This year’s The Edge of Fate is arguably one of Destiny 2‘s worst expansions ever. Some great story beats and cool moments could not salvage one of the most disappointing loot grinds in the history of the game. Less than two months since launching, Steam concurrent numbers for Bungie’s MMO shooter have fallen off a cliff to all-time lows. On Tuesday the Sony-owned studio streamed a deep-dive into what feels like Destiny 2‘s last chance for a major rebound: the Star Wars-themed expansion Renegades.
Out December 2, the first crossover-themed campaign in the live service game’s history was originally teased back in May. Fans had been wondering just how deep the collaboration would go. Would it just incorporate Star Wars motifs into Destiny 2‘s world, or be a full-on mash-up that would bleed more deeply between the disparate science fictions? The answer is somewhere in the middle.
“Renegades merges Destiny’s distinctive storytelling and gameplay with themes and elements drawn from the iconic sci-fi franchise,” Bungie wrote in its announcement. In practice this seems to mean a sci-fi Western with ties to deep Destiny 2 lore that features lightsabers, AT-ST walkers, and lots of Star Wars sound effects, if for no other reason than it all sounds really cool. Also an X-Wing jumpship that is literally just an X-Wing.
Destiny 2: Renegades will revolve around rising through the ranks of the criminal underworld in a Mos Eisley-like outpost called Tharsis as players confront a new Cabal faction called the Barant Imperium. You’ll perform jobs for competing syndicates to curry favor and unlock new gear and options as the difficulty, rewards, and chaos keep escalating. Following the Drifter’s lead and going rogue, Renegades will ultimately try to tie things back to the mystery of The Nine that kicked off Destiny 2‘s current Year of Prophecy.
There’s a lot of ideas that sound interesting, and fun mechanics like a very Helldivers 2-coded option to call down ammo crate drop pods that kill enemies in the process. And there’s also a lot of Star Wars stuff like the lightsaber, which is actually a new weapon called the Praxic Blade that players will collect and customize the parts for across the Renegades campaign and the upcoming dungeon. There will be different colors and even the ability to deflect incoming fire back at enemies like in the movies.
Will all of this fit together in a way that feels exciting and natural and not like a licensed cash-grab that only further dilutes the mystery and mystique around the Destiny 2 universe? I have my doubts. Would I like a mercenary-themed Destiny 2 campaign about navigating competing factions and featuring non-linear mission progressions? Absolutely. Do I want to play a Star Wars MMO that functions like a shooter? Hell yeah. Do I want those things thrown into a blender? At this point, definitely not. Hopefully Renegades can prove me wrong.
Today’s mini-showcase was also the latest milestone on Bungie’s “fix Destiny 2” tour which continues with the free Ash and Iron update. It brings back the Plaguelands from the original Destiny and adds a new three-player activity called Reclaim, about golden age tech and the Vex. There’s lots of new gear, more lore drops around Maya, and an event coming later called Call to Arms that will see Devrim Kay finally leave his European Deadzone bell tower. There’s a new exotic mission coming as well with Iron Banner, Festival of the Lost, and more that will be detailed in an upcoming roadmap.
More important are the fixes Bungie is promising leading up to Renegades in December. The studio wants to make the current power climb faster and improve overall rewards from activities. There will be upcoming buffs for supers and subclasses, alongside a pause on nerfs and balance changes as Bungie tries to right the ship. The “road to Renegades” will begin with making the loot chase more rewarding across the entire game, especially in raids and dungeons and for fireteams of three taking on the hardest activities. The proof will be in how that actually gets implemented, though.
Bungie is still trying to tinker around the edges of its new systems implemented in The Edge of Fate. It could be an improvement, or it could lead to even more convoluted overlapping systems that foster bad incentives and boring activity loops. Destiny 2 is at the point where it needs drastic overhauls that make it more fun but also much simpler. With 10 years of storytelling wrapped after last year’s The Final Shape expansion, it feels like Destiny 2 needs to be content with becoming a casual session-based game rather than a weekly second job and build from there. There’s plenty of interesting stuff coming down the road, but I’m not yet convinced hitting the Star Wars button will be enough.
