Call the Karma Police, Destiny 2 just murdered Radiohead

Destiny 2: Lightfall launches next week, and Bungie has just dropped a typically epic cinematic trailer for the new expansion, but setting it to a weird brooding cover version of Radiohead’s Karma Police was definitely A Choice…

Lightfall is almost here, with the latest expansion for Destiny 2 set to add new powers, weapons, enemies, locations, and all that other good stuff when it arrives on February 28th. True to form, Bungie has cut another great trailer that brings the hype for facing off against our greatest threat yet in The Witness, but by the Traveler’s Light, can we please knock it off with the dark, edgy cover versions of songs for trailers already?

Destiny 2: Lightfall launch trailer

Somehow, this isn’t even the first time that Radiohead’s Karma Police has been drafted in as the song of choice for an action game trailer — the Ghost Recon Breakpoint announcement trailer spun it into a swooping orchestral theme only occasionally recognisable, much like Bungie did with Paint It Black for the Beyond Light trailer. The trend for using subverted covers of inappropriate tracks obviously goes much further back, though. Xbox Game Studios‘ own Gears of War made for one of the most notable examples, with the original launch trailer cutting footage of freakish mutants and men dressed as bins to Gary Jules’ stripped-back version of Tears for Fears’ Mad World, with the series later further adopting the cover by reprising it in the Ultimate Edition trailer and even featuring an instrumental in Gears of War 3.

Destiny has long had a killer OST of its own — Misha Mansoor’s awesome Sepiks Redux arrangement was a highlight even amid Rise of Iron’s host of choice cuts — and while it kinda made sense to use licensed tracks for the goofy live action trailers (Sabotage and Immigrant Song worked great in context for those), something feels off about setting the coming of the intense, all-powerful Witness to a dodgy cover of an old Radiohead song. It really doesn’t lend it the gravitas you think it does, folks. Please, just stop.

What did you make of the trailer? Keen to jump back into Destiny 2 when Lightfall drops next week, or are you waiting on Bungie to release some Crucible footage cut to William Shatner’s cover of Common People first? Do let us know, Guardians!