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With Rise of Iron details flooding the news yesterday, it made me stop and think about Destiny as a whole. We've all been there, I know, but I came to the conclusion that there's nothing wrong with being excited for the upcoming expansion – there's actually nothing wrong with liking Destiny. What a revelation!

The Internet is a largely negative place – especially when it comes to video games. You'll often see people getting hung out to dry for being interested in or enjoying certain titles, and it's all very, very petty. Anyone with the right attitude will tell you that you should just play games you find fun and leave it at that – but it's not always so easy. Destiny is a prime example of this.

I've personally written almost 170 articles about Destiny here on Push Square. That's insane. But what's even more insane is that if you trawl through every single one of those comments sections, you'll start to notice that the majority of users who decided to share their thoughts actively dislike Bungie's shooter – and this certainly isn't something that's unique to Push Square.

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All across the 'net, people hate on Destiny like it's the bane of their existence. Taking a dump on something popular is nothing new, but for some, directing their ire towards the sci-fi loot-'em-up is almost obsessive. I'm not saying that the game's immune to criticism – far from it – but I find it fascinating that, even two whole years after its release, Destiny still proves to be so extremely divisive.

Heck, part of the problem is that Destiny is even divisive among its fans. I bought into the hype, I played the the alpha and the beta, and I sunk about 60 hours into the base game before I got sick and tired of grinding for legendary engrams. I wanted to get back into the swing of things, but The Dark Below and House of Wolves did very little to pull me back into the fray.

At this point, I was just about ready to shelve Destiny for good, but then The Taken King toddled along and I was genuinely impressed. Now, after reading up on Rise of Iron, I'm excited all over again. The simple truth is that I've never had such a love-hate relationship with a game, and I know all too well that Rise of Iron will do little to change this. I'm sure I'm not only one who's had this experience with Destiny.

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But is there really anything wrong with loving a release one minute and then being bored to tears the next? Is there really anything wrong with being caught up in the hype time and time again, even though you know that it's probably going to end the exact same way? You could make an argument either way, but I think for most of us interested in Destiny, only one thing matters: the game is still fun to play.

I've said this a few times before, but it still holds true: if Destiny wasn't as polished as it is, if its gunplay wasn't as snappy and satisfying, it'd have been tossed aside months ago. Remember when people said that The Division would kill off what was left of Destiny? The reality is that Ubisoft's similar effort just wasn't up to the task. You can badmouth Destiny as much as you want, but you can't deny that it has something. Whether it's the punchy gunplay, the RPG elements, or the co-op excellence – it's doing something right, and it always has done.

So yeah, I think it's perfectly fine to like Destiny – and if you're looking forward to Rise of Iron, I think that's just dandy, too. At the end of the day, Bungie's creation is always going to attract naysayers. Many of them have valid points, many of them don't have a clue, but none of them should stop you from enjoying Destiny – or any game, for that matter.


Do you still play Destiny? Can you relate to Ramsey's love-hate relationship with Bungie's shooter? Are you hyped for Rise of Iron? Let us know where your Guardian stands in the comments section below.