>>718035215
>>718036234
Halo 2 had the most cut content of any game in the franchise.

>wall leaning, and there was also talk of ai using flashlights to find you in the dark after you shot out lights, that lighting system was later of course redone
>There was going to be a whole level after Quarantine Zone where you're driving through the labyrinth of tunnels under the ring in a "Forerunner Tank", avoiding the Gravemind's tentacles as they flew past like freight trains.
>In the original script when miranda was in a phantom she spoke with truth. Their plan was to send chief into the pit where the gravemind was and blow him and the flood up
>Strapping a bomb to Chief's back in the chamber directly below the index chamber in the center of the Library
>Flood leader effectively disabling the Ring by living on the trigger. Definitely showing that the flood is winning the 1000 year war with the sentinels on this halo opposed to installation 04's containment.
>the flood invasion of earth being the a layer of the final "act" of the script. Something about "we wanted everyone to end up in the same place at the end". Ultimately, Chief, Arbiter, Truth, Cortana, Gravemind, and Mendicant were all supposed to come together, at the Ark on Earth, and there were a couple twists involved, but that's where it's shrouded in mystery

By far the weirdest thing about Halo 2’s development is how Bungie grossly overestimated the power of the original Xbox and how they wasted a lot of time and resources on various things they knew well in advance simply would not make it into the retail game like the e3 demo and a new engine the hardware wouldn’t be able to support. They also wanted it to be a tactical shooter early on before changing it back towards the end and it really shows in how the enemies behave and how the game is horribly unbalanced on Legendary

Halo 2 had a lot of kino in it's core despite the flaws, sometimes in part because of the flaws
It was a pure passion project