Halo 3 ViDoc: Journey's End

Journey's End is a ViDoc released by Bungie Studios related to Halo 3. Released on December 5, 2007 (over two months after Halo 3 came out), the ViDoc is not aimed at Halo fans, but rather new customers; video gamers who have not played Halo: Combat Evolved or Halo 2 but are considering buying Halo 3 for the 2007 Christmas season. The video gives the backstory of the previous two Halo games, telling the entire stories so that players who are just picking up Halo 3 are not lost or confused about the storyline when playing the campaign.

Content
At over 16 minutes long (more than twice as long as all preceeding ViDocs, which ran around seven minutes), Journey's End is by far the longest released yet. It also lacks the Latin title scheme that all previous ViDocs used.

The video contains nothing in terms of new information or insight into the Halo universe. Rather, the video is almost entirely comprised of cinematic footage from Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2. The story of the Halo universe is told by a group of Bungie employees, including Lee Wilson, Frank O'Connor, Joseph Staten, and Jaime Griesemer. They narrate the cinematics as they tell the story of all the events in the first two games, from the war with the Covenant to the discovery of the Halo Rings, the release of the Flood, and the background of the High Prophets and the Gravemind. The background of the Arbiter, Master Chief, and Cortana are also discussed. A handful of cinematic footage from Halo 3 is shown at the end, but it contains almost no information about the storyline of the third game.

Additionally, the ViDoc does not contain any backstory, information, or images from any of the five Halo novels which were available at the time, nor did it discuss any of the future games in production, such as Halo Wars. The ViDoc's limited scope only included images and details from the three released games.

Transcript
They let me pick. Did I ever tell you that? Choose whichever Spartan I wanted. But you had something they didn't. Something no one saw but me. Can you guess? Luck.

It's come back home.

It's the return of Master Chief.

This is the end of our trilogy.

This is going to be the end of the story.

At the end of Halo 3 you won't just finish one fight, you'll finish all of the fights that you started in Halo 1.

This is a great story we're about to tell.

This is going to be the end of the fight.

At its heart, Halo is a mystery.

Cortana, all I need to know is did we lose them?

I think we both know the answer to that.

There are struggles going on in Halo, that are larger and longer than you can possibly imagine.

We made a blind jump. How did they--

Get here first? The Covenant ships have always been faster.

It's the story of a human conflict with an agressive adversarial species, the Covenant.

The Covenant is a collection of alien races that want to destroy humanity.

Men, we led those dumb bugs out to the middle of nowhere to keep them from getting their filthy claws on Earth. We're not gonna let 'em have it! What we will let 'em have is a belly full of lead, and a pool of their own blood to drown in!" {Turns around} "Am I right, Marines?!"

Marines: "Sir, yes sir!"

Sergeant Johnson: "Mmm-hmm. Damn right, I am! Now move it out! Double time!

You play the Master Chief, who is sort of humanity's last secret weapon against this marauding alien horde.

Captain Keyes.

Good to see you, Master Chief. Things aren't going well. Cortana did her best, but we never really had a chance.

The first Halo is about the Master Chief's struggle against the Covenant on a ring world that they all call 'Halo.'

Strapped-in Marine: What is that thing, Lieutenant?

Pilot: Hell if I know. But we're landin' on it.

The story of Halo 1 was really the story between you and your environment, this place that you were exploring.

According to the data in their networks, the ring has some kind of deep religious significance.

A big part of Halo is the relationship between Chief and Cortana.

Sleep well?

No thanks to your driving, yes.

So you did miss me.

Who is Cortana?

At least one of our writers refers to her as your girlfriend.

Cortana's every girlfriend we've ever had.

You alright?

Never been better!

No, just kidding.

Cortana is a) naked, b) blue, and c) a hologram.

She's your little guardian angel.

Chief, I'm picking up movement. We need to go, right now!

She's sort of the one character who is as powerful as you are.

Get Cortana off this ship. Keep her safe from the enemy. If they capture her they'll learn everything.

I understand.

Captain Keyes puts Cortana on the chip and hands the chip over to you as the player.

Good luck Master Chief.

The Master Chief picks up the chip, puts her right in his head. That became an important moment in the relationship between the Master Chief and Cortana.

That whole feeling of "she's in your head." You have no choice but to listen to Cortana.

This is it: Halo's control center.

She's the one who's figuring out how to unlock the doors in front of you, and she's the one who's coming up with the plans and telling you what to do.

There's no time! Get out of here, find Keyes, stop him! Before it's too late!

But then that last ten percent of the time, she doesn't know what to do, and then that's when you take over.

Even if I could get the countdown restarted, I don't know what to do.

How much firepower would you need to crack one of the engine's shields?

As the story progresses you learn that Earth is threatened, not just by the Covenant, but also by the race of parasites called the Flood.

One of the most amazing video gaming moments ever is the introduction of the Flood.