Death in video games is something that can be very powerful when done right. When it’s unexpected, when you feel that a character is “safe” and yet that gets proven otherwise, it’s a powerful moment. But, the opposite is also true, when it feels forced, has no reason, or it feels like the developer is going for “shock value”, it doesn’t feel right. Destiny 2 players are feeling this way about the upcoming Forsaken DLC, where beloved character Cayde-6 was revealed to have been killed in the trailer for it. And players aren’t happy.
Cayde-6, voiced by Nathan Fillion, is a comedic character who is very helpful to players throughout Destiny 2, so the question of why he needed to die has been brought up a lot since Forsaken’s reveal. Bungie’s Eric Osborn talked with Game Informer about this and noted:
“It feels like it’s just done for shock value at the start, but it’s not. It makes the world feel rich. You start to see the way characters are reacting to that death and the vacuum that leaves in the universe.”
This follows up what project lead Scott Taylor said when he noted:
“There wasn’t a single lightning moment where someone unveiled a grand design about killing Cayde. It was much more organic than that and developed from a series of ideas we were trying to explore. We wanted to tell a story with huge stakes, but have those stakes be really personal to the player. We’ve done aliens trying to destroy the universe with the consequences of failure resulting in catastrophe. What if we could get that feeling with something closer to home, and more relatable? That was appealing.”
Regardless of how fans feel, this is happening in the Forsaken DLC, how it actually comes off in the game though remains to be seen.
