I honestly didn’t expect a James Bond game to make saying goodbye to Destiny 2 any harder than it already was. After learning that Bungie would be ending Destiny 2‘s live-service support with its final Monument of Triumph update, I was already having a hard time knowing what to do with that news. I knew Destiny 2 couldn’t last forever, especially after how rough its last couple of years had been, but knowing the end was possible didn’t make it any easier to accept once it finally became real. Then I started playing 007 First Light, and I heard Lord Shaxx come out of John Greenway’s mouth.
Lennie James, the voice of Lord Shaxx in Destiny 2, also plays John Greenway in 007 First Light. Somehow, I actually didn’t even know that going in, so it certainly caught me by surprise. But after more than 6,000 hours with Destiny 2 across multiple platforms, Shaxx is part of the furniture of the game I once called home, part of the pressure of the Crucible, and part of the strange comfort that comes from hearing the same voice for years in a place that once felt like it would always be there. So, when Greenway opened his mouth in 007 First Light, I didn’t hear him—I heard Shaxx, of course.
Destiny 2 Player Count is Suddenly Blowing Up
Destiny 2’s player count is suddenly surging as Guardians return for Monument of Triumph, the game’s final major live-service update.
007 First Light Came at the Strangest Possible Time
007 First Light already had my attention because of what it was trying to do with James Bond. Instead of dropping players into the life of a fully formed 007, it tells a story about Bond before he has completely become the man everyone knows. There’s something interesting about that kind of origin story, especially for a character who has spent so much of his history feeling untouchable. First Light gives him room to be young, rough, arrogant, capable, and still unfinished, which makes the people around him matter just as much as the man he is eventually going to become.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
John Greenway quickly became one of my favorite parts of that setup. He isn’t some throwaway authority figure who exists only to tell Bond where to go next. There’s a real sense that he sees Bond clearly, even when Bond doesn’t fully see himself. I loved the dynamic between them because Greenway has enough patience to guide him, but enough sharpness to remind him that potential isn’t the same thing as becoming who he is supposed to be. For a young Bond story, that kind of relationship is important, because Bond needs someone in the room who can see the myth before it is fully formed and still refuse to treat him like he has already earned it.
The problem, if it can even be called a problem, is that every time Greenway spoke, Shaxx was somewhere in the room with him. Even as a longtime Walking Dead fan who watched Lennie James bring Morgan to life in an incredibly satisfying way, Destiny 2 had made him Shaxx. It wasn’t distracting in a way that hurt the game for me. If anything, it made Greenway more interesting. Lennie James has a voice that naturally carries authority, and that works beautifully for both characters. Greenway doesn’t sound like Shaxx in the sense that he’s shouting about grenades or Crucible glory, but the foundation is still there. It’s the command in his voice, the forcefulness, the sense that whoever he is talking to should probably listen.
The problem, if it can even be called a problem, is that every time Greenway spoke, Shaxx was somewhere in the room with him.
But the timing is what made it so strange. If I had played 007 First Light at any other point, I probably would have smiled, recognized the voice, and moved on. Film and TV actors show up in video games a lot these days, and usually, it’s just a fun little connection to make. But I wasn’t hearing Greenway at any other point. I was hearing him right after learning that Destiny 2, a game I had invested a considerable amount of my time and energy into, was approaching its final major live-service update. I was already thinking about the Tower more than usual. I was already thinking about the Crucible, my Guardian, my friends, my old clan, and the version of my life that Destiny 2 still holds hostage in the best and most painful way.
For years, Shaxx has been one of Destiny 2‘s most recognizable voices to me. He has been there through the wins, the losses, the ridiculous Crucible matches, the Iron Banner runs, the seasonal events, and all the little moments where Destiny 2 somehow made even a routine activity feel like a huge milestone. He is part hype man, part warrior-poet, part overly enthusiastic coach who sounds like he would personally fight the entire enemy team if the rules allowed it. Destiny 2 has plenty of unforgettable characters, but Shaxx has always had a way of making the player feel seen, even when all he is really doing is yelling over a match.
So, when Greenway spoke to Bond in 007 First Light, I couldn’t hear him cleanly. I could hear the performance for what it was, and I genuinely liked it, but I could also hear years of Destiny 2 behind it. I could hear the live-service game I was already grieving. I could hear a place that had meant more to me than I probably realized while I was still living in it. That’s what made 007 First Light feel bittersweet in a way I never expected. It was giving me a new character I really liked, but it was doing so with one of the voices most closely tied to a game I was trying to prepare myself to lose.
Now Greenway Has Followed Me Back Into Destiny 2
The truly bizarre part is what happened after Monument of Triumph went live. I’ve officially gone back to Destiny 2, just like I knew I would, partly because I wanted to see the update and partly because I needed to be there. After all those years, after all those hours, after everything Destiny 2 has meant to me, there was no way I was going to let its final major update pass by without logging in again. I wanted to stand in the Tower, check my Guardian, hear the music, look around, and feel whatever I needed to feel. I didn’t know exactly what that would be, but I knew I needed to be there for it.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)
Then Shaxx spoke, and now I heard Greenway. Somehow, the whole thing had reversed itself. I went into 007 First Light hearing Shaxx come out of Greenway’s mouth, then came back to Destiny 2 and heard Greenway come out of Shaxx’s. It felt ridiculous, like some kind of Twilight Zone episode built specifically for one very emotionally compromised Destiny player. One voice had followed me out of Destiny 2 and into a James Bond game, then followed me right back again when I returned.
I know that probably sounds silly to anyone who has never had a game get under their skin like Destiny 2 has gotten under mine. But voices matter in games, especially games that stay with players for years. They become part of the atmosphere, part of the memory, and part of the rituals players don’t even realize have become rituals until those rituals are threatened. Shaxx isn’t merely the guy yelling in the Crucible to me but one of the sounds I associate with an entire era of my life I can never get back.
I went into 007 First Light hearing Shaxx come out of Greenway’s mouth, then came back to Destiny 2 and heard Greenway come out of Shaxx’s.
I hear Shaxx, and I think about the version of myself who first started playing Destiny 2. I think about the friends I played with, the late nights, the raids, the failed attempts, the first clears, and the inside jokes that would make no sense to anyone outside our group. I think about how much the game changed me as a player, how it made me more confident, how it made me more willing to fail and try again. I think about how I am almost ten years older now, with a wife, children, responsibilities, and a life that looks very different from the one I had when Destiny 2 first launched.
Now, somehow, I also think about Greenway, and it’s strange how quickly that association formed. 007 First Light didn’t replace Shaxx in my mind, and Greenway isn’t suddenly the more important character to me. Shaxx has years of history behind him that no other role could erase. But Greenway arrived at the exact moment Destiny 2 was beginning its final bow, so he got attached to that moment whether he was supposed to or not. He became part of the end of Destiny 2 for me, even though he belongs to a completely different game.
There is something oddly fitting about that, though. Destiny 2 has always had a way of following me into other games. It made me better at shooters, more comfortable with difficult games, and it taught me to enjoy the process of getting better, even when that process was frustrating. It changed how I approach challenges, how I think about repetition, and how willing I am to keep going when something feels impossible at first. Before Destiny 2, I was a very different kind of player. After Destiny 2, I had more confidence, more patience, and more willingness to push through the part of a game where failure makes me want to walk away.
So, maybe it makes sense that Shaxx wouldn’t stay behind when I left. Maybe it makes sense that, at the exact moment I was trying to process Destiny 2‘s ending, one of its most recognizable voices would meet me somewhere else. Maybe it makes sense that when I came back, that other game came back with me too. Games have a strange way of doing that, especially the ones that stick around long enough to become more than something you play for a weekend and forget. They follow you. They attach themselves to seasons of life, to friendships, to routines, to disappointments, to victories, and sometimes even to other games that had nothing to do with them in the first place.
Greenway arrived at the exact moment Destiny 2 was beginning its final bow, so he got attached to that moment whether he was supposed to or not.
I still love Lennie James’ Greenway as a character in 007 First Light. I love what he brings to Bond’s story, and I love the way his relationship with Bond gives 007 First Light some of its best emotional texture. But I don’t think I will ever be able to hear him without hearing Shaxx now. More unexpectedly, I don’t think I will ever hear Shaxx in quite the same way again either, and that’s the part I really didn’t see coming. I expected Destiny 2 to make me emotional when I returned for Monument of Triumph, but I didn’t expect 007 First Light to change how that return sounded.
For years, Shaxx was one of the voices of Destiny 2. Now, because of one very specific stretch of time, he also sounds like the strange bridge between a game I am grieving and a new one I didn’t expect to be part of that grief. 007 First Light gave me a character I really liked, but it also made me hear Destiny 2 in a place I wasn’t prepared to hear it. Then Destiny 2 gave me Shaxx again, only now, Greenway is standing there with him.
I went into 007 First Light hoping to meet a younger James Bond, and I did. I just didn’t expect Lord Shaxx to be waiting for me there too. Now that I’m back in Destiny 2 for Monument of Triumph, I’m hearing both of them at once, and as strange as that is, it feels right in a way I can’t fully explain. Destiny 2 has followed me through so many years of my life that maybe it was always going to follow me into something else before I was ready to let it go. Even in a James Bond game, even in MI6, even in a completely different world, Shaxx found me again.
- Released
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August 28, 2017
- ESRB
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T For TEEN for Blood, Language, and Violence
