Halo 1 Cut Level - City

In the latest release of Digsite cut content for Halo MCC, there's another cut campaign mission that's related to the other cut mission Destructo. This mission is just called City so let's take a look at what it is!

Stay tuned!

[connorking]

The forerunners were actually just New Yorkers

[poke]

My guess would be that it's an art test—Bungie figuring out how to make a cityscape look good at the time and having it there as an example if they decided to do any urban maps.

[MilkmanCR]

This almost looks like a test for a future New Mombasa

[MrWaifuTaker]

This is like a trial run for the Halo 2 New Mombasa missions.

[bondedcastaway]

In the original trilogy humans were the forerunners. Which was something that went over my head. But the hints were there and 343 guilty spark confirms the theory in the final fight with him.

[amzingblinx]

This looks like one of those Halo Custom Edition Maps

[bayar_]

the fact that these 2001 graphics are still amazing to look at is crazy tbh

[nagger]

Imagine, instead of the ancient Forerunner ruins in Halo 2, this was their version of "ancient" ruins.

[IronPiedmont]

With this city stuff available, one can easily make a custom campaign taking place on one of the planets in the Fall of Reach book.

[Nomad]

I always assumed that the game was originally supposed to have a prologue featuring the Fall of Reach

[JustinTK]

I remember there was a Halo CE multiplayer map that was originally going to be set on Reach before Bungie decided to just have all of them take place either on Halo or in space so that they could just use existing skyboxes and stylistic designs.

Maybe this city map was part of when they were considering showing off Reach in a multiplayer map or two. Could’ve even been what made them decide to can the Reach idea because the human architecture they made at the time looked boring compared to the Forerunner’s mystic technology aesthetic.

Personal speculation really, but it would make sense.

[Turbopress]

Just gonna say. I seem to remember a clip of Guilty Spark telling Chief, "you ARE a forerunner". That blew my mind and was so much cooler than 343's evil bionicle attempt.

[Iceman]

Maybe it was a flashback level to the Fall of Reach, I'm pretty sure the old Fall of Reach Cover art featured a city in the background that looked like this.

[blueshit]

it's crazy because this is in stark contrast to everything Halo CE is about, the wonder and discovery, technology aiding your primal instincts in your survival, the "artificial" nature of the ring and everything on it

[pharaohsmagician]

I absolutely love this Liminal Cityscape aesthetic! Like a Chrome city! Skyscraper World! Reminds me of the Bleach Ichigo Inner Realm where he walks sideways on Skyscrapers

[CommanderWolf]

i feel like this was not only testing for halo 2 maybe but i have a feeling this might be a early reach map because in the beta build of ce there was a reach style map in multiplayer for damnation

[IOSALive]

Generalkidd, you're making YouTube a better place

[T____W____]

If this is a test map, they could have made buildings because they’re easier to make than imaginative alien structures. It might also be easier to measure things since everything is angular.

[AsariNextDoor]

Everyone is saying this might've been testing for Halo 2, but crazy idea- what if Reach and CE were originally intended to be one game, and that's what these maps were testing for? Instead of beginning on the Pillar of Autumn as it was escaping Reach, you would start on Reach and have a level or two in a city there before getting to Pillar of Autumn and then Halo.

[some-replies]

I love Bungie's future cities. Outskirts in Halo 2 will always be my favorite level. I want more urban combat in halo, imagine 64v64 games woth Marines versus some rebels on a colony planet.