Halo: Reach

Halo: Reach
Developer: Bungie Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios Platform: Xbox 360 Released in JP: September 15, 2010 Released in US: September 14, 2010 Released in EU: September 14, 2010 This game has unused modes / minigames. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused abilities. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text.

A prequel to the best-selling trilogy and Bungie's swan song to their involvement in the series, Halo: Reach added some needed tweaks to the level-editor "Forge", armor abilities, updated visual effects, and a campaign that followed the NOBLE Team on their suicidal mission to try and save the planet Reach. The game was regarded as a huge success, though many disliked it due to the exclusion of Master Chief and rather different feeling than the classic Halo trilogy.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: Upload rest of the audio, clean up location markers, crop and upload rest of graphics, make heading for strings, make section dedicated to beta build? Format the page better in places as well.

Cut / Developer Map Images

Halo Reach stores the images it uses for its maps as .blf files inside the maps\images folder, which are then put into .mapinfo files which the game reads to display information about a map in-game. Until Halo Reach was re-released as a part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection's release on PC, the following were never before seen.

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  c_m40: A cut Campaign mission slotted between Tip of The Spear and Long Night of Solace. A .mapinfo for the level remains, however it is blank, nothing more is known, concept art only.

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  m_aftship: The m_ designation denotes Multiplayer, c_ for Campaign, as such we can glean from the name that this is an early map image for the map Zealot, called 45_aftship internally, the 45 being a reference to m45 or Long Night of Solace which is where the map was sliced off from for multiplayer. A few other map image slots use this same image as placeholder.

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  m_arena: Nothing known besides this stock art.

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  m_azimuth: A bespoke remake of the map Ascension from Halo 2. Would later instead be remade using Forge on the map Forge World.

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  m_badlands: In engine screenshot of a rocky area, bears a resemblance to the environment for Noble Actual in the Campaign. Nothing more known.

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  m_blockout: Due to the finding of a tags development build of Halo: Reach made post release, this is now known to be 52_blockout, a cut multiplayer map that would've featured jumping from building to building as its main map gimmick. Took place on the campaign level New Alexandria, m52 internally. Unfortunately the map is broken and over half of the geometry is missing, though the collision still remains.

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  m_farm: Stock image, released as part of the Digsite project for Halo: The Master Chief Collection's version of Halo 3.

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  m_gulch: A bespoke remake of the map Blood Gulch from Halo: Combat Evolved. Would later instead be remade using Forge on the map Forge World.

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  m_panopticon: Early map image for Boardwalk, 50_panopticon internally.

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  m_powerhouse: Not to be confused with the map 30_settlement, called Powerhouse in game, which has a leftover map image from the multiplayer beta as m_settlement.blf. In a leaked Tag development build, this is now known to be 40_powerhouse, so it would share the same art assets as the also cut M40. Apart from that, just concept art, nothing more known.

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  m_pump_station: Concept art. Nothing more known. In the leaked tags build, it's listed as pump_station, though fails to load due to the BSP being in need of re-importing.

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  m_spartanland: In engine screenshot of a forest map with dev textures and a standalone Gauss Turret from Halo 3: ODST.

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  m_stalagmite: In engine screenshot of a cave map with a large structure embedded in some ice. Could possibly be the ice cave section from The Package, alternatively, could be a remake of Waterworks from Halo 2, the only map to have stalagmites in it. Apart from that, nothing more known.

Unused Armor Abilities

Most of the armor abilities have different names internally, however there are armor abilities that never made it into the final game.

Internal Name	Final Name
<equipment_ammo_pack/>	Ammo Pack
<equipment_power_fist/>	Power Fist
<equipment_repulsor/>	Repulsor
<equipment_sensor_pack/>	Sensor Pack
<equipment_emp_pulse/>	EMP Pulse
<equipment_shield_generator/>	Shield Generator

Scripts

There are several unfinished scripts found in the game's code. They were brought to full functionality and shown in the videos below.

Hold (X) to board Hunter

A feature meant to be used in Firefight and Campaign. It enables the player to hop onto the back of a Hunter, similar to hijacking a tank. The player can then melee the Hunter, and even plant a grenade for an instant kill. It includes unique animations for holding onto the Hunter, and attacking it. Halo: The Master Chief Collection reenables this function when playing with the Bandanna skull enabled in Reach.

Guta Assassination

A cut assassination animation on a Guta. The Guta does not have an animation to go with it.

Laser Sight on Sniper

This weapon (called sniper_rifle_june internally) is the weapon given to Jun during the Falcon ride with Emile and Carter. It's never meant to be used by the player, but by giving it to the player, it's a Sniper, but with a charge up time, a very inaccurate laser sight, and extremely weak damage.

Graphics

Within Halo: Reach there aren’t a ton of unused graphics within the files, however there are still plenty of interesting images in both the beta version and the retail version of the game.

Tools of Destruction

Sabre

Seraph

Teleporter… What is this, Quake?

After each Matchmaking game you will get a carnage report which features your “Tool of Destruction”, which is the weapon you got the most kills with that game. As this is limited to Matchmaking games (Campaign and Firefight replaces this with “Biggest Kill”) there are weapons and vehicles that you never use, yet they still have a Tool of Destruction picture.

The Sabre and the Seraph have Tool of Destruction icons as Bungie planned to have a Sabre Slayer gamemode where players would fight other players in Sabres (see "Gametypes").

The teleporter icon is more interesting as you cannot kill anyone with the teleporter at all, however “telefragging” was planned to make its return into Halo games since it was introduced in Halo: CE and was last seen in Halo 2. Telefragging would occur when a player is standing on the receiver node of a teleporter while another player is entering the sender node. This would cause the player on the sender node to be teleported inside the player at the receiver node and kill the player on the receiver node, attributing the kill to the player who went though the teleporter.

Gametypes

There are several different game modes that never made the final cut of Halo: Reach for one reason or another. Some game modes were added later on with the Action Sack playlist, others were remade by modders and some have not come to life at all since there isn’t enough information about them.

Guta and Buggers in Firefight

Both Gutas and Buggers were cut from Firefight in the final game. With mods, they can be re-enabled in the options and work as intended.

Guta in Firefight

Buggers in Firefight

Firefight "Schism" Setting

An option in Firefight for Covenant to fight each other. It appears that Covenant of similar species (i.e. Jackals) will work together to kill other species.

Sabre Slayer

In early versions of the game Bungie played with the idea of including a Team Slayer gamemode where everyone is forced to stay in a Sabre/Seraph, similar to how Race forces you to stay in a Warthog/Mongoose. The gamemode was ultimately scrapped as it was seen as “too repetitive” and would also give the console performance issues. The gamemode was remade by modders later on.

Audio

There are a few unused audio clips which were cut for various reasons.

Armor Ability Tutorials

Four of seven Armor Abilities have recorded tutorial dialogue. Presumably cut in favour of allowing the player to hold Back on the controller, and read a short blurb about their current weapon and armor ability, at any time in-game.

Need to upload these files.

Winter Contingency: Falcon Crash

Audio found on Winter Contingency, was going to play after discovering and encountering the Covenant for the first time.

Nightfall: Guta Draft Animals

This was going to play during the encounter with the Gutas during Nightfall. The Guta were drastically scaled back by the end of development, originally appearing on a few missions, now just one. This dialogue is the last remnant of another cut mechanic, Covenant using them in battle.

Tip of the Spear: Scarab Fight

Dialogue placed during the Falcon ride with Jorge, but before you get to the Spire. One of maaany cut Scarab encounters in Reach.

Unused Location Markers

Vaya con Dios!

Extra named location markers were cut from the game. They were intended to be used to mark zones, just like ones in multiplayer maps.
Cut locations include: Most of these were wrong, need to verify and clean up the table

Rocket Launcher	Shotgun
Gravity Hammer	Focus Rifle
Badlands	Plasma Launcher	Sniper Rifle
Sea	Sniper Platform	Spartan Laser	Concussion Rifle
Red/Blue Man Cannon	Red/Blue Base	Energy Sword	Grenade Launcher	In The Air
Landing Zone	Somewhere	Weapon Drop

Red/Blue/Orange/Green/Big/Small/Center Grav Lift