Cut Halo 2 gamemodes

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.

A match of Headhunter in progress in the Halo 2 Beta.

This article is part of a series on
Halo 2 cut content

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Cut content

Early script
Cut dialogue
Cut enemies and ambient life
Cut equipment
Cut gamemodes
Cut levels
Cut vehicles
Cut weapons

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Development

Halo 2 development
Concept art
Design documentation
Storyboards
Title updates
E3 campaign demo
E3 multiplayer demo

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

v • d • e

During the game's development, Halo 2 was planned to ship with many more game modes which ultimately did not make it to final release. A handful were prototyped in engine, though the majority only ever existed in paper design documentation penned by the team at Bungie - notably multiplayer lead Max Hoberman. As such, the majority of these modes were never practically developed in any way.

Several files for cut gamemodes featured in the Halo 2 beta have been collated and released as unpolished files for use in the Halo 2 Editing Kit, available via the Digsite project GitHub here.

In-engine prototyped

The following modes were to some extent prototyped and implemented in-engine.

Headhunter

Main article: Headhunter (game variant)

The main mode developed and ultimately cut from Halo 2, Headhunter was to take a very similar form to the gametype of the same name ultimately featured in Halo: Reach. When dying, players were to drop skulls which could be collected by other players and deposited into safe zones. Headhunter was in the files of the Halo 2 Alpha and mostly-functional, but was ultimately cut likely due to a bottleneck in user interface design and deployment as opposed to issues with creating the mode itself.

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  Headhunter in the menus of the Halo 2 Alpha.

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  A match of Headhunter in progress.

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  Design documentation for the map Midship, referencing Headhunter as one of the modes the map was intended to be played on.

Juggernaut

Main article: Juggernaut

The Juggernaut mode was shipped with the final build of Halo 2, though in a very different manner to which the design documentation conceived. The original plans for the mode were to involve the Flood Juggernaut, an enemy type intended to appear in the campaign of Halo 2 as a massive Flood boss (and the mode's namesake). In this original specification, the player playing as the Juggernaut was to physically play as the Flood Juggernaut, intended to be "sturdier, heavier, can do more damage and jump twice as high". Instead of weapons, the Juggernaut player was to have access to both of the Juggernaut's tentacles to use for melee attacks coordinated with the left and right triggers. Using the triggers near scenery props would throw the prop at enemies.

This original plan for the Juggernaut mode was ultimately scrapped as Hoberman was never able to get the development manpower needed to put the mode into action. The final Juggernaut shipped with a toned-down premise, featuring one strong player being hunted by the other players.

Race

"Complete the required number of laps before your opponents, blowing away the competition."

— Official description in the Halo 2 Alpha.

Main article: Race

The Race gametype first debuted in Halo: Combat Evolved, with a simple premise - be the first player to reach all of the checkpoints on the map. The mode was to some extent considered for inclusion in Halo 2 and was implemented in the gametype selection menus for the Halo 2 Alpha, though in the menus uses the icon and description for the Assault gametype. Selecting the race option brings up the proper icon and description.

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  Race in the menus of the Halo 2 Alpha.

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  An early design layout for Burial Mounds, including intended locations for the Race mode's objective flags.

Warfare

Main article: Warfare (game variant)

Originally concepted in Combat Evolved and scrapped, Warfare was intended to be the primary multiplayer offering of Halo 2 - a massive-scale Spartan vs. Elite asymmetric battle. The mode was the primary one considered at the beginning of Halo 2 production, though was ultimately cancelled due to development troubles, with Max Hoberman and his team instead focusing more on the game's smaller-scale gameplay.

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  Warfare in the menus of the Halo 2 Alpha.

Partygame prototype

MP_partygame_prototype is an internal fork of Halo 2's codebase that was split off, seemingly with the intention of testing out other gamemodes - several of which would later debut in future Halo titles. This fork was recovered by 343 Industries in 2018, containing some early rough functionality for the Halo engine to support gametypes such as VIP and Infection. Support for the work-in-progress modes was added to the Halo 2 Editing Kit between 2022 and 2023, with the modes themselves released on the Digsite GitHub in early 2024. All of these gamemodes are early prototypes and prone to instability issues, having been released as-found.

Infection

Main article: Infection

An early prototype of the Infection gamemode introduced in Halo 3. In this early iteration, team changing functionality is implemented, with the "infected" Spartans of Blue Team spawning with SMGs.

Medic

"Medic" is a working name for one of the partially-implemented gamemodes recovered by the Digsite project. There is no final name or description available for the mode, meaning that little is known of the modes intent. If played via the Halo 2 mod tools, a player spawns with a bounding zone surrounding them. Given the mode's name, this may be an indicator that the player in question would heal other teammates near them, requiring their team to stick close by. The team members of the Digsite project have not been able to figure out the full intentions for the mode.

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  A screenshot of medic on Lockout.

VIP

Main article: VIP

An older, in-progress, iteration of the VIP gamemode later debuted in Halo 3 is one of the incomplete multiplayer modes released on the Digsite GitHub.

Other considered modes

The following gamemodes were considered for inclusion in Halo 2, though never saw any serious development or engineering work to get them implemented in-game.

Assassin

A revival of the "Kill In Order" mode from Halo: Combat Evolved, the goal of Assassin was to be simple; periodically, the game would designate a player as a target. While other players in the game could shoot and kill one another, points would only be scored for killing the player targeted by the game. The mode was written out by Hoberman in design documentation, though never saw any implementation in-game.

The Light Bringer

"The Light Bringer" was a gametype mentioned in a design document penned by Hoberman, c. November 2003. The mode is similar in concept to Juggernaut; at the start of a mission, a cut power up referred to as the "quad" was intended to spawn somewhere on the map. The player who picked up the quad would then gain the effect of dealing quad damage to all enemies as long as they remained alive, gaining 10HP back with each successful kill. Upon their death, the player in question would drop the quad, allowing it to be picked up by anyone; the player or team holding the quad at the end of the match wins. To help give players an additional chance to pick up the quad, the round timer would be extended by thirty seconds each time the quad was picked up.

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  A section of Hoberman's 2003 design document referencing this gametype.