343 Industries is working with a team of modders to restore content that was removed from the original release of Halo Combat Evolved.
See also: Halo Infinite: No new story content is being released at this time
As spotted by PCGamesN, mod team Digsite has been working with 343 for the past year. “Of particular interest to us were the design/production documents, Bungie feedback notes, tags, compiled maps, and source data for previously unknown multiplayer maps,” the team said.
Some of the highlights of the restored content include multiplayer maps originally developed for the PC, which Gearbox Software worked on and released in 2003.
“Gearbox had made a bunch of brand new textures that weren’t being used at all,” says Digsite team member Ludus. “I felt like it would be a shame if those textures never got used, so I decided to mix Indoor into a brand new map that could make better use of those new bitmaps.”.
Proposal: 343 Industries says it will continue developing Halo
Perhaps most importantly, the lost Macworld demo from 1999 is being added to the Halo: The Master Chief collection. Before being released on Microsoft, Halo was once planned to be a third-person game exclusively for Mac.
"It took a lot of work to get it running on MCC. We've built it as a sandbox for you to play, explore, and reuse for your own mods," Digsite said.
Not only that, but content from Halo's first concept as an RTS is also restored, including vehicles and enemy types.
Even though many of these elements are simple and never made it to the point of being implemented in a working version of the game, it's still an important moment in preserving one of the fundamental pillars of modern gaming.
343 says there is more content to be revealed and that the Digsite team will continue to work on the franchise's archives.
Read also: Halo Infinite: Fans play split-screen co-op with a glitch
source of information: videogameschronicle.com
