This could have taken the form of cutscenes that segued more gracefully into the beginning events of Halo 3, or simply Easter Eggs hidden in the game that nodded toward the original, more satisfying conclusion.Īt any rate, O'Donnell has been revealing a lot of secrets about his time at Bungie since his departure, and fans should be excited to see if he as anything else to divulge.
Since Halo 2 was remastered for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, it could have been a nice bonus for 343 to include some references to this original ending. It would have been interesting to see how the story in the Halo franchise would have played out had Master Chief returned to Earth at the end of Halo 2. The hype for Halo 3 may have been less intense, considering that it sounds like the original ending for the title offered fans a lot more resolution than actual finale did, but it could have resulted in Halo 2 earning even more critical acclaim. "We just couldn't finish the plan, it was just impossible. So, everything got re-jiggered, and we had the cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers." O'Donnell claims that the voice actors even recorded lines for this original, conclusive ending, but ultimately time constraints meant that Bungie had to cut the ending short. Everyone that has played through the game should be familiar with its polarizing cliffhanger ending, which was one of the main complaints lobbied at its campaign back when Halo 2 originally released. As it turns out, the original ending for the game was a lot more extensive.Īs explained by O'Donnell, the original Halo 2 ending saw Master Chief returning to Earth, finding the Ark of the Covenant, teaming up with the Arbiter, and then working with him to defeat the Prophet of Truth. Those that have yet to finish Halo 2 for whatever reason should be cautious of spoilers before reading on. The latest secret revealed by O'Donnell has to do with Halo 2, as we now know that the classic FPS originally didn't have its often-criticized cliffhanger ending. Not only has O'Donnell started a new studio that is currently working on the PlayStation VR game Golem, but he has also been spilling the beans on some of Bungie's most well-kept secrets. Still, it’s a really fascinating history of game development that makes it clear.Former Bungie composer Marty O’Donnell reveals that the infamous cliffhanger at the end of Halo 2 was not the way the game was originally meant to conclude.Įver since longtime Bungie composer Marty O'Donnell was fired from his position at Bungie, he has been keeping himself busy. It’s hard to tell if this art represents a draft of the Halo 2 story, as there is no date associated with it being created in-house. Please note that what you see on Wilson’s storyboard here may not be complete at all. The game still looks like he was hiding his face, but there were plans to show off his chief in gear other than his iconic Spartan outfit. Most surprisingly, however, part of this conclusion is that at some point the Master Chief featured an unarmored section. Meanwhile, the Master Chief returns to Earth with this conclusion (similar to a follow-up entry) and helps to defeat the Ark.
This was still happening in the series, but it didn’t happen until Halo 3. In some sections of Halo 2’s original story, we saw an arbiter confront and kill a true prophet. There are no characters with lines in these pieces, but you can mostly see how this draft resembles (and differs from) the final story of the game.Įspecially regarding the ending, it seems that there was a lot of content left on the floor of the cutting room. It’s primarily a storyboard-style format that looks like an entire game story. Overall, Wilson has uploaded a lot of art. This will give you a better understanding of what the studio was planning in the original final chapter of the game. Almost 20 years later, what seems to be the ending of the originally planned game has begun to surface.įormer Bungie artist Lee Wilson recently started uploading some older artwork from Halo 2.
This is partly because developer Bungie couldn’t see the original vision for the conclusions of the story due to tighter development schedules. Halo 2 is probably one of the most iconic endings in the history of video games.