Ever since Destiny 2's Star Wars "homage" DLC, Renegades, was announced, I was unsure what to think about it. But after a few hours, it became abundantly clear that it was all very wink-wink, nudge-nudge stuff.
Just about everything within the story of Renegades is Star Wars-flavored, as you would expect from the partnership between Bungie and Lucasfilm. There's a lawless frontier, good vs. evil, a weapon of mass destruction, and lightsabers. It's all been told before in different ways, but now through the lens of the Destiny franchise.
And you know what? For the most part, I really dig it.
Death Star? Check. Jedi and Sith? Yep. Lightsabers? Of course! A dingy marketplace and cantina that's Destiny's version of a wretched hive of scum and villainy? You got it. Walking tanks similar to the AT-AT? Bingo. And wouldn't you know it, someone even loses a hand.
It's even got a villain who's more Kylo Ren than Adam Driver, but to my pleasant surprise, it's all still very Destiny and fits well within the parameters of the franchise. New areas are inspired by the sci-fi stuff of legend. Mars looks like Tattooine with its own Taken-flavored "sarlacc pit," Venus is very Return of the Jedi Dagobah, and Europa stands in for the icy planet of Hoth.
The Cabal "Imperion" in their white armor are meant to evoke Stormtroopers, their "Death Star" (which seemingly came out of nowhere, but that's explained via the campaign), and the blaster weaponry are all examples of a DLC that's Star Wars, but at the same time, not.
In the end, it's a pretty cool product. Using the Destiny version of a lightsaber (Praxic Blade) by way of the franchise's version of the Jedi (Praxic Order) to deal with what can be described as Destiny's Sith (Dredgens) just kind of fits. And that's probably because, like a lot of sci-fi stories, Destiny was already taking several cues from Star Wars originally.
But it's not all good news, and I've got a bad feeling about this! Almost every mission of the campaign takes place in the format of the Lawless Frontier activity, where you deploy into an area, complete some objectives, and then exfil. Only a couple of the missions have Destiny 2's trademark setpieces and action sequences, with a handful of cutscenes along the way. The rest of the exposition is through radio dialogue and several annoying trips back to social spaces for your next objective.
There are Easter Eggs everywhere if you look for them, like this wreckage that's meant to evoke memories of pod racing in the image below. It's a fun egg hunt for Star Wars fans who enjoy Destiny, and vice versa. And it's all told within the confines of a Destiny 2 story that advances the plot forward after the events of The Edge of Fate's big revelations.
Will Renegades save Destiny 2? I don't know, but probably not. It's still got many of the same issues as far as keeping players coming back, but for now, this DLC is something that I can look to and say I had some good fun with.
It remains to be seen if I or others will be back for next weekly reset, but I'm taking this campaign as a minor victory for now.
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