REVIEW: ‘Destiny: Rising’ Falls Short Of Its Predecessor

Destiny Rising, a shared-world third-person rpg developed and published by NetEase Games, takes players back to a time before the previous Destiny games. Back when the last human city was just being founded in the shadow of The Traveler. As humanity struggles to fend off the encroaching tide of threats, a new Lightbearer, Wolf, arrives to aid the cause. 

When an experience has a strong premise and quality gameplay at its core, but subpar elements unfortunately overshadow these concepts, the overall experience falls far short of what it could’ve been. This is the fate of Destiny Rising.

There are two spots where this game truly shines—first, gameplay. Not being optimistic about playing a third-person shooter with touch screen controls is understandable, but Destiny Rising makes it work surprisingly well.

Aiming is responsive, and there is never a struggle to get the cursor where you want it. Enemy movement is fairly subdued, which also helps negate the limitations of the interface. The touch interface is also fully customizable, allowing players to rearrange buttons to best suit their preferences.

Each character in Destiny Rising has a fun and distinct kit.

While battling swarms of enemies, players will have access to an array of weapons and abilities. Unlike previous games in the franchise, Destiny Rising doesn’t task the player with playing a single character; instead, it allows them to collect numerous ones, each bringing its own kit into play. 

At the center of the play experience is the main character, Wolf. He serves as the default hero and is the one players control during story missions. Other characters can be unlocked via a gacha system that you can play as during side content and open-world exploration.

Each character has two weapons, along with a pair of signature abilities and a super ability. All of these feature elemental alignments, which can have increased effects on shielded foes who match the element. The primary weapon always has unlimited ammo, while the secondary weapon must be replenished by ammo that randomly drops from fallen foes. 

Each character has a fun kit that feels good to play. The interactions between the various components of the kit were generally easy to understand, allowing for quick implementation on the battlefield. Each character’s role feels different in the gameplay loop. This is largely thanks to added levels of interaction between each character’s abilities. 

Enemy variety is quite poor in Destiny Rising.

Rather than simply having abilities on cooldown that complement each other, every Lightbearer has a twist to their kit that allows them to get more from their abilities if used properly. Filling gauges by damaging enemies allows the Lightbearer to activate an enhanced version of an ability.

Some characters get to collect special items dropped by enemies who die affected by their powers, which aid them in battle somehow. These added elements make each Lightbearer far more interesting, while adding another layer of complexity to combat. This helps keep players engaged with the often simplistic encounters they frequently face.

The one place where combat fails is enemy variety. There are only a handful of enemy types you see frequently, and none of them bring anything special to the table. Battles quickly blur together as different combinations of the same handful of generic enemies play out. 

Mechanical customization is extensive, but character customization is limited. 

Helping combat stay engaging is a meaningful and rewarding leveling system. Character abilities can be leveled up, enhancing their potency and introducing new tweaks to their functionality. New weapons can be found and upgraded, and artifacts can be equipped that further customize how each Lightbearer plays. There is a lot to take in, but Destiny Rising does a good job of helping players know what to equip to which character.

When a player is checking out weapons or artifacts, icons will show up letting them know who an artifact is recommended for, or which traits on a weapon go with their currently selected Lightbearer. These handy cues can let players who may otherwise be overwhelmed by their options see an easy path to outfitting their characters. 

All of these upgrades are powered by resources gathered throughout the numerous modes and missions players are tasked with overcoming. And they seem to flow fairly generously. While not infinite, players should be able to keep Wolf and one or two other characters well-upgraded without too much trouble.

With all the opportunities for mechanical customization, one may expect Wolf’s visual customization options to be fairly robust. This is not the case. The paltry offering of heads, skin tones, and hairstyles will leave many wondering why they didn’t just make Wolf’s helmet glued to their head and not bother with customization at all. 

There are many game modes, but few stand out in Destiny Rising.

Destiny Rising delivers many game modes for players to test their skills in, but few stand out in any notable way. Most break down into fights against numerous enemies, where players either gather resources, defend objectives, or complete a fight within a set time period, sometimes solo and sometimes in co-op.

There is a solo roguelite mode that sees the player gather special abilities throughout a run. This changes things up a bit, but it still struggles with repetitive encounters persisting across separate runs. 

There are a couple more esoteric gameplay elements players can partake in. Fishing, a card game, and even a fun, if simple hacking mini-game exist to break up the combat. These elements vary in quality, with most offering little save an occasional distraction. 

The story in Destiny Rising is neither interesting nor outright bad.

At the core of the gameplay is the story. The story is neither interesting nor engaging in any way. Bad guys need to be stopped, relics need to be found, and obtuse threats are always on the horizon. It’s not overly difficult to follow, and is rarely bad; it’s just never particularly good. 

Further hindering any possibility of players getting drawn into Destiny Rising‘s story is its implementation. The game is divided into chapters, each with a set number of goals that must be completed before progressing.

Completing story missions is always part of it, but so are many other things. Participating in side modes, raising your account level, and other elements unrelated to the narrative are littered throughout each chapter, ruining the story’s cohesion. 

Understandably, the devs would want players to try everything out. But there are better ways to do it. Forcing a stop in the story to do things that have no connection to what they may want to be doing is frustrating. If a player wants to get through the story before exploring what else is out there, let them. 

The most interesting characters aren’t in the game enough.

Another major problem with the narrative is the dialogue. The discussions that play out in the story have little flavor. A couple of characters get to have moderate personalities, but all the major figures exhibit varying degrees of lifelessness. Even Wolf lacks any memorable presence. This is especially frustrating given the place where the most memorable personalities are. 

The biggest personalities in Destiny Rising come from the other Lightbearers the player can collect. However, due to Wolf’s automatic presence in the story, players only really see these characters come to life in their personal character quests. This feels like a waste, as some of them are fairly interesting. 

Compounding the character problems is the voice work. Some is good, some is bad, and some is definitely not human. Whether it’s AI-generated or popped out of a type-to-talk program, I don’t know, but I’m confident people can’t sound that metallic and lifeless. 

Falling into a similar spectrum of personality is the world. While there are particular spots that pop visually or through layout, most of the areas the player will huff it through are bland and lifeless. Worse, the game requires you to visit these areas far too frequently. This only heightens the awareness of just how uninteresting everything is. 

Destiny Rising’s gacha mechanics feel more player-friendly than many other games.

How you navigate the world further hinders any chance of building an appreciation for it. Running and jumping work well, with the double jump delivering impressive maneuverability. But long treks call for a ride on the franchise’s signature vehicle, the sparrow.

This is where traversal falls apart. This thing handles terribly. Combursome and unresponsive at times, it often felt like it would be better to simply run the long distances, despite the added time it would take.

The last element of Destiny Rising is its monetization. Despite being a gacha game, the monetization here feels fairly player-friendly. Premium characters are guaranteed after 60 pulls, with no chance of not getting the character you are pulling for.

Additionally, as the player progresses towards the final pull, the odds of obtaining the desired character increase. It is even visible on the screen what the current odds are. Premium currency also feels fairly common, allowing players to earn a fair number of pulls without spending money.

Leftover pulls also carry over between characters, making the experience feel as user-friendly as a gacha can be. If a limited-time character leaves and you didn’t get them, any pulls you made will move to the next one. This ensures that premium currency is never wasted, and players will always get something in return for their effort.

Destiny Rising is a game I wish I could like. I love a great space opera, and the core of that is here. Good controls and meaningful progression lay a promising foundation. Sadly, little else about playing the game does anything to draw you back in.

Destiny: Rising is available now on iOS and Android devices.