The map files for Halo 2: Uncut, which include Cairo Station, Outskirts, and Metropolis, are now available to download on Nexus and ModDB. The tags, scripts, etc are gonna need a bit more time to prepare, so I'll let you all know when those are available as well! Using evidence found within Halo 2's tags, map scripts, and other external media, Halo 2: Uncut aims to accurately restore as much cut content into the game as possible. Features pre-release elements such as cut weapons, cut weapon and vehicle functionalities, restored cut encounters and map scripts, and features Director's Cut-style cutscenes. www.nexusmods.com/halothemasterchiefcollection/mods/1732 www.moddb.com/mods/halo-2-uncut
I think u should cut these into more-digestible sub 20/30min videos. Maybe after you post the full-versions? Could get more viewership while at it 😉 My main gripe is that I really want to watch the whole thing when I find them during a lull in the day, but knowing I can’t actually commit due to it’s length :/
@@IvoryRune well it mostly the limited technology of the consoles meaning they need a way to mass produce them first so they can make a game that fit the stable powerful machine
Limited time, money, and technology often breeds creativity in the gaming industry. If Halo 2 was given an infinite about of time to cook, the game we would have gotten would have been leagues different from the game we got for better or for worse
49:17 Maybe the removal of the Juggernaut was nothing more than an unfortunate mistake through a comical miscommunication when they decided to cut "the flood"! _Dohohoho!_
38:46 I am pretty sure I heard that line while playing MCC, shortly after the Hunters burst through the door, if you are quickly killed Johnson will mockingly say "Nevermind!"
48:03 Holy shit, a weapon scariness value? I never knew this was a feature. That's really awesome! And so basically, the hunters were... paralyzed by fear? upon seeing the scorpion main cannon? Goddamn that is both really cool and funny as hell.
Damn. Even though I'm still upset that the Earth segment of Halo 2 doesn't resemble the E3 version at all, many of these these additions to the final version would have been a huge help in getting me to truly accept the change, especially with everything that Metropolis originally had to offer. Normally, I don't care for any sort of campaign mods, but considering this is mostly Bungie's work, I'm gonna give it a shot!
That E3 Earth level was amazing, I don’t even see many modern campaigns that are as epic. It looked more like ODST Mombasa then what we got in the base game as well.
That’s how I fire the needle rifle. My idea was to treat it like Russian AN-94 rifles I believe. Worked well with reach crouching in invasion. Lots of dead S-IVs
Steadily making my way through the Master Chief Collection, having never played Halo CE and Halo 2 before. It is honestly an _incredible_ achievement by Bungie that Halo CE and Halo 2 ran on the _same_ console, when you consider just how dramatically different the graphics and gameplay feel are between the two games!
fucking facts. Considering the delivered product of Halo 2 was made in 10 MONTHS, it is still arguably one of the most ambitious video game projects I've ever seen, especially for an FPS. Jones/O'Donnell/Staten were on some other shit. It is only so unfortunate that hardware held them back so much. But these guys were ambitious, and on the same level as the Chrono Trigger 'dreamteam' devs from back when. Like this shit was ACTUALLY gonna be the "Final" Halo to end Halo. Plus the original Halo 2 storyboard endings would've sealed the deal completely. I would sacrifice Halo 3 in a heartbeat to see what Halo 2's true potential could've looked like
Victim Hazard. I've seen the OG Halo 2 storyboards and while they're mostly amazing (especially the Data Vault reveal) and I too wish we got that ending, there were some significant problems with how they originally wanted to end Halo 2 that I think Halo 3 handled better. First off, Cortana gets left for dead and we later find out that she gets captured by the Gravemind, this is pretty awkward when you consider that Halo 2 was originally supposed to be the last Halo game; Halo 3 gave us Chief feeling her loss by having him hallucinate about her in the Cortana Moments, then he eventually saves her. IMO this is better than just finishing the series with Cortana getting... uh... "interrogated" by the tentacle monster. Second, the Flood and the Gravemind were left totally unresolved, which is also really awkward for the end of the series. The Flood still being around and kicking has some serious implications for the entire galaxy, is everybody screwed? Halo 3 gave us a proper resolution to the Flood threat. (As janky as High Charity spawning at the Ark was) Lastly, ending with Master Chief in a dress uniform getting a medal ceremony feels... off. I really loved how Halo 3 had him getting back into a cryo pod having finished the fight saying: "Wake me, when you need me", it's much more poetic than Chief just getting a medal.
1:40 Don't forget the amount of polygons a model has, the rigging, and the textures needed to be loaded in onto the models. Not just one type of texture, but Normal maps, metallic maps, roughness maps etc.
This also includes sounds. If you have 7+ marines using battle rifles on legendary and they're pinning down a target, itll overload the sound system and bug out the audio.
@@halinaqi2194 that must be what happens when I play Gears of War 5, the audio will make a loud metallic crank followed the the game crashing a little bit afterwards.
The Carbine poll is in my community tab! Edit: The Halo 2 Beta Full Auto Carbine has won the pull, but the other variant will be included in the upcoming tag release :)
I feel that since the BR now uses the single shot as originally intended it would make more sense to make the carbine be 2-shot here to help differentiate the two.
THAT WAS ABSOLUTELY INSANE!!! I can't wait for the following installments to this series. Thank you for allowing me to see my favorite Halo game in a whole new light. 🤟😆
All of this is possible by people modding halo, the OG halo modders loved the game so much they will willing to hack xbox's just to mod halo. Well that and the crazy people that obtained these builds of a microsoft ip.
dude, you did one hell of a job putting all this together. i definitely wanna see more of it and what was going to be in halo 2. halo 2 is my favorite and i use to mod it on the original xbox. love seeing this kind of stuff.
I don’t know if anyone remembers, but there was actually a mega bloks set with the passenger shadow. I always wondered where it came from so it’s great to finally know. It’s crazy how much content was cut. Halo 2 is already a crazy game with all the stuff it still has, u can only imagine how much crazier it would have been with all of these other assets
Maaan the big thing I noticed was they really went all in trying to make it a war on Earth!! It just seems more like a collaborative effort from the human side to fend off the Covenant, and a much more aggressive offensive from the Covenant. Old school Bungie was so awesome
50:32 SO IT IS INTENTIONAL?! So cool, that mechanic still works in Halo 3 and Halo Reach, there are some spots where you can use "stealth" at your advantage. Id wish they kept that in Halo 2
Crazy that all of this content was cut. I think the falcon would've been really cool to keep in during the courtyard part and also the scarab having the side turrets and shooting at the pelicans would've been a good addition as well imo
I knew about the difficult dev cycle and the campaign story cut content but I had do idea about the rest of this stuff. Ambitious, both You and Bungie.
I think you missed something about the "my grid is maxed!" cut line, thats from the reveal trailer, where some admiral messaging lord hood is panicking about the same issue
This video is proof that if Halo 2 had just been delayed it could have been a true GOAT. I think microsoft's refusal to push back the game (remember the xbox CEO had the game's release date tattooed onto his arm) is what really soured their relationship and pushed them to breakaway. Nice work, I hope one day the community will be able to restore all the cut content like with kotor2.
Unfortunately due to engine constraints, it would have had to been an XBox 360 launch title. As much as the thought of a delay would have been nice, I don’t see Microsoft waiting that long. Even someone at Bungie said with unlimited time, they still wouldn’t have finished. Still sad the crunch they went through.
@@alexanderrobins7497 rushing art means cutting corners. Imagine telling the man who would paint the Sistine chapel (Micheal Angelo? Like the teenage mutant ninja turtle?) "Yeah I told all my friends and associates this whole ceiling has to be done in ten months, not two or three years so uh yeah... Get to it." Ludicrous!
Apart from the cliffhanger ending and a few bad levels the game is near perfect. And Halo 3 is even better. George Lucas had a bunch of ideas cut from the original star wars movies but we didn't need them for the movies to be great
People always forget to mention the Halo 2 we play today is a patched version. So we never really get true comparisons on weapon values, maybe some day some will bother max hoberman or Jamie Greismer what the values were back in 2004
@kintsugi Halo 2 in the year 2005 received a number changes and bug fixes from bungie after they came back from holiday break. BXR didn’t exist in 2004 for example until the melee change
This is sooo Amazing, I loved it!. In 49:19 they could have changed the water shaders and added a volume (probably expensive for the Xbox's resources) and make it look murky (similar to the green pools found on H:CE's level Keyes), and it would make more sense as to why Covenant wouldn't bee able to see the Chief beneath the water and narratively tie in better with all the destruction present in the tunnel. You could also make it so that if You crouch into the water after being spotted, in those 7 seconds before they loose "interest" (let's say), they'll continue to shoot the last place they saw You (crouch into the water) and/or around that area. I also wonder what would happen if the player pushes the Grunt into the water in their original version (if they intended the Grunt gunner to be there from the beginning), but I doubt it would drown since they have their methane masks on anyways. It would be cool if any biped traversing through water get their walking speed reduced (from drag) by a percentage and also depending on their size (Grunts and Marines having a higher penalty in their speed as opposed to Elites and Spartans); maybe some of their animations being slightly slowed down is beneath the water (trigger volume) and some noises muffled. It's also nice that it was explained in the Spotify podcast "Halo Infinite: Memory Agent".
Those cut ghosts at the start of the encounter outside the hospital make that "concentrate on the wraiths; they're the biggest threat" line of Cortana's make a lot more sense. In the base game they're basically the only threat at all. Also that scarab fight was so cool!
i think the scarab encounter is waaaaaaaaaaayyyy better now holy crap that looked awesome, and as for the carbine i think the full auto varient should be used instead of a burst, might feel too close to a BR
thanks for the shoutout! glad the alpha/beta support got put to good use. cant wait to see the rest of the series! if only we had access to some of the pre-release campaign levels. theres probably some real gold in there that would make for awesome restorations
Looks great....I want to play this....I love a lot about Halo 2, but much of it feels unfinished, or raw, particularly New Mombasa... I'd love to see more signs of NM civilians escaping or being slaughtered by the Covenant...even their escape vehicles being burned out of the sky by Covenant forces. Also, I never liked the civilian vehicle models in NM, would be cool to see some better models, I think Anniversary addressed this ok.. A fully playable section aping the E3 demo would be just legend.
I love this! It goes to show that if the developers didn't have the hardware limits of the XBOX to work with, it could've been something just amazing! Still though 64 MB's of ram is just... wow, like something like most modern game such as Minecraft needs about a 1 GB of ram to run decently well on most computers (assuming low end computers). It's pretty incredible just how much they were able to push the engine despite the setbacks and limitations. I like the duel firing carbine, it feels different enough from the battle rifle to be it's own thing, and it somewhat works like in retail. Hmm... I think introducing the banshee in Cairo is interesting. How years later we got the unique space banshee's in Reach.
53:22 that random encounter definitely feels like it's straight from ODST. Pretty cool to see an idea being played with years before it was fully implemented.
great vid vadam! lol looks like ya beat me too it, there is a lot of stuff i didnt even think about adding to my mod. cant wait to see pt2. and tell the vktm team that they're work on models and ports are amazing and a great help to the community
It would be amazing to see recreations of the cut missions like the E3 demo, Covenant ship and forerunner tank level to name just a few. There's a guy recreating the cut Halo 3 mission guardian forest and it looks amazing.
Vadam, amazing work as always! This is videogame archeology at its best. Halo 2's development has always been fascinating to me, it's amazing to see just how much there is still yet to be explored and you always manage to do so in an informative and entertaining way. Ridiculously excited to see what else you've uncovered, thanks again for all your contributions to the Halo community!
Wow never thought I'd see the flooded tunnel section. Makes sense though, the hole in the ceiling and the partially raised section doors. Great job on the vid and looking forward to more parts! I will say though that the extra explosions and pelicans flying around in New Mombasa really help with the warzone atmosphere. Also, Miranda's line about needing Johnson on the bird is funny that it worked for both the cut content and them just throwing a pelican on in the next section to pick him up. Both work but now that I've seen the alternative, the cut content makes much more sense.
Thank you, keeping Halo modding alive. I really want to learn what makes the AI work in the campaigns in detail. I've messed around with Halo 3's mod tools but honestly Halo 2 is the one I'd love to mod more.
The Falcon in Halo 2 does greatly resemble the Hornet far more than what WOULD take the Falcon name in Reach, which did eventually get missiles as a secondary weapon.
For the medic marine I would suggest to use a variant of the one in the E3 demo. He was using a device to check vitals and had a repeat animation attached to him. I am sure you can jimmy rig something together or use some white background and the red cross subtly somewhere ruclips.net/video/Wtny-IRcD00/видео.html . Also I am pretty sure that you can find the people responsible for creating these mission's, so why not try and get in contact with them to help you with this project? Most of them if not all would love to talk about these things. Max hoberman is so cool about everything, The guys who helped rocket sloth are as well, same with marty! Do it, we could potentially get even more content that was suppose to appear in this game. This would be alot more work. But I want this campaign the way it was suppose to be! I want to experience the last lvls that were never made. I want the ending, the covenant ship lvl, The extended uprising lvl where we would see brutes lining up elite counselors and executing them! God so much content that got cut, we need to make things right and I know many people would love to help out with this.
I really like the idea of the uncut carbine being a slow-firing full auto precision weapon. Kinda makes it akin to a covenant equivalent to the Commando.
@@arbiter- Okay, joking aside. I definitely think the Commando needs a buff (and to have its lens glare removed bc literally what, it's not a scope it's a sight), especially considering that it was actually viable during the flights. However, I actually think it's a really cool gun on concept. Something that bridges the gap between the AR and BR sounds really cool; fully-automatic but nowhere near the fire rate of the AR, a sight to aim down but not quite the magnification on the BR's scope - I really like that! And I also think it just looks cool.
@@GalesMightBeLazy But the full-auto is a meme, there is not a single situation where it benefits the player. You can have a high rate of fire, that's fine, but when you introduce that much recoil and accuracy loss after just a single shot AND make it full-auto it becomes a problem. The Carbine was great, it fires basically as fast as you can pull the trigger but still remains accurate in every situation. The Carbine was always a weapon I wanted to pick up and did so at every opportunity and remained a permanent staple in my H4 loadouts. the Commando gets skipped every single time without fail.
Wooow Halo 2 is my favorite game, I remember spending hours trying to uncover secrets and exploring every corner of the campaign and multiplayer maps, thanks for bringing this video, my inner child is very happy now
That was an absolute pleasure to watch! Having the finished version of Halo 2 that Bungie initially envisioned is one of my biggest dream... Even if it will never see the light of day, your restoration project brings us a piece of what halo 2 could have been, and it looks awesome! This brings a tear to my eye for real. Can't wait to see the final result man, keep up the good work!
The Carbine that fires in burst, but then switches to single when you ADS reminds me of how the Lightrifle from Halo 4 functions the exact same way! That's very cool
I didn't know there was an intended warthog sequence on Cairo, or side guns for the Scarab or... After all these years, seeing what Halo 2 could have had, speculative or otherwise, is just so wonderful. ...Also can't believe I didn't realise at any point in the last 16 years that there was never a Tank vs Hunter scenario in Halo 2. Genuinely wild.
51:20 I feel like the water is a bit too transparent under the surface. Looks more like a very flat fog layer hovering above the ground, if that makes any sense. A slight tint isn't going to hid a green 7 foot tin man
Such a great video. I’ve seen all of the cut items before. But seeing them brought together into one video and having you explain things the way you do makes it this worth watching. I so appreciate you educating us.
This is absolutely incredible and the fact that you put this together for other people to try out is just awesome. Thank you for your work on this, I'm going to have a lot of fun playing around with the changes you made and finally being able to wield a single-fire BR!
That was awesome! I always felt like Metropolis was a bit lacking for what was supposed to be a major battle on Earth. Thanks for this mod. It's clear a lot of love and time went into it.
Basically Halo 2 was rushed, and as a kid it was easy to just look past that and just play the game, but as an adult now and seeing all this cut content I can't. Specifically the "High Charity" Warthog run and the Juggernauts
This is some of the most amazing content I have ever seen. Hats off to you restoring so much from these levels while trying to make the game pretty fair and balanced.
Maybe the different carbine variants would be held by enemies of a specific rank. Example: I could see ranger elites using the burst variant more than the fully automatic variant. I think it would make more sense for longer ranged enemies to have the burst variant and the enemies that fight closer use the fully automatic variant. I also think that the fully automatic variant would be better against the flood as opposed to the burst variant.
Wow... Thank you so much for doing this. Playing the game for years and years, it's always cool to see something that was supposed to be in this game. I wish they had more time, this game is already great, imagine how it could have been.
i can not even imagine how much work this must have been , u have my thanks. seeing this mod really made me excited and nostalgic about Halo 2 , now we just need a cursed Halo 2 !
Dude, this is amazing. Being able to see Halo 2 uncut was my dream and the fact that it is now true is mind-boggling. You deserve support and I can't wait for your other levels uncut. I hope that when this is finished that it will be as popular as inferno plus’s cursed halo
Somewhat like a restoration project. Not only a lot of good things got cut, but also the difficulty was never tweaked and lot of bugs are present during and after its development hell and rushed release.
"Quick" note: While yes the player has 75 shields and health in CE, and only 70 shields and 30 health in H2; it's good to keep in mind that weapon damages were additionally reduced across the board, with the CE plasma rifle dealing ~26 damage to shields per shot in CE, but only dealing 15 damage per shot in H2. After CE non-power weapon damage values were reduced by roughly 40% across the board (some slightly more or less), so if we reduce the player's shield and health from CE by those rough values to better compare to future titles, we would get an effective 45 shields and health. However to keep it fair since we're using the H2 campaign health value instead of matchmaking health (which is 45) we need to look at CE's campaign sandbox. In CE Heroic enemies deal ~30% less damage, while in H2 they deal the same damage as the player. So specifically for CE PvE on Heroic (the "way Halo was meant to be played"), the effective shields and health for comparison to future titles is ~64. So taking into account *effective* totals: CE PvE is ~128, CE PvP is ~90, H2 PvE is 100, and H2 PvP is 115. Not trying to prove a point one way or another, just sharing data to help people get an understanding of the compared values between games. Edit: Formatting
Wow...This is amazing. I never thought Halo 2 could get better, but You managed to pull it off! I'm crying tears of joy and downloading this mod right now. 😭
i love the bungie halos as they are, they were my childhood. but i can’t help imagining how incredible these games could’ve been if they were developed with today’s technology. imagine if bungie had access to what we have today back in the day
43:08 you know what’s really funny? mega bloks, the company that makes the halo construction toys, made a set with the shadow passenger variant. it was like an anniversary set for halo 2 forever ago. really weird to see that it came from an actual source.
I thought of the pointing Rick Dalton meme when I saw the alternate Shadow with passenger seats because the MEGA Bloks Halo Shadow set featured that version of the Shadow.
Weapon scariness value? Interesting. Now all we need is a mod where the chief has a large willy he uses as a scarab gun, with the scariness value set over the max for every NPC in the game including the Flood all for shits and giggles.
Fantastic video man. Wow. Fun fact, I found the warthog on Cairo by accident jumping around and researching checkpoints for another project haha. It was really cool to see that forward movement how it was supposed to drive along that umbilical. Overloading to drop it in place and make it driveable was a predicted concept, and that line of script you present shows how if the hog was loaded but there was no RAM for the "rail" then it would drop and be useable. Ah the memories. Great work, I will watch this more than once and look forward to the next ones.
The map files for Halo 2: Uncut, which include Cairo Station, Outskirts, and Metropolis, are now available to download on Nexus and ModDB. The tags, scripts, etc are gonna need a bit more time to prepare, so I'll let you all know when those are available as well!
Using evidence found within Halo 2's tags, map scripts, and other external media, Halo 2: Uncut aims to accurately restore as much cut content into the game as possible. Features pre-release elements such as cut weapons, cut weapon and vehicle functionalities, restored cut encounters and map scripts, and features Director's Cut-style cutscenes.
www.nexusmods.com/halothemasterchiefcollection/mods/1732
www.moddb.com/mods/halo-2-uncut
From all of us, thank you!
Will we be able to carry more ammo for guns in the mod and, just as importantly, will the scorpion tank not be made out of wet tissue paper?
This guy is so underrated you deserve more subs bro keep up the good work
I think u should cut these into more-digestible sub 20/30min videos. Maybe after you post the full-versions?
Could get more viewership while at it 😉
My main gripe is that I really want to watch the whole thing when I find them during a lull in the day, but knowing I can’t actually commit due to it’s length :/
*Great* video I can’t begin to imagine the amount of work that went into this 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Bungie was too ambitious for their own good. I would love an alternate universe version of the Halo series where they weren't development nightmares.
If time travel gets invented soon we NEED to go back and give old Bungie modern technology to accomplish all those crazy amazing ideas they had
@@IvoryRune well it mostly the limited technology of the consoles meaning they need a way to mass produce them first so they can make a game that fit the stable powerful machine
Limited time, money, and technology often breeds creativity in the gaming industry. If Halo 2 was given an infinite about of time to cook, the game we would have gotten would have been leagues different from the game we got for better or for worse
@@CoolSmoovie or never public like how valve company work when they make games
I think that, maybe if they made the game in 2 discs they couldve put more content and have the game resemble more their original ambitions
49:17 Maybe the removal of the Juggernaut was nothing more than an unfortunate mistake through a comical miscommunication when they decided to cut "the flood"! _Dohohoho!_
You ought to be ashamed of yourself for that pun.
The Half-Life cut content god meets the Halo cut content god. Glorious!
I just came from Civvie's Dr. Radiaki vid where you left a comment and now I jump over here and see you again. You really are from a parallel universe
@@dextergrif1052 someone: "Spiderman No way home is the mist ambitious crossover in entertainment media:
You an intelectual:
😭😭😭🤧🤧🤧
38:46 I am pretty sure I heard that line while playing MCC, shortly after the Hunters burst through the door, if you are quickly killed Johnson will mockingly say "Nevermind!"
48:03
Holy shit, a weapon scariness value? I never knew this was a feature. That's really awesome!
And so basically, the hunters were... paralyzed by fear? upon seeing the scorpion main cannon?
Goddamn that is both really cool and funny as hell.
poor hunters :(
Yeah there is a scaring factor for each Weapon and vehicle u use
yup, grunts and jackals will panic if they see you wielding an energy sword :)
When you first saw the Scorpion, were you blinded by its majesty?
Paralyzed? Dumbstruck?
@@Xenomnipotent Y E S
29:13 Even more evidence is that in the strategy guide. There’s a picture on Outskirts of Chief with the Odst squad
"Earth will never be the same." I remember that guidebook.
It's literally the most prominent image on the back cover of the game lmao
That wraith mortar particle effect is genuinely gorgeous.
Damn. Even though I'm still upset that the Earth segment of Halo 2 doesn't resemble the E3 version at all, many of these these additions to the final version would have been a huge help in getting me to truly accept the change, especially with everything that Metropolis originally had to offer. Normally, I don't care for any sort of campaign mods, but considering this is mostly Bungie's work, I'm gonna give it a shot!
That E3 Earth level was amazing, I don’t even see many modern campaigns that are as epic. It looked more like ODST Mombasa then what we got in the base game as well.
Honestly the 2 round burst carbine seems way more interesting and unique, especially since your br is now a single fire weapon.
That’s how I fire the needle rifle. My idea was to treat it like Russian AN-94 rifles I believe. Worked well with reach crouching in invasion. Lots of dead S-IVs
Steadily making my way through the Master Chief Collection, having never played Halo CE and Halo 2 before. It is honestly an _incredible_ achievement by Bungie that Halo CE and Halo 2 ran on the _same_ console, when you consider just how dramatically different the graphics and gameplay feel are between the two games!
fucking facts. Considering the delivered product of Halo 2 was made in 10 MONTHS, it is still arguably one of the most ambitious video game projects I've ever seen, especially for an FPS. Jones/O'Donnell/Staten were on some other shit. It is only so unfortunate that hardware held them back so much. But these guys were ambitious, and on the same level as the Chrono Trigger 'dreamteam' devs from back when. Like this shit was ACTUALLY gonna be the "Final" Halo to end Halo. Plus the original Halo 2 storyboard endings would've sealed the deal completely. I would sacrifice Halo 3 in a heartbeat to see what Halo 2's true potential could've looked like
Victim Hazard. I've seen the OG Halo 2 storyboards and while they're mostly amazing (especially the Data Vault reveal) and I too wish we got that ending, there were some significant problems with how they originally wanted to end Halo 2 that I think Halo 3 handled better.
First off, Cortana gets left for dead and we later find out that she gets captured by the Gravemind, this is pretty awkward when you consider that Halo 2 was originally supposed to be the last Halo game; Halo 3 gave us Chief feeling her loss by having him hallucinate about her in the Cortana Moments, then he eventually saves her. IMO this is better than just finishing the series with Cortana getting... uh... "interrogated" by the tentacle monster.
Second, the Flood and the Gravemind were left totally unresolved, which is also really awkward for the end of the series. The Flood still being around and kicking has some serious implications for the entire galaxy, is everybody screwed? Halo 3 gave us a proper resolution to the Flood threat. (As janky as High Charity spawning at the Ark was)
Lastly, ending with Master Chief in a dress uniform getting a medal ceremony feels... off. I really loved how Halo 3 had him getting back into a cryo pod having finished the fight saying: "Wake me, when you need me", it's much more poetic than Chief just getting a medal.
@@VictimHazard i feel like time held them back way more than hardware lol
1:40 Don't forget the amount of polygons a model has, the rigging, and the textures needed to be loaded in onto the models. Not just one type of texture, but Normal maps, metallic maps, roughness maps etc.
Yup, definitely lol
This also includes sounds. If you have 7+ marines using battle rifles on legendary and they're pinning down a target, itll overload the sound system and bug out the audio.
@@halinaqi2194 that must be what happens when I play Gears of War 5, the audio will make a loud metallic crank followed the the game crashing a little bit afterwards.
The Carbine poll is in my community tab!
Edit: The Halo 2 Beta Full Auto Carbine has won the pull, but the other variant will be included in the upcoming tag release :)
I feel that since the BR now uses the single shot as originally intended it would make more sense to make the carbine be 2-shot here to help differentiate the two.
I think it would have been nice to add some small black dots in at the end of the cutscene for an ODST reference.
THAT WAS ABSOLUTELY INSANE!!! I can't wait for the following installments to this series. Thank you for allowing me to see my favorite Halo game in a whole new light. 🤟😆
You’ve got a loooooong wait…
All of this is possible by people modding halo, the OG halo modders loved the game so much they will willing to hack xbox's just to mod halo. Well that and the crazy people that obtained these builds of a microsoft ip.
36:00 I lost my mind when that new vehicle made an appearance!!
My favorite part was where he recreated the flooded tunnel. That was so cool.
Man this just made my mind explode, I didn’t even know this stuff was going to happen thank you.
The scarab encounter is a lot more interesting. I always felt it was underwhelming once the novelty wore off on about the third playthrough.
A full series on cut content. I must be dreaming.
dude, you did one hell of a job putting all this together. i definitely wanna see more of it and what was going to be in halo 2. halo 2 is my favorite and i use to mod it on the original xbox. love seeing this kind of stuff.
I don’t know if anyone remembers, but there was actually a mega bloks set with the passenger shadow. I always wondered where it came from so it’s great to finally know. It’s crazy how much content was cut. Halo 2 is already a crazy game with all the stuff it still has, u can only imagine how much crazier it would have been with all of these other assets
Not even, imagine the cut levels
@@ItsButterBean1020 Imagine the forerunner tank
Yeah I’ve seen images of that set on their website!
Maaan the big thing I noticed was they really went all in trying to make it a war on Earth!! It just seems more like a collaborative effort from the human side to fend off the Covenant, and a much more aggressive offensive from the Covenant. Old school Bungie was so awesome
50:32 SO IT IS INTENTIONAL?! So cool, that mechanic still works in Halo 3 and Halo Reach, there are some spots where you can use "stealth" at your advantage.
Id wish they kept that in Halo 2
Crazy that all of this content was cut. I think the falcon would've been really cool to keep in during the courtyard part and also the scarab having the side turrets and shooting at the pelicans would've been a good addition as well imo
I knew about the difficult dev cycle and the campaign story cut content but I had do idea about the rest of this stuff. Ambitious, both You and Bungie.
I think you missed something about the "my grid is maxed!" cut line, thats from the reveal trailer, where some admiral messaging lord hood is panicking about the same issue
Huh, didn’t know that! :0
This video is proof that if Halo 2 had just been delayed it could have been a true GOAT. I think microsoft's refusal to push back the game (remember the xbox CEO had the game's release date tattooed onto his arm) is what really soured their relationship and pushed them to breakaway. Nice work, I hope one day the community will be able to restore all the cut content like with kotor2.
Are you implying Halo 2 isn’t a true GOAT already?
Unfortunately due to engine constraints, it would have had to been an XBox 360 launch title. As much as the thought of a delay would have been nice, I don’t see Microsoft waiting that long. Even someone at Bungie said with unlimited time, they still wouldn’t have finished. Still sad the crunch they went through.
@@alexanderrobins7497 rushing art means cutting corners. Imagine telling the man who would paint the Sistine chapel (Micheal Angelo? Like the teenage mutant ninja turtle?) "Yeah I told all my friends and associates this whole ceiling has to be done in ten months, not two or three years so uh yeah... Get to it." Ludicrous!
If Halo 2 was delayed, it would've been a 360 launch title almost guranteed.
Apart from the cliffhanger ending and a few bad levels the game is near perfect. And Halo 3 is even better.
George Lucas had a bunch of ideas cut from the original star wars movies but we didn't need them for the movies to be great
This is absolutely insane. I’m so glad this was recommended to me. Great video.
People always forget to mention the Halo 2 we play today is a patched version. So we never really get true comparisons on weapon values, maybe some day some will bother max hoberman or Jamie Greismer what the values were back in 2004
@kintsugi Halo 2 in the year 2005 received a number changes and bug fixes from bungie after they came back from holiday break. BXR didn’t exist in 2004 for example until the melee change
if I remember correctly, the BR was literally a 5-shot kill at launch instead of a 4-shot like today
@@jeremiahgrayest
Vanilla unpatched Halo 2 BR was still 4 shot to kill. It also was slightly less accurate, but still very accurate.
This is sooo Amazing, I loved it!.
In 49:19 they could have changed the water shaders and added a volume (probably expensive for the Xbox's resources) and make it look murky (similar to the green pools found on H:CE's level Keyes), and it would make more sense as to why Covenant wouldn't bee able to see the Chief beneath the water and narratively tie in better with all the destruction present in the tunnel. You could also make it so that if You crouch into the water after being spotted, in those 7 seconds before they loose "interest" (let's say), they'll continue to shoot the last place they saw You (crouch into the water) and/or around that area.
I also wonder what would happen if the player pushes the Grunt into the water in their original version (if they intended the Grunt gunner to be there from the beginning), but I doubt it would drown since they have their methane masks on anyways. It would be cool if any biped traversing through water get their walking speed reduced (from drag) by a percentage and also depending on their size (Grunts and Marines having a higher penalty in their speed as opposed to Elites and Spartans); maybe some of their animations being slightly slowed down is beneath the water (trigger volume) and some noises muffled.
It's also nice that it was explained in the Spotify podcast "Halo Infinite: Memory Agent".
Those cut ghosts at the start of the encounter outside the hospital make that "concentrate on the wraiths; they're the biggest threat" line of Cortana's make a lot more sense. In the base game they're basically the only threat at all.
Also that scarab fight was so cool!
We've been waiting 15 years for this since they mentioned it in the developer commentary
i think the scarab encounter is waaaaaaaaaaayyyy better now holy crap that looked awesome, and as for the carbine i think the full auto varient should be used instead of a burst, might feel too close to a BR
Omg I’m in love with the scarab section. It makes the encounter a lot more involved rather than just slowly following it.
Me liking this video changed the counter from 2.4k to 2.5k.
I'm going to link this to literally everyone. This blew my tiny mind, you're doing amazing work.
thanks for the shoutout! glad the alpha/beta support got put to good use. cant wait to see the rest of the series! if only we had access to some of the pre-release campaign levels. theres probably some real gold in there that would make for awesome restorations
You ever wonder how many of them are fully complete but they just have unfinished cinematics.
ding dong
The double shot carbine works really well I vote for it.
Looks great....I want to play this....I love a lot about Halo 2, but much of it feels unfinished, or raw, particularly New Mombasa...
I'd love to see more signs of NM civilians escaping or being slaughtered by the Covenant...even their escape vehicles being burned out of the sky by Covenant forces.
Also, I never liked the civilian vehicle models in NM, would be cool to see some better models, I think Anniversary addressed this ok..
A fully playable section aping the E3 demo would be just legend.
This is so cool it’s so loyal but creative at the same time. A true smart fan doing gods work
I love this! It goes to show that if the developers didn't have the hardware limits of the XBOX to work with, it could've been something just amazing! Still though 64 MB's of ram is just... wow, like something like most modern game such as Minecraft needs about a 1 GB of ram to run decently well on most computers (assuming low end computers). It's pretty incredible just how much they were able to push the engine despite the setbacks and limitations.
I like the duel firing carbine, it feels different enough from the battle rifle to be it's own thing, and it somewhat works like in retail.
Hmm... I think introducing the banshee in Cairo is interesting. How years later we got the unique space banshee's in Reach.
It still is amazing. Although, I think the issue was more with development time than just hardware limits.
43:22 that’s funny, the Mega Bloks version of the Covenant shadow does actually have the passenger seats.
this is absolutley AWESOME. Cannot wait to play this modded version as soon as it comes out
53:22 that random encounter definitely feels like it's straight from ODST. Pretty cool to see an idea being played with years before it was fully implemented.
great vid vadam! lol looks like ya beat me too it, there is a lot of stuff i didnt even think about adding to my mod. cant wait to see pt2. and tell the vktm team that they're work on models and ports are amazing and a great help to the community
It would be amazing to see recreations of the cut missions like the E3 demo, Covenant ship and forerunner tank level to name just a few. There's a guy recreating the cut Halo 3 mission guardian forest and it looks amazing.
Do you have a link to his video/channel?
Vadam, amazing work as always! This is videogame archeology at its best. Halo 2's development has always been fascinating to me, it's amazing to see just how much there is still yet to be explored and you always manage to do so in an informative and entertaining way. Ridiculously excited to see what else you've uncovered, thanks again for all your contributions to the Halo community!
The double shot carbine seems quite interesting in my books.
Good stuff brother. 343 just makes me sad, and people like you keep Halo alive for the rest of us.
Cheers
Wow never thought I'd see the flooded tunnel section. Makes sense though, the hole in the ceiling and the partially raised section doors.
Great job on the vid and looking forward to more parts! I will say though that the extra explosions and pelicans flying around in New Mombasa really help with the warzone atmosphere.
Also, Miranda's line about needing Johnson on the bird is funny that it worked for both the cut content and them just throwing a pelican on in the next section to pick him up. Both work but now that I've seen the alternative, the cut content makes much more sense.
Thank you, keeping Halo modding alive. I really want to learn what makes the AI work in the campaigns in detail. I've messed around with Halo 3's mod tools but honestly Halo 2 is the one I'd love to mod more.
The Falcon in Halo 2 does greatly resemble the Hornet far more than what WOULD take the Falcon name in Reach, which did eventually get missiles as a secondary weapon.
39:00 I love the "bow chicka wow wow" in the bottom with "music starts"
For the medic marine I would suggest to use a variant of the one in the E3 demo. He was using a device to check vitals and had a repeat animation attached to him. I am sure you can jimmy rig something together or use some white background and the red cross subtly somewhere ruclips.net/video/Wtny-IRcD00/видео.html . Also I am pretty sure that you can find the people responsible for creating these mission's, so why not try and get in contact with them to help you with this project? Most of them if not all would love to talk about these things. Max hoberman is so cool about everything, The guys who helped rocket sloth are as well, same with marty! Do it, we could potentially get even more content that was suppose to appear in this game.
This would be alot more work. But I want this campaign the way it was suppose to be! I want to experience the last lvls that were never made. I want the ending, the covenant ship lvl, The extended uprising lvl where we would see brutes lining up elite counselors and executing them! God so much content that got cut, we need to make things right and I know many people would love to help out with this.
28:00 I love seeing that ODST sitting in the pelican 😎
Honestly, the full auto carbine seems more fun
I really like the idea of the uncut carbine being a slow-firing full auto precision weapon. Kinda makes it akin to a covenant equivalent to the Commando.
gross no. the commando is the worst halo gun ever made
@@arbiter- nice opinion, unfortunately, your mother
@@GalesMightBeLazy pure fact
@@arbiter- Okay, joking aside. I definitely think the Commando needs a buff (and to have its lens glare removed bc literally what, it's not a scope it's a sight), especially considering that it was actually viable during the flights. However, I actually think it's a really cool gun on concept. Something that bridges the gap between the AR and BR sounds really cool; fully-automatic but nowhere near the fire rate of the AR, a sight to aim down but not quite the magnification on the BR's scope - I really like that! And I also think it just looks cool.
@@GalesMightBeLazy But the full-auto is a meme, there is not a single situation where it benefits the player. You can have a high rate of fire, that's fine, but when you introduce that much recoil and accuracy loss after just a single shot AND make it full-auto it becomes a problem. The Carbine was great, it fires basically as fast as you can pull the trigger but still remains accurate in every situation. The Carbine was always a weapon I wanted to pick up and did so at every opportunity and remained a permanent staple in my H4 loadouts. the Commando gets skipped every single time without fail.
Wooow Halo 2 is my favorite game, I remember spending hours trying to uncover secrets and exploring every corner of the campaign and multiplayer maps, thanks for bringing this video, my inner child is very happy now
this video must have taken allot to make but damn is it cool to see all these cut content.
Nicely done i love it.
I can't believe how awesome this video is. Serious awesome work.
Wow. Just all I can say. Outstanding job! Especially enabling the water and falcon segments!
Your attention to "Another Day at the Beach" (and Sniper Jackal trauma humor) earned you my like and subscribe! Keep it up!
That was an absolute pleasure to watch! Having the finished version of Halo 2 that Bungie initially envisioned is one of my biggest dream... Even if it will never see the light of day, your restoration project brings us a piece of what halo 2 could have been, and it looks awesome! This brings a tear to my eye for real. Can't wait to see the final result man, keep up the good work!
Absolutely love the cut halo 2 content need more
The Carbine that fires in burst, but then switches to single when you ADS reminds me of how the Lightrifle from Halo 4 functions the exact same way! That's very cool
I didn't know there was an intended warthog sequence on Cairo, or side guns for the Scarab or...
After all these years, seeing what Halo 2 could have had, speculative or otherwise, is just so wonderful.
...Also can't believe I didn't realise at any point in the last 16 years that there was never a Tank vs Hunter scenario in Halo 2. Genuinely wild.
Master Chief didn't get quite a few things for H2. No snow level, no nighttime level, and no Sentinel encounters just to name a few.
51:20 I feel like the water is a bit too transparent under the surface. Looks more like a very flat fog layer hovering above the ground, if that makes any sense. A slight tint isn't going to hid a green 7 foot tin man
Either the water is missing some effects, or the area was meant to be much darker.
Such a great video. I’ve seen all of the cut items before. But seeing them brought together into one video and having you explain things the way you do makes it this worth watching. I so appreciate you educating us.
you've taken 'finishing halo 2' to a whole new level
This is absolutely incredible and the fact that you put this together for other people to try out is just awesome. Thank you for your work on this, I'm going to have a lot of fun playing around with the changes you made and finally being able to wield a single-fire BR!
That was awesome! I always felt like Metropolis was a bit lacking for what was supposed to be a major battle on Earth. Thanks for this mod. It's clear a lot of love and time went into it.
This honestly makes the empty areas of the game make so much more sense ad I genuinely appreciate the game more with this information.
Kinda wish the massive covenant plasma cannons were usable would have been awesome to mess around with one just for fun
Basically Halo 2 was rushed, and as a kid it was easy to just look past that and just play the game, but as an adult now and seeing all this cut content I can't. Specifically the "High Charity" Warthog run and the Juggernauts
The grunt shaking his lil feet in the shadow turret was too cute
This is some of the most amazing content I have ever seen. Hats off to you restoring so much from these levels while trying to make the game pretty fair and balanced.
Maybe the different carbine variants would be held by enemies of a specific rank. Example: I could see ranger elites using the burst variant more than the fully automatic variant. I think it would make more sense for longer ranged enemies to have the burst variant and the enemies that fight closer use the fully automatic variant. I also think that the fully automatic variant would be better against the flood as opposed to the burst variant.
That Falcon in the courtyard is awesome! The troop carrier Shadows would have been so fun! Great job on this project! So much story in the game code.
I love exploring stuff like this. Seeing what games could’ve been with its original assets or without hardware limitations.
Out of all the stuff this is the most outstanding thing, you’ve outdone your self
Wow... Thank you so much for doing this. Playing the game for years and years, it's always cool to see something that was supposed to be in this game. I wish they had more time, this game is already great, imagine how it could have been.
i can not even imagine how much work this must have been , u have my thanks.
seeing this mod really made me excited and nostalgic about Halo 2 , now we just need a cursed Halo 2 !
Dude, this is amazing. Being able to see Halo 2 uncut was my dream and the fact that it is now true is mind-boggling. You deserve support and I can't wait for your other levels uncut. I hope that when this is finished that it will be as popular as inferno plus’s cursed halo
Somewhat like a restoration project. Not only a lot of good things got cut, but also the difficulty was never tweaked and lot of bugs are present during and after its development hell and rushed release.
Oh Halo 2, my favorite. You improved something that was already near perfect. Thank you very much!
The phantom jank in the hospital scene is hilarious ngl. Feels kinda natural
The trick with scoped in single shot made its way into Halo 4. Light Rifle.
It feels surreal to see all of this cut content that I've never even known about despite having played the game for years! :D
"Quick" note: While yes the player has 75 shields and health in CE, and only 70 shields and 30 health in H2; it's good to keep in mind that weapon damages were additionally reduced across the board, with the CE plasma rifle dealing ~26 damage to shields per shot in CE, but only dealing 15 damage per shot in H2.
After CE non-power weapon damage values were reduced by roughly 40% across the board (some slightly more or less), so if we reduce the player's shield and health from CE by those rough values to better compare to future titles, we would get an effective 45 shields and health.
However to keep it fair since we're using the H2 campaign health value instead of matchmaking health (which is 45) we need to look at CE's campaign sandbox. In CE Heroic enemies deal ~30% less damage, while in H2 they deal the same damage as the player. So specifically for CE PvE on Heroic (the "way Halo was meant to be played"), the effective shields and health for comparison to future titles is ~64.
So taking into account *effective* totals: CE PvE is ~128, CE PvP is ~90, H2 PvE is 100, and H2 PvP is 115.
Not trying to prove a point one way or another, just sharing data to help people get an understanding of the compared values between games.
Edit: Formatting
Halo 2 was my first shooter. I'm hyped to see this finished.
Wow...This is amazing. I never thought Halo 2 could get better, but You managed to pull it off!
I'm crying tears of joy and downloading this mod right now. 😭
i love the bungie halos as they are, they were my childhood. but i can’t help imagining how incredible these games could’ve been if they were developed with today’s technology. imagine if bungie had access to what we have today back in the day
GJC in Cairo could refer to grunt jackal combo perhaps? Great vid Vadam!
43:08 you know what’s really funny? mega bloks, the company that makes the halo construction toys, made a set with the shadow passenger variant. it was like an anniversary set for halo 2 forever ago. really weird to see that it came from an actual source.
I haven’t messed with video games in a few years but this is resparking an interest that only faded with Halo 4. CE to Reach!
I thought of the pointing Rick Dalton meme when I saw the alternate Shadow with passenger seats because the MEGA Bloks Halo Shadow set featured that version of the Shadow.
Halo 2's cut content is absolutely the most interesting thing I've ever seen, it's about time we start getting more in-depth analyses of it
Weapon scariness value? Interesting. Now all we need is a mod where the chief has a large willy he uses as a scarab gun, with the scariness value set over the max for every NPC in the game including the Flood all for shits and giggles.
Fantastic video man. Wow. Fun fact, I found the warthog on Cairo by accident jumping around and researching checkpoints for another project haha. It was really cool to see that forward movement how it was supposed to drive along that umbilical. Overloading to drop it in place and make it driveable was a predicted concept, and that line of script you present shows how if the hog was loaded but there was no RAM for the "rail" then it would drop and be useable. Ah the memories. Great work, I will watch this more than once and look forward to the next ones.
>Miniseries
>hour long episode
i love you vadam. i love your videos.
Count Dooku: “I’ve been looking forward to this.”