Marcus Lehto, the Art Director at Bungie during the development of Halo: Combat Evolved, posted a video on Twitter that showcases four unused weapon prototypes from a 2000 PC build of the first Halo title. Indeed, Halo was still being developed as a third-person PC shooter during the time of the build, and the now-iconic Master Chief is almost unrecognizable.
Though the property went on to spawn a multi-billion-dollar franchise, Halo: Combat Evolved suffered from a tumultuous development cycle. Bungie initially began developing Halo in 1997 as a real-time strategy game for MacOS and Windows. Over the course of development, the game morphed into a third-person action shooter set in an open world. Bungie's lingering financial problems pressured the company into an acquisition deal with Microsoft, a deal that was announced in June of 2000. It was with this acquisition that Halo became a launch title for the original Xbox, which was scheduled to release in 2001. At this point, the game became an FPS, and overarching open-world elements were abandoned.
Despite Halo: Combat Evolved finally launching as a legendary FPS, some Bungie veterans retain builds of Halo from when the game was still a third-person PC title. One such veteran is Marcus Lehto, the Art Director for Halo: CE. On July 8, Lehto posted a video on Twitter showcasing four Covenant weapon prototypes that didn't make it into the final build of Halo: CE. These include the Concussion Gun, the Excavator, the Particle Beam Rifle, and the bizarre Microwave Gun. Lehto examines all four weapons in the video and uses them on an assortment of alien and UNSC models lined up in a secluded valley.
It's unclear exactly what the Microwave Gun does. Lehto seemingly activates the weapon, causing three prongs to spread open and glow a bright, yellowish orange, but the models don't appear to be affected by it. On the other hand, the Excavator makes a sound resembling that of a Sniper Rifle. Firing the weapon at a Grunt and an unknown creature that resembles a Hulk from Bungie's Marathon game, however, causes them to disappear amidst a violent explosion. The Particle Beam Rifle, fired for just a few seconds, resembles the peppering of a Plasma Rifle. Finally, the Concussion Gun mimics the sound of a Shotgun, but it has a cooldown meter that prevents rapid firing.
Seeing the early development stages of a game as iconic and important as Halo: Combat Evolved is truly fascinating. The DNA of what players would come to know as Halo is there, but much of it is different or otherwise out of place. It's also interesting to see what design prototypes were either cut or would make their way into future entries. Knowledgeable fans may recognize the Engineer model that would later be redesigned for Halo 3: ODST, for instance. Perhaps when Halo Infinite launches later this year, fans will find some repurposed assets inspired by concepts from Halo: Combat Evolved.
Source: Marcus Lehto/Twitter