Destiny 2: Renegades Review – Somehow, Destiny Returned

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When I reviewed The Edge of Fate, I mentioned that few Destiny releases had started with such low expectations. Renegades, the second expansion in the current storyline, somehow generated even less excitement. And the numbers back it up – Steam player counts are at an all-time low for this game. It’s fair to say Bungie is in a precarious position right now.

It’s actually somewhat amusing because, overall, Renegades is perfectly fine. Despite borrowing heavily from Star Wars – and doing so in a strange way – it’s a fairly simple game for anyone familiar with Destiny. It doesn’t offer many surprises, and its gameplay feels largely unoriginal. Even the missions where you explore the Lawless Frontier, requesting vehicles and airstrikes similar to Helldivers 2, aren’t nearly as thrilling or engaging.

Despite its flaws, Renegades is still worth checking out. Any new content is a plus, and this installment has some fun gameplay, interesting rewards, and memorable character interactions. However, these elements don’t quite come together to create a truly outstanding or impactful experience.

While these connections are obvious, the story doesn’t directly link to established Star Wars lore. Instead, it uses familiar elements – exciting scenes, the idea of a hidden empire emerging, and a mysterious, hot-tempered villain – to keep the Fate Saga going.

If you’re new to the story, here’s what’s happening: The Vanguard and their allies have been given a difficult choice – either control the Nine, or face complete destruction. At the same time, Drifter has a vision of a powerful empire, the Barant Imperium (similar to the First Order from Star Wars), and decides to investigate on his own. He brings along Eris Morn, Eido, the player, and a new character named Aunor from the Praxic Order to help.

The scene immediately throws us into the action, with the Imperium pursuing the Derelict in a way that clearly echoes the iconic opening of A New Hope, even mirroring the hallway sequence. It raises a question: where does the player, who is incredibly powerful enough to devour worlds, fit into all of this? They seem absent at first, but quickly board the Imperium’s ship to save Drifter, who is frozen in a substance similar to carbonite, and retrieve a coded data disc. It’s pretty easy to guess what the disc contains – information about a space station equipped with a huge laser.

While the connections to Star Wars are obvious, this story doesn’t directly fit into the official Star Wars timeline. Instead, it uses familiar elements – surprising twists, a hidden empire emerging, and a villain with a quick temper – to move the Fate Saga forward. Don’t expect to understand everything if you’re new to the series. Even longtime fans, like myself, are left with unanswered questions, such as why Six, one of the Inner Nine, would assist the main villain, Bael.

Beyond the story, the game heavily borrows from Star Wars. You’ve got energy swords (essentially lightsabers), blasters, and a shady spaceport called Tharsis Outpost that feels straight out of a cantina. The game even recreates iconic Star Wars locations on other planets – Mars has a sarlacc pit, Spider has a Jabba the Hutt-style barge, and Europa feels like a less impressive Hoth. It’s unclear why these elements were added, but thankfully, the music is fantastic, blending familiar Destiny themes with classic Star Wars instrumentals to create a perfect atmosphere.

Many viewers have noted that this storyline feels familiar. We’ve seen this play out before – the Vanguard prioritizing the safety of the Last City with questionable logic, the heroes reluctantly working with criminal groups, and even a massive space station with powerful lasers. One sequence even closely mirrors a ‘trash compactor’ scene from a previous Exotic mission. This isn’t surprising, as Destiny draws heavily from Star Wars, including its themes of light versus darkness.

It’s a little strange to see the game borrowing ideas again from its own past, especially after they removed a popular expansion, Forsaken, which had many of the same concepts. Forsaken was actually a much stronger expansion, but that’s another point.

While the game has a good initial mission, it doesn’t offer many substantial campaign levels overall. The highest difficulty setting feels surprisingly easy, especially when playing alone. Some parts of the game are fun, but it often feels repetitive and doesn’t quite live up to expectations.

Compared to The Edge of Fate, Renegades thankfully avoids confusing mechanics like Mattersparking and puzzle-solving with Matterweave and the Relocator. Instead, it focuses on fast-paced action with a unique take on enemy shields – you need to keep dealing damage to break through them (and the new blasters definitely help!). However, the campaign is quite short, with only a few missions after the initial one. Even on the highest difficulty, Legendary, it feels surprisingly easy, especially if you’re playing alone.

The game has its highs and lows. While some parts are fun, others feel slow and underwhelming. Even though I enjoyed the ending, the final boss fight itself is surprisingly simple and lacks depth. Piloting the walker and causing destruction is enjoyable for a while, but battling tougher enemies on the modified Pike feels repetitive. One highlight is the ‘Fire and Ice’ Exotic mission, which unlocks the Praxic Blade. It can be challenging initially, but once you get the hang of it, the combination of jumping, puzzles, and fighting flows really well.

While completing story missions, you’ll also spend time in the Lawless Frontier, and that’s where Renegades starts to feel very familiar to other Destiny games. You’ll be doing things you’ve seen countless times before: powering up mining drills with enemy drops, depositing orbs, escorting payloads, fighting waves of enemies, and holding positions to fill progress bars. The cargo-carrying objective is particularly frustrating, but everything generally works. The new Renegade Abilities, like airstrikes and deployable vehicles, are a welcome addition, and they’re even more useful in the Territory War mode after the main story.

Lawless Frontier sometimes disrupts the flow of the main story with unnecessary tasks. While it’s not as bad as simply running back and forth for minor things like talking to Zavala and then checking in with my Ghost, it still feels like a lot of time wasted on things that could have been handled more efficiently. It’s frustrating that this issue – having to do pointless tasks – has been happening for a long time.

The new blasters are a highlight, offering enjoyable benefits like extra damage and the chance to make enemies explode when they overheat. These perks add a fun twist to the usual gameplay of managing heat – it’s better to release it regularly than let your weapon overheat. While I don’t love the new heavy sniper rifle, it’s still a welcome addition to the game.

Earn contracts, increase your standing with a syndicate, and you’ll get special rewards like new Renegade Abilities, weapons, and customization options. While these rewards aren’t entirely new to Destiny 2, the different syndicates and what they offer are diverse enough to keep things interesting.

The Praxic Blade is enjoyable to play, offering powerful attack combinations and the ability to reflect damage back at enemies. You can also customize almost everything about it, from its color to its stats. While throwing the blade can be satisfying for clearing groups of enemies, it’s not always reliable, especially when it returns to you. I didn’t explore the new Strand machine gun, Service of Luzaku, much, but the Warlock Exotic, Deimosuffusion, was a blast. It lets you suspend enemies in rifts and unleash a swarm of Threadlings, and it was fun even with a less-than-ideal stat build.

After finishing the main story, the post-game content involves choosing a syndicate to work with and completing their Contracts. While these missions fit well into the game, they aren’t the open-ended sandboxes some players might have hoped for. Like the story missions, you complete a few tasks and then leave. It’s a little disappointing that there isn’t much to explore or find in these missions beyond a few extra objectives or chests containing upgrades.

The new challenges are tough, but they fit well with the game’s already busy combat and Invasion events, where another player can drop in to fight alongside or against you. There are a few minor glitches, like defenses sometimes appearing slowly or objects becoming impossible to destroy, which can halt progress. I also experienced some strange respawn points after dying, sending me further back than expected.

As you complete contracts and increase your rank with different factions, you’ll earn special rewards like new Renegade Abilities, weapons, and cosmetic items. While these rewards aren’t entirely new to Destiny 2, the variety of factions and what they offer makes the system worthwhile.

This wasn’t intended to be the turning point for the series, the one that would finally get things on track, but as usual, I’m left wanting something more.

A new dungeon released this week gives players more to do, and Bungie has made leveling up easier by removing Unstable Cores and adding helpful filters to the Vault. The new ‘Orders’ system, which automatically refills and provides options beyond Pathfinders and Bounties, consistently rewards players with XP and Bright Dust.

I’m still not entirely convinced this is a good deal. For $40, the content missing from Renegades – specifically, no Strikes or Crucible maps, only one Exotic item per class, and no new areas to explore (Tharsis Outpost doesn’t really count) – feels like too much of a sacrifice. It wouldn’t bother me as much if the game offered a lot of new and innovative ideas, but much of it feels repetitive and uninspired, especially considering previous installments had better stories and missions.

If you stopped playing Destiny 2 after The Edge of Fate, Renegades is worth checking out. It might be a pleasant surprise even for longtime, disappointed players, offer rewarding loot for dedicated fans, and even bring back fond memories of Star Wars. While it doesn’t completely fix the game, I still find myself wanting more content.

This game was reviewed on PC.

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2025-12-08 21:13