Halo: Combat Evolved played a huge part in the success of the original Xbox and was at the time labelled one of the best games ever made, but its development was a difficult and challenging process, as the original development team reminds us.
Speaking to Edge Magazine recently, Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian went as far as admitting "at least one level" made the final version of the original entry that "probably shouldn't have". It's believed he was "likely referring to the infamous" but now iconic level, The Library.
"We made a lot of difficult decisions to make that [release] happen...We canceled [other] projects, we combined three teams together, we compromised on scope, [and] we shipped at least one level that we probably shouldn't have,"
Seropian also mentioned how the tank vehicle was meant to be removed from the original game to make development "easier", but part of the team went against this order and had it up and running "a week and a half later". Here's how it played out, according to Halo's original lead programmer Chris Butcher:
"Four weeks before ship, [designer] John Howard decides we're cutting the tank, because it's not ready," "The designer Paul Bertone was basically like 'f**k that, I'm not gonna listen to you, John - without the tank, this game sucks'. And so he went to the artists and the animators, like 'I know John told you guys that we cut the tank, but we're actually going to do it.'"