Halo 2's Cut Content

Games Halo: The Master Chief Collection
1

As the title says, in the original Halo 2 there were three levels that were cut because of the huge time crush that Bungie was under at the time. For Halo 2 Anniversary, would anyone like to see these levels completed and reintroduced as campaign extras?

That is to say, not embedded within the campaign, but standalone levels that could be unlocked after completing, say, each appropriate section of the campaign on Legendary or some other qualifier. That way we could see what Bungie always intended for us to see, but simply had to get rid of them due to time constraints.

These levels, listed in chronological order, would be done completely in the new engine. I just don’t see the need for them to have the ability to switch back and forth to the old engine.

Covenant Ship: Taking place while Master Chief is in freefall from Cairo Station, and serves as Miranda Keyes’s proper introduction. Chief boards an Assault Carrier, hijacks a Wraith and destroys the ship by blasting the ship’s power core with a plasma mortar.

Earth City: The E3 2003 demo. While the demo itself supposedly looked like a real level, Bungie was once again so horribly pressed for time that it was little more than a sequence of scripted events and a very limited area of movement. However scripted or planned it may have been, you can still see older members of the community talking fondly about how incredible it looked.

Forerunner Tank: Taking place immediately after Chief assassinates the Prophet of Regret as barely escapes from the lake temple, Cortana and Master Chief find themselves being hunted by enormous Flood tentacles within the tunnels of Delta Halo, and must use a Forerunner Tank to escape, ultimately failing when they are captured by the Gravemind.

Forerunner Ship: The final fight in Halo 2 that was cut and replaced by the infamous cliffhanger. This level was onboard the Prophet of Truth’s dreadnought and would have featured massive, horizontal grav-lifts that you could drive a Warthog into and through. However, this battle was already covered by the comic Halo: Uprising. Given what little we actually know about these two ‘Forerunner’ levels it might be possible to experience both the Uprising story and Bungie’s original plan.

So, are everyone’s thoughts on this idea? Good, bad, apathetic? Again, I would only see these being added in as unlockable extras with absolutely no disruption of the story as it was originally told in Halo 2. No extra dialogue or story content added, just the levels and gameplay, and be accessed from a separate section of the menu.

Or shudder paid DLC. Which would be better than paying money for map packs, but still.

2

Isn’t Halo 2 one of the longer campaigns in the series? Because it certainly has more levels I believe than 1 and 3. Maybe CE is longer due to the missions themselves taking a while, but 2 still has to be close. I don’t know why so many people want 343 to put in other levels in a remake. It defeats the purpose of a remake and would be more a re-imagining, as it is not Bungie’s final vision.
Unfortunately, I doubt they could put in and program leftover content anyway if they even tried. It’s probably in a very buggy alpha state, much like the E3 demo, which people talk about wanting to be in this all the time even though it’s vastly inferior to the actual Metropolis mission.

3

Isn’t that 4 levels?

It sounds like a nice idea to implement. Gives a lot of players something to look forward to in the campaign (other then graphics).

343 won’t do this though.

4

Do they even still exist? I know Frank O’Connor said in an interview that the E3 demo was really buggy

5

Even back in '04 I remember Frankie kept getting flooded with the E3 question, and back then he also said it was too buggy for a commercial release. I never thought it looked better than the game. When it was first released it looked great, but the actual Metropolis level is far better than that one was.

6

Well, again, these WOULD NOT be included in the actual campaign, as I said in the OP. These would simply be extras that would be accessed from a separate menu and WOULD NOT replace any levels in the original campaign.

As for the Earth City level being buggy, it would be rebuilt from the ground up with the intent on being an actual level, the bugs and highly limited non-crash areas would be fixed and removed.

The other levels would most likely have to be built by hand.

So gain, for clarity, these missions wouldn’t rely on pre-existing assets other than any level design documents that have survived the past decade and WOULD NOT be included in the campaign, just fun additions that could be unlocked on Cairo Station, Outskirts, Regret, and The Great Journey (possibly High Charity, since it is a Chief level) when a qualifier is met like completing those levels on Legendary, or finding an item such as a Data Pad, etc.

Or downloaded as DLC.

7

Are there any concept art somewere of this or was this made up?

8

Earth City certainly exists, just look up ‘Halo 2 E3 2003 demo’ on Youtube.

The rest were mentioned in the Halo 3 Legendary Edition, where all the cutscenes of the Halo series (at that time) were featured in chronological order. The levels ‘Covenant Ship’ ‘Forerunner Tank’ and ‘Forerunner Ship’ were mentioned in commentary by Jason Jones, Joseph Staten and Marty O’Donnell.

9

> Well, again, these WOULD NOT be included in the actual campaign, as I said in the OP. These would simply be extras that would be accessed from a separate menu and WOULD NOT replace any levels in the original campaign.
>
> As for the Earth City level being buggy, it would be rebuilt from the ground up with the intent on being an actual level, the bugs and highly limited non-crash areas would be fixed and removed.

But there’s no need for the Earth City level. It was always a placeholder/demo level that was never actually meant to be part of the game. The Metropolis level is basically more of what they had in mind all along. It could be cool, but the thing is it was never meant to be played.

10

Pretty sure you’re missing the point.

It would be fun, and a nice callback to old times. It isn’t supposed to replace anything, it could just be something that 343i could do for the fans and to further honor Halo 2’s Anniversary.

Yes, as it is, the DEMO isn’t supposed to be played, but since all of these levels would have to be built pretty much from the ground up, I’m sure that 343i could easily make the thing playable.

11

This is what I’ve thought ever since they announced MCC. I thought I was the only one with this idea.

I think if they have the time for this, it would be cool to play these levels and have an “Extras” section.

NOTE: Even if they don’t do the levels, I’d still enjoy the cut-cutscenes

12

Unless they built them from the ground up I doubt it. As much as I’d like to see them, at least two of those missions were meant to end the game and leave no room for Halo 3.

13

> Pretty sure you’re missing the point.
>
> It would be fun, and a nice callback to old times. It isn’t supposed to replace anything, it could just be something that 343i could do for the fans and to further honor Halo 2’s Anniversary.
>
> Yes, as it is, the DEMO isn’t supposed to be played, but since all of these levels would have to be built pretty much from the ground up, I’m sure that 343i could easily make the thing playable.

No, I know what you mean. It just wouldn’t be practical.

14

It’d be fun, but the problem is… there is a reason those levels never made it in.

Only perhaps one of those levels made it significantly far into development. The others may still be ideas, planned to be there but ended up cut and a cutscene squeezed in place.
Those levels, for the most part, just don’t exist. Those that do are incomplete and buggy, like the E3 Demo.

Frankie said that they looked at the E3 demo to find a way to include, but discovered that it was literally a mess. It was full of bugs and the engine was highly unstable. If Joe deviated anywhere during that demo, it would have crashed live. It really just wouldn’t be worth it for 343i to fix and polish the level to be playable.

Things like the Flood Juggarnaut would be awesome to be placed in. They even have a model and stuff, right? Well, it doesn’t have a death animation, so it just stands there after you kill it. 343i would have make a new death animation from scratch.

It’s not a matter of copying and pasting the levels or cut content into an extras folder. They literally have to rebuild, debug, replace, finish, etc. everything. Those levels, except for maybe one, aren’t in a position to be played. And it really just wouldn’t be worth the resources to finish them all.

15

> > Well, again, these WOULD NOT be included in the actual campaign, as I said in the OP. These would simply be extras that would be accessed from a separate menu and WOULD NOT replace any levels in the original campaign.
> >
> > As for the Earth City level being buggy, it would be rebuilt from the ground up with the intent on being an actual level, the bugs and highly limited non-crash areas would be fixed and removed.
>
> But there’s no need for the Earth City level. It was always a placeholder/demo level that was never actually meant to be part of the game. The Metropolis level is basically more of what they had in mind all along. It could be cool, but the thing is it was never meant to be played.

It’s the MCC. I’ll say it one more time, The Master Chief Collection. Let it sink in for a bit.

Now that I have you sunk in,

In my opinion, I believe 343 should include every little thing they can into the MCC. It’s not practical to believe EVERY little thing will be included. But, something like the E3 Demo is practical. Frankie was interviewed on IGN and said even though it crashes, “It’s not out of the question”.

With him saying that, it’s obvious they thought about including a “cut” level. So now I’m thinking, what more have they thought about including? After all they are including the PC maps. So who knows what and if they might include cut-content.

PS: They’ve been working on MCC for years.

16

> > > Well, again, these WOULD NOT be included in the actual campaign, as I said in the OP. These would simply be extras that would be accessed from a separate menu and WOULD NOT replace any levels in the original campaign.
> > >
> > > As for the Earth City level being buggy, it would be rebuilt from the ground up with the intent on being an actual level, the bugs and highly limited non-crash areas would be fixed and removed.
> >
> > But there’s no need for the Earth City level. It was always a placeholder/demo level that was never actually meant to be part of the game. The Metropolis level is basically more of what they had in mind all along. It could be cool, but the thing is it was never meant to be played.
>
> It’s the MCC. I’ll say it one more time, The Master Chief Collection. Let it sink in for a bit.
>
>
>
> Now that I have you sunk in,
>
> In my opinion, I believe 343 should include every little thing they can into the MCC. It’s not practical to believe EVERY little thing will be included. But, something like the E3 Demo is practical. Frankie was interviewed on IGN and said even though it crashes, “It’s not out of the question”.
>
> With him saying that, it’s obvious they thought about including a “cut” level. So now I’m thinking, what more have they thought about including? After all they are including the PC maps. So who knows what and if they might include cut-content.
>
>
> PS: They’ve been working on MCC for years.

It’s not out of the question, but they’d have to spend a year debugging and stablizing the engine. It’s a complete mess. That’s why they didn’t push to do it when they looked at it.

17

> > > > Well, again, these WOULD NOT be included in the actual campaign, as I said in the OP. These would simply be extras that would be accessed from a separate menu and WOULD NOT replace any levels in the original campaign.
> > > >
> > > > As for the Earth City level being buggy, it would be rebuilt from the ground up with the intent on being an actual level, the bugs and highly limited non-crash areas would be fixed and removed.
> > >
> > > But there’s no need for the Earth City level. It was always a placeholder/demo level that was never actually meant to be part of the game. The Metropolis level is basically more of what they had in mind all along. It could be cool, but the thing is it was never meant to be played.
> >
> > It’s the MCC. I’ll say it one more time, The Master Chief Collection. Let it sink in for a bit.
> >
> >
> >
> > Now that I have you sunk in,
> >
> > In my opinion, I believe 343 should include every little thing they can into the MCC. It’s not practical to believe EVERY little thing will be included. But, something like the E3 Demo is practical. Frankie was interviewed on IGN and said even though it crashes, “It’s not out of the question”.
> >
> > With him saying that, it’s obvious they thought about including a “cut” level. So now I’m thinking, what more have they thought about including? After all they are including the PC maps. So who knows what and if they might include cut-content.
> >
> >
> > PS: They’ve been working on MCC for years.
>
> It’s not out of the question, but they’d have to spend a year debugging and stablizing the engine. It’s a complete mess. That’s why they didn’t push to do it when they looked at it.

They wouldn’t have to mess with the engine, they aren’t even going to mess with the engine from the comments they’ve made about Halo 2 itself. Who knows what and how long it COULD take them to get it to run, that’s if to say they even stay with it.

18

> Unless they built them from the ground up I doubt it. As much as I’d like to see them, at least two of those missions were meant to end the game and leave no room for Halo 3.

They wouldn’t be included in the actual campaign in any way, shape, or form, just fun extras you could only do after you ‘unlocked’ them by beating Halo 2 on Legendary. Or as DLC.

And probably come with a big title or disclaimer that states that they were added simply for the fans to enjoy and do not impact the original story in any way shape or form.

Also, only Forerunner Ship would ‘end’ the game. ‘Covenant Ship’ and ‘Forerunner Tank’ would have been levels at the start and halfway point of the game, respectively.

> It’d be fun, but the problem is… there is a reason those levels never made it in.
>
> Only perhaps one of those levels made it significantly far into development. The others may still be ideas, planned to be there but ended up cut and a cutscene squeezed in place.
> Those levels, for the most part, just don’t exist. Those that do are incomplete and buggy, like the E3 Demo.
>
>
> Frankie said that they looked at the E3 demo to find a way to include, but discovered that it was literally a mess. It was full of bugs and the engine was highly unstable. If Joe deviated anywhere during that demo, it would have crashed live. It really just wouldn’t be worth it for 343i to fix and polish the level to be playable.
>
> Things like the Flood Juggarnaut would be awesome to be placed in. They even have a model and stuff, right? Well, it doesn’t have a death animation, so it just stands there after you kill it. 343i would have make a new death animation from scratch.
>
>
> It’s not a matter of copying and pasting the levels or cut content into an extras folder. They literally have to rebuild, debug, replace, finish, etc. everything. Those levels, except for maybe one, aren’t in a position to be played. And it really just wouldn’t be worth the resources to finish them all.

They wouldn’t really be trying to include the old code for any of these levels. At best, the only old assets they’d be able to use would be any level design plans that have survived the past decade. All of these levels would be built essentially from scratch. I’m not a code person so I won’t claim to say if it would be easier or harder to try to use the Halo 2 AI code or if it would be harder, but these wouldn’t be running on the old engine at all. They’d be built to specifically use the HD graphics.

Again these don’t have to be included at launch, I could just as easily see these as DLC (though anything but free would be even more robbery than charging for map packs).

19

> > > > > Well, again, these WOULD NOT be included in the actual campaign, as I said in the OP. These would simply be extras that would be accessed from a separate menu and WOULD NOT replace any levels in the original campaign.
> > > > >
> > > > > As for the Earth City level being buggy, it would be rebuilt from the ground up with the intent on being an actual level, the bugs and highly limited non-crash areas would be fixed and removed.
> > > >
> > > > But there’s no need for the Earth City level. It was always a placeholder/demo level that was never actually meant to be part of the game. The Metropolis level is basically more of what they had in mind all along. It could be cool, but the thing is it was never meant to be played.
> > >
> > > It’s the MCC. I’ll say it one more time, The Master Chief Collection. Let it sink in for a bit.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Now that I have you sunk in,
> > >
> > > In my opinion, I believe 343 should include every little thing they can into the MCC. It’s not practical to believe EVERY little thing will be included. But, something like the E3 Demo is practical. Frankie was interviewed on IGN and said even though it crashes, “It’s not out of the question”.
> > >
> > > With him saying that, it’s obvious they thought about including a “cut” level. So now I’m thinking, what more have they thought about including? After all they are including the PC maps. So who knows what and if they might include cut-content.
> > >
> > >
> > > PS: They’ve been working on MCC for years.
> >
> > It’s not out of the question, but they’d have to spend a year debugging and stablizing the engine. It’s a complete mess. That’s why they didn’t push to do it when they looked at it.
>
> They wouldn’t have to mess with the engine, they aren’t even going to mess with the engine from the comments they’ve made about Halo 2 itself. Who knows what and how long it COULD take them to get it to run, that’s if to say they even stay with it.

They don’t mess with the engine on Halo 2 and CE because those games are stable and playable.

The E3 Demo engine is not. It crashes if you walk two steps a certain way. It is a mess of bugs and incomplete codes. To make it playable, they would have to touch and fix the engine. That’s why they stopped trying.

20

This would be neat and everything, but would it really worth all the time and effort used to create them? Creating 4 levels from the ground up takes up a lot more time than you seem to realize. Not only do you have to plan out the layout of each level (which takes a lot of time, the layout will change drastically several times throughout development), but you also need to create the scripting, hire the voice actors, fix the glitches, ensure that the level runs smoothly, create cinematics, etc. It would take months, if not over a year, just to get things in a good shape.

In essence, they would be creating another game alongside Halo 2. You seem to forget that many of these levels were simply ideas, and never were created by Bungie at all. And even if they were somewhat in development, they would have to be completely redone anyway.

It’d be a fun little idea, yes, but a complete waste of time. If 343i is going to pour resources into making great new missions, I would rather that they do so for Halo 5 rather than for Halo 2.