Destiny 2 is the culmination of 30 years of Bungie game design, with near endless content, an expansive world, and of course, a ton of references. In celebration of the company’s 30th anniversary, Bungie has recreated the box arts of some its most iconic games using Destiny 2 models and assets.
Bungie started its 30th anniversary celebrations with a special Destiny 2 pack that brought tons of new and referential content to the game. From the return of classic weapons like fan-favorite Gjallarhorn Rocket Launcher, to new ones inspired by Bungie’s previous games, like the Battle Rifle and Energy Sword from Halo, the new set of arms covers both Bungie’s past and present. The references extend past Halo though, with a full set of unlockable Marathon-inspired ornaments, and a new activity known as Dares of Eternity, featuring the shady Xur and a powerful celestial horse.
Bungie’s recreations of former box arts in Destiny 2 access both the easily recognizable and more obscure parts of the company’s history. The images come from Destiny 2‘s official Twitter account in a post where Bungie simply states, “Iconic covers inspired by our past.” Up first is none other than a recreation of Halo: Combat Evolved‘s legendary box art, with a Guardian donning some of the 30th Anniversary armor—including a particular green helmet—and wielding the BxR-55 Battler Legendary Pulse Rifle in the same pose as Master Chief. Next is a bit more recent, a recreation of the original Destiny‘s box art, three guardians standing back to back, with the Traveler looming in the distance.
The final two images contain nods to games that predate Bungie’s Halo and Destiny days, and may be unfamiliar to many. Marathon, another science-fiction FPS franchise, is referenced in the third image, the simple two-tone box art being recreated, with Destiny 2 written in the Marathon font on the left, and the Tricorn symbol replacing the circular Marathon logo. In the final image Bungie references Pathways into Darkness, a Mac OS FPS released in 1993, the image retaining the same strong black boxing of the original, with the title being replaced with Destiny: Vault of Glass, referencing the first Raid available in the original game.
In a year that has had many anniversaries, Bungie may have one of the finest celebrations of them all. While all of the nods and references in the 30th Anniversary Pack are incredible, it is the effort exuded into these images that is the icing on the cake. More times than not, when people think of Bungie, they think of Halo or Destiny, so it’s nice to see the company’s older franchises in Marathon and Pathways into Darkness receive a bit of attention.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
