Destiny 2: Renegades Review Summary

Significant Improvement Over Past Content: Players widely praise the new content as a substantial upgrade from previous expansions, particularly 'Edge of Fate.' They describe the overall experience as highly enjoyable, fun, and a much-needed breath of fresh air, indicating a positive shift in game direction and a return to form.

Innovative New Weapons & Abilities: The introduction of new weaponry, particularly the Praxic Blade (lightsaber) and unique blaster archetypes, is very well-received for its fun factor, customizability, and fresh mechanics. Renegade abilities also add impactful and enjoyable gameplay options, enhancing the combat experience.

Engaging Campaign & Narrative: The campaign is frequently highlighted as one of the best, offering a compelling story with a good balance of high stakes and personal character moments. Players found the missions fun, cinematics impressive, and the overall narrative kept them invested, marking a significant step up in storytelling.

Fun New Activities & Missions: Beyond the main campaign, players found the new activities and specific missions, such as the Fire and Ice exotic mission, to be highly enjoyable and replayable. These additions provide fresh challenges and contribute significantly to the overall fun of the expansion.

Improved Portal System & QoL: Significant quality of life improvements, particularly to the previously criticized portal system, have made the experience much more bearable and intuitive. Players noted meaningful enhancements, making navigation and setup less daunting and generally issue-free.

Low Value for High Price: The expansion is criticized for its high price ($40-$50) given the perceived lack of substantial new content, feeling more like a seasonal update than a full-fledged DLC. Players lament the absence of new raids or destinations, and the content often feels rushed, half-hearted, and like a cash grab.

Unwelcome Star Wars Crossover: Many players disliked the strong Star Wars crossover theme, feeling it was a superficial 'skin' or 'cosplay' that lacked true integration and disrespected Destiny's existing lore. This is perceived as a cash-grab, stripping away Destiny's identity and making the game feel less authentic, akin to a Fortnite collaboration.

Short, Boring, Repetitive Campaign: Players widely found the campaign to be short, bland, and overly repetitive, frequently consisting of tedious 'talk to' or 'interact with' segments and rehashed endgame activities. The narrative was often confusing, poorly introduced lore, and overall failed to engage or even maintain player interest, with some falling asleep.

Critical Bugs and Instability: The game is plagued by severe technical issues, including frequent softlocks during campaign missions, unfixable progression-blocking bugs, and widespread connectivity errors. Players report being unable to launch the game or progress, highlighting a delicate and unstable technical state.

Developer Quality Concerns: There is strong player dissatisfaction with Bungie, criticizing their writing for uncompelling villains and lore inconsistencies, and questioning their overall development quality. Players feel Bungie has lost its touch, is stripping Destiny's identity with crossovers, and has failed on quality assurance.

Campaign length varies: Players reported campaign completion times ranging from 5-6 hours to 9 hours with breaks. The campaign is structured with 45 steps and includes specific light level requirements, indicating a somewhat concise but guided experience.

Veteran player experience catered: Many reviewers are long-time Destiny players, some mentioning they play because they have already paid for the content. The endgame involves acquiring exotic gear, and existing high-level builds can remain powerful, suggesting content that resonates with an established player base.

Strong Star Wars inspiration: The game heavily incorporates Star Wars elements, from general 'tropey' feel and overt references to specific details like lightsabers, crystals, and character aesthetics. This makes the expansion strongly reminiscent of the Star Wars universe within Destiny.

Still distinctly Destiny: Despite the new thematic elements, many players feel the core gameplay and overall experience remain fundamentally Destiny. Some comparisons were drawn to a Battlefield single-player campaign structure, highlighting the familiarity for returning players.

Renegade abilities underutilized: The new 'renegades' ability system is introduced early in the expansion via Spider's quest, but players frequently reported forgetting to use these abilities after the tutorial phase. This suggests a potential issue with their integration or player engagement.

Servers are currently down: Player feedback indicates that the game's servers are inaccessible, preventing players from entering or playing the game. This is a critical issue that completely halts the player experience.

Excellent in-game frame rates: The game reportedly maintains a high and stable frame rate, specifically around 240 FPS, suggesting strong technical optimization. This contributes to a smooth and visually pleasing gameplay experience.

Destiny 2 server architecture noted: Feedback includes an observation about Destiny 2's server model, noting it uses a peer-to-peer (P2P) system and lacks dedicated servers due to its engine. This is a technical detail about a different game, based on limited feedback.

Mixed Reception, Niche Appeal: The DLC garners varied feedback, with enjoyment heavily dependent on a player's existing affinity for Destiny's core gameplay and the new Star Wars theme. It's generally well-received by existing fans or those specifically drawn to the crossover, but less so for players hoping for significant game overhauls or those uninterested in the theme.

Campaign and New Content Positive: The expansion's campaign is frequently highlighted as a strong point, offering an enjoyable experience for both new and returning players. Additionally, the anticipation for new activities like dungeons contributes positively to player engagement and overall content perception.

Strong Negative Sentiment: A vocal segment of players expresses profound dissatisfaction, advising against purchasing or playing the game due to perceived unresolved issues and a general decline in game quality. This sentiment includes strong claims about the game being 'dead' or a 'waste of money,' with some hyperbolic feedback (e.g., 'MTX hellhole') contributing to this negative outlook, though it should be noted that such claims often lack specific, constructive details.

Potential for Player Re-Engagement: There's a belief among some players that this expansion could successfully draw back lapsed players or mark a significant turning point for the game. This creates a sense of excitement and temptation for former players to extensively re-engage with the game.

Specific Feedback and Advice: Players offered specific feedback, such as a desire for significant changes to the 'portal' mechanic, indicating areas for mechanical improvement. Some also suggested simply watching cutscenes on YouTube, implying that the story might be the only worthwhile part for certain individuals.

Bungie's Direction & Trust Issues: Many veteran players express deep disappointment, questioning Bungie's current direction for the game and expressing a significant loss of trust. Core concerns include the game's identity, a desire to drop last-gen console support, worries about constant future collaborations impacting longevity, and a sentiment that Bungie has a long way to go to 'fix' the game.

Player Engagement & Future Content: Players, including long-term veterans and recent returnees, show varied engagement, with many planning to complete new campaign content but some unsure of long-term commitment. There is significant anticipation for the upcoming dungeon and raid, alongside concerns about their quality and the potential impact of recent PvP changes.

Unfair Review Bombing Occurring: Many players believe the game is being unfairly review-bombed, describing negative feedback as 'online salt' or a trend to hate Bungie. They advise ignoring this extreme negativity, though some acknowledge valid underlying issues exist within the game.

Final Shape as Event Catalyst: The Final Shape expansion is viewed by some players as the definitive point where major ongoing narrative events began to brew or as a critical ending point in the game's saga. This highlights its perceived significance in the game's overall timeline and lore.

Monetization Model Suggestions: Players suggest changes to the monetization model, proposing either making expansion content free while selling cosmetics, or selling expansions fully. There's also an acknowledgment that it is unrealistic to expect one expansion release to fix all existing issues.