When Bungie announced a Star Wars-inspired expansion for Destiny 2, the internet collectively asked the same question: how is this not a lawsuit? The answer, it turns out, involves a fascinating dance of inspiration versus infringement, a Lucasfilm copyright acknowledgment buried in the credits, and the kind of bold creative decision that only a studio with nothing left to lose would attempt. After the disaster of Edge of Fate, Renegades needed to be good. The question is whether "good" is enough anymore.

As someone who's been playing Destiny since the original's beta and has written about Zavala's complicated journey as a father figure to all guardians and humanity, I approached Renegades with the same cautious optimism I bring to every Destiny expansion. Bungie has hurt me before. But they've also delivered some of my favorite gaming moments. Renegades lands somewhere in between; a genuinely fun experience undermined by the same content drought that's plagued the franchise since the layoffs.

The Star Wars of It All

Let's address the bantha in the room: Renegades is Star Wars in everything but name. Mars becomes Tatooine, complete with twin suns and cantina aesthetics. Europa transforms into Hoth, its frozen wastes now dotted with Imperial-adjacent structures. Venus channels Dagobah's swampy mysticism. These aren't subtle nods—they're deliberate homages that stop just short of trademark infringement.

The new Blaster weapon archetype is exactly what you think it is. These energy weapons draw directly from reserves and feature a heat management system that rewards burst fire over sustained pressure. Overheat your weapon and you're stuck waiting for cooldown while a Cabal Centurion explains why that was a poor tactical decision. The shooting feel is satisfying, though the meta implications remain unclear as the community figures out optimal builds.

But the real prize is the Praxic Blade exotic. It's a lightsaber. Full stop. The weapon hums with that distinctive sound, glows with energy, and lets you deflect incoming fire if your timing is precise. Bungie somehow convinced Lucasfilm to let them include something this close to the source material, and it's exactly what you'd hope for.

Here's what Bungie got right about the crossover: restraint. You never feel like a Jedi. You never feel like a Sith. The Force isn't yours to command. But you get the flavor of it; that sense of something ancient and powerful operating at the edges of your perception. The Praxic Blade channels energy without making you a space wizard. The aesthetic borrows without overwhelming. It's Star Wars seasoning on a Destiny dish, not the other way around.

Spider, the Fallen crime lord, has been redesigned to channel serious Jabba the Hutt energy. The new character Bael couldn't be more Kylo Ren if he had "Ben Solo" written on his cape. These aren't coincidences; they're love letters to a franchise that clearly inspired Destiny's space fantasy from the beginning. Renegades just stops pretending otherwise. But the homages enhance rather than replace Destiny's identity.

Lawless Frontier: Extraction Done Right

The crown jewel of Renegades is Lawless Frontier, an extraction-style mode that gives Destiny a proper roguelike experience; but did we need it? You choose a destination, select a contract (smuggling, bounty hunting, sabotage), and drop in solo or with a fireteam. Each mission generates differently, with dynamic objectives, shifting enemy placements, and time-of-day variations that keep runs feeling fresh. As fresh as procedurally generated content can feel, anyway.

The invasion mechanic adds genuine tension. Other players can enter your instance, hunting you for increased rewards. It brings Gambit's PvEvP out of Drifter's mote bank; it works better than it has any right to. The risk-reward calculation of pushing deeper versus extracting with your loot creates the kind of decision-making that Destiny's core activities have always lacked.

New "Strategem" abilities provide tactical options mid-combat: calling in orbital strikes, deploying cover, summoning ally reinforcements. These feel lifted directly from Helldivers 2, and Bungie isn't shy about the inspiration. The result is a mode that synthesizes the best ideas from across the extraction genre while maintaining Destiny's signature gunplay.

Tharsis Outpost serves as the social hub, and it's gorgeous. The cantina atmosphere, complete with alien musicians and shady dealers, sells the fantasy of being a galactic outlaw in ways the Tower never could. Faction representatives offer contracts that build your Notoriety, unlocking gear and abilities as you climb the criminal ladder. And the Eliksni rockabilly band is back. Sometimes.

The Campaign: Top Notch, Then You See the Grind

The story itself is genuinely excellent. Drifter defies the Vanguard to investigate the Barant Imperium, a Cabal splinter faction with suspected ties to the Nine. It's a heist story wrapped in space opera trappings, and it works precisely because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Mission design represents Bungie at their environmental storytelling best: a zero-gravity escape sequence, a speeder chase across Martian dunes, a climactic confrontation in a collapsing space station. These moments remind you why you fell in love with Destiny in the first place. Star Wars aesthetic screen transitions and all.

Aunor, the Praxic Warlock who once hunted Drifter for his crimes, provides an interesting foil as she's forced to work alongside her former target. Their dynamic carries the emotional weight the main plot sometimes lacks. Bael functions as the antagonist you love to hate, a true believer whose conviction makes him genuinely threatening rather than cartoonishly evil. He's a better Sith than Ben Solo ever was.

But here's where Renegades fails the Forsaken test.

Forsaken understood pacing. Each story beat, each activity, each mission felt like part of a cohesive arc. The repeatable grind wasn't introduced until the end, when the Dreaming City patrol area opened and the curse cycle began. You experienced the revenge story first. The destination came after, as a reward and a continuation. It was the best expansion Destiny ever produced because it respected the difference between narrative and grind.

Renegades drops you into the patrol area almost immediately. Within the first hour, you're running contracts in the same spaces you'll be grinding for the next six months. The seams show. You can see exactly where the story ends and the content treadmill begins. That foreknowledge deflates the experience; you're not discovering a world, you're previewing your homework.

The story is top notch. But knowing you're standing in your future grind zone while the plot unfolds creates a dissonance Forsaken never had. It's a fucking letdown.

The Pricing Problem

Renegades costs $30. For that price, you get the campaign, Lawless Frontier, and access to the new weapons and exotics. The raid and dungeon are sold separately unless you purchased the Year of Prophecy Ultimate Edition.

The community reaction has been... divided.

One Reddit thread I saw called Renegades "a $10 season disguised as a $30 campaign." Another praised it as "the most fun I've ever had in a Destiny campaign." Both perspectives have merit, which is precisely the problem.

Compared to Forsaken or The Witch Queen, Renegades feels light. Those expansions offered sprawling patrol zones, extensive post-campaign content, and systems that kept players engaged for months. Renegades has one mode and one hub. The mode is excellent. But excellence alone doesn't justify premium pricing when the content runs dry after two weeks.

Steam numbers tell the story. Renegades launched to 71,278 concurrent players—the lowest day-one peak for any major Destiny expansion. Lightfall opened at 316,750. The Final Shape hit 314,634. Renegades sits at roughly 23% of those numbers.

The review bombing followed predictably. Steam sits at 61% positive—"Mixed" by platform standards. Players aren't rejecting the content quality; they're rejecting the value proposition. And honestly? I understand their frustration.

What Bungie Got Right

Despite everything, Renegades does something Destiny desperately needed: it's fun again.

The shooting feels tight. The Star Wars theming commits fully rather than hedging. Lawless Frontier provides replayability the franchise has lacked since Gambit's heyday. The exotic weapons are creative and satisfying. The campaign, while brief, delivers memorable moments.

Bungie's willingness to chase inspiration rather than originality pays dividends here. Yes, Renegades is derivative. Yes, you've seen these ideas executed elsewhere. But the combination—Star Wars aesthetics, extraction gameplay, Destiny gunfeel—creates something that works despite (or because of) its borrowed parts.

The Praxic Blade alone justifies the purchase for Star Wars fans who've dreamed of wielding a lightsaber in a AAA shooter. Bungie threaded an impossible needle: creating something that evokes Star Wars without becoming Star Wars, close enough to scratch the itch while distant enough to remain legally distinct.

What Bungie Got Wrong

The "Portal" content system continues to hemorrhage what made Destiny special. Gone are the days of logging in to discover world events, secret quests, or community puzzles. Everything is segmented, scheduled, and stripped of spontaneity.

One reviewer described it as "someone made a Kanban board of Destiny 2 stuff." That's painfully accurate. The game no longer feels like a living world; it feels like a checklist. Complete the campaign. Grind the mode. Wait for the next content drop. Repeat until burnout. Where's the content where you fall into a glowing hole and find a gun that changes your life? I miss Trevor, that sweet mechanical horror.

The layoffs gutted Bungie's ability to deliver content at the pace players expect. That's not an excuse; it's an explanation. Marathon's development clearly takes priority, leaving Destiny with a skeleton crew producing skeleton content. Renegades is good for what it is. But "what it is" represents a fraction of what Destiny used to deliver.

Story pacing suffers from the modern Destiny problem of assuming players consumed every previous piece of content. The Nine, the Witness aftermath, Drifter's character development across multiple seasons; none of this is explained for newcomers or returners. You either remember the lore or you don't. Bungie doesn't care which.

The Star Wars Tax

It's worth noting what Renegades isn't: an actual Star Wars crossover. Din Djarin won't show up in a cutscene. No Baby Yoda ghost shell, despite how much money that would print.

But there is Mandalorian armor. Stormtrooper-adjacent aesthetics. All the Star Wars flavor your Guardian could want; locked behind Silver.

Every piece of Star Wars-themed cosmetic armor costs premium currency. Not Bright Dust. Not earned through gameplay. Silver. Real money. You paid $30 for the expansion, and if you want to actually look like you're part of the crossover, that's another $15-20 in microtransactions. The Lucasfilm licensing fees had to come from somewhere, and Bungie decided that somewhere is your wallet, twice.

This is the Destiny 2 monetization playbook at its most cynical. The expansion sells you the fantasy; the Eververse store sells you the aesthetic. Want the lightsaber? Play the campaign. Want to look like a bounty hunter while you swing it? Open your wallet again. One of the new sets could have been Jedi-adjacent from Zavala. Shaxx should have been supplying the Mando/trooper-ish set. For the "I'm General Skywalker from Clone Wars" or "I'm a Dark Trooper" armor sets, I understand the Silver price tag.

On a sidenote: if you bought the year pass, you did get three Star Wars sets included. I'm wearing the Kylo Ren chest on my Warlock.

Verdict: Story and Saber, Then I'm Out

Destiny 2: Renegades is the best expansion of Destiny's worst year. That's both praise and condemnation.

The Star Wars theming works beautifully without overpowering what makes Destiny feel like Destiny. The crossover shows restraint where it matters—you get the flavor of the Force without becoming a space monk. The story is genuinely top notch, with mission design that reminds you Bungie still knows how to craft memorable moments. The Praxic Blade is exactly the lightsaber fantasy you wanted. The Blasters feel great. Bungie remembers how to make shooting fun.

But it's not Forsaken. It's not even close.

Forsaken made you care about the grind because it emerged naturally from a story you'd already invested in. Renegades shows you the treadmill before you've finished the tutorial. The magic evaporates when you realize every beautiful vista is just a preview of your weekly checklist. Story and grind should feel like a journey; Renegades makes them feel like separate products awkwardly stapled together.

I'm playing the story. I'm getting the lightsaber. Then I'm done. I won't even do the dungeon. That's not a criticism of the content quality—it's an acknowledgment that Destiny no longer earns my time beyond the narrative experience. The extraction mode is well-designed. The activities are polished. But I've previewed my homework, and I'm not interested in doing it for six months.

For Star Wars fans who want the story and the saber, Renegades delivers exactly that. For Destiny veterans hoping this is the expansion that brings them back long-term, temper your expectations. The campaign is worth your time. The grind probably isn't.

Rating: 7/10