new era destiny 2was ushered in by June’s Edge of Fate expansion, but things haven’t gone according to Bungie’s plans. I was very excited for a fresh Destiny experience after the story of light and darkness, but so far it’s missed the mark. Looking across the last 4-5 years, I still profess Destiny 2 to be my “favorite” shooter, but ever since Edge of Fate came out, there has been a mass exodus of players from the game, myself included, recently. But a Star Wars-themed expansion sounds like just the ticket to renewed interest. And Destiny 2 Renegades achieved that to an extent, with a healthy spike on Steam on launch day and certain aspects of the new campaign receiving a lot of praise. However, that surge is still a long way from where Destiny 2 wants to be.
Renegades is unlike most Star Wars crossovers found in the biggest and best multiplayer games. You won’t find similar characters here. Darth Vader does not appear as a dungeon boss or anything. Instead, Bungie is trying to tell a canonical Destiny 2 story, but with an officially licensed Star Wars universe theme. There are lightsaber weapons, armor sets, and enemy types that closely resemble Star Wars aesthetics, as well as new cantina-inspired social spaces. Personally, I feel this approach is correct. It doesn’t sacrifice years of world-building and lore to throw in iconic characters and locations from another IP, but it still manages to give Star Wars fans a smile.
Since the release of Destiny 2 Renegades yesterday, December 2nd, there have been some bright spots. After an alarming drop in Steam player numbers between October and November, we’ve seen a spike in people asking for new expansions. On release day, the number of concurrent players peaked at 71,278, the highest since early August.
However, this is below the peak reached by Edge of Fate earlier this year (over 100,000 players), and slightly lower than the peak reached by Episodes 2 and 3 of last year’s expansion cycle. It also pales in comparison to the player peaks achieved by expansions Witch Queen, Lightfall, and The Final Shape over the past three years, all of which peaked at over 290,000 players.
It’s a similar story in terms of player acceptance of the Renegades. There are some good points and some not so good points. I’m not quite that far along yet, so I’ll reserve personal judgment for now, but I see a lot of praise for some of the new build crafting additions, the campaign narrative, and the quality of the cutscenes. While not hailed as an all-timer, it often seems to be a fun expansion that strikes a nice balance between Star Wars and Destiny.
However, this is not currently reflected in the Steam user score, which remains at an overwhelming “mixed” score of 59%. As far as I know, this is a bit of an unfair reflection. While there are brief complaints about microtransactions and Bungie being “lazy” about its reliance on Star Wars, most of the more specific and considered reviews seem to be positive rather than negative.
It’s a relief to know that Renegades isn’t a complete disaster (if it was, I think my last drops of hope for Destiny 2 would have evaporated), but it also doesn’t feel like a moment of massive reinvigoration. If the peak around 70,000 continues for the next few weeks, I’m not going to say anything about it, but it’s likely to fall soon, as is the typical trend. Either way, this is a moment, at least for me, that brings me back to my favorite shooter game in the back of my mind.
