Playing Co-op (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, August 16, 2014, 14:12 (3751 days ago) @ Kermit

I guess I'm slightly different with game characters. To me, the Master Chief was always himself. Were there times that I got close to roleplaying him? Yes. Especially when the game's on Legendary and there's an impossible situation in front of me. But even then, I wasn't the Chief. I was... doing what he would have done for him... if that makes any sense at all. Halo is an interactive story about the Master Chief. I was also never Shepard from Mass Effect, despite the customizability. I was just playing his or her story. Same with most other characters. I was never Laura Croft, or Corvo, or Mr. DeWitt.

With ODST and Reach (especially Reach) it was a little different because while both the Rookie and Noble 6 had backstory, they were also more open to being whatever I wanted. Not totally though. The Rookie had fought in battles before and really was only a rookie to that one ODST team. Noble 6 was one of the few Spartan III orphans who just happened to fit Halsey's original stricter Spartan II profiles. He'd been on solo mission before. Flew a Sabre before. Even had a file for Noble 1 to read... so even he wasn't me.

With Destiny, I feel like things have changed. Unless something major comes up, and I highly doubt it will, each of the nearly five million of us who played the Beta were playing their own Guardian. Now, of course not everybody has written 10,000ish words about their Guardians like I have, but the game and the lore gets 99% out of the way of your Guardian being who you want them to be. With the Halos, the characters were never mine. With Destiny, they very nearly are. And for me, than means maybe when I'm playing as Tesni Jarmila I'll not revive someone and instead urge them to do better. Or if I'm playing Natela Tamaya Murk I'll hide behind a corner before "working up the courage" to engage a powerful enemy. I'm not going to ruin a game or allow a loss by being in character, there comes a point where the game comes first, but I'll give myself a bit of latitude to roleplay a bit when it is acceptable to do so.

As for co-op, I really enjoyed playing with everyone during the beta, but I probably will go through the story missions mostly alone the first time.