Halo: Chronicles: Difference between revisions

While ''Chronicles'' was in development, a select team of [[Bungie]] employees - namely [[Joseph Staten]] and design director Mike Woo - was working in New Zealand with Jackson. Gameplay designer [[Paul Bertone]] was involved as well for some time around the time of ''[[Halo 3]]''{{'}}s release.{{Ref/Reuse|vice}} When ''Chronicles'' was later cancelled, the team returned to Bungie to work on ''[[Halo 3: ODST]]'' instead.{{Ref/Site|URL=http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/09/how-and-why-halo-3-odst-was-made-in-14-months/|Site=Kotaku|Page=How And Why Halo 3: ODST Was Made In 14 Months|D=12|M=09|Y=2009}} Staten in particular had a key role in coming up with ''Chronicles''{{'}}s story, as well as advising the WingNut writing team.{{Ref/Reuse|vice}}

The player would be able to switch into a different combat mode in which the only way to deal damage was through a powerful melee attack. Two weapons were available: one that would push enemies away, while the other would stun them in place. Other features included a double jump and an auto-aimed long-distance dash that could be initiated from mid-air. Many basic gameplay features were prototyped, notably a lowered camera and jump height, a slowed-down movement, and no recharging shields. These features were tested in modified versions of the first five missions of ''[[Halo 3]]''. The team found that they could downgrade surprisingly many of the player's base traits, although fewer alterations were made to weapons. Since the player would have been weaker, modifications were made to enemy behavior to retain gameplay balance. Paul Bertone and engineer [[Damian Isla]] worked on an enemy AI system called "kung-fu", in which only a couple of enemies would attack the player at a time even if more enemies were present; the others would either be hiding or in cover, only revealing themselves sporadically. Eventually, when the player was fully Promethean, they would be flying in low orbit and fighting [[Covenant cruiser]]s with the ability to turn into a missile and target specific parts of the ships. Gameplay prototyping for ''Chronicles'' was relatively far along, although because the story remained unfinished, the gameplay team could not start actually designing the campaign missions.{{Ref/Reuse|vice}}

Ultimately, enthusiasm for the ''Chronicles'' project dropped as the Peter Jackson [[Halo film|''Halo'' film]] deal was cancelled; additionally, Bungie was beginning to have creative differences with the WingNut team.{{Ref/Reuse|vice}} After its cancellation, many of the gameplay features prototyped for ''Chronicles'' made it into ''[[Halo 3: ODST]]''. Meanwhile, the concept of the Prometheans was later reintroduced into the ''Halo'' canon via [[The Forerunner Saga]] and ''[[Halo 4]]''. Some story concepts developed for ''Chronicles'' resurfaced in the Neill Blomkamp film ''[[Wikipedia:District 9|District 9]]'', in which the human main character slowly transforms into an alien in a rather similar fashion as in the planned story of ''Chronicles''. Additionally, the film allegedly re-used many of the props originally created for the ''Halo'' film project. According to Bertone, Staten "had trouble" seeing the film because of its overt parallels to his story ideas.{{Ref/Reuse|vice}}

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File:Hcr CorporateStarships Concept.jpg|Two concepted starships.