343 Industries plans to restore a ton of cut content for the first game in the Halo series, Halo:Combat Evolved. 343 Industries will restore this cut content to Halo: The Master Chief Collection with the help of a group of molders who are dedicated and passionate about preserving Halo: Combat Evolved.
In the world of gaming, very few titles are as beloved as Halo: Combat Evolved, a story about a super-soldier named Master Chief and his AI companion Cortana taking down the evil Covenant. Halo: Combat Evolved ranks as one of the most important games ever made for many fans, and is often cited as the game that revolutionized the first-person shooter genre. The game was originally developed by Bungie in 2001, with 343 Industries taking over the series in 2011 and eventually including the game in Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
Halo: Combat Evolved is so popular with the fan base that it’s not uncommon to find more fans playing Halo: The Master Chief Collection over Halo Infinite, the newest game in the franchise. But what many fans don’t realize is that the first Halo game has a lot of cut content that players never got to experience. 343 Industries is looking to finally bring this unseen content to the world with the help of Digsite, a team of modders dedicated to the idea of restoring the original Halo to its full potential. This includes a series of multiplayer maps that were cut from the PC port of the game, back when Gearbox Software worked on it. Some of these maps, such as “Indoor,” were close to be completed and only required some polishing, while other maps, like “Dusk,” took a lot more work from Digsite to bring to life.
Digsite is also restoring the cut RTS content from the earliest plan for the game, when Halo: Combat Evolved was originally conceived as an RTS game. The RTS content includes cut vehicles and enemy types. Maybe the most impressive piece of cut content is the long-lost Macworld demo from 1999, which will also be added to Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The Macworld demo will be a sandbox area for players to explore and have fun running around in.
Adding cut content like this into an old game is a very rare thing and acts as a historical moment in game preservation. For fans of the series, adding this cut content will make Halo: Combat Evolved climb even higher on their favorites list. 343 Industries also stated that the team at Digsite will be going through the archives of the series and that there’s plenty of content to show off.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is now available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Halo Waypoint