Cut Halo 5: Guardians levels
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| 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. |
This article is part of a series on
Halo 5: Guardians cut content
- Cut content
- Development
To check out cut content for other Halo games, see here!
During the development of Halo 5: Guardians, a number of levels and maps were cut.
Campaign levels
UNSC Infinity Hub
- "Above is an early space I prototyped with the talented RJ Ranola (That’s his geo you’re seeing in the background there). We mapped the area out from above, using the resulting proportions to flesh out the interior. Shon Mitchell built a functioning version of that door at the top. Patrick Hammond may have also been involved. No piece of AAA game art is a one-person deal, and much of what gets done early-on can (and most likely will be) rewritten."
- — Concept artist Paul Richards discussing the production of this level.[1]
The UNSC Infinity Hub was a planned "weapons down" campaign mission for Halo 5: Guardians that was cut during production.[1][2]
Tsunami Station
The level known in development as "Tsunami Station" would later go on to be named Battle of Sunaion in the final game. Early drafts for the level had the mission split into two levels; one focusing on Blue Team and one focusing on Fireteam Osiris. Each level would have been slightly shorter than the one featured in the final game, and both would have featured the Arbiter fighting as an NPC, with the Locke mission showing him fighting in out-of-bounds zones. These iterations of the levels did not progress far into gameplay prototyping, and as such blockouts posted by level designer Jayce Diaz lack proper combat encounter zones.[3][4][5][6][7]
An early level layout for the Tsunami Station levels was to feature Banshee gameplay inspired by Halo 2.[8]
The layout for the intended Master Chief-centric mission.
The layout for the intended Locke-centric mission.
The area intended for a Banshee combat sequence; with the geometry taken from Maya and rendered in Unreal Engine.
A screenshot of these early blockouts.
A screenshot of these early blockouts.
A screenshot of these early blockouts.
A screenshot of these early blockouts.
A screenshot of these early blockouts.
A screenshot of these early blockouts.
A screenshot of these early blockouts.
A screenshot of these early blockouts.
A screenshot of these early blockouts.
A screenshot of these early blockouts.
A screenshot of these early blockouts.
A screenshot of these early blockouts.
A near-final layout of the mission.
A concept visualisation of Tsunami Station, with location call-outs.
Multiplayer maps
A number of very early Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer map prototypes can be found in the files of the leaked Halo 4 tags build, alongside many cut Halo 4 levels. They can be signified by the file prefixes NG - shared by the map filenames in the final Halo 5: Guardians build and presumably standing for Next Generation (referring to the then-upcoming Xbox One console).
NG01_Airborne
NG02_Chasm
NG03_Fountain
NG04_Bedrock
Sources
- ^ a b Tumblr, Paul Richards (Retrieved on Oct 21, 2021) [archive]
- ^ Tumblr, Paul Richards (Retrieved on Oct 21, 2021) [archive]
- ^ Twitter, Jayce Diaz (@Jayce_Face): "As I mentioned previously, the Battle of Sunaion level (AKA Tsunami Station) went through a ton of iteration. At one point, it was even 2 separate missions! One Locke, one Chief. They had different paths & goals, & wouldn't meet" (Retrieved on Oct 25, 2021) [archive]
- ^ Twitter, Jayce Diaz (@Jayce_Face): "but the Arbiter would be involved in both (In Locke's case, there would be moments where you saw him fighting off enemies on nearby platforms). This version of Sunaion was more, "Megachurch atop Sea Docks" and didn't really feature an underbelly, but was..." (Retrieved on Oct 25, 2021) [archive]
- ^ Twitter, Jayce Diaz (@Jayce_Face): "very layered and played with pits and clamber. The mission lengths would have been a bit shorter than what shipped, though. These spaces didn't have a bunch of encounter design work done (hence the lack of combat spaces that look viable), but I think it would have worked well :-)" (Retrieved on Oct 25, 2021) [archive]
- ^ Twitter, Jayce Diaz (@Jayce_Face): "For a million and one dev reasons, this shifted and changed into what we know today as the Battle of Sunaion mission, and I'm immensely proud of the work the entire team did to bring it all together." (Retrieved on Oct 25, 2021) [archive]
- ^ Twitter, Jayce Diaz (@Jayce_Face): "And to think, this level sprouted from me messing around with phantom winds and animating waves :-) Some of this was shown on the documentary series, The Sprint; specifically, Season 2, Episode 1." (Retrieved on Oct 25, 2021) [archive]
- ^ Twitter, Jayce Diaz (@Jayce_Face): "The Sunaion mission changed A LOT during production. it once had this Banshee flying section inspired by Halo 2!" (Retrieved on Oct 25, 2021) [archive]
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