Feature: Take a Tour of Destiny's Ghost Edition on PS4

With the release of Destiny now long gone, you’ve probably already purchased a vanilla version of the first-person shooter. As such, you may be curious what the top-tier special edition looks like. Manufactured in extremely limited quantities (Amazon, Best Buy, and others reportedly had to cancel some orders), the Ghost Edition costs an enormous $150. It contains some digital items, some ‘old world relics’, a map, a weapons handbook, and your very own Dinklebot – or Ghost if you prefer. Is it worth the money, though?

Right away, the outer box has a unique shape to it, as well as a fancy look with some sort of coat of arms embossed on the top and bottom of the lid. There have been many reports of this outer casing being beaten to hell, and this specific one was no different. The outer lid of our copy sadly had a few nasty tears in it, but Amazon, as well as other retailers, appear to be dealing with the issues brilliantly.

The first thing that you see upon opening the box up is the Ghost – complete with a special edition paint job. It’s a fine work of art, too. Bungie has always done a great job with its collector’s editions, and this is no different; the Ghost has a weight to it, looks marvellous, and may even be a 1:1 scale replica. It lights up and speaks, too – but there’s no “That wizard came from the moon” sadly. The neatest thing, though, is that it comes with a charger instead of batteries, and it boasts the same type of plug as the DualShock 4, which is great.

Next is a nice leather-bound journal. Upon opening it, you’ll see that the right side houses the gun field manual, which looks appropriately weather worn, and has facsimile hand-written notes and doodles throughout. On the left side is a pocket housing a variety of loose items.

The first thing in the left pocket is a typed note, which essentially encourages you to take up arms and push back the dark. It may seem vague, but considering that the game itself doesn’t delve into much more detail, it’s hardly surprising.

Beneath that are a few postcards from the “golden age”, including Venus, Mars, and Old Russia. Bungie didn’t just decorate one side either: the rear has a postage spot and an address line, so if you really wanted to, you could use these as real postcards.

Beneath the postcards rests a map of the galaxy as it is depicted in the game, featuring the locales that you can visit. The map is unfortunately not a full-on cloth one, which would have been great, but it’s still a very heavy feeling stock, closer to a vinyl tablecloth than a piece of paper. The art style for the map especially leans more towards fantasy than sci-fi, and the layout looks gorgeous.

In the game package, to the right of the steelbook case housing the game, and under the journal with the field manual and postcards, is a sealed envelope. What could it include?

Surprise! It’s more golden age artifacts. These are a little more elaborate than the postcards, including a patch, a sticker, and some pictures. As far as we can tell – without reading into it – these all pertain to a Russian ship, the Ares I, which we’re assuming is the craft that contained the crew who discovered the Traveler.

Here’s a better look at the things under the patch, including the sticker (top right), a picture of one of the astronauts on the team (top left), as well as some negatives of the Traveler, possibly in motion, heading towards the Earth (bottom two).

So, that completes our tour. Aside from the damage in transit, this is another worthy purchase for those who like collector’s editions, and is one of the better ones in recent memory. Bungie has been doing a great job on these sets for a while now, and while the game may not have quite lived up to the hype that surrounded it, the Ghost Edition certainly has.