What the hell was H2's campaign ending?

[Johnathon Fortnite]

Never finished 1/2 before so decided to do a full franchise playthrough excluding goofy 4.

Was that meant to be the ending? I feel like I missed the final mission somehow. I get its a cliffhanger but that felt so bad 😭 The final mission IS the great journey right? Where was the cool epic finale?

It just ended so abruptly. I've never felt so dissatisfied

[angstlicht]

Halo 2 was just so hard not even the developers could finish it

[StormDragonZero]

From what I understand, they had way too many ideas they wanted to do and implement and had a major lack of focus with finishing the actual game before adding extra weapons and other stuff. They basically burnt themselves out and had terrible management. They were even working on TWO spin-off things while working on Halo 2.

The plan was for two extra missions after Great Journey. Master Chief would board Truth's ship, explore it a little, then battle a "tank-sized" Flood monster. There would also be a vehicle section of escape which would result in Chief getting shot out of the ship. This would connect into Halo 3's intro.

One thing that is hilarious is 95% through development, they fully intended for Miranda to betray Chief because he couldn't save her father. Something happened at the last minute to change their minds.

[angstlicht]

Originally posted by StormDragonZero:

they fully intended for Miranda to betray Chief because he couldn't save her father. Something happened at the last minute to change their minds.

if you pay attention in Halo 3 crows nest she does try to get chief killed with that OP center bomb. She could have ancestral memories of chief punching her dad's head in for the neural link. Thankfully prophet of truth rescued master chief before she got to him with that shotgun.

We were robbed of dress uniform master chief getting that medal in 2004. Now he's stuck in that Space BMX armor to this day.

[Johnathon Fortnite]

Originally posted by StormDragonZero:

From what I understand, they had way too many ideas they wanted to do and implement and had a major lack of focus with finishing the actual game before adding extra weapons and other stuff. They basically burnt themselves out and had terrible management. They were even working on TWO spin-off things while working on Halo 2.

The plan was for two extra missions after Great Journey. Master Chief would board Truth's ship, explore it a little, then battle a "tank-sized" Flood monster. There would also be a vehicle section of escape which would result in Chief getting shot out of the ship. This would connect into Halo 3's intro.

One thing that is hilarious is 95% through development, they fully intended for Miranda to betray Chief because he couldn't save her father. Something happened at the last minute to change their minds.

I looked it up myself (forgetting I had this power) and apparently there were lots of budget issues too. Got too excited I guess lol. Shame there wasn't an attempted make of it during the collection.

[SR388]

alot of what was originally going to be halo 2s ending made its way into halo 3, they just didn't have the time and the original xbox wasn't powerful enough for what they wanted

[Erick]

Originally posted by StormDragonZero:

One thing that is hilarious is 95% through development, they fully intended for Miranda to betray Chief because he couldn't save her father. Something happened at the last minute to change their minds.

No wonder why Master Chief's side of the story is mostly "shoot aliens and stuff" because many of the ideas scrapped for Halo 2 are just overambitious or plain bad from the beginning. It makes much more sense for the Arbiter (and by extension the Elites) to be betrayed by the Covenant than for Miranda Keyes to betray Chief for no real good reason. And even then, many things that would have helped the Arbiter's story got cut as well like the Heretic leader getting killed by Tartarus before being able to reveal what the "Great Journey" actually is.

[Gimli]

There was supposed to be a warthog run type of mission toward the end once Chief boarded the Forerunner ship but it was cut.

[rcf5089]

They had to cut the last few missions to hit deadline. Cliffhanger ending was brutal in 2004.

[Johnathon Fortnite]

Originally posted by rcf5089:

They had to cut the last few missions to hit deadline. Cliffhanger ending was brutal in 2004.

Yeah I can't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ imagine seeing that and not being able to immediately play 3 lmao (which i just finished)
God tier franchise give or take a few hiccups

[twistedgamer81998]

Originally posted by rcf5089:

They had to cut the last few missions to hit deadline. Cliffhanger ending was brutal in 2004.

Not just the deadline. They had to gut Halo 2 of a lot of levels, a lot of enemies, and a lot of other things because the original Xbox just wasn't able to keep up with all the fun ♥♥♥♥ they wanted to cram into Halo 2.

Halo 3, ironically, is ultimately just a continuation of most of Halo 2's design intent, just with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ more polish than what Halo 2 ultimately got.

I highly recommend Halo 2 Uncut to see at least some of that restored- and to look through some of the Digsite material. That said, the Juggernaut (the most notorious example) was one of those things cut for good reason; it was not fun to fight.

[Gabthelazy]

Halo 2 was in development hell. Most of Halo 3 are actually cut levels from Halo 2.

[John Webfishing]

i wonder what it was lake getting that ending back in the day and then waiting 3 years for the next one

[Fastspectre]

it's a cliffhanger...

[Johnathon Fortnite]

Originally posted by Fastspectre:

it's a cliffhanger...

Wait for real? Wow i never noticed. It's almost as if there's some kind of reason I never complained about the cliffhanger but rather the fact that it ended so abruptly i thought I missed a few levels. Curious.

Originally posted by twistedgamer81998:

Originally posted by rcf5089:

They had to cut the last few missions to hit deadline. Cliffhanger ending was brutal in 2004.

Not just the deadline. They had to gut Halo 2 of a lot of levels, a lot of enemies, and a lot of other things because the original Xbox just wasn't able to keep up with all the fun ♥♥♥♥ they wanted to cram into Halo 2.

Halo 3, ironically, is ultimately just a continuation of most of Halo 2's design intent, just with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ more polish than what Halo 2 ultimately got.

I highly recommend Halo 2 Uncut to see at least some of that restored- and to look through some of the Digsite material. That said, the Juggernaut (the most notorious example) was one of those things cut for good reason; it was not fun to fight.

Is halo 2 uncut a full game or just a video?

Originally posted by Electric space wizard:

i wonder what it was lake getting that ending back in the day and then waiting 3 years for the next one

Infuriating going by what my brother told me lmao.

[Watermelons]

Originally posted by Electric space wizard:

i wonder what it was lake getting that ending back in the day and then waiting 3 years for the next one

Just remember: Halo 2 and 3 releases were like huge cultural events. The midnight release lines and parties made it a headline across news stations. 3 year wait was full of Xbox live and console link parties though for sure.