The Exotic grenade launcher Parasite is one of the coolest and strongest guns in Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, and part of its flavorful audio was derived from the sound of mac and cheese.
In a recent group interview, audio lead Evan Buehler discussed the challenge of building compelling audio while working from home. Ethan Gach from Kotaku asked about the weirdest sounds that went into the expansion, and Buehler highlighted the wormy audio of Parasite in particular.
"With Parasite, the worm launcher, some of the sounds incorporated in there are sounds you might find in your house," he explained. "I know if you've ever made some fresh pasta, specifically beef mac and cheese, and kind of mixed it around a little bit, some of those sounds were used to create that. Maybe not so great or weird, but it's something you could experience or understand in your own home."
Still reeling from the knowledge that mac and cheese is layered into Parasite's audio, we followed up to ask about the voice of the Hive worm familiar who was (somewhat against his will) transformed into this peculiar grenade launcher. Hearing it speak for the first time is one of the most bewildering and memorable moments of The Witch Queen. How do you get a good Worm voice?
"That's the kind of question we always have to answer with an expansion like this," Buehler added. "We'll go, what does a worm sound like? A lot goes into that. There's the voice actor who voices it, that's a lot of the character that you hear. And then there's a lot of audio processing that goes on that to sound a way, it's kind of a collaboration between the processing and the acting to get it to sound the way we want it to sound. Our intention is to make it interesting and memorable when that worm speaks."
Check out our Destiny 2 Witch Queen review in progress for more detailed impressions of the new expansion.
