Which is funny because, for all intents and purposes, Renegades is decent. For all its Star Wars trappings – and the way they’re adapted is nothing less than odd – it’s a pretty straightforward experience if you’re a Destiny player. There’s nothing here that will really shock or surprise, and few gameplay mechanics that feel fresh. Even those missions that see you venturing through the Lawless Frontier, calling down vehicles and airstrikes a la Helldivers 2 before extracting, are nowhere near as exciting, compelling or involving.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth playing. New content is new content, after all. Even if it’s considered little more than an Episode or a paid Season, Renegades has some enjoyable moments, some interesting loot, and some notable character moments. They just don’t equate to a meaningful whole that really stands out.

"As overt and blatant as these references feel, there is no direct tie-in to the Star Wars canon. Rather, it’s the moments and setpieces, the prospect of this secret empire suddenly rising, and an enigmatic villain with temper issues, that’s leveraged to continue the Fate Saga."

If you haven’t followed The Edge of Fate, the Vanguard and its allies receive an ultimatum to bind the Nine or face extinction. Meanwhile, Drifter sees a vision of the Barant Imperium – Temu Galactic Empire, in this case, though they’re more akin to the First Order – and heads off to try and presumably deal with the problem himself. This also involves taking Eris Morn, Eido, the player, and a newcomer, Aunor of the Praxic Order, along for the ride.

Sans any text crawl, we cut to the Imperium chasing after the Derelict in a clear homage to A New Hope, right down to the hallway scene. Where is the player, the literal Eater of Worlds, in terms of power in this franchise? Apparently missing, but soon, they board the Imperium’s ship to rescue Drifter – encased in a carbonite-like Stasis block – and recover an encrypted data disc. Who wants to guess what’s on it? If you answered, “information on a space station with a massive laser,” you get a prize.

As overt and blatant as these references feel, there is no direct tie-in to the Star Wars canon. Rather, it’s the moments and setpieces, the prospect of this secret empire suddenly rising, and an enigmatic villain with temper issues, that’s leveraged to continue the Fate Saga. So if you’re wondering whether you can jump in and expect everything to make sense, I have bad news. Heck, I still have a lot of questions over why Six, a member of the Inner Nine, even helped the new big bad, Bael, in the first place.

There are other elements in play, from the lightsaber – er Praxic Blade (it’s a lightsaber, let’s be real), the blasters and the hive of scum and villainy that is Tharsis Outpost, to the camera wipes, establishing shots, iconic sound effects and even the “Star Wars-ification” of old locations. Mars has a sarlacc pit now, and Spider has a Jabba the Hutt-like barge. Europa is a poor man’s Hoth. Since when and why? Your guess is as good as mine. At least the music is excellent, flitting back and forth between familiar Destiny and Star Wars instrumentals to create this uniquely fitting symphony.

As so many have pointed out already, however, we’ve been here narrative-wise. The Vanguard hanging back to ensure the safety of The Last City (except the reasoning here is far dumber); the crew tapping into the less savory elements, namely three criminal syndicates, for assistance; the giant laser-firing space station – even the trash compactor sequence has already been done in a previous Exotic mission. Of course, so much is similar because Destiny was inspired by Star Wars, right down to the Light and Darkness.

It isn’t the biggest killjoy, but seeing the inspiree circling back to the inspiration and treating it as fresh, especially after removing the beloved campaign with so many similar elements (Forsaken), is just bizarre. Forsaken is also far better, but I digress.

"However, along with the starting mission, there are only a handful of proper campaign missions – the Legendary difficulty also feels like a joke, and that’s while playing solo. They can be enjoyable in some parts but also tend to drag and disappoint in others."

Unlike The Edge of Fate, you’re mercifully not Mattersparking around, or forced to solve puzzles with Matterweave and the Relocator. Renegades’ campaign fashions itself very much as an action-packed ride with an intriguing twist on enemy shields, where sustained damage is required to break them (though they seem more susceptible to the new blasters). However, along with the starting mission, there are only a handful of proper campaign missions – the Legendary difficulty also feels like a joke, and that’s while playing solo.

They can be enjoyable in some parts but also tend to drag and disappoint in others. Much as I like the finale, the actual final boss is a complete non-entity with the most basic mechanics. While it’s fun to traipse around in an AT-ST-like Walker, blowing everything up for as long as it can survive, fighting against some Strand-hardened variants on a modified Pike is tedious. Fire and Ice, the Exotic mission that grants the Praxic Blade, is a big stand-out – it can be frustrating at first, but once figured out, the mix of platforming, puzzle-solving, and combat is well-paced.

In between all these missions, you’ll be heading to the Lawless Frontier, and this is where Renegades truly begins to feel like the usual tired Destiny. Charging mining drills with charges gathered from slain enemies, dunking orbs, escorting the payload, just plain slaying waves of enemies, standing in spots to fill a defense progress bar – nothing you haven’t seen before, though the cargo carrying objective is terrible. It just works, I suppose, and the new Renegade Abilities, those airstrikes and deployable vehicles, are a nice addition, even if they’re more impactful in the post-campaign Territory War.

Lawless Frontier tends to break up the pacing of the more important story beats with busy work, but not as much as menial tasks like heading to Zavala’s office to speak to him, and then returning to Tharsis to answer a call on my Ghost. It’s one string of “this could have been an email” after another with some of these characters, and the fact that this has been an issue since seasons were a thing is mind-boggling.

As for the loot, the new blaster archetypes are surprisingly well-executed with some fun perks – like increased damage and exploding enemies at high heat levels. These put a nice spin on the otherwise risk/reward element of the archetype, where venting heat periodically is advised instead of overheating. I’m not the biggest fan of the new heavy sniper rifle, but it’s a neat addition all the same.

"Rack up enough contracts, rank up with a syndicate, and you’ll unlock unique rewards, from more Renegade Abilities to specific weapon archetypes and shaders. Again, nothing that hasn’t been seen in Destiny 2 before, but the syndicates and their rewards are varied enough to make it work."

And yes, the Praxic Blade is fun to use, offering some strong combos and good reflect damage alongside extensive customization from the blade color to the frame and stats. The throwing mechanic could be better – as satisfying as it can feel to take down a group of foes, it sometimes whiffs entirely, especially on the way back. I didn’t spend much time with Service of Luzaku, the new Strand machine gun, but Deimosuffusion, the Warlock Exotic, felt like a fun time, with its rift-induced suspensions and Threadlings going wild, even with unoptimized stats.

Once you’ve beaten the story, the post-campaign consists of allying with a specific syndicate and completing Contracts. They’re seamless enough, though my hopes of sandboxes where my team could endlessly chain objectives together on a single map before extracting were swiftly dashed. Instead, like the story versions, you’re completing a handful of tasks and then extracting when told to do so. The fact that there isn’t much to discover in these missions outside of the occasional optional objective and chest with Enhancement Cores is a bummer.

But they’re more challenging at this point, pairing well with the already excellent enemy density and Invasions, where a lone player enters your instance to try and rack up some kills. Some occasional bugs may occur from cargo defense pads not materializing immediately, or an asset becoming invulnerable, effectively blocking you from destroying it and completing the objective. I was also sent back quite a ways during some deaths for reasons I can’t quite fathom.

Anyway, rack up enough contracts, rank up with a syndicate, and you’ll unlock unique rewards, from more Renegade Abilities to specific weapon archetypes and shaders. Again, nothing that hasn’t been seen in Destiny 2 before, but the syndicates and their rewards are varied enough to make it work.

"While never meant to be this giant momentum shift for the franchise that would finally steer it in the right direction, I find myself, as always, yearning for more."

With a new dungeon out this week, there will be other content for fans to burn through, and Bungie’s various changes to leveling – including the removal of Unstable Cores – make for a smoother grind (and the new Vault filters are a long, long time coming). Even the Orders, automatically restocked and serving as an alternative to Pathfinder and Bounties, offer a consistent flow of XP and Bright Dust.

However, I’m still on the fence about all this. For $40, the content that Renegades lacks – no Strikes or Crucible maps, only one Exotic gear piece per class, no new region (unless you count Tharsis Outpost, which you shouldn’t) – cuts a little too deep. I probably wouldn’t mind it so much if there were tons of fresh ideas – instead, a good portion feels very “Been there, done that,” except those times had better characters and mission design.

If The Edge of Fate dissuaded you from ever engaging with Destiny 2 again, then Renegades is at least worth a try. It may pleasantly surprise the most jaded fans, offer some enjoyable loot for the most hardcore, and maybe remind you of the good times in the Star Wars universe. While never meant to be this giant momentum shift for the franchise that would finally steer it in the right direction, I find myself, as always, yearning for more.

This game was reviewed on PC.

In a financial call part of the recent earnings report, Sony CFO Lin Tao spoke about Destiny 2 and the pressure that Bungie and Sony have been facing from a competitive market. This, according to Tao, has led to sales and engagement levels missing the mark, especially when compared to what Sony was expecting when it had acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion back in 2022.

“Regarding Destiny 2, partially due to the changes in the competitive environment, the level of sales and user engagement have not reached the expectation we had at the time of the acquisition of Bungie,” said Tao. “While we will continue to make improvements, we downwardly revised the business projection for the time being and recorded an impairment loss against a portion of the assets at Bungie.”

When it comes to year-on-year results, Sony has seen overall losses of around ¥18 billion in its operating income, with the company citing the poor performance of Destiny 2, as well as the expenses incurred “from a correction in the amount of certain previously capitalized development costs.”

Bungie has been continuously trying to turn its fortunes around by releasing new content for Destiny 2. While the player count for the online shooter has been dropping quite a bit, the studio is getting ready for the launch of the Renegades expansion for Destiny 2 on December 2. Earlier this month, a new trailer for Destiny 2: Renegades had been released showcasing some of the new weapons and gear that players will have the chance to earn.

Among the things we saw in the trailer were Star Wars-themed weapons like the Uncivil Discourse, which is designed to look like a blaster from Disney’s sci-fi franchise. There is also the Modified B-7 Pistol, which can make enemies explode into a shower of crystals made up of the Stasis element, as well as the Refurbished A499 heavy sniper rifle.

Some of the story from Destiny 2: Renegades was also showcased through a ViDoc released back in September. Players will get to infiltrate a criminal underworld to help save a friend that wasn’t able to escape their own past. Narrative director Alison Lührs had also spoken about the collaboration between Bungie and LucasFilm for the development of Renegades.

“The folks at LucasFilm were such great collaborators,” said Lührs. “They understood that, in order for this to work, we had to find where the Venn diagram of art and stories meet. Themes of underdogs rising up against something much larger than themselves, themes of those little places in that Venn diagram were the ones that really helped us find the stories that we want to tell together.”

Destiny 2: Renegades is coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Check out details about the previous expansion, The Edge of Fate, in our review.

You have the standard Blasters, including Uncivil Discourse, which dissipates heat instead of reloading and the Modified B-7 Pistol, where kills cause targets to explode into a rain of Stasis crystals. Those who want to fulfill the Tusken Raider fantasy can use the Refurbished A499, a heavy sniper rifle which reloads after every shot. There’s even a Wookie Bowcaster-style weapon, the Heirloom, which fires explosive bolts.

As for Exotics, Hunters get Fortune’s Favor, boots that cause shields to recharge over time into an overshield. Warlocks can suspend enemies with Rifts and deal damage over time with Deimosuffusion. And Titans? They get Praxic Vestment, which unlocks an “advanced tactical air move.” In short, a jet pack, and it looks fantastic.

Destiny 2: Renegades launches on December 2nd. Check out September’s ViDoc to learn more about its story and activities (which channel Helldivers 2 in more than a few ways).

One of the core aspects of Destiny 2: Renegades touched upon in the video is just how much the upcoming expansion feels like it’s right out of Star Wars. Along with the poster and other art work for the title evoking classic Star Wars movie posters, the expansion will also bring with it weaponry inspired by the sci-fi movie franchise, including lightsabres with the ability to throw them and pull them back, just like a Jedi warrior.

The story of Destiny 2: Renegades revolves around the player Guardians infiltrating a criminal underworld in order to save a friend who wasn’t able to escape their past. This friend is also seemingly being kept in a frozen block, once again evoking the Carbonite-based imprisonment faced by Han Solo in Empire Strikes Back. The Star Wars inspirations largely came as a result of a special collaboration between Bungie and LucasFilm Games.

“The folks at LucasFilm were such great collaborators,” said narrative director Alison Lührs in the video. “They understood that, in order for this to work, we had to find where the Venn diagram of art and stories meet. Themes of underdogs rising up against something much larger than themselves, themes of those little places in that Venn diagram were the ones that really helped us find the stories that we want to tell together.”

Design director James Tsai spoke about the intersection of Destiny and Star Wars in the overall sci-fi genre. He also brought up comparisons between the two universes, like Dredgen from Destiny being quite similar to the Sith from Star Wars, as well as how similar the new Cabal faction is to the Empire.

“If you look Star Wars and you look at Destiny, you can kind of see that parallel that exists,” noted Tsai. “For instance, our Dredgen, they’re our Sith. And then you’ve got the Barant Imperium, and they’re very very Empire-like. They have a huge appetite for expansion.”

“I think of the Praxic Order,” continued Lührs. “They’re our Jedi in this release, and they are very focused on order and law, and understanding that there is a binary in our universe of good and evil. We get to poke at that a little bit in a way that suits our story and our world, while still feeling very much like the inspiration that we’re calling from.”

When it comes to gameplay, we also get a look at the sorts of chaos that players can expect when they take on some of the new activities available in the expansion. The video also highlights how fast-paced these new adventures will be, with creative lead Tom Farnsworth noting that players can quickly take on the missions from the Lawless Frontier Holomap, jump in, cause chaos, complete objectives, and leave, or die trying.

Destiny 2: Renegades is slated for release on December 2, and will be coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. For more details about the current state of the online shooter, check out our review of the previous expansion – Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate.

How it ties into the Destiny universe is unknown, but it features many elements from the sci-fi universe, such as the Empire, the underworld, Blasters and Lightsabers. A new Dredgen is also seemingly lurking, and while there won’t be a new raid, players can venture into a brand-new Dungeon (with a World’s First race on Contest Mode expected).

Renegades arrives on December 2nd, but in the interim, players can venture into the latest upcoming update, Ash and Iron. Going live on the day of the reveal stream, it promises new gear, Artifact mods, modifiers, events, and sandbox changes. The Desert Perpetual will also receive a new Epic difficulty.

Stay tuned for more details and check out our review for The Edge of Fate here. Player numbers on Steam have dwindled significantly since its release, so hopefully Ash and Iron offers a significant shot in the arm.

LucasArts is also involved, so what’s going on? According to a press release, the premise involves diving into the “criminal underworld” of a lawless frontier to “take down an evil empire” and reveal a “new Dredgen.” Players will build their power, “credits,” and notoriety, which all sound distinctly Star Wars-esque.

However, Bungie outlined in a separate post that Renegades is “inspired” by Star Wars and seeks to merge the shooter’s “distinctive storytelling and gameplay” with “themes and elements drawn from the iconic sci-fi franchise.” As such, you can look forward to new characters and activities alongside “evolved” mechanics that will “surprise and delight.”

Those looking for something more imminently playable can look forward to The Edge of Fate on July 15th. It sees players venturing to a new planet, Kepler, and dealing with The Nine at the start of a new multi-year journey. They’ll experiment with Dark Matter to traverse the location, run into some new faces, and dive into another raid, which goes live on July 19th.