On February 17, 2013, Bungie officially revealed Destiny through a video documentary (ViDoC) entitled Pathways Out of Darkness: A Destiny ViDoc. As with all Bungie ViDocs, a wealth of information can be found by carefully analyzing the video.
Summary and Overview[]
Pathways Out of Darkness runs a little over four minutes, and begins with short sound bites of Chris Carney and Jason Jones giving broad thoughts about the process of creating Destiny.
A voice-over narrator gives an overview of the Destiny universe. A transcript of the storyline narration (which is broken up within the ViDoc by interviews and other interjections) follows below:
| “ | The stories tell of a golden age long ago, when our civilization spanned the system. It was a bright and hopeful time. But it didn't last.
Legends say The Traveler sacrificed itself to save us. The mysterious sphere still hangs where it made its last stand, low above the Earth, keeping silent watch. The years that followed the collapse of the golden age were hard, but slowly we joined together to build a city beneath The Traveler. And now we've begun to venture back into the wild, only to find that we're not alone. Strange and deadly creatures have occupied our old worlds. And they're pressing hard against The City, probing for a weakness, trying to stamp us out for good. Your story begins at this moment of great adventure and peril. You are a Guardian of The City; a soldier able to wield some of The Traveler's incredible power. If you can find a way to save The City -- to reclaim all that we have lost -- you will become legend. If you fail, the last light of civilization will go out. |
In addition to the storyline overview and interviews, the ViDoc also shows us a number of gameplay and environment moments, concept art, characters and enemies, and that Destiny is anticipated to spill over outside the context of consoles, with integration with mobile applications, allowing game invites to be pushed to smartphones.
Additional Analysis and Timestamps[]
The following is a chronological analysis of all discoveries made thus far from the Reveal Trailer:
- A spaceship is shown entering faster-than-light (FTL) travel or "warp." At 2:20, it appears that a ship is exiting FTL/warp travel.
- 1:05 - iPhone application is seen showing push notifications of a "New Chapter on Venus," an apparent mission that is available to the player on a particular world within the game. In addition, the app shows a player model with several "slots" for items like Primary Weapons, Secondary Weapons, Tertiary Weapons, and armor for hands, head, chest, waist, legs, and feet. In addition, various skills and character traits such as energy, shields, agility, and discipline seem to be apparent.
- Character selection is seen, suggesting that one user can have multiple characters.
- 1:20 - Several game modes are shown, including the following:
- 1:21 - (and elsewhere) Spaceships are shown, assumed to be pilotable.
- 2:30 - Several Classes are shown, though not described.
- 3:05 - Dynamic lighting and changing skybox are seen.
- 3:20 and 3:42 - Characters can be seen running. Also visible are Portals and Supply Crates. First-Person Shooter viewpoint similar to other FPS games, including Halo. At 3:42, player is seen holding a weapon similar in appearance to Halo's Assault Rifle with 43 rounds remaining. No HUD is seen.
- 3:30 - Orchestral music directed by Martin O'Donnell.
- 3:56 - Androids/Robots are visible. It is unknown as of yet whether these are NPCs or controllable by players.