Cut Halo: Reach vehicles

This article is part of a series on
Halo: Reach cut content

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Cut content

Cut dialogue
Cut ambient life
Cut levels
Cut vehicles
Cut weapons
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Development

Halo: Reach development
Concept art
Design documentation
Storyboards
Title updates
Multiplayer Beta

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During the production of Halo: Reach, several vehicles were concepted and implemented - though ultimately cut for various reasons.

Human vehicles

Armoured personnel carrier

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One vehicle intended for inclusion in Reach was an armoured personnel carrier (APC), with various files and concepts alternately labelling it the "Wolverine" and "Kodiak". An early model of the APC was recovered by the Digsite project as an "APC Mobile Station" in the files for the cut map Farm, consisting of a very basic blockout with no textures, UVs, or weapons. The model recovered has a turret ring and cupola identically sized to support the M247T machine gun and M512 SBHV cannon from the Scorpion tank, and as such was restored to functionality by the Digsite team as a playable vehicle. Due to the extremely early nature of Farm - essentially built in the Halo 3 engine - the vehicle was restored to functionality in Halo 3. However, one intended part of the Reach design was the inclusion of lockdown bracings on the vehicle; functionality for this is retained in the Reach engine but not the Halo 3 engine, meaning that Digsite's restoration of the vehicle does not include this feature. The early design appears to have been based on real-world vehicles like the French AMX-10 RC and American mobile gun system, despite its in-game name referring to it as a personnel carrier.

Later concept art by Isaac Hannaford showcases an evolution of the blockout model's rather simplistic design into a design more consistent with Halo's visual style, notably bearing an extremely heavy resemblance to the M577 APC from the film Aliens - one of many inspirations taken from the Alien franchise as a whole. In Hannaford's concepts, the vehicle gets renamed from Wolverine to Kodiak in the later illustrations' filenames, and is shown bearing a number of various artillery and cannon mount options.

The Kodiak was prototyped in-engine in some form, with code referencing the Wolverine as a vehicle physics model remaining in the files of Reach. The vehicle operates in a similar manner to other human vehicles such as the Warthog and Mongoose, though has an additional deployed state. A model for the Kodiak was later recovered and restored for in-game use by the Digsite asset recovery project; the vehicle has a lockdown similar to the Kodiak SPG from Halo Wars 2, which is used to deploy the turret on the back. The model as-present only exists in a low-poly, untextured state.

The release of Halo Wars in 2009 saw the introduction of the M9 Wolverine - an anti-air tank employed by the UNSC. It is likely that this spurred the change of the APC's name from Wolverine to Kodiak. The release of Halo Wars 2 in 2017 saw the introduction of the M400 Kodiak - a self-propelled artillery vehicle bearing little resemblance to the planned Reach vehicle. Halo Wars 2 also introduced two new APCs; the M650 Mastodon and M88 Bison, both heavily visually inspired by the Reach APC's concept design.

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  A blockout for the original Wolverine APC, as it was found on the early Farm map.

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  A screenshot of the Digsite restoration for the Farm APC, in Halo 3's engine.

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  A screenshot of the Digsite restoration for the Farm APC, in Halo 3's engine.

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  Early concept art of the APC, when it was still known as the Wolverine.

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  Later concept art of the Wolverine.

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  Concept art of the APC, re-named the Kodiak.

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  Finalised concept art of the Kodiak.

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  The raw model for the APC.

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  The APC restored to in-game functionality in Reach.

Drone

Referred to in game files for the Halo: Reach Alpha as a "drone", this vehicle utilises a similar flight model to the final game's Sabre fighter. The fighter handles similarly and employs the same autocannons as the Sabre for its primary weapon.

The visual appearance and name of the craft are seemingly inspired by the F-99 Wombat UCAV previously featured in Halo 3: ODST, though the use of a flight model and visual design similar to that of the Sabre indicate it may have been an early version of the Sabre.

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  The "drone" on Forge World.

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  Flying the drone.

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  Earlier Sabre concept revisions, with a strong visual resemblance to the drone.

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  The top of the drone.

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  The right of the drone.

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  The left of the drone.

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  The back of the drone.

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  The front of the drone.

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  An overview of the drone.

Pegasus

Early in the development process, some revisions of the FSS-1000 Sabre were mocked up by Isaac Hannaford in 3D for implementation in-game. This early version was ultimately scrapped as this initial pass did not have a strong enough visual silhouette from the player camera perspective. At this stage in development, the fighter had the nickname of "Pegasus", and went through numerous concept revisions. The fighter was eventully made canon in a Canon Fodder as the S-930 Strike Fighter.

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  A sketch of the scrapped Halo 2 "Strike Fighter," the Sabre's conceptual precursor.

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  An early concept of the Sabre for Halo Reach.

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  Early Sabre concept designs.

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  Several early conceptual explorations of the Sabre.

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  Concepts for this iteration.

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  Concepts for this iteration.

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  Iteration on these ideas.

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  The early Sabre 3D model can be seen in this concept piece.

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  Achievement art for the I'm Sorry, Dave achievement, showing this Sabre revision in concept.

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  One of the several Pegasus models recovered by the Digsite team.

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  One of the several Pegasus models recovered by the Digsite team.

Motorboat

Once notable vehicle heavily prototyped in-engine was a UNSC watercraft, a small attack boat capable of seating a driver, a passenger and a gunner on an M41 Vulcan - akin to the Warthog. Early campaign level layouts by Marcus Lehto indicated an intent for the fourth level of the game to be a "covert SEAL-esque boat attack at night", with the goal of sinking a ship.

The boat was conceived by Isaac Hannaford, and prototyped extensively in-engine resulting in the development of water-wake technology later re-used for the jet-wash effects on the jetpack. Ultimately, the boat was cut entirely, though the boat's removal was credited in allowing the level New Alexandria to be fully-developed and make it into the final game. A small amount of footage of the boat prototype was later shown at PAX 2010 in a demo reel of cut content; showcasing the boat riding on the waves and driven in a third-person view.

Code for the boat remains in the files of Reach.

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  Concept art of the boat by Isaac Hannaford.

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  Concept art of the boat by Isaac Hannaford.

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  The boat being driven in its third-person view. Note the presence of the Halo 3-era Master Chief character model - indicating this was still fairly early in development.

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  A screenshot of the boat on the water.

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  A screenshot of the boat on the water.

Covenant vehicles

Drop pod

Seen only in the Halo: Reach E3 2010 Trailer, this drop pod design was cut from the final game and replaced for unknown reasons by the Yado-pattern Intrusion Carapace. This model was later featured (and thus, made canon) in 2017's Halo: Warfleet – An Illustrated Guide to the Spacecraft of Halo as the Suspa Al-pattern Assault Carapace.

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  Concept art for this drop pod.

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  The cut drop pod.

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  Renders of Suspa Al in Halo: Reach.

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  A Suspa Al in the attack on Farkas Lake.

Jackal glider

Referenced only in the game code, the "Jackal glider" was presumably an aerial vehicle designed for the Kig-Yar. The glider's physics model is extremely advanced compared to all other aircraft in-game, containing data fields for wings, tail, rudders and drag among other things.

Scarab

While the Deutoros-pattern Scarab did ultimately make its way into the final game as a low-poly background entity on the levels Tip of the Spear and The Pillar of Autumn (with the latter level also featuring a more detailed, non-interactive setpiece Scarab at one point in the mission), early ideas for the game's campaign were to have the player character able to drive the Scarab. Early ideas for the level New Alexandria would have seen the player drive the Scarab in the remains of the post-glassing city. Prototypes for the Scarab were made and the physics involved was described by Chris Ophdal as "sweet", though the Scarab was ultimately considered unsustainable - especially with the high engine cost needed to run the level. Ultimately, the drivable Scarab was scrapped and New Alexandria was transformed into an aerial mission focusing on the Falcon instead.

Cut dialogue for the missions Tip of the Spear and Exodus shows that early plans for these levels were for both to feature Scarab encounters similar to those featured in Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST, though all were cut.

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  The Scarab was ultimately realised in-game, though as a scripted setpiece with no gameplay attached.

Revenant physics model

While the Rizvum-pattern Revenant was ultimately realised in the final game as a fully-fledged vehicle, an unused physics model present in the game files suggests a different originally-intended role for the vehicle. In the final release, the Revenant utilised the "alien scout" physics model, shared with the Ghost which provides the vehicle with four directions of movement and a front-facing, driver-controlled weapon. The unused Revenant variation in the files acts similarly, though with the exception that the driver-controlled turret has a full 360 degrees of rotation - similar to the turret on the Scorpion tank. It is unknown why this ultimately went unused.

Notably, early concept explorations for the Revenant did explore the idea of giving the Revenant a fully-operational manned turret, akin to the Wuzum-pattern Spectre or the Warthog. Although this design was ultimately unused, the concept was revisited in Halo 4 as the Phelent-pattern Revenant.

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  Early thumbnail sketches for the Revenant in Halo: Reach.

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  Early thumbnail sketches for the Revenant in Halo: Reach.

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  Early thumbnail sketches for the Revenant in Halo: Reach.

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  Early thumbnail sketches for the Revenant in Halo: Reach.

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  More refined concept art for the Revenant.

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  More refined concept art for the Revenant.

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  More refined concept art for the Revenant.

Siege engine

Referred to internally as the "siege engine", little is known of this gargantuan Covenant vehicle's purpose. The vehicle was conceived by Isaac Hannaford, though never progressed past the concept stage. When asked about the vehicle's resemblance to the H-K-Tank from the Terminator franchise, Hannaford responded that there were "no coincidences."

Some concept art for the Tip of the Spear mission indicates that early plans were to have the siege engines be the target of the Battle at Szurdok Ridge. This early concept may also be depicting what would have been mission nine in Lehto's early campaign level layouts; which list a mission with the following objectives;

• Destroy Covenant Supply Convoy
  • Evening
  • Take out massive hover platforms

The "massive hover platforms" mentioned match the visual depictions of the siege engine.

The siege engine was later canonised in the 2022 edition of the Halo Encyclopedia as the Zashk-pattern Draugr.

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  The siege engine.

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  Concept art for a Covenant army, depicting what appear to be siege engines.

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  Concept art for Tip of the Spear - note the presence of siege engines in the artwork.

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  An early blockout of the siege engine model.

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  An early blockout of the siege engine model.

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  An early blockout of the siege engine model, as viewed in first-person.

Halo 3 leftovers

Code remains in the files for the physics models of several leftover vehicles used and/or cut from the previous game, Halo 3. These include the Chopper, Mantis and Guardian Sentinel (classed internally by the game as a vehicle).