Do you need to play Destiny from the beginning to enjoy Rise of Iron?

Destiny is a game that is made for those of you who love using tons of guns to shoot your way through waves upon waves of enemies. While there is a story and a mythology that is twined through the game, it isn't where the emphasis of gameplay is seated. Instead it's more like window dressing. It gives you enough to make you fight towards the next mission, but the story is never really the point of the game. Which is why it's so easy to jump right into Rise of Iron, without playing the earlier content.

You have choices

If you're brand new to Destiny, then it might be easy to get bogged down in the initial story. You should at the very least play through the tutorial mission, so that you have a decent grasp on the gameplay mechanics. However, when you purchase Rise of Iron, you'll get access to a Token which can auto level you up to 40.

That token is how you can essentially skip through all of the earlier content, so that you can jump directly into Rise of Iron. While this isn't the way that everyone wants to do things, for the people who are really only interested in Rise of Iron this lets you get directly to the part of the game that you want to play.

Are you missing out?

By jumping directly into Rise of Iron, you are bypassing the original story as well as The Taken King. This means that you're going to be seeing enemies that look different, and are much nastier than their original counterparts — but you wouldn't know that. By bypassing all of that earlier content, it does mean that you won't have all of the context about what is going on, story-wise.

That doesn't actually put you that far behind the curve though. The story in Destiny, thus far, isn't overwhelming. While it makes up the narrative of the game, it was pretty thin until the Taken King and Rise of Iron expansions landed. So while yes, you are technically missing out on part of the game, it isn't lost just because you decided to leap into Rise of Iron.

You also don't lose out on that earlier content. You always have the option to go back and play the parts of the game that you've skipped over. They won't be as difficult as they would have been initially, but they're still fun to play. This means that even if you skip the earlier content, you can always circle back around to play through the original story.

Have you been running with the Lords of Iron? Did you skip the earlier content to get right to the new stuff? Be sure to drop a line in our comment section below and tell us all about it!

Jen Karner

Jen is a contributing writer for WindowsCentral. She's an avid gamer, especially when she gets to kill zombies, craft things, or use a bow. She can often be heard yelling about her chainsaw while playing Gears of War 4. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.