Bungie’s ORIGINAL HALO 2 CAMPAIGN has BEEN RESTORED!

Halo 2 is the greatest video game ever created but its development was far from great in fact to put it lightly his development was absolutely horrific after the game's first debut at E3 2003 Bungie returned to the studio with the painful realization that the game just didn't work and so they had to scrap almost the entire thing and start from scratch with just over a year left until release what we got in the end was ultimately a masterpiece but because of its rough development Halo 2 has an astounding amount of content that was cut never to see the light of day until now the original version of Halo 2's campaign has now been restored complete with almost every cut feature weapon vehicle enemy encounter and so much more still left in the files this absolutely iconic creation comes courtesy of the Legend vengeful vam who's just released his mod Halo 2 un Kurt and today I want to go through this mod and highlight some of my absolute favorite elements of Halo 2's original campaign so let's dive into the Ultimate Universe where Halo 2's development wasn't done on lass humans fighting alongside Els what's next FR hierarch IC today I would not be surprised starting out on chyo station one of the first things that you're going to notice is the hood it's different now Halo 2 always had a slightly weird looking Hood in that the shields were for some reason above the motion tracker I mean I personally never disliked this but originally Bungie intended for the hood layout to be a lot more in line with what we saw in Combat Evolved and that's what the Dam's done with the mod the shields are now in the top right the grenade indicator is in the top left next to your weapon and duer weapons now stay side by side speaking of weapons chyo station gives us our first first look at two never-before seen weapons that were cut from Halo 2 firstly the original BR this thing is basically a DMR in BR form it's semi-auto at all times so unzoomed and zoomed in with no ammo indicator now having this thing in place of the BR is definitely like a cool insight into what could have been but to be honest with you I'm really happy that we got the BR that we ended up getting that was three shot burst you guys know by now that I'm not really that much of a DMR fan I'm a huge BR guy over DMR guy and so this version of the BR albeit cool doesn't really scratch that BR itch what does scratch the itch though are these new melee animations now Halo 2 is actually going to have this really cool and in hindsight extremely intuitive melee animation system where if you melee the weapon fast enough instead of the animation just fully resetting and playing again it had instead chain the animations together in a really fluid and natural looking style and the madman vam has resurrected that system as far as I can tell it's only on the BR but you know it's really cool seeing the animations chained together like they do they honestly look so fluid and so natural you know thinking about it I can't even think about an FPS game even a modern FPS game nowadays that has an animation Style with meleeing that's this intuitive and fluid or even similar to this I think this is just another example of Bungie making something that's advertently like decades ahead of the curve and you know on the topic of animations let's talk about reload animations as well because they have been massively improved now when you run a MAG dry and do a full reload Chief actually pulls the charging handle back or hits the bolt catch to slide the bolt forward and chamber a new round as you would with an actual gun you know it's a small detail but for people out there like myself that like firearm stuff this is like a real nice little touch that it's a shame never made it into the final release anyways the second second resurrected weapon is hands down one of the coolest things I think I've ever seen in Halo the plasma cannon now this is Halo 2's version of the plasma turret heavy weapon that we finally got to use in Halo 3 and you know what I'm not going to lie I think I prefer Halo 2's cut version reach's plasma repeater kind of sort of tried to fill this firstperson heavy plasma rifle role but I really don't like that weapon I think it felt completely flat this on the other hand does not all flat seriously the plasma cannon absolutely Nails the role of a heavy plasma rifle it feels innately like a real heavy plasma cannon with massive bults much faster fire rate and venting that's powerful enough to prevent it from ever overheating I cannot tell you how satisfying it feels to mow down a hord of grunts or drones or even flood with this thing it also just happens to look badass as well cherry on top and you know speaking of the grunts a little thing that I noticed it may just be me head casing so let me know if I in the comments but a little thing I noticed is that the grunts seem to have more green lights on them now and you know I kind of like it it's only a small thing and those lights are there in vanilla Halo 2 I just don't think as many of them are turned on on the grins methane pack but having them all turned on just kind of makes the grin stand out a little bit more on the battlefield so if all of this is tickling your fantasy and you're looking for a damn fine PC to play it on well look no further than my own flood themed line of PC p is made in partnership with Apex gaming PCs choose from either the pure form the grave mind or the super powerful primordial build and make sure to use code hidden at checkout for up to 250 bucks off your order outskirts starts with a bang instead of Marines you're now accompanied by ODSTs similar to Second Squad in the other Pelican that you go down to the city with and when you crash not only do the ODSTs fight with you through the streets so tooo do the pilots with their very Marathon esque flight helmets but you don't move through the streets with a bang rather you move through the streets with a whisper thanks to the new and functioning suppressed SMG this thing actually works you can stealth your way into the courtyard without the Covenant realizing you're there it actually works you'll see more of this later but stealth was very clearly something that Bungie wanted to be more prominent in Halo 2 but didn't have the time or resources or whatever to make it happen no longer something else that Bungie really wanted to make happen in Halo 2 that Unfortunately they didn't end up getting round to until reach was the Falcon and it's here yes this is the Halo 2 Falcon and I got to say it is so cool having this thing swoop in and Aid you and clearing out the courtyard and then Evac only the pilots and replace them with Marine reinforcements and you know the Falcon aside as cool as this thing is this this is part of a series of changes that were absent from launch Halo 2 that vam has brought back in this mod that make the world and the the gaml and your progression through the levels in this game feel more believable and More in line with the story the whole game's story just feels more fluid and more fitting with the gameplay and the levels that you're going through because of these changes and there are a ton more of them that don't worry we're going to cover as we go through the game on a different but equally as refreshing topic Hal Halo 2's Needler is no longer useless I swear to God the only reason we got the Halo 2 Needler that we ended up getting was because Bungie just didn't have enough time to give it some love but don't worry theam has given it that love and now this thing is actually useful joing needless now man you feel like Terminator and you know if that doesn't make you want to download this mod and also go and subscribe to Bam's Channel then man I don't know what we'll do links are in the description go and do it now now when I got to metrop and I started rolling over the bridge in the Scorpion I noticed something pretty damn cool right away Halo 2's Phantoms are now destructible granted they don't quite have the Flash and the quality of Halo 3's Phantom explosions I mean hell not a single Halo game sim as Halo 3 has even matched Halo 3's Phantom explosions but it's really cool to know that Bungie planned this now incredibly iconic feature quite a while in advance and it's pretty cool playing through Halo 2 with the ability to at least try and detonate a phantom now something that I didn't know Bungie had planned I've never seen this anywhere before but if it's in this mod then I trust it it was part of Bungie's original vision for Halo 2 is um what I saw roll out of the tunnel when I got to the other side of the bridge they roll drones driving cars you know there was something about watching this and seeing the drones being sat on the roof of the car that had me absolutely h owling genuinely hilarious into the tunnel we see more of Bungie's scrapped plans for stealth and this one is really cool because it's so contextual the covenant's invasion of the city is caused flooding and you can Crouch beneath the surface of the water in the partially submerged section of the tunnel to sneak around the Covenant and again it actually works don't get me wrong active camouflage is really cool but I love contextual stealth like this it's something that I really hope gets resurrected in the next campaign toward the end of metropolis we meet the yin to the plasma cannons Yang yet another heavy weapon that was cut from Halo 2 the gpmg again this thing is really really really cool I love the sound it kind of just reminds me of an even faster firing M60 but I got to say my heart is with the plasma cannon that thing is just too cool speaking of cool you know what would be even cooler is if you subscribe right now go on I know you want to so Arbiter starts out with something that is right at my alley the cut gas creatures that were meant to fly around the gas mine have been restored and you know having now fully played marathon and fully digested Marathon I only now realize that these gas creatures are the same things that float around in the Electric Sheep levels of marathon Infinity Halo is at its absolute Peak when it's referencing or linking back to Marathon and you cannot convince me of otherwise as you enter the gas mine another section that was clearly meant to be stealth originally is actually a stealth section again you can sneak through the initial encounter if you take out the elites and grins without alerting anybody and you know it really makes having camo as the Arbiter here feel like more than just a get out of jail free card when you're injured it feels like an actual fleshed out mechanic I love it Sentinels are also present from the get-go here as well which you know it just makes sense considering where you are but when you pick up a car carbine to take down the Sentinels you'll notice that something pretty major is different the carbine has been reverted back to its beta state which is what the BR ended up being in another of Halo 2's many many early iterations so Bungie's original idea with a carbine was for it to be a three- shot burst gun unscoped and then a semi-auto rifle when scoped in which is of course a mechanic that we later saw in Halo 4's light rifle and I got to say I really like this thing hearing the Halo 2 carbine sound fired in three shot bursts chills down the spine but it's when we reach the flood lab of the Oracle that the fun really begins through the fog beneath the glass floor you can see the peace thear resistance of cut Halo 2 content mauling its way through Heretics the flood Juggernaut but more on him in a second I was really pleasantly surprised to see that the infection forms have had a bunch of what I think are cut animations restored as well they aren't as static anymore when they jump at you you can see each individual leg and tentacle moving independently which is really really creepy gives me extreme face hooker Vibes and it just adds to the already existing creepy Vibe of this level something else that the Dam's fixed from the release version of Halo 2 is that now artas half jaw actually follows you through the level he doesn't just dip out after the first room he even follows you around with restored cut dialogue as well which you know is even better but what's coolest here is absolutely the flood Juggernaut fight which the elites announce and talk throughout it comes prepare yourself arer off our every assault it must have a weak spot the Juggernaut acts as a mini boss battle in kind of the same way as Halo 3's chiefed in this de just on steroids the jugut weak spot is its eye which periodically opens and if you get close to this thing those tentacles do some serious damage it also just looks so imposing stomping around the room towering above all the other flood forms it is such a shame this thing was cut but thank God it's back here's to it hopefully fingers crossed being resurrected in the next Halo campaign my fingers about to break I'm crossing so hard jumping back over to Chief story Delta Halo is mostly the same aside from one slightly altered encounter which I absolutely loved so when you get to that really comfy waterfall area a phantom comes in above the Treetops that Cortana tells you to hide from Phantom stay out of sight you know hiding from Patrols in a jungle like this gave me real mgs3 Vibes real Vietnam Vibes I love this this is just another one of the many stealth sections that Bungie clearly had to cut from Halo 2 that would have made this this already 10 out of 10 experience somehow even better not to crush my fingers again cuz I think they are about to break but here's to some metal gear styled stealth in the next Halo campaign please when you descend under the lake in regret there's some pretty cool cut dialogue from both Cortana and Brace herself chips Duo that's finally made its way into the game now I'm not going to butcher this audio myself just take a listen block our access to Sacred sites damage holy relics and people say transgressions the humans shall be hunted until none remain alive oh man he is so dead man how can you hear that and think that chips Doo doesn't deserve to be in every single Halo game I don't want to cross my fingers again you're about to snap but please now the ending of regrets fight has been spruced up a little bit it's only a small detail but once you've killed regret the Covenant don't just stand still and the level doesn't just randomly end instead instead hordes of Covenant reinforcements hurriedly come flooding through the doors as you try and leave the temple it's as if regret had ordered some kind of distress signal for reinforcements when he saw Chief enter the room and they're only just arriving a few minutes too late it's another one of those small changes that just makes the world feel more kind of cohesive and believable and in line with the overarching story like the Covenant were desperately trying to save regret but they were a few seconds too late really great addition over in the Sentinel wall on a sec icon which was I I think one of Halo 2's more underrated levels there's a small addition early on that always seemed like it was missing from the official game well I guess now we know that it was missing from the game Allied [Music] brutes normally here you just link up with a jackal and maybe a few grins but now you've got a brute on your side as well which as far as I'm aware is actually the only time in the entire Halo franchise that you had an Allied brute which is pretty cool Halo history right here and you also get a ton more Allied Covenant as well you definitely get more allies here because I I built up what felt like a mini militia in this initial section now granted the flood did annihilate this little militia when we made it over the gondola ride but it was still really cool having that little ragtag group of Survivors by my side from the previous failed attempts to break through the wall in original Halo 2 you just see dead bodies everywhere which is really cool set dressing but it's cool having some of the survivors of of those dead body EXT verions fight alongside you but don't worry they didn't die in vain this next Resurrection requires a little bit of context so in original Hilo 2 there's a one-of-a-kind Sentinel that only spawns on quarantine Zone nowhere else and for some reason this Sentinel fires needles as if it's just holding a Needler now this thing is left over from a cut variant of the Sentinel that was going to do something similar and lo and behold bam has restored this cut Sentinel in all of its Glory the needless s senel has returned and what's even cooler is that you can now use its weapon which is a really unique version of The Sentinel beam that fires those red needles that the enforcer fires and I got to say this weapon is so so fun to use it sounds great it looks great it's satisfying I kept this thing on me at all times and then the final cherry on the top of this wildly underrated level is that the dam has restored the second cut Juggernaut encounter which again comes with some really cool cut dialogue from altas and the elites leader an Unholy Beast speaking of cut dialogue forward Warriors and fear not pain or death for those who fell before us go of it I'll follow when our reinforcements arrive chills chills the further that you move through quarantine Zone you start to realize that the needless Sentinel beam isn't the only cut Sentinel weapon that's been restored oh there's more there's the Sentinel charge shot which is basically a sentinel rail gun and the Sentinel grenade launcher which is a handheld version of that grenade barrage that the enforcer does now these spins on the Sentinel beam are so so good and they basically create Like A Min category of Sentinal weapons to go alongside the UNC and Covenant weapons using them against the flood in particular just feels so right that charge shot is absolutely perfect for taking down jugernaut another really nice Edition is the humans that show up before you reach the Gonda you know you often get so focused on just blowing stuff up in quarantine Zone that you forget that this entire level is essentially a race with the humans to reach the index first and now the Marines are actually present as an enemy that element of the story feels so much more present in the gameplay and level progression also call me a traitor but killing humans as the Arbiter does feel kind of cool as well but not as cool as this new weapon if you could even call call it a weapon you can now pick up a jackal Shield like a riot shield and dual wield it with a singlehanded weapon which feels so so badass I knew that Bungie had plans for this in Halo 2 and so finally getting to use it is so cool I mean I'm honestly mindblown that we've never had this in any official capacity since jumping to the level which can only be described as hell on legendary grave mind the level is mostly the same en counterwise but there are a few new smaller editions that are really cool notably the spike grenades I knew Bungie worked on these for Halo 2 and I knew they were planned but I never actually knew what their plan was going to be for them until now so they basically act as a middle ground between a frag and a plasma they have the explosion and the fuse time of a frag but stick to targets like a plasma grenade they aren't quite as unique as Halo 3 Spike grenades that launch a barrage of spikes around that Ricochet around a room but they still feel mostly different enough to have a place in the sandbox so it's kind of a shame they were cut what wasn't cut but is radically different to vanilla however is the brute shot now I absolutely adore the regular Halo 2 and Halo 3 brute shot it didn't feel Covenant but at the same time it didn't feel human it felt innately brute whereas this early version of The Brute shot feels a lot more like a covenant weapon so instead of firing the kind of bouncing he shells it fires a burst of what appears to be explosive plasma that kind of acts like an impact plasma grenade it's an interesting insight into an early version of such an iconic weapon but to be honest I'm happy we got the version that we got in the end towards the end of the level when the en Amber clad arrives there's a really really cool little cinematic section that's kind of present in the vanilla game but you can tell that the one in the launch version of Halo 2 was kind of rushed out and not finished properly just take a look Chief there were no humans on board it was filled with flood whatever that flood creature was it had damn good AIM now not to be overly dramatic or look too much into something but I feel like that extra cut dialogue from Cortana there perfectly encapsulates Halo 2's more serious and kind of emotional tone along with it also sprinkling of Comedy she sounds horrified when she detects that the entire ship has been infected by the flood but a delivery when she says that the grave mind has great aim to you know jump the ship inside High charity is pretty funny absolutely fantastic voice acting as per usual from Gena and it's a real shame that lines like that were cut because they're delivered so well now Uprising is already the goat Halo 2 level right but the dams fit something here that bunge must have broken in the final version of the game that I swear to God has bugged me since November 15th 204 20 years now the dying Elite is finally fixed brots have betrayed us the [Music] counselors as a kid it used to trip me out so much that this Elite was just a dead body but was talking right I never knew if there was meant to be some other Elite somewhere or if there was another Elite somewhere that I just couldn't find that was saying that line or if the line was meant to be coming out of that dead body or something but having this little cinematic section fixed finally lays that question to rest in a rather sad way the elites insert more realistically via a phantom now rather than drop pods from a non-existent carrier ship and similar to earlier on you have so many more allies here which again I think really fits with the story I feel like I'm really forming an elite militia here to strike back against the brutes and get bloody revenge on them for their betrayal the overall push through the caves in The Ravines feels full of so to speak and a lot more contextually fitting when you've got more Elites by your side Mercy even for you are there any more in The Ravines in particular it really feels like you're building up a gorilla force and not just fighting with like two or three Elite by your sides a very impactful change and when you step outside for the first time you're greeted by a really really cool new edition let's not make ourselves a target for those scarrows we'll seeed through the rine man I love that extra Elite dialogue as well having two scarabs guard in the control room makes so much more narrative and contextual sense than just having one Scarab chilling and manned like a mile away these scarabs look so cool in the final cut scene as well but trust me the coolness hasn't even come close to Peak yet but more on those in a minute back to high charity we reach the level well High charity who would have guessed it and right from the start there's a really really cool bit of cut quana dialogue that's been restored that they going to say right up my alley scores have contaminated the city's life support infrastructure the filtration systems are overloading the infection of high charity is an event that we know offensively little about and this little extra flavor dialogue as obvious as it is just adds so much the entirety of high Charity's life support system was filled with spores and also its air filtration systems were overloading as a result the flood literally corrupted the life support systems what a terrifying thought but that's not all the restored cut cotana dialogue some more plays later on that touches on The Wider outbreak aboard High charity the amount of flood biomass is increasing exponentially there are reports of infestations in every District if the speed of the flood spread in this Tower is any indication it won't take long for it to overrun the entire city and then towards the end we get even more that gives us an insight into how each member of the Covenant is responding to the great schism the jackles and drones have declared themselves the Servants of the F the hunters have sworn allegiance to the elite the GRS seem to be neutral or at least afraid to announce which side they support except for True the prophets aren't saying a word now of course we already knew all of that but it's so cool actually hearing about different allegiances being struck in the background in game it adds even more flavor to the story and more context to what's going on around you you know out of all of the cut dialogue I think this is the one that I'm most sorry that Bungie had to cut but probably the biggest piece of restored content in this entire mod comes in at the end of high charity no longer does chief just saw through the Big Green beam of energy to get to the key ship no no no Halo 2's infamously cut warthog run is back complete with new cut music as well Halo 2's very own warthog theme and my my God does this theme slap now granted this warthog run definitely isn't as strong as Halo 1es or Halo 3s but the setting is very cool and very unique and sets it apart from the other team and with this warhog run we've now technically had a warhog run in all three major faction is architecture UNC Covenant and foreigners completely irrelevant detail but I just noticed it when I was going through this game so I figured I'd mention it you can definitely tell though that Bungie used this warthog run as something of a precursor to the ideas that they finally brought to life in Halo 3's warhog run there are loads of parts of it that do feel really similar in some areas to Halo 3s but at the same time this run does feel unique it doesn't feel like Halo 3 is .5 if you get what I mean honestly play this mod just for the warhog Run trust me on that as soon as you hear that theme come in that you've probably not heard before like I genuinely haven't heard it before man genuine chills I'm not even kidding and that brings us to our faithful end at great journey and again opening right away with the two scarabs in the background of RV and half your talking is so cool this shot is so imposing but the biggest change to great journey is the Scarab section no longer do you get an a Banshee fly through the Ravine in 30 seconds and then just hover for 15 minutes whilst Johnson very slowly and carefully meanders his way through the canyon no no no no no now you get to ride the Scarab halfway at least with not just Elite but also Marine allies as well humans fighting alongside Elites what's next gr highs for all I have seen today I would not be surprised this is so cool it's the only time in Halo 2 where we actually get Marines and Elites fighting side by side again a little precursor to Halo 3 I armed them all up with fural cannons and just let them go crazy and just watching Elites and Marines stand side by side and fight on the side of a Scarab was so Co cool but that's only half of it when you get halfway through the Scarab run you then pick up a bomb that's in the pilot Bay of the Scarab you hop in a banshee and then you go and board one of the other two scarabs to arm the bomb and leave man you you can really see where Bungie got their ideas for Halo 3 Scarab encounters with this section this really does feel like a precursor to those vibes then with one of the scarabs destroyed you get to watch Johnson annihilate the other Scarab with his own seeing them both partially destroyed in the ocean before the control room looks so damn good and then one of the changes that we get in the control room encounter is that a phantom actually follows you to the door and drops off Elite allies to raid the control room with you which again is just a great addition to the game play that helps it fit in quite a bit more of the narrative and it helps make the game play and again the level progression feel more consistent with how pushed for time the Allies are to stop tarar us here I got to say I I think my favorite thing that this mod kind of resurrects is reducing the gap between the game play and the narrative the two feel a lot closer now whereas before the game play felt a bit more like a conduit to get you to the next part of the narrative not to say that there wasn't narrative in the levels but there were bits that didn't make as much sense as they do in this version of Halo's campaign but unfortunately the rest of great journey is basically the same as release sadly we uh we still have to watch Tartarus absolutely Slaughter to the elites with the fist of rugs man that's never not heartbreaking I've played this level like a thousand times and it's still sad still is and so those are my favorite elements of Halo 2 and cut Bungie's original version of Halo 2's campaign let me know your favorite thoughts and changes and additions and resurrected bits of content Down Below in the comments and also do not forget to go and sub to venge foram he does some amazing content on not just Halo mods but also loads of cut halo content as well and old builds of Halo games that are super interesting to dive into and also go and download and C as well the link to both are in the description the Steam Workshop page for en curtain also V Dam's Channel trust me go and download the mod go and sub to vam you will not regret it my friends you will not regret it and with that said let's ram this video out here shall we I want to give a massive thank you to all of my amazing patrons for the continued support over there as usual thank you all so much for watching I really appreciate it I'll catch you all in the next one

Channel: HiddenXperia

Views: 387,100

Keywords: halo, halo infinite, halo lore, halo lore explained, halo flood, halo flood lore, halo flood explained, halo flood spartans, halo floor armor, halo infinite flood armor, hiddenxperia, 343 industries, bungie, xbox, xbox developer direct, gaming, gameplay, trailer, halo 2 uncut, halo 2 campaign, history of the halo universe, halo timeline explained, halo infinite new campaign, halo infinite flood campaign, halo cut content, halo theory, halo story explained, new halo game

Id: _lFZ2go5g1M

Length: 30min 31sec (1831 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 18 2024