Destiny 2: Forsaken has been an action-packed and tear-jerking
addition to the Destiny franchise.
The trailer:
Here's the harder nerd stuff: As a Hunter, I couldn't be more upset
they killed off Cayde-6. As a fan of the game, I couldn't be more upset
they killed off Cayde-6. After running the length of the main scenario
and tracking down the people responsible (yes, this is spoiler-free),
you're left with the pursuit of Cayde-6's prized weapon: The Ace of Spades
(clearly shown in the video).
This is the annoying part: the pursuit of the weapon became a drawn out
series of carrot-and-stick events that became a major inconvenience. Destiny 2
has something for everybody — but not everybody is going to want to play at
everything the game has to offer. Personally, I don't really enjoy
PVP matches. I'm a casual
player — I play in the evenings for a little while after kiddo goes to bed,
probably like most other dads who want a little virtual pew-pew-pew in their
lives. PVP puts me up against pizza and Red Bull-fueled college kids who play
for hours and hours and hours every day. I routinely get beaten pretty badly
in those matches (I got my backside handed to me by one guy whose power score was
600! I didn't know that was even a thing!). But to progress in quests like
the Ace of Spades, I play them not because I want to. I'm sure my gameplay
improves the more I play them, and I appreciate that, but it gets kinda hard
to appreciate incremental improvement when you're spending most of the match
respawning. I stink at PVP and I own that.
The biggest note about Forsaken, though, has to be the task at the close
of the pursuit of the weapon. It's tantamount to an extended good-bye from
an old friend.
There was one thing in that whole task that has made me think there's a
chance we'll see a Cayde-7. And, honestly, I hope we do. I'd been a little
suspicious about what was going on with the Cayde character — how it was
that he was so central to the plot, yet was relegated to a small space in
the hangar for the past year or more. Contrast with Zavala, who has the
equivalent of an entire pier all to himself. For me, what made Cayde-6 special
was the humor. Fillion infused Cayde-6 with tremendous humor, and it was
something that made me want to play and keeping playing the Destiny franchise.
Why is Cayde-6 gone? Did the players tire of his wit? I looked to the
Internet for answers. Turns out Fillion didn't do any of the voice work for
Forsaken1. But, bigger than that,
Bungie reports they wanted to create a storyline that would hit players directly
in the feels2.
Well, it worked.
In Bungie's first smash hit, Halo, you played as Master Chief, a character
who was completely ambiguous on purpose so that the player had no preconceived
notions about what s/he looked like. The effort was designed so that players
could have no trouble inserting themselves into the role. The trouble with that,
I find, is that I had no connection with it. Master Chief offered a suit for us
to wear, but not much beyond that. The Destiny franchise is very different,
because from the start we had a character we could like and identify with — a guy
(an Exo, not a person) with a great sense of humor and a weirdness that made you
constantly question whether the guy was an idiot or a genius. (I'm still collecting
expired ramen coupons, thinking they may be worth something someday.) Cayde-6 was no
suit for the player to wear. Cayde-6 was interactive, and... alive.
My concern now is what the future holds. Destiny without Cayde-n
is just another kill-kill-kill game. I can get those anywhere. Cayde-6 brought the
franchise to life. One of the commenters on the PlayStation blog felt much the same:
"Cayde-6 is my favorite, as a hunter… he was my mentor through the last several years
across each game." Truth.
Ballsy move to take Cayde-6 "off the board" (Bungie's words). At this point, I have
Cayde-6's gun, ship, and emptiness. I want my mentor back.
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