While Bungie has been hard at work laying out the future of Destiny 2, a brand new Destiny game has just been announced. No, it’s not Destiny 3 – it’s actually an intriguing mobile spin off called Destiny Rising that has PvE and PvP modes, an alternate timeline, and features several notable and new characters from the game’s vast universe.
There have been murmurs of a Destiny mobile game for some time and now the cat is finally out of the bag. It would have been almost impossible for Destiny Rising, which is being developed by NetEase but has official licensing from Bungie, to replicate the type of experience you currently get in Destiny 2 on PC and consoles. However, it does look pretty impressive at a first glance.
While Destiny 2’s is all about what happens next, Destiny Rising takes us back to an “unexplored era of Destiny,” according to art director Alex Yan. This is set much earlier in the Destiny timeline than the main series games, and even predates the construction of The Tower and formation of the Hunter, Titan, and Warlock classes. While there will be some recognizable names (more on those in a moment) and locations and will draw heavily from the space game‘s lore, Destiny Rising will not be canon to the main games and takes place in its own timeline.
It is a third-person shooter RPG that will let you play with both your own, customizable Guardian and a roster of pre-made characters, each with different weapon loadout and ability options. As mentioned, there are no defined classes here, and there are some never-before seen Super abilities featured in its announcement trailer. Some characters already mentioned include key figures like Ikora Rey and some that have only ever made small appearances or been mentioned in lore, such as Jolder, an original member of the Iron Lords.
It sounds as if there will be a very healthy array of game modes here, from rapid Haven Ops Strikes that will take just a few minutes, to Gauntlet Ops that will “put your raiding skills to the test.” There will be competitive PvP modes as well.
Destiny Rising follows in the footsteps of big mobile shooter spinoffs like PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile and will no doubt be hoping to be just as successful. This isn’t NetEase’s first rodeo in making mobile games for major videogame IP either – it has either fully developed or co-developed the likes of Diablo Immortal and Dead By Daylight Mobile previously.
Destiny Rising currently has no release date but a closed alpha is coming on Friday, November 1. However, it’s only open to those in the US and Canada for the time being. You can learn more about it and sign up for it here.
So, it might not be the Destiny 3 that many fans were hoping for, but Destiny Rising does look like a genuinely promising project if you ask me. Even if the gameplay doesn’t end up setting the world ablaze, there’s at least going to be a smorgasbord of new storylines, characters, lore, and abilities to sift through – even if it isn’t canon, I’m never going to turn down more Destiny content.
For more like Destiny Rising, check out this list of the best mobile games from our friends over at Pocket Tactics. Alternatively, keep things closer to home with our recommendations for the best FPS games.
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