Destiny 2 Renegades Leans Into Star Wars With Mixed Results

Destiny 2: Renegades is a crossover expansion that abandons subtlety. Bungie frames it as a clear embrace of Star Wars influence, not a nod or a wink, but a full adoption of its imagery, tone, and rhythm. The result is an expansion that feels smaller than most major Destiny releases, often padded, sometimes awkward, yet intermittently effective. It does not reset the game’s direction or fix long-standing problems. It does, however, show flashes of confidence in a franchise that has spent the past year circling familiar ground.

This Destiny 2: Renegades Review is based on Travis Northup’s full critique published on IGN, which approaches the expansion as a review rather than a breaking update. Northup’s perspective matters because it comes from long-term engagement with Destiny, not from a surface-level return. His assessment treats Renegades as a content drop meant to be played, tested, repeated, and exhausted, which is exactly where its strengths and limits become visible.

Renegades opens with a story that borrows openly from Star Wars without attempting to disguise the inspiration. Masked villains wield laser swords. Music swells in imitation of John Williams’ orchestration. Early missions recycle iconic scenarios with minimal alteration, from garbage compactors to carbon-freezing stand-ins and hyperspace escapes. The references are obvious enough to cause secondhand embarrassment, yet Bungie commits to them without apology. That commitment gives the expansion a sense of identity Destiny has struggled to maintain recently, even when the writing itself remains corny and predictable.

The narrative arc is short and padded with repeatable activities designed to slow progress. Story missions are separated by mandatory runs of a new mode, Lawless Frontier, which drip-feeds exposition without advancing character or plot in meaningful ways. Several quests reuse the same spaces as this mode, though they occasionally introduce bespoke set pieces, including a mission that culminates in the destruction of a sail barge hovering near a sarlacc-like pit. These moments stand out because they feel authored rather than procedural.

Renegades introduces new characters that mirror familiar Star Wars archetypes. Aunor fills the role of a disciplined Jedi analogue, while Dredgen Bael leans heavily into Sith imagery and theatrical menace. They are not subtle creations, but they are memorable within the expansion’s limited scope. The story concludes with a clean ending that resolves its immediate conflict but leaves Destiny 2’s broader narrative unchanged. It feels self-contained, almost isolated from the universe it inhabits.

Lawless Frontier, the expansion’s central activity, is an extraction-style mode built around three-player teams. Players drop into one of three remixed maps, complete objective-based encounters, collect loot, and extract before time or revives run out. The structure is simple and familiar, especially to anyone versed in Destiny’s strike and public event design. The twist is the extraction layer, which adds risk without significantly raising tension.

“The story is weighed down by added fat that Renegades would be quite short without it.”— Travis Northup

The three available maps are visually striking. Europa is refitted into an icy battlefield reminiscent of Hoth, complete with bunkers and anti-air emplacements. Mars becomes a dune-covered desert channeling Tatooine, though without its wildlife flourishes. Venus transforms into a swamp-forest hybrid evoking Dagobah and Endor. These spaces succeed aesthetically, but enemy variety remains unchanged. Outside of Cabal units dressed in stormtrooper-adjacent armor, players fight the same factions Destiny has used for years.

As a cooperative activity, Lawless Frontier works best during its first few hours. Enemy density is high, loot drops are generous, and the maps initially reward exploration. Repetition sets in quickly. Once players learn spawn patterns and objectives, each run becomes a checklist. Dialogue loops repeat with numbing frequency, and encounters lose surprise. The grind is softened by strong rewards, including high-tier armor sets that arrive faster than expected, but the mode lacks the variety needed to sustain long-term interest.

Renegades attempts to break that monotony with Renegade Abilities. These support tools allow players to call in battlefield assistance such as healing fields or airstrikes. Progressing through Lawless Frontier unlocks more powerful options, culminating in the ability to summon the Behemoth, a towering walker inspired by the AT-ST. Used correctly, it can reshape difficult encounters. The limitation is that these abilities function only within Lawless Frontier. Once players return to story missions or the endgame dungeon, the absence of these tools is noticeable.

PvP invasion mechanics are present but underdeveloped. Solo players can invade other teams’ runs to disrupt progress and steal loot. As an invader, it is easy to score kills, but the intrusion feels disconnected from the mode’s core loop. As a defender, the stakes are low. Extra revives offset losses, and rewards for repelling invaders are minimal. Invasions often occur early, clearing the PvP requirement quickly before the run proceeds as normal.

“I had fun invading other players in Lawless Frontier, but the entire feature feels out of place.”— Travis Northup

The expansion’s most visible addition is the Praxic Blade, Destiny’s version of a lightsaber. These weapons behave similarly to existing swords but introduce deflection mechanics and ranged throws that reflect Star Wars choreography. Unlocking a Praxic Blade involves one of Renegades’ better questlines, and endgame progression revolves around cosmetic variations and modifiers. They are not transformative mechanically, but they are satisfying to use, and their presentation carries much of the expansion’s novelty.

Renegades also adds Heat Weapons, blaster-style firearms that forgo reloading in favor of heat management. Sustained fire builds heat until a cooldown is required. Functionally, this replaces one pause with another, but the difference alters pacing enough to feel distinct. The weapons sound and behave differently from Destiny’s standard arsenal, offering variety even if balance remains familiar.

After the story and Lawless Frontier grind, players reach Equilibrium, a dungeon-style endgame activity. It is shorter than most Destiny dungeons and easier to complete, often taking under two hours for experienced groups. What it lacks in length it compensates for in design. Boss encounters rely on clear mechanics, enemy density remains high, and the environments showcase the expansion’s Star Wars-inspired visual language without restraint. Dual-saber bosses and platforming sequences stand out as highlights. Loot rewards are strong, encouraging repeat runs despite the dungeon’s brevity.

Taken together, Destiny 2: Renegades feels like a deliberate experiment rather than a cornerstone expansion. Its content volume is light, and much of what it offers is stretched thin through repetition. Yet the pieces that work do so because Bungie commits fully to the crossover concept. The tone is lighter, the visuals bolder, and the mechanics occasionally surprising. It does not redefine Destiny 2 or signal a dramatic shift forward. It provides a temporary change in texture, one that may appeal to players drawn back by curiosity or affection for Star Wars rather than by the promise of systemic evolution.

Destiny 2: Renegades is available to play on PC through Steam.