safe zone.

We also see (confirmed via Content Creator Q&A with the developers) a young Ikora Rey. While Ikora is old enough to have been around in this era, her being a character that isn't primarily a student of the Warlock Osiris is also strange to me. Why include any characters from the established lore? Why not go completely off-book and create original characters?

NetEase said in their Developer Preview ViDoc that this would be a great jumping-in point for anyone interested in Destiny. Including a main character from the games will likely only be confusing to players who are introduced here and go over there, or vice versa. Including characters from the main games will only introduce frustration and/or confusion among fans of either entry.

Despite the issues I have with changes to the lore, world, and timeline, the setting they've landed on is exciting. The era immediately following the Dark Age has more of a fantasy vibe to it and I personally love it when Destiny hits those notes. While I need to see more of the changes to this era of Destiny compared to what Bungie has spent the last 10 years crafting, I can't help but be excited to see a version of Destiny that leans more on its Fantasy elements than the sci-fi ones. A big selling point about Destiny for me originally was the sci-fi-meets-fantasy world, complete with paper maps, bazaars, and weapons named after the monsters who were slain to uncover them. As time's gone on, Destiny's lost some of that fantasy flavor in favor of the sci-fi tele-pads, holo-projectors, and so on. If Destiny: Rising can capture more of those fantasy elements, I can see myself preferring its setting to the main game's. If NetEase does lean too hard into deviating from established lore, however, I'll certainly find myself stuck between a rock and a hard place. 

Overall, Destiny: Rising's deviations from established lore feel like a strange choice. As I said earlier, Destiny has a massive, established lore to play with, and building a game out like this wouldn't have been impossible as new and impressive legends from this era are added to the lore regularly. I'm hopeful that the differences to established, well-known characters are small enough to keep players using Destiny: Rising as their entry point in the series from being confused if they ever do decide to hop into the full game.

What's Old Is New Again

If you enjoy Destiny for its looter-shooter origins, this will fit right in line with what you've come to enjoy from the 10-year-old franchise. NetEase has announced that all of the modes you've come to expect will be there: Campaign Missions, Strikes, and 6-Player PVE missions are all there. The most interesting thing about that list is that they're not explicitly saying Raids when they call out the 6-player modes, so we'll have to see what the reason is for that in time. 

Along with all of this is the inclusion of "all-new and replayable PVE and PVP modes." While no other details are given, I assume that they would play into the idea of a Hero-oriented gameplay structure, rather than Destiny's traditional classes.

This is exciting as a Destiny fan in general since Bungie seems hard-pressed to introduce new modes and activities. I can't imagine the amount of resources it takes to build out new and persistent things to do in the game that aren't just seasonal activities that go away after a year. Destiny: Rising might help to introduce cool modes that the main game can then pull inspiration from, or provide a whole separate suite of things to do in the world of Destiny. I don't think I'd have any issue with two games that offer different and exciting things to play, but if Destiny: Rising turns out to just be Destiny 2: The Hero-Shooter, I can't see myself willing to login (or let alone, spend money) week after week in pursuit of cool new gear.

Along with the game modes are the things we'll be chasing; Destiny is a loot-based game and while I found the transition to calling it an MMOFPS an easy one, most people I see talking about the game still call it a Looter Shooter. This means that the loot we chase in Destiny: Rising needs to be interesting and exciting - something some fans would argue that Destiny 2 has largely been lacking in recent years, though I tend to disagree. 

A point that the developers mentioned in the reveal is that there is an already massive pool of loot in Destiny 2 to pull into this game and it'll be used as a jumping-off point going forward. Common, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary, and Exotic weapons that fans of Destiny 2 already love will be available and familiar in Destiny: Rising. On top of those, the developers have introduced a new rarity of weapons known as Mythic. 

I think the idea of creating a new rarity of weapons for Destiny is just as confusing as the changes to the story. Exotic weapons are meant to be the cream of the crop - the best of the best. If these new weapons are introducing a whole new rarity, I sincerely hope that it's because their abilities are going to simply outclass what we expect an Exotic to be. However, this ties into my fears about the game's monetization model.

NetEase also made Diablo Immortal, the famous "don't you guys have phones" meme's origins. Destiny: Rising is a free-to-play mobile game, and while some people seem to believe that it won't be a gotcha game, I have a hard time believing that'll be the case. The options that NetEase has to implement MTX on are vast; things like weapons, ghosts, ships, sparrows, new heroes, shaders, armor, and whatever else you can think of, NetEase has likely considered monetizing. If the new Mythic weapons are just "Exotics but pay-to-win" garbage, it will definitely affect my enjoyment of the game and whether I decide to even play it at all.

The Missing Pieces

Overall, I'd say that Destiny: Rising is right in line with what I've come to expect in the fallout of recent rumors and leaks. The narrative off-shoot is my biggest complaint with it right now, but if that's the only problem this game has, I'd say it's going to do just fine.

Despite the clarity we've gained from the reveal of Destiny Rising, it's ironically created a whole heap of new questions that we now need answers to: Will this get a console and PC release? If so, what platforms? What is the monetization structure that we're going to have to deal with here? Why introduce a new rarity of items that seem to exist above Exotics? 

Thankfully, we won't have to wait long. Destiny: Rising will host a closed Alpha beginning on November 1st in the US and Canada.