Cut Halo: Reach levels

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.

An early "map" of the planned campaign structure for Reach.

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
Cut armor

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Development

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

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To check out cut content for other Halo games, see here!

v • d • e

During the production of Halo: Reach, many levels were cut or otherwise massively re-worked.

Lehto's original plan

Early in the game's production, game director Marcus Lehto came up with an early draft for the game's campaign, which he later shared on Twitter.

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  Lehto's early ideas for the direction of the campaign.
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  Another series of notes by Lehto.
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  Early notes for the campaign's plan.
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  An early exploration for the planet Reach itself.

Mission 0 - Training

According to Lehto's notes, the campaign would have begun with a UNSC Marine recalling back to the events of the Fall of Reach, and hinted towards "some mysterious pivotal thing with which he was involved". This would have then moved into the first mission, which would have consisted of simple training with the player's squad, alongside "communications".

Mission 1 - Infantry battle

The first level of the campaign, in Lehto's notes, was to be an infantry battle, and seemingly close to the final game's first level Winter Contingency. Lehto's planning document has the following notes for this level's first part:

"Frantic opening battle
-seat of your pants terror
-lots of civilians in small coastal city
(more of an experience than combat)"

The notes of a horror-styled intro to build up the Covenant, and a more cinematic "experience"-based approach echo the early parts of Winter Contingency in which NOBLE Team investigate Visegrád, encounter civilians, and uncover the fate of 3 Charlie before engaging the Covenant properly. However, unlike the document, the final game's Visegrád is a mountainous region, rather than a coastal one. The documents then say the following on the level's second part, referencing the more combat-heavy focus of the latter half of Winter Contingency:

"regroup and plan and attack
-infantry + weapon training
-small town"

Mission 2 - Ground vehicle battle

Labelled in Lehto's plan outline as "Ground Vehicle Training", this mission would have served to introduce players to the use of vehicles. The document reads:

"-ground vehicle training
-wide open combat
-victory
-valley between mountains"

The broad concept of this mission seems to line up with both the second half of Winter Contingency, and the mission ONI: Sword Base. The use of a more "training"-styled vehicle in simple battles, alongside the mention of a "valley between mountains" echo Winter Contingency's Spade truck and overall level setting, while the "wide open combat" and "victory" notes seemingly echo more of Sword Base's vehicle setpieces.

Mission 3 - Boat level

Named in the Halo: Reach DLC test builds as 40_boat, this level was planned to employ the UNSC motorboat vehicle. The mission's name coincides with the final game map files numbering m35 (for Tip of the Spear) and m45 (for Long Night of Solace), with an apparent lack of an "m40" to fill the gap.

Outlined in Marcus Lehto's original game plans, this level was to involve the player attacking an "oil rig"-like structure in the ocean, with an approach similar to Navy SEAL operations. The level was to have the target of the attack consist of a large, moving structure - a challenge for the engine and lighting due to a lack of ability to use BSP level geometry. A rough prototype was created based on the concept of boat combat. According to Lee Wilson, the mission was to additionally have a mechanic which would see players able to "ride torpedoes" in the water combat.

Lehto's documentation notes on the level were noted as the following;

"4 - covert training -Seals type approach -boat attack -night -sink ship -off shore"

"3 - large moving platform. -ship at sea - sink it - have it slowly sink and pitch during mission. (challenge - lighting interiors of non-bsp geometry)!!!"

"Covert "Seals" boat attack
-night
-Sink Ship"

Footage of the boat's in-game prototype were later shown at PAX 2010, alongside some of the wave technology developed presumably for the prototype.

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  Footage of the boat being driven on the water, later showcased at PAX 2010. Note the presence of the Halo 3-era Master Chief character model - indicating this was still fairly early in development.
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