I really like the personality and aesthetics of the specialists.
I was in game earlier checking out my builds and gear and saw Angel just chilling in the menu screen, and he did one of his little smiles.
It makes me happy every time I see that because it's a *real* smile, like people actually had fun making that character and designing him and voicing him.
Casper too makes me feel a similar way, he's this totally badass professional and has big special-operations vibes, but sometimes when he says "thank you" it just sounds adorable. Obviously still in a very in-character way, but the gratitude is palpable.
The characters feel real in their own ways, all of them. I think this makes it way, way more fun to play them because they feel like real characters that smile and have so much personality.
The only character whose personality I dislike is Sundance, but that's because they're just extremely haughty, which is an intentional part of their character design. I can't hate Dice for pulling off a mark that they were aiming for. I can dislike the character without disliking the dev's work.
I think, if the post-game cringe one-liners stayed in the game, that I would not have these same impressions. I think those cringey voice lines killed a lot of what made the operators so endearing. They marred the rest of the ensemble, like a blotch on a piece of artwork. With those gone, everything about the operators feels so clear now, from Angel's smile to Casper's professional special ops attitude to Dozer's total badassery and no-*-given demeanor.
Just wanted to show some love for part of the game that I feel people really don't notice much just because they dislike the gameplay element of Specialists.
Personally I enjoy specialists more than classes, but that's not what this thread is about. I think people's dislike of specialists has blinded them to how deeply detailed and crafted each of them are, and how well voice-acted they are too. So I wanted to be a beacon in the dark, so to speak.
Dice, thank you for your work on making the specialists feel so human and fun. Angel's smile will literally never get old to me.
