I’ve been enjoying Destiny 2 Shadowkeep this week. But there’s one thing missing, something that I thought might have slipped in to this week’s update: the ability to change my guy.
Destiny 2 has a rudimentary character creation system, as far as these things go. You pick one of three races, then can choose between a number of faces, hairstyles, and facial markings. Once you’ve picked, that’s it — your Hunter is always going to have that haircut, you Titan is never going to be able to wash that face paint off.
In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t that big a deal. You almost never see your character’s head sans helmet, and the game’s huge range of armor lets you define their look in a pretty granular way. The new Universal Ornament system improves things even more by allowing you to swap out the look of any Legendary armor for cosmetics from the game’s Eververse store.
And yet. And yet. I cannot change my guy.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I hate my guy. He’s a cool robot with no eyes and a big hole in his head whom I based on a character created by an artist named Sarah Stone, whose dark techno-organic designs I absolutely adore. But still, it would be nice to get to try something else.
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Monster Hunter World. for example, lets players tweak their characters’ appearances in-game. But you can also buy full appearance redos, letting you effectively change your character into a different person. When I got back into the game this summer, I used that feature to turn my powerful older lady character into the world’s most tired man. Monster Hunter World shows off a little more of your character and has a deeper customization system, but I don’t see why a game like Destiny couldn’t do something similar.
True, I could just make another character. But imagine the possibilities of even just letting players adjust say, their hair and face markings. You could have a little cosmetics vendor set up shop in one of the unused areas of the Tower, where your Guardian could get a touchup on their fade or a cool new tattoo or something. Actually, would a tattoo survive the resurrection process? Do Guardians actually grow hair or are they stuck with whatever cut they had when they first died? The lore possibilities alone would make this all worth it.
At the end of the day, though, I don’t really need any of that. All that matters is that Bungie let me change my guy. Of course, I think Bungie should let everyone change their guys, but that’s really more of a high-level design decision that I’ll leave up to the developers. What’s imperative is that Bungie let me change my guy. Ball’s in your court, Luke.
While you’re here, check out the rest of our Destiny 2 Shadowkeep coverage, including guides, features, tips, and more. Want to find Exotics? We’ve got your Exotics! Want to know what’s up with the world of Destiny 2 before you jump in? Take a look at our Lore Primer. Don’t know where to start? Check out our guide on Getting Started in Destiny 2 Shadowkeep. Good hunting, Guardian.
