There's no antagonist (Destiny)

by Jabberwok, Tuesday, October 21, 2014, 13:22 (3468 days ago) @ Cody Miller

Dang, I know why Destiny wasn't that satisfying story wise: we had no antagonist.

The original Halo had almost as few actual characters as Destiny, yet we had an antagonist in 343GS. Someone to struggle against, with clear motivations of his own. We don't want him to succeed, so we strive to beat him.

Destiny doesn't really have an antagonist. We don't know the motives of the Darkness or the Vex, but more troublesome is we don't know what is at stake. If 343GS fires the ring, we all die. We don't want that to happen, so we try to win. But what is the Black Heart doing? What will happen if we don't stop it? We don't even see any effect from it at all, so it's hard to know why to care.

The very least that could have been done is perhaps have the Traveler's protective shield start to shrink as the black heart drains its energy or whatever. The outskirts of the city could become vulnerable, and perhaps be overrun. At least we'd have some kind of tangible reason to fight the darkness.

When is Destiny 2 coming out again?

Part of the issue is there are so many things going on at once. Three different races to fight, with no clue about their motivations, and no leaders who seem to make decisions. A bunch of different settings, with no particular investment in them besides what happens to the Last City, which is far away from any actual gameplay. The Darkness, non-specific, and incorporeal as far as I can tell.

In contrast, the Halo series focused on one setting at a time, and had a number of single characters as villains. In addition to 343, the Overmind, Tartarus, and the Prophet of Truth. I always thought of the Flood as the main villain of the series, which had a very simple aim, and even a voice by the second game.

I guess they could be playing a long game, stretching out the story over multiple titles, but if that's the case, this first installment has definitely suffered as a result. And being able to fly around the solar system is cool and all, but the lack of a consistent setting makes the story even more unfocused. Seems to me like the Queen of the Reef and her brother are the only actual characters in the game, and I'm not even sure why they're necessary. Well, okay, there's also the time-traveling EXO, but she doesn't really do anything besides be mysterious. And when I say character, I mean someone who has a role in the story besides just handing out quests or delivering VO.

I would definitely like to see at least The Fallen get some proper villains at the helm, who actually have a role in the story, instead of just being strike bosses that I know nothing about (which makes it hard to care about killing them).