I’ve been playing Destiny the past few days. So far, it seems like the best shooter to date. That’s probably a controversial opinion, as the reaction online seems far more harsh, but I’ll write something up about it soon to give my take on what Bungie is doing here. But first, I wanted to address something else.
It seems like every article on Destiny feels like it MUST comment on Peter Dinklage’s performance as your Ghost drone. His delivery is supposedly being read like he doesn’t know what the words he is saying actually mean, and that his delivery is incredibly flat.
I’m just going to throw this out there–he’s playing a fucking droid. We aren’t given any backstory about where he really came from or what motivates him, at least not at first. To me, his delivery is really quite interesting, because it isn’t exactly flat, it’s just that it feels like a robot trying to act like a concerned sentinent comrade, but not quite selling it. When his tone doesn’t reflect the urgency of his words sometimes, well, that’s probably because he’s playing a robot.
Granted, that creative choice as an actor veers very close to just reading your lines poorly, or at least being accused of it, but I think people need to adjust their mindset on his performance. If you imagine it’s an unrelatable floating drone talking to you and not Peter Dinklage, well, it makes more sense. Tyrion Lanister isn’t hanging around with you when you’re playing Destiny, so don’t expect the same timing and wit.