Halo: Combat Evolved Beta 1749

Beta 1749, was a beta build of the Xbox edition of Halo: Combat Evolved. The build originates from around August 15, 2001. It was succeeded by Beta 2247.^[1]

Beta content

Main menu

No Bungie/Microsoft startup videos.
Instead of the menu's background featuring a predetermined flyby of Installation 04, the menu features a still camera looking at the ring, with the camera moving to different perspectives depending on which sub-menu you are on.
"Campaign" is split into "New Campaign" and "Load Campaign"
The menu has no sound.
The difficulty selector has different icons from the final game.
The main menu has random diagram text.
The locked level picture is a placeholder white question mark on a black background.

Campaign

Campaign general

Easy difficulty does not exist.
Green subtitles (Dialogue spoken often differs from the subtitles, with too many differences to list).
Cutscenes seem to have random delays.
Shield recharge sound is different.
Jump is floatier.
Health packs are green boxes with a white circle and red cross on them. This health pack design is notably still featured in the game manual.
Major performance issues in larger areas.
Loading screens are just a black screen with a dark red bar to show progress.
Many cutscenes have missing sound.
Most music is missing.
Currently playing sounds don't stop when the game pauses.
The game cannot save in the middle of a mission. If you crash/turn off the game/exit the level, it's back to the beginning of that mission.
Difficulty is higher, especially in Flood levels. There's also a lot more Covenant in the later levels.
Control panels have missing string entry.
Master Chief armor is somewhat lower poly on some parts of the armor (Such as forearms).
Chief's armor is lighter in color, and the baked-in shadows on his visor are less overt.
First person arms seem to be different behind the forearm, possibly leftover from an earlier armor design.

The Pillar of Autumn

These changes can be observed in the level The Pillar of Autumn, as compared to the final game release.

Alternate x20 Bridge Cinematic.
No intro cinematic.
Sky is jet black with stars, no blue layers to help make things in the cutscene stand out, like the Longswords.
Game soft locks after lifepods are destroyed, player must use cheats to make it through the small doors to the next area.
Needler is introduced earlier on, specifically when crewman Samuel Marcus is killed.
No health packs or ammo drops on map.
Some scenery objects like the gun racks are included in the maps, but are not placed.
Captain Keyes doesn't give you a pistol, instead a crewman with one is gunned down by grunts where you would normally receive the pistol.
Area where lifepod launches has older geometry, including an unused hallway.
- In the lifepod launch area, there are doors placed outside the level from earlier revisions of the level which had a much larger play space.
- References in this area show that there were going to be marines (area needs further researching).
Intro cutscene and Chief exiting cryopod cutscenes are gone.
Heroic/ Legendary difficulties start you in the cryopod.
Master Chief's armor is white if you look down while in the Crypod.
When you exit the cryopod, you spawn to the right of it instead of in front of it.
After the targeting sequence (Look at the lights so they turn green), the gameplay tip is instead a message to playtesters telling them to ask a staff member for assistance changing the controls.
Tutorial doesn't invert your looking pitch.
The crewman who opens your cryopod says "Come on, this way!" instead of "This way!" when leading you out of the cryo room.
Elite breaking into Cryo 2's control room holds (and kills Sam with) a Needler instead of a plasma rifle.
A crewman plays a "noticed player" dialogue and then dies is in the room where you have to crouch under the blast door.
The chunk of the map that's loaded for the armory/bridge/mess hall seems to have a lighting bug, possibly missing all lighting.
The marine who escorts you to the bridge has a different voice actor, despite the Australian marines having lines in the game.
Bridge cutscene triggers earlier, when you're halfway into the room instead of when you're near keyes.
Cortana states that the main cannon is offline, instead of the crew member at the front of the bridge. This crew member instead yells "Hull breach! Hull breach on decks 11 and 12!".
Cortana's "hologram appearing" effect is missing.
When Captain Keyes asks for a report from Cortana, she says "Fire control for the main cannon cannon is offline, nothing of consequence apart from the detonation." before mentioning the boarding party and antimatter charge.
At the end of the bridge cutscene, Keyes says "See you on the surface" instead of "Good luck, Master Chief."
A group of crewmen seem to sort of follow you on the bridge.
Cortana dialogue is different when she's plugged into Chief's armor: "Funny, I remember more empty space."
Keyes moves to a different spot on the bridge after the cutscene.
The Halo ring is not visible from the bridge windows.
No post board in the bridge.
Keyes does not give you the pistol (Despite one being visible next to him), instead you obtain it from a crew member who is killed by the first grunts you fight.
You can get frag grenades from some dead marines, instead of having to wait until the last part of the level.
Airlocks do not have numbers on the walls.
Boarding craft do not have overshields in the back.
No health packs anywhere.
Keyes has a more somber tone of voice when telling everyone to abandon ship over the intercom.
The section where two crewmen are chased by Covenant instead has two deployable cover and no crewmen, just covenant.
Lifepods don't launch where you would normally see them launch.
There is an extra room directly in front of you after the sequence where you normally watch the lifepods launch and get shot in the final game.
When you're about to enter the maintenance tunnels, after "Follow the maintenance accessways", Cortana says "Head near" instead of telling you to follow the nav point.
Maintenance tunnels softlock you, as the 3 doors near the group of covenant do not open. On heroic, the doors don't open at all. On normal, the game opens the "safe" door... by one inch before stopping.
Crewmen t-pose sometimes.
Some (But not all) of the drink dispensers have a different texture, possibly a plate meant to close off the drink dispensers?
Cryo 2 control room has green gas in it.
Level ends when the covenant are killed near the lifeboats, instead of triggering when you get near the lifeboat after they're killed.
No grenade stockpile nor human shields in the area close to the lifeboats.
Ending cinematic is missing.

Halo

The following differences can be observed on the level Halo.

No intro cutscene for Halo.
No dead marines or pilot still strapped in the lifepod.
The Spirit dropship that deploys troops at the crash site has dynamic behaviour. If the player leaves the area, the Spirit will instead move to intercept the player, deploying troops in front of them.
Tall grass (Not the ground texture, but the kind that stand up) has a different texture.
No ammo pile on the forerunner structure.
The Marines encountered can wield Shotguns.
The two Banshees that are meant to attack the player in the initial starting area have broken AI, causing them to fall to the ground aimlessly upon spawning, leading to these Banshees instead being present at the Forerunner structure with the first set of survivors.
Instead of "Damn, they're trying to flank us!", a marine says "Damn it! Another covenant landing craft to the rear!"
Cortana doesn't say anything about the lifepods flying overhead, nor asks for the warthog and men.
After clearing the quarry crash site, there is an additional conversation between a Marine and Cortana about "invisible monsters", that does not play in retail. Cortana's voice lacks the radio effect that is usually applied to it when speaking to characters other than the Chief. This conversation was probably meant to foreshadow the existence of Stealth Elites, but as they do not appear in this level this conversation was likely deemed perfunctory and so left out. Video

Marine: "Keep your voice down. They're out there..."
Cortana: "Who's out there? I can't detect any Covenant forces in the vicinity.”
Marine: "I don't know. They're... monsters, or something. Invisible monsters!"

There is a maze-like set of tunnels within the underground Forerunner structure just after passing the energy bridge. They are unfinished and are sealed off in the final game.
Using the medusa cheat, or if the player somehow gains access to a Banshee, the Banshee can be piloted. In the final game, a script was implemented that made Banshees inaccessible to players on this level, even if the medusa cheat was used or they spawned one in.
The ending cutscenes are unfinished.
Depending on what survivor area you leave till last, Echo 419 will take off without you. The ending cutscene still triggers after a few seconds anyway.

The Truth and Reconciliation

The following differences can be observed on the level The Truth and Reconciliation.

At the beginning of the mission, the following dialogue plays.

Foehammer: "Touchdown in 10 seconds, we're in covenant territory now!" (After she drops everyone off).
Cortana: "All ground troops are clear of the ramp, we'll radio when we're ready for resupply.”
Foehammer: "Roger that, moving to observation distance."
Cortana: "Sargeant, don't go in guns blazing. Let the chief and I scout up ahead."

The player spawns next to the Pelican when leaving it.
According to debug text, the Hunters dropping onto the Gravity lift platform was supposed to be a cutscene.
In the ship's gravity lift lobby, some Covenant supply cases are lopsided, floating, clipping in ground, etc.
During the encounter in the lobby of the Truth and Reconciliation, no sword-wielding Elites spawn.

The Silent Cartographer

The following differences can be observed on the level The Silent Cartographer.

Doors lights don't glow red when locked.
The door hiding the Elite Zealot locks as soon as you enter the hallway instead of there being a delay.
The window in this hallway has no invisible barrier, you can jump through it.
Bravo 022, the Pelican that crashes after you open the door, drops several Marines in addition to weapons. It does not have a Warthog.
Aside from the one dropped off by Echo 419, there are no Warthogs in the level.
Ghosts spawn on the level, and in excess. Possessing one can easily break the level, especially during cutscenes, and this is likely why no Ghosts are present on the level in the final game.
There are no overshields, ammo piles, or health packs where you first encounter Hunters.
There's no overshield just outside the map room.
The Zealot is dead when you arrive at the previously locked door.
No cutscene exists when accessing the cartographer, and the hologram of Halo is slightly smaller, higher up and slightly off center.
Not killing the Jackals in the area where Foehammer begins to lower her Pelican during the ending cutscene will cause the Jackals to be present in the cutscene and shoot at the Pelican as its descending. This is rectified in the final game, with a script implemented to instantly delete all NPCs the moment the cutscene starts.
Due to the ability to pause during cutscenes in this build, it is possible to break the AI across the entire level by restarting the mission in the middle of a cutscene. This will disable all AI across the level, leaving enemies frozen in a T-pose. It also breaks numerous mission scripts, and may have contributed to Bungie removing the ability to pause during cutscenes.

Assault on the Control Room

The following differences can be observed on the level Assault on the Control Room.

Notably, this level is called "Fortress World" in this release.
Intro cutscene is fairly unfinished, Grunt doesn't sniff the air, yelp, or panic. The group of grunts, however, still flee into the door.
Top of the roof seems to have a different color for the water.
There are two Banshees at the starting platform.
No Pelican at the bottom of the shaft. Many more dead grunts though.
Many more grunts on the starting platform.
No sleeping grunts at the first bridge.
Hunter in the pathway to the first elevator.
No Wraith attacking the group of marines with a warthog.
The Banshee at the first bridge is present on all difficulties, instead of just Heroic and Legendary.
It seems to be impossible to slide down the canyon early at the first bridge. The fall timer kicks in before you even get to the ledge. In the final game, the fall timer won't kick in until after you've bounced off the ledge.
The area with the small, cut out ledge under the bridge that you jump to before the attempting the slide is darker.

343 Guilty Spark

The following differences can be observed on the level 343 Guilty Spark.

No Covenant near entrance, nor Marines firing at the from the entrance. Marines instead fire from various doors inside the facility.
Fog starts further from the player, map isn't as dark.
SOS transmission from crashed Pelican doesn't cut out as much.
Crashed Pelican is deeper into the ground.
Intro dialogue is different.
Elevator floor is more of a grate than a window.
Control panels seem to be tagged right instead of displaying "need string.”
Lighting in facility is unfinished.
Somewhat different layout in the facility.
Paranoid Marine is armored, doesn't talk, is in a different location, and is very easy to miss.
The dead Jenkins corpse in the flood reveal cutscene is invisible.
"Postmortem sensory record" instead of normal helmet recording intro text.
The helmet recording cutscene has "Get stabbed" error, but continues anyway.
The helmet recording cutscene has no borders, text is slightly below the center of the screen.
The floating assault rifles normally seen at the entrance to the facility in final are now visible in the helmet recording cutscene instead, shooting the marines.
The dead elite in the helmet recording cutscene is instead a dead Marine.
Covenant enemies left alive in the cutscene room where the marines examine the dead marine will kill the marines and Captain Keyes the moment they spawn in during the cutscene, although dialogue will continue to be spoken and the cutscene will progress as if nothing happened, although with the camera aimed at the floor.
Keyes is in his bridge uniform.
One of the Marines t-poses randomly in the cutscene.
Debug text spams "YOU SHOULDNT DO THIS!!!" during the transition from the dead marine scene to the Flood ambush scene.
The cutscene room where the marines examine the dead marine can still be reaccessed, and contains Flood enemies. Oddly enough, while inaccessible in the final game, using no-clip, one can discover that Bungie did not delete the Flood enemies that spawn in there.
There is an unused elevator room with the elevator itself missing. In the final game, this room is still present but inaccessible. Strangely enough, in the final game, fire effects were added to the damaged controls which weren't present in 1749.
343 Guilty Spark introduces themselves as '342 Guilty Spark', and continues to be called this throughout all dialogue. In a video released by IGN, Martin O'Donnell explains that this was the result of an error made in the game's script which caused Tim Dadabo to record all of his lines as '342'. Prior to the final version, O'Donnell corrected all of the relevant lines by repeating the first '3' in the place of the '2'.

The Library

The following differences can be observed on the level The Library.

Lighting seems unfinished.
Guilty Spark's flare is much bigger, obscuring him if you're not near him.
Guilty spark has some dialogue missing.
Guilty spark does not react to you shooting him.

Two Betrayals

The following differences can be observed on the level Two Betrayals.

No intro cutscene.
Big doors leading to the control room have glass in them.
On the canyon bridge within the first canyon containing the control room, there are a pair of Elite majors with needlers fending off wave after wave of Flood carrier forms.
The second and third pulse generator rooms have entirely different layouts to them. The second pulse generator room consists of two rooms with a dark corridor connecting them, while the third consists of two rooms with a short elevator ride connecting them.
A secret, unused pulse generator room using an identical layout to the 1749 version of the second pulse generator room is located directly across from it. This is present in the final game, although the door is locked: the door is unlocked in 1749.
The Sentinel encounter outside of the third pulse generator room is absent.

Keyes

The following differences can be observed on the level Keyes.

No intro cutscene.
Unfinished lighting below the ship.
AI Banshees near the grav lift swoop by in a sortie against Flood forces on the ground in what appears to be a scripted event. In the final game, this event seems to have been replaced with the unique crashed Banshee instead.

The Maw

The following differences can be observed on the level The Maw.

No intro cutscene.
Different skybox.
The cafeteria door on the right is initially locked, but is "busted open" by a hunter.

Gameplay

Weapons

Plasma Rifle does not have the final side hologram, instead there is a very small green hologram on the side.
Pistol has increased maximum reserve ammo.
Pistol has the sound for a clip being put into the gun missing.
Plasma weaponry effects seem to be a bit more basic.
Plasma grenade has a different explosion sound effect.
Weapons are picked up by pressing (X) instead of holding.
Needler has full firerate immediately instead of ramping up.
Needler has different sound.
Needles on needler disappear when reloading, and don't "Pop out", instead instantly appearing when done reloading.
Plasma pistol doesn't shake while holding a charged shot.
Shotgun has much higher reserve ammo capacity.
Shotgun has lower fire rate.
Some weapon elements disappear when invisible (Needler needles, Plasma pistol charge, Assault Rifle ammo counter).
The flamethrower can be found in the flood levels.
Flamethrower HUD and ammo display are different from the PC version.

AI and NPCs

Crewman uniforms are different.
Marines use betrayal dialogue when still friendly.
Sergeant Marine models are much rarer.
Armored marine variant without shoulder armor appears in some missions.
If a marine has lost health and is in the passenger seat of a vehicle, his health meter has hollow bars to indicate lost health instead of reducing the bars like in final.
Foehammer's pelican has 79 instead of 419.
Pelican thrusters point downwards a lot, even when it doesn't make sense to.
Elites don't talk in reverse, instead speaking normal english.
Hunters have Elite voices.
Elites use a lower poly model, and, like the marines, has a shoulderpad-less variant.
Elite minors' "bodysuit" is a lighter gray. Majors seem to retain the final, darker bodysuit.
Energy swords don't disappear when the elite holding it is killed.
Grunt voices seem to just be marine voices pitched up, and will even use traitor dialogue.
Jackals have grunt voices.
Sleeping grunts don't die in 1 melee attack unless whacked from the back.
Energy shields have a different plasma effect that doesn't seem to be animated, though it will still lighten the color when taking damage.
Covenant armor is shinier.
AI seems to be dumber, sometimes has trouble finding paths.
Enemies can (and will) follow you into different loading zones.
Flood emit a different sound.

Vehicles

Warthog engine pitch is lower.
Warthog wheels create sparks more often.
Banshee has different engine sound.
No banshee fuel rod cooldown dots.
Tank canopy is taller, closer to multiplayer counterpart.
Tank machine gun has assault rifle firing sound.
Tank explosion radius seems to be bigger.
Tank has an off-center "Ready" when ready to fire cannon instead of wait dots.
Shade turret emits different ambient sound, has orange light beneath it, and fires MUCH faster.
Shade turret has a nonfunctional heat meter.
Shade turret is only referred to as a "gun turret" in the "press to enter" text.
Wraith is drivable (If you flip it and force the driver out.)

Multiplayer

General multiplayer

You can still move, look around, and do everything except jump while paused.
There is a "Quick launch" option in the multiplayer menu.
Several multiplayer map previews show the placeholder locked level picture.
Split screen does not require a second controller.
Telefragging does not exist in this build. Sitting in the teleporter while another player is attempting to enter it will result in nothing happening.

Battle Creek

The following changes can be observed on the map Battle Creek.

Minor geometry differences and a few minor texture differences.
No red/blue forerunner glyphs.

Blood Gulch

The following changes can be observed on the map Blood Gulch.

Team base textures are different.
The hole in roof of the bases have a more trapezoidal shape.
Glowing symbols (The triangle looking things) don't seem to have transparency working right, instead having a black background.
Floor in base has a large team-colored circle where the flag is placed.
Some weapon spawns are glitched (Roof pistol spawns above the hole and falls where the plasma rifle is inside, for instance).

Boarding Action

The following changes can be observed on the map Boarding Action.

Different textures.
Floor number indicators are smaller and different.
A flat piece of geometry exists at the bottom of the map, allowing access to an easter egg: a shrine towards a Bungie employee's girlfriend. In the final game, this flat geometry is replaced by a slope, making the easter egg inaccessible by normal means.

Chill Out

The following changes can be observed on the map Chill Out.

Wall textures are gray instead of purple/pink, though the textures used for the bottoms of walls retain their final color.
There is a row of pistols in the room across from the teleporter room.

Chiron TL-34

The following changes can be observed on the map Chiron TL-34

This map is called "Put put" in the menu.
Minor lighting changes.
More health pack cubbies.
The number "1s" present in the final game's version of the map are missing.

Damnation

The following changes can be observed on the map Damnation.

Minor lighting differences.
No ambient or background sound.
The map's image and description insinuate that the map was originally set in the ruins of a settlement on the planet Reach.

Prisoner

The following changes can be observed on the map Prisoner.

Very minor texture changes.

Rat Race

The following changes can be observed on the map Rat Race.

Rat race's textures look significantly different. Layout remains mostly the same with minor differences in geometry.
Rat Race has a UNSC aesthetic as opposed to the Forerunner aesthetic the map goes with in the final game.

Sidewinder

The following changes can be observed on the map Sidewinder.

Preview picture seems to have incomplete textures, actual level looks close to final though.
3 shotguns on the top floor of the base instead of 1.
The rooms you teleport to has 3 needlers in the back.

Wizard

The following changes can be observed on the map Wizard.

Three pistols in a row on one of the platforms.
One plasma rifle and 2 needlers in a row on another platform.
More grenades in grenade locations.

Derelict

The following changes can be observed on the map Derelict.

The background/ambient sound is considerably louder.
All background/ambient sound fades out and stops completely when passing through the peripheral tunnels on the edges of the map.

Sources

^ Obscure Gamers, Halo: Combat Evolved Beta 1749 (Retrieved on Jun 1, 2020) [archive]

External links

[1] Obscure Gamers, Halo: Combat Evolved Beta 1749 (Retrieved on Jun 1, 2020) [archive]

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