Cut Halo: Reach vehicles
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
This article is part of a series on
Halo: Reach cut content
- Cut content
- Development
To check out cut content for other Halo games, see here!
During the production of Halo: Reach, several vehicles were concepted and implemented - though ultimately cut for various reasons.
Human vehicles[edit]
Armoured personnel carrier[edit]
One vehicle intended for inclusion in Reach was an armoured personnel carrier (APC), with various files and concepts alternately labelling it the "Wolverine" and "Kodiak". An early model of the APC was recovered by the Digsite project as an "APC Mobile Station" in the files for the cut map Farm, consisting of a very basic blockout with no textures, UVs, or weapons. The model recovered has a turret ring and cupola identically sized to support the M247T machine gun and M512 SBHV cannon from the Scorpion tank, and as such was restored to functionality by the Digsite team as a playable vehicle. Due to the extremely early nature of Farm - essentially built in the Halo 3 engine - the vehicle was restored to functionality in Halo 3. However, one intended part of the Reach design was the inclusion of lockdown bracings on the vehicle; functionality for this is retained in the Reach engine but not the Halo 3 engine, meaning that Digsite's restoration of the vehicle does not include this feature. The early design appears to have been based on real-world vehicles like the French AMX-10 RC and American mobile gun system, despite its in-game name referring to it as a personnel carrier.[1]
Later concept art by Isaac Hannaford showcases an evolution of the blockout model's rather simplistic design into a design more consistent with Halo's visual style, notably bearing an extremely heavy resemblance to the M577 APC from the film Aliens - one of many inspirations taken from the Alien franchise as a whole. In Hannaford's concepts, the vehicle gets renamed from Wolverine to Kodiak in the later illustrations' filenames, and is shown bearing a number of various artillery and cannon mount options.[2]
The Kodiak was prototyped in-engine in some form[3], with code referencing the Wolverine as a vehicle physics model remaining in the files of Reach.[Note 1] The vehicle operates in a similar manner to other human vehicles such as the Warthog and Mongoose, though has an additional deployed state. A model for the Kodiak was later recovered and restored for in-game use by the Digsite asset recovery project; the vehicle has a lockdown similar to the Kodiak SPG from Halo Wars 2, which is used to deploy the turret on the back. The model as-present only exists in a low-poly, untextured state.[4]
The release of Halo Wars in 2009 saw the introduction of the M9 Wolverine - an anti-air tank employed by the UNSC. It is likely that this spurred the change of the APC's name from Wolverine to Kodiak. The release of Halo Wars 2 in 2017 saw the introduction of the M400 Kodiak - a self-propelled artillery vehicle bearing little resemblance to the planned Reach vehicle. Halo Wars 2 also introduced two new APCs; the M650 Mastodon and M88 Bison, both heavily visually inspired by the Reach APC's concept design.
A blockout for the original Wolverine APC, as it was found on the early Farm map.
A screenshot of the Digsite restoration for the Farm APC, in Halo 3's engine.
A screenshot of the Digsite restoration for the Farm APC, in Halo 3's engine.
Early concept art of the APC, when it was still known as the Wolverine.
Later concept art of the Wolverine.
Concept art of the APC, re-named the Kodiak.
Finalised concept art of the Kodiak.
The raw model for the APC.
The APC restored to in-game functionality in Reach.
Drone[edit]
Referred to in game files for the Halo: Reach Alpha as a "drone", this vehicle utilises a similar flight model to the final game's Sabre fighter.[5] The fighter handles similarly and employs the same autocannons as the Sabre for its primary weapon.[6]
The visual appearance and name of the craft are seemingly inspired by the F-99 Wombat UCAV previously featured in Halo 3: ODST, though the use of a flight model and visual design similar to that of the Sabre indicate it may have been an early version of the Sabre.
