Halo Reach is Bungies fifth and final game in the Halo series. It is a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, it takes place during the final days of the human colony Reach before the Covenant glass the planet. The game follows the story of Noble Team, a 6 Spartan squad who try desperately and fail to save their planet. Due to the games mature subject matter it is said to be Bungies darkest game yet.
At Bungies 2010 PAX Presentation they went over the games development all the way from chicken scratch on a piece of looseleaf paper to the finished product we have today. In these following comparison screens you can see just how much a map can change over the course of 3 years. The 1st screen is the map in its early development stage, and the 2nd screen is the map as we know it today.
Early Development
Final
Early Development
Final
Early Development
Final
PAX 2010: Bungie Halo: Reach Panel
The Development of Noble Team
At the beginning of Halo Reaches development there were originally going to be 8 Spartans in Noble Team.
The original Noble 8
This was then cut down into a 7 member Noble Team.
Noble 7
Spartans Rosinda, and Thom didn’t make the final cut. Thom is still in the games story though in the form of he died and the player character is replacing him.
Character Changes
Hadlermaster from bungie.net forums was kind enough to create comparison shots of the different characters in the game showing their early video looks compared to the Live Action and Final Game models.
This one’s especially interesting because Jun’s completely different looking, and Emiles face is never shown in the final game
Bungie PAX Part 2
Cut Gameplay Prototypes
Videos
DLC Betas:
Following are pictures of an Anchor 9 DLC map beta with their released counterparts. Amongst just the map model there is also additional items on the map that were later removed such as a Moah Vehicle you can ride which was fully removed from the game.
