Cut Halo Wars ambient life

This page discusses elements of deleted material and cut content. Some information on the page is sourced from game files and may not be verifiable through external sources. Where possible, such information should be clearly-marked and replaced with a proper external source as soon as one is available.

Heretic Grunts spawned in Halo Wars via modding, an example of a "creep" neutral faction cut from the final game.

This article is part of a series on
Halo Wars cut content

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Cut content

Cut abilities
Cut ambient life and "creep"
Cut buildings
Cut levels
Cut units

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Development

Halo Wars development
Concept art
Storyboards
Title Updates
Halo Wars Alpha
E3 2007 demo
E3 2008 demo
Cancelled sequel
Phoenix

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To check out cut content for other Halo games, see here!

v • d • e

During the production of Halo Wars, Ensemble Studios developed concepts and models for a number of ambient creatures and enemies that were intended to be found in the game's playable environments. Broadly, these can be split into two categories - neutral fauna that would have roamed the various worlds the game takes place on, and "creep"; a development term for the neutral hostile AI factions that can be found in the multiplayer. In the final game, three creep factions were included - Rebels, the Flood, and Sentinels.

For an overview of the main cut UNSC, Covenant and Forerunner units, see this page.

Creep

A number of maps in Halo Wars feature neutral AI factions such as rebels, Sentinels and Flood. These factions will typically be hostile to both the UNSC and Covenant. A number of additional factions were intended to be implemented in the game. These factions were developed under the codename of "creep", and include the following.

Heretics

One possible creep faction intended to be included in Halo Wars were the Covenant heretics - those who sought fit to defy the Covenant religion. Concept art reveals that Sangheili were intended to be soldiers in this faction, while unused files within the releases of Halo Wars and Halo Wars: Definitive Edition showcase additional Heretic Grunts. An additional texture file known as creep_heretic_ghost_01 indicates the Heretics would have access to the Ghost vehicle; piloted by a Sangheili.

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  Concept art for the Heretic Elites.

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  The Heretic Grunts; spawned in via modding.

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  The in-game unit icon for the Heretic Grunts.

Jackal pirates

Another cut creep faction that would have been included are the Kig-Yar pirates. Files for the Jackals are still available within Halo Wars, allowing the units to be spawned in via modding. The Jackals were to spawn in squads of four, armed with plasma pistols or needlers. The pirates would also have access to Kig-Yar Snipers armed with beam rifles.

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  Concept art for the Jackal Pirates.

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  Concept art for the Jackal Pirates.

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  The final model for the pirates.

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  The Jackal Pirates spawned into Halo Wars; armed with needlers.

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  The Jackal Pirates spawned into Halo Wars; armed with plasma pistols.

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  The Jackal Pirate snipers.

Rebels

While an unidentified insurrectionist group does appear in the final Halo Wars game on maps set on Harvest and Arcadia, released concept art indicates the rebels were intended to be much-more fleshed out. Released concept art showcases a rebel "sci-trooper" wielding an EMP gun and an insurrectionist-branded Gauss Warthog.

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  Concept art for the rebel sci-trooper and EMP gun.

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  Concept art for the rebel sniper units which were included in Halo Wars, and the cut Warthog.

Ambient fauna

Alongside the neutral factions, Halo Wars was intended to feature fauna as ambient AI in the game world. Some of these creatures were only concepted, while others were even modelled and textured for in-game implementation. For a list of other ambient life cut from other Halo games, see this page.

Arctic beast

The arctic beast was a creature concepted, modelled and textured for inclusion in Halo Wars, likely intended to spawn on maps set in the polar regions of Harvest. This creature was later canonised in 2015's Halo: Hunters in the Dark as the Chaefka; a species of life indexed by the Forerunners and present on The Ark. The following year's Halo Mythos saw a scene from the book visualised with a new illustration, using the arctic beast's design almost entirely unaltered.

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  Concept art for the arctic beast.

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  The high-poly sculpt for the arctic beast.

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  The textured low-poly model for the arctic beast.

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  An official illustration of the Chaefka from Halo Mythos.

Arctic ice hound

"I remember back in 2006 watching a show on Discovery channel called “Alien Planet”, it was based on a book called “Expedition: Being an Account in Words and Artwork of the 2358 A.D. Voyage to Darwin IV” by Wayne Douglas Barlowe (sadly out of print). Anyway, it’s a fascinating program and worth picking up the DVD. At the time we were beginning to concept Harvest and I remember coming in the next day talking about this show on Discovery and then running out and getting the DVD for the team so we could watch. I felt that the cycle presented on the show, which is as real on Earth as it is anywhere, was really well represented here (herd, hunter, scavenger) and that I wanted to see this in the worlds and environments in our game. So when you look at our concepts you’ll see that we have herd animals, hunters, and scavengers."

— Grame Devine, discussing the arctic ice hound.

This creature was one of a number of concepts developed during the discussions of the wildlife of Harvest. It was concepted and even modelled and textured, though cut from release.

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  Concept art of the creature.

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  A textured 3D model of the creature.

Thorn beast

The thorn beasts are another cut creature seen fully modelled, textured and animated; they are present in the Halo Wars E3 2008 build and can be seen walking around the map around thirteen minutes into the demo. They do not appear to attack UNSC forces. Thorn beasts remain canon in the Halo setting; with the Chieftain character said to particularly enjoy eating them; they were later featured in the novel Halo: Contact Harvest as a delicacy enjoyed by the crew of Rapid Conversion.

Interestingly, Halo Wars is not the first time the thorn beasts were developed to appear in a Halo game; they were originally designed by Paul Russel during the development of Halo: Combat Evolved, where they were modelled with an identical design and similarly cut. They were also cut from Halo 2 and Halo Infinite.

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  Paul Russel's original thorn beast model for Halo: Combat Evolved.

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  A thorn beast can be seen in this image taken from the E3 2008 demo build of Halo Wars.

Space owl

"When Ensemble looks at making worlds come alive we look at more than trees, hills and cool water. We look at something we call "ambient life" which means things like cool space owls flying around (like this one) and creating a look and feel of a natural balance in the world. If these creatures react to the players interaction in the world (firing weapons for example) then that goes a long way to making the player feel that the world is actually someplace believable rather than an empty sandbox with an AI."

— Graeme Devine, discussing the "Space Owl".

The so-called "space owl" is another ambient creature concepted but ultimately never implemented in Halo Wars. The creature was described as having a wingspan of six feet.

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  Concept art for the creature.

Harvest whale

"After Harvest was attacked things didn’t go well for the population (Just read Joseph Staten’s excellent Contact Harvest!) but the wildlife fared even worse. As seas boiled, turned toxic and the ecosystem turned poisonous life on Harvest became impossible for creatures great and small. Our concept artists here have created one such scene of a beached alien whale being picked over by the last surviving wildlife on Harvest, the scavengers."

— Grame Devine, discussing the Harvest whale.

The Harvest whale was designed as part of the exploration for the wildlife of Harvest. This creature would likely not be seen as an ambient AI on the map, but instead a dead body appearing in the environment.

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  Concept art for the whale.

Oxyaena

The oxyaena is another creature fully modelled and textured for inclusion in Halo Wars. The creature was present in the game's E3 2008 demo, and can be seen wandering the map at around one minute into the demo.

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  The model created for the oxyanea.

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  The oxyanea in the E3 2008 demo.

Other creatures

These creatures have also been showcased in various work uploads related to Halo Wars. Little is known of their design intent or purpose, and are thus presented below.

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  Concept art for an eel-like creature.

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  A textured 3D model of an unknown creature.

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  A textured 3D model of an unknown creature.