Future has at all times been the “we’ve received Star Wars at dwelling” looter shooter, and with Future 2: Renegades, Bungie has determined to lean into that straight with a crossover growth. Weirdly sufficient, up to now that call appears to have kinda labored out alright! Renegades doesn’t remedy a lot of Future 2’s longstanding points, together with the truth that it’s been awkwardly spinning its wheels for over a 12 months now (harking back to the MCU post-Endgame), however embracing the cheesiness and over-the-top drama of Star Wars is on the very least a surprisingly good change of tempo in what has turn out to be fairly a predictable universe. The story is foolish, to make certain, however introduces a couple of new mechanics and weapon varieties which can be a welcome change, and there’s a formidable degree of enemy density all through virtually all the actions that retains the motion attention-grabbing. I’ve nonetheless received much more questing and looting to do earlier than my closing overview, however up to now this growth has been a fairly compelling breath of recent air in a recreation I’ve in any other case been far much less enthusiastic about than typical.
In the event you’ve learn any of my earlier growth evaluations (of which there are a lot), then you definitely’ll already know I’m one these weirdo Future followers who has caught with this recreation by means of thick and skinny – so it ought to imply one thing once I let you know that saying I’m additionally a Star Wars fan can be such an enormous understatement that I’m really too embarrassed to elaborate additional publicly. However even with my timeless love of area wizards, I used to be initially mortified to study Future 2 was planning a crossover with it. For me, it was the last word signal that Future was out of concepts, had gone “full Fortnite” in a manner that appeared low cost and cheesy, and was making one final desperation play in the course of the sluggish demise it’s been struggling for a lot of years now. And, yeah, that each one just about turned out to be true. However when I discovered myself watching two lightsaber-wielding foes sq. off in an epic cutscene whereas listening to the John Williams-esque music this growth makes heavy use of, I’ll admit it gained me over… a minimum of a little bit.
Renegades does exit of its approach to embody each little Star Wars reference to a level that may really feel a bit pressured – a crutch that’s repeatedly leaned upon in lieu of any unique concepts. For instance, you end up trapped in a rubbish compactor in the course of the very first mission, rescue somebody from off-brand carbon freezing, and make a leap to lightspeed whereas a brooding, masked villain angrily watches you escape his grasp. It’s extraordinarily on the nostril stuff, and I used to be simply as prone to expertise a full-body cringe as I used to be to smile about it. However the full “screw it” power at play right here because it full-throatedly embraces all of the corniness and drama for which Star Wars is thought does have a sure form of refreshing allure that’s a minimum of a definite path for Future 2. I’ve been complaining about this recreation feeling stale for a minimum of 5 years now, so I’ve received to present Bungie a little bit of credit score for making an attempt one thing new right here.
There are additionally a good variety of new mechanics that I wasn’t anticipating, like a shielding system for sure enemies that forces you to deal a complete bunch of harm in a brief span of time earlier than you may really damage them, AT-ST-inspired walkers which have some distinctive assaults I wasn’t anticipating, and even some new weapon varieties, like battery-powered weapons that may be fired till they overheat and want to chill down. None of that is massively game-changing stuff, however they’re first rate little tweaks to the sandbox which can be welcome additions. In fact, there’s additionally a ton of stuff that hasn’t modified in any respect, and even when you’re going through off towards a brand new form of enemy in concept, you’ll nonetheless be preventing the identical Cabal armored warriors and bony Thrall monstrosities you’ve been capturing for over a decade, which has made this really feel like an inexpensive reskin at occasions.
I’m nonetheless pretty early into my area opera journey (I haven’t even crafted my lightsaber but!), so I’ve a complete lot extra to play earlier than I can definitively say the place Renegades lands. However up to now this growth appears a lot better than I anticipated… although that’s partially as a result of I anticipated little or no. I’ll have far more to say as soon as I’ve accomplished the marketing campaign and start to dive into the endgame actions. For Gentle and Life!
