Halo Infinite: Early Concept Story Exploration screens release by Josh Kao (ex-343) - See threadmarks for more pictures

[Akai]

Thought I'd share, because these look pretty cool:

Wonder where this is supposed to be? Looks like Sangehlios to me.

Also, the HW2 Brute Spiker redesign:

I wonder if these made it ever past the concept art stage and thus was part of the 2/3 of content that was apparently cut by 2019.

Sanghelios looked really cool in Halo 5, so a return to that planet with Halo Infinite's art style, would be really great.

 

[hog]

Yeah there was definitely some sort of desert-y world planned earlier on which still survives in some of the multiplayer maps. Kind of expecting we'll see that in whatever the single player expansion content ends up being.

 

[Dangerman1337]

Getting huge Star Wars Vibes of those Sangehlios concepts.

 

[Ambient]

Damn there was so much cut from the game. I'm glad they got it out the door in a good state but man I would love to see the original scope.

 

[Masterspeed]

Yeah there was definitely some sort of desert-y world planned earlier on which still survives in some of the multiplayer maps. Kind of expecting we'll see that in whatever the single player expansion content ends up being.

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I'm definitely expecting the DLC is biome based. I could totally see one being in a snowy zone too.

 

[Wackamole]

I'm always so amazed by the quality of those concept art images. And the speed that these people work in. Absolute beast artists.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Should be noted that concept art can sometimes be just that, concept art that doesn't have an overall bearing on what was planned for the game when things were in full swing production. And that we shouldn't go "Man we should've gotten this." When we have no idea if they ever got past illustrations when it comes to concepts like this.

 

[Deleted member 68874]

Wouldve loved to have had Arby and Blue Team in the game.

Concept artists are so damn talented. The Halo Infinite concept art book is full of gorgeous art.

 

[Deleted member 93062]

Looks gorgeous, really wish they would've been able to achieve their vision for the game.

 

[astro]

Looks more like Destiny in that first one (if only Destiny armour looked that good....).

I'd be super curious to read the full details of their original vision.

 

[Virtua Sanus]

Would absolutely love it if the second campaign was with a playable Arbiter.

 

[StarsAreStuff]

Arby lookin dope! First picture captures what I thought Halo Infinites story would be, the crew from the end of Halo 5 engaging in a more covert, guerilla warfare kinda resistance against Cortana and the Created.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Arby lookin dope! First picture captures what I thought Halo Infinites story would be, the crew from the end of Halo 5 engaging in a more covert, guerilla warfare kinda resistance against Cortana and the Created.

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I think the issue that they were presented with is that....when the enemy is an AI they kinda presented a scenario wherein the enemy was unstoppable through the usual type of means that can be presented in a halo gameplay sandbox. Unless they gave all the AI physical bodies which wouldn't make much sense considering.

 

[MythicReclaimer]

There's some concept art (from Sparth, I believe) in "The Art of Halo Infinite" detailing stuff that didn't make it into the final game and, yes, it looks like most of it is from Sangehlios (the other bits seem to be related to the Guardians). In fact, if you would have told me it was from Halo 5 I would have believed you.

 

[DanielG123]

Should be noted that concept art can sometimes be just that, concept art that doesn't have an overall bearing on what was planned for the game when things were in full swing production. And that we shouldn't go "Man we should've gotten this." When we have no idea if they ever got past illustrations when it comes to concepts like this.

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This. The above images are beautiful, especially the first two, but we don't know if said pieces ever made it past the concept stage and were actual ideas that 343 cut from the game. It's certainly cool to look at stuff like this, but people also shouldn't be disappointed/angry (no one is like that here, yet), that these things didn't make into the game.

 

[Akai]

This. The above images are beautiful, especially the first two, but we don't know if said pieces ever made it past the concept stage and were actual ideas that 343 cut from the game. It's certainly cool to look at stuff like this, but people also shouldn't be disappointed/angry (no one is like that here, yet), that these things didn't make into the game.

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Yup and 343i also said this for the "The Art of Halo Infnite" book:

As you dive into The Art of Halo Infinite, it is useful to keep in mind that not every piece of concept art is necessarily indicative of something that was cut or is even being saved for later. The process involves a lot of exploration, utilizing our incredible art team to bring certain characters, places, and imagined scenarios to life for our own inspiration.

Indeed, some pieces exist purely to convey things like mood and tone as we go about establishing our creative pillars and getting everybody on-board with the vision of what kind of experience we want to build. Game development covers so many disciplines with hundreds of talented creative folks, these pillars are essential to ensuring everybody is on the same page by creating artwork that evokes our broad goals and intentions.

We wanted to note this because it can be easy to give the wrong idea that, as a player, you "missed out" on a particular thing. What we want to do here is provide a glimpse into the development process, showing some of what goes into the creative ideation of pre-production that ultimately shapes the final product.

https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/canon-fodder-foundations

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[Fachasaurus]

That one image feels more interesting than the entirety of the Halo Infinite campaign. Hoping DLC/expansions really step it up.

 

[Gunny T Highway]

Yeah there was definitely some sort of desert-y world planned earlier on which still survives in some of the multiplayer maps. Kind of expecting we'll see that in whatever the single player expansion content ends up being.

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Based on the ending I highly expect a desert biome in the expansion.

 

[Ont]

I have a feeling this sort of stuff comes up in campaign expansions.

 

[PlayBee]

The open world really needed more location variety

 

[SlightlyLive]

Can't wait to see the cut campaign content be re-worked in post-launch content, just hope they don't take their time.

 

[Joris-truly]

The original creative director for Infinite has a retro games podcast. Some interesting titbits were hinted through the episodes, about it being a more immersive sim world, with rpg like NPC's and quests, etc. Heard this a looong time ago an he was (understandably) very cryptic. But seeing these early concept art shots make sense in this context (if his comments are even true in the first place)

 

[Oozer]

The first piece is called "Sanghelios Meeting" on the artist's ArtStation page, so, yep, that's Sanghelios. Interestingly, the filename is "halo6-resistancehub," which is not the first time I've seen a "hub" mentioned in Halo concept art. This is by Jeff Christy from early pre-production on Halo 5:

Now, he made it clear that "all of these were just visual exploration, and not indicative of any gameplay feature or cut content" so keep that in mind. The filename is also called "mood-weaponwheel-motion" which doesn't really match anything in the picture.

There's some concept art (from Sparth, I believe) in "The Art of Halo Infinite" detailing stuff that didn't make it into the final game and, yes, it looks like most of it is from Sangehlios (the other bits seem to be related to the Guardians). In fact, if you would have told me it was from Halo 5 I would have believed you.

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Yeah, there are several pieces of what looks like Sanghelios and then quite a few of giant cities, some long-abandoned and falling apart, others looking brand new and bustling. Most of the cities don't really look like Sanghelios. One painting has a Guardian opening its wings in the background.

 

[TheUnsungHero26]

Interesting. I wonder if these pieces are from a point in development when the game was going to be more of a direct follow up to Halo 5, rather than a spiritual reboot?

 

[Milk]

I assume all story expansions will continue on Zeta Halo, and Zeta Halo's awesome don't get me wrong, but I would love an Arbiter expansion that took us back to Sanghelios, maybe play as him and see what he and the rest of the Sangheili did during the Created war?

 

[killerrin]

Sanghelios and the Elites are a whole part of the Halo Universe I wish we saw more of. Like the Human faction is cool and all with Spartans, ODSTs and whatnot. But the Sangheili just have such a rich story to them. And they're like the only Alien Society that's allied with Humanity after all that happened.

I just want a game or story that focuses exclusively on the Arbiter or another Elite.

The first piece is called "Sanghelios Meeting" on the artist's ArtStation page, so, yep, that's Sanghelios. Interestingly, the filename is "halo6-resistancehub," which is not the first time I've seen a "hub" mentioned in Halo concept art. This is by Jeff Christy from early pre-production on Halo 5:

Now, he made it clear that "all of these were just visual exploration, and not indicative of any gameplay feature or cut content" so keep that in mind. The filename is also called "mood-weaponwheel-motion" which doesn't really match anything in the picture.

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It does make one wonder just how they are going to handle the guarenteed Campaign Updates and DLC. They've said quite clearly that they are going to add more biomes and even weather and such. So to do that they are going to need to add new areas to the map. They also wont exactly be able to reuse existing areas for this. So the question becomes, do they just add more traversable ring segments attached to the edges of where the map boundries currently are... or do they go the hub route where each playable section of the ring is its own hub.

If its the latter, then there is no reason why they couldn't do a Sanghelios campaign given you would just be loading up that specific map.

 

[Garcia el Gringo]

That first image - if created in mind for gameplay and not a cutscene - kinda reminds me of Halo 5 Mission 9 Alliance (and Mission 4 Meridian Station) that were town-like. I was hoping for more of that in a hypothetical Halo 6 way back. I think those missions in Halo 5 grew thin in replays, but I was fascinated by the idea at Halo 5's launch and I hope Halo Infinite's expansions can do a better version of that; imagine if there was a FOB that had significant NPC flavor rather than just generic fodder companions.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Sanghelios and the Elites are a whole part of the Halo Universe I wish we saw more of. Like the Human faction is cool and all with Spartans, ODSTs and whatnot. But the Sangheili just have such a rich story to them. And they're like the only Alien Society that's allied with Humanity after all that happened.

I just want a game or story that focuses exclusively on the Arbiter or another Elite.

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Honestly I find that a story centered solely about elites would most likely appear melodramatic without the contrast of the human side of the story. I feel like that's why Halo 2 worked so well is because you had the super religious and dogmatic dialogue of scenes like this:



in direct contrast with scenes like this:

 

[UraMallas]

I assume all story expansions will continue on Zeta Halo, and Zeta Halo's awesome don't get me wrong, but I would love an Arbiter expansion that took us back to Sanghelios, maybe play as him and see what he and the rest of the Sangheili did during the Created war?

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I love Infinite's campaign and I love Z Halo as well but I would totally be down for some Arby DLC.

 

[FarSight XR-20]

Very strong "Halo 6" (or direct sequel to Halo 5) vibes. I love Halo Infinite but part of me wonders what Halo 6 would have been if Halo 5's story had been better received.

Hoping that a book or comic will fills the gap between 5 and Infinite and reuse some of the work that was done for "Halo 6".

 

[jelly]

Cool concepts but makes me more excited of the possibilites, not particularly in Infinite but other Halo games. We may get expansions and such but my expectations in the game play are rock bottom after playing the campaign.

 

[Crossing Eden]

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New Mombasa where instead the AI works against you because they're loyal to Cortana would be so good goddamn.

 

[Akai]

Very strong "Halo 6" (or direct sequel to Halo 5) vibes. I love Halo Infinite but part of me wonders what Halo 6 would have been if Halo 5's story had been better received.

Hoping that a book or comic will fills the gap between 5 and Infinite and reuse some of the work that was done for "Halo 6".

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These look incredible. The 3rd also one kinda reminds me of the structure you can see in the Battle Pass Season 1 key art.

 

[Oozer]

There's an additional image on his ArtStation page. This is called Infinity Crash:

The ArtStation page also has additional information on the other new images. This one is called Occupation:

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This is named Infinity Crashing, which is odd because none of these ships is the Infinity:

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The ArtStation page for this one, intriguingly, is called Revisiting Reach:

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Finally, the page for this is titled Infinity Base:

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[FarSight XR-20]

There's an additional image on his ArtStation page. This is called Infinity Crash:

The ArtStation page also has additional information on the other new images. This one is called Occupation:



This is named Infinity Crashing, which is odd because none of these ships is the Infinity:



The ArtStation page for this one, intriguingly, is called Return to Reach:



Finally, the page for this is titled Infinity Base:

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Is this the Ark and the Spirit of Fire (on the other pic) from Halo Wars 2 ? Seems so.

 

[Nola]

Yeah there was definitely some sort of desert-y world planned earlier on which still survives in some of the multiplayer maps. Kind of expecting we'll see that in whatever the single player expansion content ends up being.

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Biggest(really, only) complaint about the game was the lack of geographic diversity.

Not only that, but what we did get felt like the same primary iconic Halo geography we've had since inception.

Took what at times is still a breathtaking game and mostly made it forgettable and meh in the open world part.

Hoping we get some interesting locations for any DLC

 

[killerrin]

Is this the Ark and the Spirit of Fire (on the other pic) from Halo Wars 2 ? Seems so.

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Yep, that third image is the Spirit of Fire. First image looks to be the Infinity crashing on the ring.

 

[Oozer]

Is this the Ark and the Spirit of Fire (on the other pic) from Halo Wars 2 ? Seems so.

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Yep, that third image is the Spirit of Fire. First image looks to be the Infinity crashing on the ring.

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The ArtStation page the picture is on is titled "Battle Over Zeta," so it's not the Ark. It does look like the same class of ship as the Spirit of Fire, but I'm not sure it is that craft. There are other ships of that class in the universe and there even appear to be more in the background. If it was the Spirit of Fire, I think that would be specifically called out.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Still kinda bummed we pulled away from the Halo 5 events so hard in Infinte. It is what it is though.

With that said, I hope we see more friendly aliens in future expansions or whatever. Having peeps like the Arbiter and such on our side really adds to the universe feeling more alive IMO

 

[killerrin]

The ArtStation page the picture is on is titled "Battle Over Zeta," so it's not the Ark. It does look like the same class of ship as the Spirit of Fire, but I'm not sure it is that craft. There are other ships of that class in the universe and there even appear to be more in the background. If it was the Spirit of Fire, I think that would be specifically called out.

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Maybe. In the end the Spirit of Fire was just a Pheonix-classed ship, which was just a fancy name for "Colony ship that was repurposed as a warship instead of having it serve out its regular duty of surveying, landing on a planet and being dismantled for parts".

The Pheonix Class I'm pretty sure has long since been retired though and I think the Spirit of Fire is the last known one in service. But I guess it wouldn't be unsual to have pulled a few together, maybe to house civilians or extra personale while on the run from the Created. Or heck, maybe it was just a regular old Colony Ship that was being sent to colonize that planet the Ring orbits, because the Planet itself is Habitable.

 

[Ushay]

Some of these look incredible, I would love for the team to do another ODST Spartans in an Urban setting again.

Arbiter would be ace too.

Whatever it is, different settings and themes would be cool. And let's OT forget about how amazing zeta Halo is.

 

[Buttonbasher]

Damn there was so much cut from the game. I'm glad they got it out the door in a good state but man I would love to see the original scope.

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The artbook clarifies that a lot of this stuff was just from the idea phase, where all sorts of stuff gets pitched and suggested.

Viewing it as "cut content" feels shortsighted, when stuff like this is normal for just about every game out there, in the ideas phase.

 

[DemonCarnotaur]

Retuning to Reach? Cortana's occupation of a city? Arbiter?
Really hope we get some story DLC focusing on flashbacks and exploring moments of those stories.

 

[16bitnova]

Retuning to Reach? Cortana's occupation of a city? Arbiter?
Really hope we get some story DLC focusing on flashbacks and exploring moments of those stories.

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Be still my heart. I know this are just hopes. But, you're getting me excited at the possibilities.

 

[Ocarina_117]

New Mombasa where instead the AI works against you because they're loyal to Cortana would be so good goddamn.

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ODST but set in Sydney

 

[UraMallas]

ODST but set in Sydney

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That is a great idea. Because then you can also roll in some Reach themes.

 

[JahIthBer]

They went hard on Infinite being a soft remake/reboot of CE, the concept art is a proper Halo 6. Being stuck in one location is Infinite's weakest aspect after 2 made the series have planet hopping as a staple.

 

[Scottoest]

They went hard on Infinite being a soft remake/reboot of CE, the concept art is a proper Halo 6. Being stuck in one location is Infinite's weakest aspect after 2 made the series have planet hopping as a staple.

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I think a single location is fine. It just would've been nice to explore more than one contained area of the ring and a series of similar looking Forerunner facilities, as I assume was the plan before they had to cull their original vision. Hopefully story expansions can deliver that.

 

[jelly]

It would have maybe been an interesting journey if you took the aspect of the weapon as the key to defeating Cortana and how you manage to collect and deliver the weapon across the galaxy under the thumb of Cortana who is after you and isn't quite sure what you are up too other than evading and the sacrifices everyone is making to get the weapon delivered, could have been a pretty tense and exciting campaign crossing a lot paths and the inevitably outing as Cortana finds out about the Weapon and well, go Cheif, we've got this as the rebels give you a chance to deliver.

 

[ToddBonzalez]

Hopefully some of this stuff will come to Infinite through future campaigns so people don't have to wait 5+ years for more Halo single player content