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Destiny 2: Beyond Light Salvation's Grip Quest Impersonation Moment Happened Because Of COVID-19
The opening sequence of Destiny 2: Beyond Light is now available to play with an even bigger content drop today. With new Exotics and the freedom to roam Europa and the Cosmodrome, there is a lot to unpack in the latest expansion. Balancing drama and comedy, there is one comedic sequence that takes place during the Salvation's Grip questline that happened because COVID made it impossible to get a hold a particular voice actor for this specific mission.
Small spoilers for dialogue during the Salvation's Grip Exotic weapon quest.
There is a moment during the Salvation's Grip questline where our Guardians bear witness to a silly little moment with our Ghost where our helpful sidekick impersonates The Drifter. For those that are unfamiliar, The Drifter has a very specific voice that hides a darker storyline beneath devil-may-care humor. Because of that, hearing our mechanical Ghost try to sound like the Gambit figurehead is funnier in our heads than it might be in real life, but it was a very much appreciated moment of levity.
Is it a good imitation? Absolutely not. Is it a funny imitation? You bet your darkness-fighting booty. In a recent Destiny Reddit post, u/gunmaster96, a verified Bungie developer, confirmed that the COVID-19 work from home orders was actually a big reason behind how this quest moment came to be. "Fun fact: This actually came about when, due to COVID complicating things, we were unable to book Drifter’s voice actor for this mission as it was intended to be him providing the radio dialogue," said the dev.
He added, "One of our writers had the idea to have Ghost just pretend to be him instead (As scheduling Mr. North lined up better) and wrote all this awesome dialogue. Apparently on the first take Nolan perfectly imitated Drifter and had to be instructed to intentionally do it worse."
Voiced by Nolan North, a name that is in pretty much every video game ever, this moment is nothing game-changing, but the goofiness is appreciated. That being said, apparently North is a little too good at his job, but his initial impression was spot-on, so they had to do a few reshoots to make sure he didn't actually sound like the character, instead sounding like the poor imitation this was meant to be.
As for the new game expansion itself, Destiny 2: Beyond Light is now available on all platforms with the new raid arriving this Friday.
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