Destiny 2 Review: Overview: [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/231314254]Story:[/url] [b]Character Development:[/b] I was hesitant to include this section into my review but this is something I need to talk about because Bungie did attempt to include more characters and develop them with the theme of the story. Again, it is disappointing to say it is as if these characters got their scripts and went online to check out the cliff notes cause it was TL;DR. - Hawthorne: Lone survivor to open book in a matter of minutes. Instead of peeling back the layers to reveal more character diversity, Bungie just uses her father figure Devrim Kay to just open her up like a book. Even after she opens to you and you “abandon” the refugees at the farm, she is only mad at you for like 5 seconds in a cutscene then back to business as usual. - Devrim Kay: Mary Sue of an old British sniper scout. I like my old British guys but come on, give this guy something in the actual story. If you hang around him long enough in the tower he will talk about his relationship with Hawthorne and how he loves her, watches over her, and is pushing his body to the limit to run missions in the EDZ because she says she needs him there to do it. - Zavala: Goes from “All is lost” to “We can take ‘em” in the matter of a single onscreen appearance of less than two minutes. - Cayde-6: Praise be to Fillion because were it not for him this character would be so completely useless and forgettable. As Bungie said in their reveal of the character arcs, Cayde goes off and tries to do something heroic despite being the rouge anti-authority authority from the previous game. It would have been nice if they had shown him taking the role of leader as Zavala was dealing with his identity crisis. He could have still been a witty smart mouth while also taking the role of leader in the Vanguard and leading the final assault with an unconventional plan that just so happens to work with the resources you gather while out in the system. Instead, he acts like an idiot savant who gets lucky more than he uses his skills. - Ikora: The most disappointing of all. She goes from having a crisis of faith to a religious martyr in one mission like Zavala. She is a Warlock and therefore more in tune with the light than the other subclasses. It would have made sense to have her feel more lost and need to be found as she would go to meditate in Io and be in complete seclusion and we would have to search high and low to find where she would be hiding. Instead, she’s just standing out in the open, looking out over the skybox still as prim and proper as ever. Freaking warlocks, man. - Ghaul and his Mentor: A tragic casualty of the lackluster story, Ghaul and his Mentor suffer from the lack of time they get in the story. Yes, they have cutscenes where they interact with each other and the Speaker, but aside from the very beginning and very end of the story Ghaul has no interaction with the Guardian whatsoever. Ghaul’s boss fight felt so off because he kept talking about how we had such a rapport with each other and goes on and on like he knows who we are and what we have done to get this far. According to his Mentor, he was so absorbed in figuring out why the Traveler did not choose him and his race that he completely forgot we existed and then they expect us to believe that he has been following our actions and will stop us so the Traveler can see what has become of it’s “Champion.” - Bill Nighy is not the Speaker Guy: You didn’t think I would notice he’s not voiced by Bill Nighy, did you Bungie. Either way, the new guy does an excellent job of it despite his brief time on screen and I liked him more than most of the other characters. You can see his true colors come out a bit, saying that the Traveler never spoke to him, but that he spoke for what the Traveler stood for and could inspire in people. - The Guardian and The Ghost: I’m going to come right out and say it, I dislike the silent protagonist in games. I especially dislike it when I have a character speaking for the protagonist that doesn’t really add anything to the character. This is an issue that I have had since Destiny 1 and it is something that has since gotten worse. I would prefer to just have our protagonist be quiet but not silent. We speak only when we need to. We prefer to listen before we speak and then we act accordingly. We would embody the strong silent type and our ghost would be there as our link to the lore of the world. If it is at all possible, give us the ability to choose what we say or not. It may take some extra time to program, but I guarantee you that players will be more receptive to that.