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Story:

The story was about a renegade Soviet commander who launches an assault on U.S. soil to restore pride to his family (He was a Romanov) after their defeat in RA2.

Trivia:

• Of all cancelled C&C games Renegade 2 would've had the most potential for success according to Mike Legg on 04/26/2019:

  The pre-production version of the sequel to Command & Conquer: Renegade, which was set in the Red Alert universe, was looking like it would be a really cool game. I'm not sure how successful it would of been, but the team was very passionate about it!

• Attempts have been made to convince Westwood for using the Unreal Engine, Joseph B. Hewitt IV reported on 07/27/2014 during an AMA:

  I do remember that at one point the Unreal guys came down and did a big presentation and tried to get us to use their engine for the second one (first one was still being developed) but I heard that the programmers wanted to keep working on and using the 3D engine they had developed.

• Internal game testing had a joint guilt for cancellation of Renegade 2, Joe Bostic remembered on 03/01/2013:

  Renegade 2 was actually playable and was showing great progress. I think it had great potential, but for one unfortunate event. Every so often, corporate executives would fly down to Westwood to examine the games we were working on. They would give directives on changes to the game and even decide if a game should be cancelled or not. On one such visit the executives played multiplayer game of Renegade 2 as one team and our game testers were playing the other team. Our testers thought it would be real funny to insta-kill the executives at every opportunity. The result was quite unpleasant for the execs and shortly thereafter the project was cancelled. <sigh> There is a good lesson to be learned here.

  And continuing about the game in general:

  Actually Renegade 2 was all about incorporating Red Alert into the game. It was quite fun. You could fly a zepellin around and drop bombs on the battlefield, for example. If EA hadn't cancelled Renegade 2, you would have been able to play a Red Alert as an FPS.

• The cancellation of Renegade 2 was also the first nail in Westwood's coffin, as Eric Gooch pondered about his collaboration on 11/14/2011:

  The thing that chaps my hide is that I *was* involved in the production of Renegade II, and I wish you could have seen how it was shaping up. There was a playtest area across from my office, and I would watch them play as development continued. I remember watching these battles where players in Kirov airships were dropping bombs on Apocalypse tanks on newly created environment art. It looked very cool. When EA pulled the plug on Renegade II, I think that was the first nail in the coffin. I believe that was the first time a project had been cancelled at Westwood, and it was pretty devastating to the team that had put so much work into it.

  He also expressed similar on 10/13/2018:

  Renegade 2 was looking great too. I remember watching testers play it, and you could fly a Kirov airship and drop bombs on Apocalypse tanks. It had some nice environment art going on too. Alas, it was cancelled. I think it had been the first Westwood game that had been cancelled during production. People were pretty depressed about it.

• Ultimately on 12/11/2007 first photos of the January 2008 issue of Game Informer magazine spreaded and unveiled the also already cancelled C&C shooter: Tiberium.
• Adam Isgreen revealed on 10/05/2007 among others the subtitle called "Battlegrounds":

  Ren 2 (Battlegrounds):
  
  Renegade 2 was finished with pre-pro, we had created an "X slice" demo and were awaiting the final "go" approval when it was canceled. I was in the meeting with Bing et al. when it was, since I was the one presenting the game to them. There are more factors than just "EA was mean!!" in that decision however -- Battlefield was on the horizon (unbeknownst to us @ WW), and DOOM 3 was scheduled to hit that year (didn't hit for 2 more, lol). EA was in the position at the time that they (EA) didn't want anything to be "#3", and let's be honest, Renegade's graphics were never top-notch. The WW execs and EA execs decided to kill going forward with the game because of those two other products coming into the marketplace at around the same time.
  
  IMO, neither would have impacted it, but at the time, that was the decision and the grounds for it. Everyone on the team was crushed. We all loved it dearly. I couldn't say anything about the decision for several days until an official announcement went out, which was hell since everyone was very excited about the game and its potential.

• It was rumored on 03/04/2007, a new C&C shooter could be produced on the basis of the CryENGINE 2:

  In a recent internal meeting at EALA on February 23rd, 2007, it was announced to the project team leaders of all EALA projects that the Crysis engine would be moving in-house in the very near future. Speculation began to arise internally about a Command and Conquer Renegade sequel seeing that the EALA studio is primarily known for RTS titles and Crysis is a next generation FPS engine. After discussing this with an EALA employee who wishes to not be named, it was stated that there is an extremely high chance that Electronic Arts’ LA studio will be developing a new FPS Command and Conquer title for the PC. It is not known if the title will be a true sequel to Renegade or a new stand alone IP however EA is very serious about exploring the options of the Crysis engine with current IPs. Stay tuned as we get more information.

• The screenshots of a crumbling Allied barracks are real. They originate from a physics test, Phlakaton-PG explained on 01/12/2007:

  I did manage to poot out a barracks with the Red Alert soldier on top and it had a destruction animation built in. I used physics to drive the anim and it turned out pretty slick. Chunks of concrete bouncing on the ground. I also made some basewalls with destruct anims in those as well. Too bad too.
  
  That would have been a serious multiplay game!

• Adam Isgreen on 01/08/2007 how far Renegade 2 had progressed:

  We didn't get to model building for any of the Renegade 2 levels or models aside from a few that all of you have had access to (Prisim tank, etc.) for quite a while. The only partial level built was the Marin Headlands one we used in the internal demo.

  On the same day he also confirmed the Giant Ants:

  Renegade 2 was going to kick so much ass... sigh.
  
  We even had the giant ants back in the bonus level.

• Adam Isgreen on 09/12/2005:

  Renegade 2 was a Red-Alert 2 inspired version of Renegade that embraced the C&C multiplayer game mode as the core game play. You could build defenses on build pads, destroy and rebuild buildings, and directly or indirectly command units. The story was about a renegade Soviet commander who launches an assault on U.S. soil to restore pride to his family (He was a Romanov) after their defeat in RA2.
  
  There was to be some humor in the missions - you had an Idaho mission that you could knock over a giant fake potato that was the town's symbol and roll it down a hill at enemies.
  "1941" inspired boardwalk scenario with giant ferris wheel.
  The giant ants were back in yet another secret mission.
  There was an entire sub-game with spies stealing enemy tech and dogs detecting them.
  Yes, you could play as a dog. The catch was you couldn't communicate / type to your friends, but you could bark.
  The first mission was to take place at the Marin Headlands with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Kirovs were bombing the city, while a giant squid took down an Allied Carrier in the bay right behind your base. Epic coolness!

• Harvard Bonin on 09/03/2003 during a chat about another C&C FPS title:

  <Cabal> <moe> <KotPaine> Will we ever see another FPS title in the C&C genre? Personally I love Renegade, and I think I think many fans clamor for another FPS...
  <Harvard[EA]>; yeah, what he said!
  <Harvard[EA]>; Maybe, not plans now that I'm aware of. I think its important for us to remember the heart and soul of C&C is in the RTS world
  
  <Harvard[EA]>; Let's make that great and go from there
  
  <Harvard[EA]>; next

• The demo reel 2003 by Daniel Miller showcases various C&C animations, render and concept arts. It features the following from Renegade 2:
  • Prism Tank Concept Art in Farbe
  • Apocalypse Tank Concept Art in Farbe
• Chuck Carter wrote on his site about the prototype:

  These images are from the successful prototype for Renegade2. I designed and built the level to prove a concept - that the W3D engine could handle a larger amount of polygons than was previously attempted - Renegade 1 was designed around an out dated minimum spec. I wanted to show that by using well designed low poly geometry and limited textures, you could still get a richly detailed environment. In the final demo, the polys were still reduced even further with no real loss of detail.
  These models are the first in a series of tests - built and rendered in Lightwave. The finals were exported into Max with UVs and placed into the W3D engine. The level was finally based around a scavenger culture that eventually turns into the organization known to Command and Conquer fans as Nod.
  Also - I personally believe that where possible, a real time game should include geometry that enhances the experience of moving through a believable environment - a virtual playground so to speak.
  You can view an ingame animation in "Motion Graphics" and see screen shots in "GameArt".

  He continued commenting about the Scavenger refinery:

  The scavenger refinery was depicted as a collection of discarded junk and metal. I designed this as a sort of junk cathedral that is also a refinery to be used to make raw materials for the emerging Nod forces.

  And about the origins of the Hand of Nod:

  The idea for the origin of the Hand of Nod came from the old Soviet empire and all the torn down statues - what if the hammer had broken off on each end, leaving a section in the hand? I thought - this might be cool so I just put it in and left it.

  The mentioned in-game video was downloadable here. As a comment he added:

  This animation was for the first prototype for the now cancelled Renegade2 and my 1st attempt at working with W3D. I designed and built this demo in less than 3 weeks. impressing EA enough to allow it to proceed to the next round of development.

  Download of a montage here!
• Greg Hjelstrom announced on 07/30/2002 that all work on Renegade 2 was cancelled:

  Ingrown, you can always sink a wall into the ground a bit to make it shorter! :-)
  
  Just to end the speculation, we were working on a sequel to Renegade which was in the RA universe and focused mostly on multiplay but it has indeed been cancelled.
  
  greg

• During the development some units from RA2 have already been ported:
  
  These and other models as well as miscellaneous stuff could be downloaded from Westwood. The archive contains various developed stuff for Renegade 2 and since it is not going to be released anymore, a lot was published.
  Complete contents of the archive:
  
  Download – see below.
• During a chat (ca. 05/07/2002) the development of Renegade 2 was officially confirmed:

  Hjelstrom: We just need to schedule some time to look into releasing the script system. Right now everyone is working away on Renegade 2.
  <[Westwood]TeeLo> tstststs ... so ein schlingel.
  present99> *gg*
  <[Westwood]TeeLo> swatinem: ja, es steht fest.
  present99> und? welche engine?
  Swatinem> und?
  <[Westwood]Elmar> hehe chat log danach bitte zu mir
  gers^away> bei weiteren unnötigen Zwischenrufen, werden die entsprechenden Leute ihr Sprachrecht entzogen bekommen..
  <[Westwood]TeeLo> eine dramatische weiterentwicklung der renegade enginge. und bevor ihr jetzt hier alle anfangt mir die ohren vollzuheulen von wegen unreal warfare und doom 3 .... ich sage euch, die engine erkennt ihr nicht wieder. wir haben bereits 2 spielbare level und JEDER (ich schwoere JEDER) der die dinger bisjetzt gesehen hat hat nur gesagt "i cannot believe that this is the renegade engine".
  
  <[Westwood]TeeLo> als greg mir die erste demo vor 2 monaten gezeigt hat hat er gesagt, dass ein fahrzeug in der neuen engine soviel polygone hat wie vorher ne ganze karte.
  
  present99> Swatinem> 2. An welchen RTS Titel wird die Story von Renegade2 angelehnt sein? Tiberiumkonflickt wie Renegade1 oder Tiberian Sun oder RA2?
  <[Westwood]TeeLo> swatinem: alt+k
  present99> Swatinem> 3. Wann werden die ersten Infos zu Renegade2 oder erste Bilder erscheinen?
  <[Westwood]TeeLo> in 2 bis 3 monaten.
  <[Westwood]TeeLo> (schaetze ich mal. bin ja nicht in unsererer marketing abteilung...)
  
  present99> gers^away> werden die Maps von Ren I mit denen von Ren II kompatibel sein?
  <[Westwood]TeeLo> ich vermute nicht. es wird aber recht einfach sein die maps zu konvertieren.
  
  present99> gers^away> timeshedule für Ren II ?
  <[Westwood]TeeLo> gers: steht noch nicht fest.
  
  present99> Igel|wuerthoX> Wird es in generals/ren 2 eine eingebaute voice software geben
  <[Westwood]Elmar> blade2 soll kacke sein
  present99> und lass die finger von spiderman...
  <[Westwood]Elmar> also spar dein Geld und kauf ein beer
  <[Westwood]TeeLo> wow, hat da jemand geplaudert? wir testen momentan verschiedene voice software toolkits.... ja.

• Louis Castle on 02/15/2002 about a successor to C&C Renegade:

  Well, we're working on Earth & Beyond, the space-based RPG, and we're also working on another Command & Conquer real-time strategy title in addition to the one that's coming out, so we're actually working on two of those right now. And also we're trying to figure out what to do with Renegade. Should we do another product and if so, what should it be like? We're thinking that's what we're doing [another Renegade game] but that depends on the sales of this one. We're anxious to see where people go and what they say about it.

Editors / tools:

• gmax (Version 1.2) – Ohne gmax geht gar nichts.
• Renegade Mod Tools – Die offiziellen Tools.
• RENEGADEMODART – some miscellaneous models

Official images: