I thought about waiting a bit longer before I made this review post, but after a bit of time through this second week, I can already tell that it isn't going to... get much better than it currently is. This post also does not cover anything about the new Dungeon or the race as I doubt I will spend much time with that based on the recent Dungeon track record of difficulty and puzzle solving. I'm just going to go over basic points of interest involving the standard Renegades content and the overall state of the game from my perspective. +++The Campaign: I thought it was fine for the most part. The standard Destiny-style missions were good even though I found some of the story itself to lean too hard into Star Wars references and at other times lean a little too hard into that Red War story formula, as some people have noticed. The missions that served as a tutorial for the new Renegades-style missions were fine. Something I did not like much was the way that the exotic mission for the Praxic Blade was put into the Campaign. I found that it broke the flow of the Campaign a little too hard with the difficulty spike and puzzle solving that it required and you couldn't progress the Campaign without completing it. A bit rough there. Almost all of my Campaign deaths were in that mission. And I do understand why people say that the Campaign overall on Legendary was too easy this time around, but that mission was, at the minimum, hard and tedious. +++The Renegades Missions: I like them. No real complaints about them overall. They provide some nice variety to activity options and feel unique compared to the rest of the game. Even the new take on invasions are fine to me. They might not last long, but it lets you invade on demand. I do prefer invading teams over Double Cross sessions though. But at the same time, I can see how Double Cross fits in, so all in all, I can appreciate Invasion activities for what they are. +++The Loot: The heat weapons are the spotlight of this expansion. Where normally there would be magazine options on them, they all use battery options instead, but they more or less serve the same purpose. However, the ones that straight-up change the damage that the weapons deal were not expected. I once said that magazine traits could be expanded upon and I meant that in the way of effects, but I was not expecting to see damage-changing options outside of main traits for primary weapons. They quite literally have an impact (impact stat joke) in battle too, especially when using a high weapon stat, even in PvP. I'm still looking for some good rolls, but so far, I find them very interesting. Most other sources of gear in the Portal have been updated with new loot to chase too. But no matter what, it always feels like to me that there just isn't enough new things available to chase. I'm still missing all of that sunset old loot that's still in the game and almost all of the Edge of Fate loot that was originally added is currently unavailable now as well. It isn't all sunshine and rainbows for me with the new loot though. I've stated before that I think that Mos Athanor IV is a PvP problem. The way I see it, that gun is plaguing the Crucible right now as it is everywhere and everyone's playstyles are starting to turn into just sitting back and peek-shooting until they get Adagio active on their hand cannons. That is almost all that I've seen lately, and it's made PvP matches feel very stale. If you don't think that it's a problem, just wait and see what the most used weapon in Trials is when that comes around. It's that bad right now. I don't think that gun should've shipped the way that it is because there isn't going to be a clean solution to having players switch off of it without making more people mad. It's going to be everywhere for a long time. +++The Really Bad PvP Problem: Putting aside loot that I don't think should've existed or how the meta is turning into just camping behind walls and playing hide and mouse, there is something worse going on that is a major problem. The player population is hurting PvP very badly right now. I've noticed repeatedly that I've been matching a lot of the same people all the time every day of the week in Control. And I'm sure people have been getting sick of seeing me constantly appear in their matches about as much as I've been getting annoyed at PvP in general. The population is apparently also so low that even though Mayhem and Relic are now currently available in the Portal, almost no one at all can be found when trying to matchmake in those playlists. I managed to get 1 Mayhem match to work so far. Relic matchmaking has only managed to spare me a search result of 2/12. That is about as dead as Gambit is right now. As much as I'd like to play those modes, especially Relic, it seems like the players who used to be interested in those modes either just really don't care now or are just straight-up not playing the game currently. This is very bad as far as PvP goes. I know the player numbers are a lot lower than the past and Gambit being dead makes sense, but these modes shouldn't be dead like that. That is just TOO low of a player population. Not healthy for the game at all, especially only 2 weeks into a new expansion. Bungie, you might have to incentivize players with Crucible Alerts for the other playlists if you want the other modes to work. Otherwise, with the state that Control itself is in, the problem is probably going to snowball. The lack of variety or chances to try different things is probably going to make more people quit. Yes, I said people should try something new. I know exactly what it sounded like. But that is my point. Too many mistakes have been made with the game as a whole. Now PvP is in a stuck state and it needs to get unstuck somehow. PvE won't keep everyone else satisfied forever. The game is hurting because of this. +++Overall Thoughts on the Game State and Renegades: I think the best way to describe it is that the game has lost so much, that even though the game still has good things coming for it, it just can't fill the hole that once had so much more. Things are still happening that are enjoyable to experience, but there's always that feeling of "it just isn't enough". And once you've had that first experience with, for example, the Renegades Campaign, it never hits the same way again and you're back with your regularly scheduled... this. And no matter what, this game continues to get older. With time, more problems happen and people eventually move on. This game has survived impressively, but it is old now. I'm not optimistic about its future.