What you need to know
- Halo Infinite fans have discovered and leaked several pieces of cut campaign content.
- The leaks include a few different forms of wildlife as well as several types of Prometheans.
- Zeta Halo’s wildlife was prominently featured in Halo Infinite’s E3 2018 announcement trailer, while the Prometheans were in both Halo 4 and 5.
While the Halo Infinite campaign is widely considered to be great by fans and critics alike, something many fans have wondered about since its release is the absence of wildlife on Zeta Halo, as well as the Forerunner Promethean soldiers that were under Cortana’s control in Halo 5: Guardians. Since the former were prominently featured in Halo Infinite’s E3 2018 trailer and the latter were encountered frequently in the last few mainline Halo titles, players expected both to make appearances in the game.
We may never know why the developers chose to omit Zeta Halo’s fauna and the Prometheans from Halo Infinite, but thanks to the team behind the @leaks_infinite account on Twitter, we do know that there were plans to add them at some point. Recently, the account shared a series of videos that show several cut enemies — including a pair of creatures and three Promethean units.
First, there’s the Crusher, which is a massive and aggressive bipedal beast with a thick hide, Banished-style armor plating, and two large and broad horns on its head. It seems like it was going to be a creature that the Banished had managed to tame and then unleash on Master Chief and his allies, though the unarmored version suggests there would have been wild Crushers that may have been hostile towards you and the Banished. A very early version of the rhinoceros-like animal that we saw from the E3 2018 trailer was also discovered, complete with some relatively docile AI behavior. Both the Crusher and the rhino have some animations and sound effects, though the rhino lacks proper animations for walking and death.
Fighting the Crusher in Halo Infinite!This thing has quite a bit of health, a bit to much imo. Takes 12 Rockets in total just to kill it. #Halo #HaloInfinite We’ll be posting more. pic.twitter.com/HC4tIdg1FxAugust 26, 2022
The Prometheans, on the other hand, have complete models, animation sets, and visual effects, though they completely lack textures and don’t have many sound effects. Three types of them were found: Soldiers, the medium-armored mainline units of the faction; Watchers, nimble and airborne support units; and Knights, tanky warriors with powerful melee weapons and weak points that players would need to shoot in order to break down their armor. Notably, nine different versions of the Soldier were discovered, with some of them sporting extra protection and heavy weaponry like detached turrets. There are two different Watchers in Halo Infinite’s files as well, though they both look identical.
Ultimately, it’s interesting to think about how these creatures and Prometheans would have changed the Halo Infinite campaign experience. With large creatures potentially hostile to multiple factions and remnants of Cortana’s Promethean army running about, Zeta Halo may have been a more dynamic open world. Perhaps the developers simply didn’t have the time or resources needed to integrate them into the campaign in a meaningful way, though, or felt that they made the gameplay too chaotic. Regardless, I would love to see 343 Industries revisit the idea of adding wildlife and additional factions to Halo Infinite’s PvE. Maybe we’ll see things like the Crusher come to life in future expansions.
Halo Infinite is available now on Xbox and PC. Despite some of its issues, it’s one of the best Xbox shooters on the market right now for fans of arena-style FPS combat, and since the multiplayer is free-to-play, there’s zero barrier to entry. The campaign is fantastic, too, as it features exhilarating gameplay and an excellent story.
