Destiny 2 has brought in a new exotic mission, and the players loved the fact that they made it with the mission without any complications. Still, one thing has happened that has made people terrify even more. A player with the username CBurritoboss was out of control on Twitter; he was doing it all over the place on Twitter, by mentioning the Bungie team. This was because he had met a daunting character model in the mission which he claimed to have been amongst the most disturbing protagonist a game ever had. The character’s facial feature was the main thrust for most of the actions, where some players could not stand the character of the alien.
The character under the spotlight is suspected to be a Psion, while the divergent alien races are in the same universe that is in Destiny 2. The Psion in question got particularly much closer scrutiny than what one would have expected, let us put it in this way. The tweet had a combination of cry and skull emojis suggesting the resentment shared by many amongst the community. It seems exactly like the time you have been fully engrossed in a video game, and then you come across things that will give you a hard time and probably even haunt you when you go to sleep in the following days.
Twitter replays for this tweet are full of mixed feelings as players are laughing and getting affected by the content at the same time. To go head-on, one player explicitly said the ugly thing was “so ugly i could not stand looking at it” which besides that, was the opinion of most players, and another more constructive one was made by another player when he thought the character would do well with lip balm, criticizing not-so-ugly-ness. The Twitter conversation was filled with different gaming creatures being used as examples – one player saw it as being like the explosive fish from Subnautica while another thought it was more like a Forerunner from Halo. Even though the references were so far-ranging the outcome was the same: the creature’s face was terrifying.
However, the players blaming the new alien character are not the only ones in the group with negative feelings! In the comments, some people surprisingly take the side of the new pal’s look and defense. One player puts it as follows: “I actually like the psions look, they’re the most ‘alien’ alien designs in the factions we encounter at least in the face” which is very valid reasoning, and the other guy being “Stop being mean, he is cute!! And, he was extremely helpful in retrieving my shiny new axe!” stands for the split of opinions among the community one being afraid of the alien design and the other on the opposite side of that.
The chat then meandered a bit. A player came up with an inquiry about the Psions’ faces being shown before, that led to a response from another person that, yes, the faces were visible since the beginning of Destiny 1, and many a time even more than once. Was the model always like this or was there a change in this specific mission? The lighting? The angle? Or has the fan base just now been led to point out the change as in this specific mission because they are basically made to look at it?
A few of the reactions were just too funny. “The barber fucked his shit up fr.” one player commented which is probably the most permissive admitting of the issue. Another just said “Sleeping with a blanket over my toes tonight.” and that captures what some players are experiencing in terms of reaction. GIFs and memes were also posted in response, one being from The Office with Steve Carrel’s horrified look, which was the perfect portrayal of the entire situation.
What is really fascinating here is that a minor character model like this one has started such a big debate in the Destiny community. The point of the discussion is not weapon balancing or new content drops or any of the usual hot topics – it is about an alien’s face that some players find unsettling. This is the kind of unpredictable or unmanufacturable organic community reaction that you get. Players are either completely disgusted or fiercely defensive of this digital creature, and the debate is really fun to watch unravel.
The whole thing reminds me of other in gaming when the character designs had similar kinds of people’s emotions being stirred. Did people have the same reaction when they first encountered the humans in the original Mass Effect? Or, “my face is tired” from Mass Effect Andromeda – that part became an internet classic overnight! There’s something about uncanny valley and straight-up alien designs that never fails to capture attention and make people discuss. In the Psions’ case in Destiny, they have been part of the world for quite some time now, but for some reason, this particular closeup seems to have had a different kind of impact.
But when it comes down to it ultimately, it is communities of gamers who unite and through totally off the wall but in some cases utterly enjoyable cons, they talk about the smallest details so intensely, that is what makes it so special. Whether you think that the Psion has to keep its head under a helmet to the day it will die or you are ready to stand for its original appearance, the fact is that the Destiny 2 players give a lot of attention to every aspect of the game, even the faces of their alien enemies.
The mission is surely enjoyable and rewarding, but it is this abrupt and maybe unexpected meeting with the character face-to-face that is the really talked about thing in town this week. And you know what? That’s sort of cool in a very weird way, isn’t it? This kind of community engagement is what makes Destiny 2 special, and it’s great to see such passionate discussions happening across PlayStation and Xbox platforms.
