Bungie’s Destiny is a flawed product, with repetitive design, and a world that tantalizingly hints at something bigger, but never quite gets around to revealing it. And yet, this world and lore, and how it is all presented to the player, is doubtless the most frustrating aspect of Destiny- Bungie takes it completely seriously, and expects us to take it seriously too, but doesn’t actually get around to telling us why it earns our seriousness, instead sticking us with generic exposition and banal dialog.
It was not always this way. Once, the game was planned to be much funnier, something that would doubtless have made it more fun, and therefore better. Speaking to IGN UK, Arrested Development and Mr. Show actor David Cross spilled the beans.
“Brian Posehn and I got asked and jumped at the chance. We were flown up to Bellevue, Washington to do a punch-up on the Ghost character in Destiny about a year ago. We were both very excited about it. They did not use a single, solitary thing that we wrote, which is a shame because we wrote some stuff that – you know, we’re gamers, and they… – I would imagine somebody somewhere said, ‘We can’t inject this levity or humor into it.'”
Cross admits to being disappointed with Destiny himself, echoing a universally held sentiment.
“I was way into it and way excited about it, and when you’re at an hour 20 of that thing, it’s like the Ghost is kind of monotone saying this thing, ‘We must get over the ridge. That’s the cabal – we’ve got to defeat him.’ Whatever, it’s boring as sh*t, and I speak for myself and Brian, and I know thousands if not millions of other gamers would be like ‘It would be nice to have a joke or something in there.’ You think we’re going to f*ck with the tone?”
It’s a shame, really. Right now, as it stands, Destiny has little to no value. This might have changed that, if only a little bit.