Since the Destiny 2 announcement trailer, I’ve been convinced I know where the first Raid will be held: the Tower. Nothing would have more impact than fighting Ghaul — or Gary if you prefer — in the flaming remains of the tower with the trapped Traveller watching overhead.
Allow me to prove my theory.
I have spent the last few days CSIing the sh*t out of the Destiny 2 gameplay, finding a few spots that show what is most likely a Raid. During the explanation of the new Guided Games system, Bungie’s Mark Noseworthy sets up a situation.
“So imagine you had five people who wanted to play a Raid, but they’re missing a sixth person,” he said. “Then you have a solo player who’s never played raids before and they are like, ‘I just want to see what this is like.’ We’ll match a group and a solo player together.”
As Mark describes this, a screenshot of five Guardians queuing in orbit above Earth can be seen. The shot is above.
Just to make sure, let’s compare the locations already announced, seen below. They’re all wholly unique — there’s no mistaking Earth for another locale.
Granted, this could just be because there is a social space on Earth, so back to the investigation. The next thing we see is a Warlock spawn into a social area with five other Guardians. You can see the scenes below.
The helmet the Warlock is rocking is pretty unique and only shows up at one other time in the reveal: the same sequence that announces Guided Games.
The six Guardians in this shot are the same six that join together at the farm. They are running dramatically towards the screen in a an area that, at first glance, looks like a place inside the walls in old Russia. To reach the Tower you’re going to have to go through the wall, right? More importantly though, they’re a group of six. All Crucible matches will be 4v4 in Destiny 2, so the only activity with groups of six is the Raid. It’s possible this is just a patrol with 2 Fireteams together, but it would have to be a big coincidence they happen to be the exact same Guardians from the previous scenario.
I’ll admit: thus far, all this evidence is still pretty unconvincing. With that in mind, let us have a look at the other time during the stream that looks like Raid gameplay. Similar to the last setup, we have Bungie’s Eric Osborne mentioning “a brand new Raid” followed by two shots of six Guardians in an activity. Screenshots are below.
In the first shot you can see a white building at the top of the stairs the Guardians are descending. It looks a bit like the kind of thing you would see in the Tower, right? The stairs also remind me of the ones that go down to the Hall of Guardians — you know, where the Vanguard inspect maps and such. Now, have a look at the vegetation on the left in the first shot and the the same kind of tree that takes up most of the start of the second shot. They don’t look anything like the plants on Titan, Io or Nessus — they look like a kind of pine tree that we see all over the European Dead Zone. So, Earth.
Now look at the long white light on either side of the stairs. It doesn’t look very alien — it’s a kind of neon or LED.
That same lighting is also something we only see in Destiny in either the Tower or the Bannerfall map, another Tower no longer used.
Obviously, this is all just speculation and should be taken with a grain of salt — something Destiny players should be familiar with — but I would love for the community to weigh in on this idea and tell me what they think.
After all, there is a big ol’ spot in the Tower that would be perfect for a boss fight.
What do you think? Is my spinfoil hat on too tight? Sound off in the comments area, below.
Destiny 2 heads to Windows PC, Xbox One and PS4 in September.
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