Halo is a good benchmark, and it points out my biggest gripe with the story as it's presented in Destiny. In Halo CE, you awoke in a chamber, but between the dialogue and the NPC reactions to you (friendly and enemy), it was made very clear that you were a carefully calibrated instrument of war whose reputation was well established. Hell yeah, you're going to rock that ring. After all, you're a goddamn Spartan. A one-man army, known as a demon to the alien horde that yells out your name in terror when you leap into battle. You kick ass because that's what you were designed to do, and you've been doing it for years. Then, there's Destiny. You awake from death in a field, with a companion desperate to keep you safe from what are ultimately the most tame enemies in the game. It's made clear that you are effectively useless. The ghost is so concerned for your well being that in the second mission he very, very regretfully says, "We have to go back," referring to the warp drive, as if fighting two Vandals and a handful of Dregs in a one-stop boss fight is a worst-case scenario (and there again, he says, "I hope you're ready for this."). And then, suddenly, within a day's worth of gameplay, you're discovering long-lost Venusian outposts, asking favors of space queens, destroying Vex deities that travel spacetime, and assassinating Cabal commanders who eat bowls full of war for breakfast. You're doing things that somehow all these Vanguard leaders and Crucible champions who sell you legendary weapons and armor couldn't do themselves, and even though you were dead a couple of days ago. That's not character development. It's character overgrowth, and the weeds are very, very thick. That's what makes it so clear to me that the story was hacked to pieces. I don't need the AMA to tell me that. The gaping holes you could drive a truck through are evidence enough. Even if in the future they pulled a tired old "You're the chosen one" thing, it would feel irrevocably forced. Still ... the gameplay mechanics are exquisite, in my opinion, and I still enjoy playing.