A Non-Spoiler Review of 'Destiny 2: Renegades'
mage Source: Bungie
Destiny 2: Renegades was fascinating from the first teaser posted by Bungie. Made in partnership with Lucasfilm, no one had any idea what it would bring. Some assumed it would be equal to Star Wars’ collabs with Fortnite, and there are elements to that in the DLC thanks to new cosmetics, but the wider picture is that Renegades is a fairly solid fusion of Star Wars elements into the existing Destiny universe. Here is our review of this second chapter in the Fate Saga, without spoilers.
Gameplay
Unlike The Edge of Fate, Renegades does not introduce new traversal powers or base abilities, broadly maintaining with the existing Destiny 2 sandbox of mechanics. However, there were new elements added on a smaller scale in the form of activity-specific abilities and new weapon types. The new Renegade Abilities allow players to call in various forms of support during the new set of activities introduced in Renegades through the Lawless Frontier.
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Image Source: Bungie
You can only take two Abilities per mission, and there is a broad spread of them, so various gameplay types should be well covered by these various boosts. From missile barrages to large temporary healing areas, players also need to be careful when activating these abilities, as their character will flip a coin and then throw it where they are currently looking, meaning aiming is still required to make maximum use of the new powers.
The new weapons, meanwhile, are part of the Star Wars-vibe added in with this expansion, with a new weapon category called Blasters making their debuts. As opposed to ammo cartridge-style guns, Blasters gradually build up heat, much like they do in Star Wars titles like Outlaws and Battlefront, and can be reset as a form of “reload” or be allowed to naturally cool down on their own. In addition to blasters, the Praxic Blade is a new style of sword for Destiny 2 with strong visuals linking it to the lightsabers of a galaxy far, far away. It plays pretty well, though its ability to be thrown out in a devastating attack, before being recalled to the hand, is a bit unreliable, sometimes missing enemies or taking a long while to return to the hand.
Image Source: Bungie
Graphics
Much like our The Edge of Fate review, Destiny 2 has a solid visual presentation, with rich environments, and on PlayStation 5, solid graphical fidelity. Not everything is absolutely perfect, as walking around the new social area of Tharsis Outpost, you can find the usual oddities and strange textures. But these are often existing issues or limitations, not new problems. The new combat arenas built for the Lawless Frontier to run out of look great though, with the return to Venus bringing a nice vibrant arboreal environment reminiscent of Endor (or Yavin IV), Europa’s icy caverns and surface trenches truly feels like Hoth, while Mars’ sandy surfaces mimic Tatooine enough despite being packed with objects and locations in comparison to the desolate dunes. There are ultimately few to no notable graphical issues across the game.
Story
Going into Renegades, the biggest questions revolved around the story, and there is a lot to like with this expansion’s explorations of a new element of Destiny 2’s universe. While the re-energized militaristic Cabal faction of the Barant Imperium is the obvious threat (we also seemingly learn the Cabal species name as Barant, not Cabal, which is a term for the broader empire the giant space rhinos originate from), the game’s story also explores smaller elements built up over the past several years of storytelling. These small pieces come into the light with this expansion and set up an interesting situation, which might hint at where future expansions will turn. But as this is a spoiler-free discussion, we cannot get into those elements here.
Image Source: Bungie
As for the Star Wars elements: certainly, the Star Wars DNA is very strong in this expansion. Outside of visual nods, we get a number of tongue-in-cheek dialogue moments, as well as story elements. However, for as much as Star Wars has been injected, Destiny’s core identity remains. Star Wars moments happen, but they are subverted or twisted in ways sometimes funny and other times serious. Rarely did this reviewer find events to be overtly jarring, though the odd eye-roll did occur at some of the dialogue nods. Whether this fusion of elements on a story level is successful ultimately comes down to the individual, though. This reviewer thinks it worked, but others may feel differently.
Pros And Cons
It is difficult to talk pros and cons with Renegades because the nature of Destiny 2 has changed. This is not the same sort of expansion as we might have gotten three years ago; the game’s releases are going to be smaller going forward, and that shows here. There are no wholly new planets or destinations, and we didn’t get anything notable in terms of subclass-related powers (beyond a traditional across-the-board tune-up to various abilities that come with all expansions to the game). Yet despite the smaller scale in content terms, story and lore-wise, things are looking great. We talked about how Renegades includes discussion of background information that has been boiling for far longer than the threat of the Nine, but the strong hints both at what the next, smaller, content drop is in a few months, as well as the next major expansion, look to pay off further elements. The next major expansion, in particular, is seemingly taking longtime Destiny players to a location which has been alluded to for YEARS, which is incredibly exciting!
Image Source: Bungie
But this reviewer cannot forget that they are a Destiny fan, and this expansion might just have been more of the same. Even with the new Star Wars flavor added to the meal, is this comfort food too familiar to franchise fans? Can it entice newcomers into the world? People claim that it is, that Destiny is too repetitive, but they’ve been saying that for years, and still the game carries on. This new era of the game seems to be getting off to a good start, though, with some tweaks and changes to the old systems (and corrections to changes which fans deemed too radical), as well as a continued focus on the narrative, which is to its benefit. The lore and world of Destiny 2 are incredibly strong and deep, and it continues to deepen with the involvement of the Nine. Hopefully, this first year in the Fate Saga ends on a strong note in the coming months.
Verdict
Renegades is a solid expansion that continues to build on the story presented in The Edge of Fate, including existing characters alongside familiar faces formerly outside of the events on Kepler. Its large-scale injection of Star Wars influence is managed well in this reviewer’s opinion, with new weapons and gameplay elements adding some nice new content into the game. There are some questions as to the game’s future and the scope of expectations for what these smaller DLCs will be like for Destiny 2, but all in all, it is a job well done.
Rating: 8/10
Developer: Bungie; Publisher: Bungie; Players: Harrison Edgar; Released: December BLANKth, 2025; ESRB: T; MSRP: [$49.99]
Review played on PS5.
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