Bungie's Chris Barrett and Scott Taylor share new details on how the upcoming Rise of Iron expansion adds a new twist to the existing Destiny experience.

It's been almost two years since Destiny was first released, and in just a few weeks, the game is set to receive its biggest expansion to date. Now, Bungie's Chris Barrett and Scott Taylor have given fans some insight on what to expect when Rise of Iron drops next month.

The pair were eager to talk up the sprawling size of this second full-scale Destiny expansion. Apparently the team intended to create a DLC package that was bigger than last year's House of Wolves, but the finished product turned out to be even larger than intended.

The game world available for Guardians to explore is scheduled to grow with the release of Rise of Iron. The footage that accompanies the Game Informer interview with Barrett and Taylor shows off some of the vast Plaguelands area in Old Russia, which becomes accessible over the course of the expansion.

The first mission in the Plaguelands challenges players to ascend a mountain and clear out Fallen to reclaim a social space. Once this has been done, the area becomes populated with NPC wolves, new vendors, and even some well-hidden secrets, which will no doubt appeal to players who enjoyed the Dreadnaught location from The Taken King.

One such element will apparently put Guardians on the hunt for various artifacts related to the Iron Lords. Once collected, these trinkets will light various torches littered around the social area — which might suggest that collecting them all will result in some sort of further secret being revealed.

Barrett and Taylor also opened up about some of their favorite bits of gameplay from Rise of Iron. The pair hyped up the game's closing mission, describing it as "awesome," and made reference to a gondola ride where players are assaulted by hordes of Fallen.

This might call to mind similar stretches of gameplay from the Halo series, which used moving platforms on the battlefield to great effect while Bungie was at the helm. A similar section in Rise of Iron sounds like a winning addition to the game's campaign.

All in all, Rise of Iron seems to be shaping up very well — and the expansion needs to deliver, now that The Division is providing some stiff competition for Destiny in the interconnected online shooter genre. Ubisoft's effort was a big hit when it released earlier this year, but it will be interesting to see how many players return to Destiny once Rise of Iron is available.

Destiny: Rise of Iron is set to release for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on September 20, 2016.

Source: Game Informer, Reddit