When Destiny initially released, many game critics weren't sure how to feel about it. Some loved it, some hated it, but all agreed on one thing: Peter Dinklage's voice acting as the game's AI companion, Ghost, was truly awful.
We said as much in our review of the game. Dinklage's performance felt insincere and unenthusiastic, though Bungie's writing certainly didn't help. It wasn't too surprising then when Dinklage's Ghost was nowhere to be seen in the game's first two expansions. For the third, Bungie is erasing Peter Dinklage from the game completely, recasting the Ghost with the voice of veteran game voice actor Nolan North, who will also be re-doing all of Dinklage's lines from the original game.
The answer as to why has seemed obvious: Bungie wasn't happy with Dinklage's performance. Why else would his character not appear in two expansions before being recast entirely? While that may be part of the explanation, Bungie insists recasting Dinklage was more about availability.
"Dinklage was awesome to work with but we needed to work with someone who is more available. Nolan is a pro, this is his thing," executive producer Mark Noseworthy says to Game Informer. "You can just call him up and say 'hey, next week we're doing this internal play test and it would be great to get some Ghost dialogue in there'. And he's available."
Ghost will be more important than ever before as Bungie looks to revamp storytelling in Destiny. Creative director Luke Smith tells Game Informer that Ghost represented untapped potential in the original Destiny.
"One of the things we wanted to do with him, in addition to bringing in Nolan to be the voice of him, which is super exciting, is to make him a purveyor of lore," Smith says.
Players in The Taken King will have the ability to scan objects in the environment in order to learn more about them, with your character's Ghost filling you in on the details. It sounds like Ghost will be speaking more than ever before. As sad as it is to say, few will likely miss Dinklage in the role. You can read more about the many changes coming to Destiny with The Taken King here.
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