A cutscene that was removed from Halo Infinite's Campaign before launch has been leaked. What does it mean?
A recent leak has unveiled a cutscene that was cut from Halo Infinite before the game's campaign released back in early December 2021. Whilst the scene itself is nothing to write home about, the fact that it was meant to be an end-credit scene makes it a curious hint towards future Halo games. After all, Halo Infinite was the end of yet another trilogy, but the Master Chief's appearance here, as well as what is said, is profoundly cryptic.
Halo Infinite was originally meant to be a similar size to the critically acclaimed 2017 game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but was cut down significantly as the game underwent development hell over the last few years. In the end, the game launched at the end of 2021, a whopping six years after the critically panned Halo 5: Guardians, and has been hailed as one of the best games of the year, despite our award going to Resident Evil Village.
What is this cutscene, though, and what does it mean for future Halo games? There's a significant amount that needs to be said about the campaign itself, but that certainly doesn't minimize that it is certainly the best outing this franchise has given us since 2010's Halo Reach. This end-credit scene might seem a little "nothing", but there are a few things that need to be pointed out before we move on too quickly.
What is the Leaked Halo Infinite End-Credits Scene?
The leaked scene shows the Master Chief and the Pilot character flying in the Pelican and having a brief conversation. After hearing "Signal Detected" from the Pelican's flight controls, the Pilot wakes up and calls for the Master Chief, whom appears behind him. He then says "You're not going to believe this" as the flight controls say "UNSC Tag Detected". They look at each other and the scene fades to black. It is all relatively minor, as you can tell from our description, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have some kind of significance. Check it out:
Seeing as Halo Infinite had to be cut quite significantly before it launched, so that the team could focus on banging out a tighter but higher-quality experience, rather than a bloated one that was not as polished, it is not surprising that a few scenes like this were cut out. What is more strange, though, is that this is an end-credits scene that was then not included in the final game. What could this mean?
Well, a few players theorize that this end-credit scene could potentially hint at some content that was meant to be included in the original version of the game. If you think back to Halo 4 and "Spartan Ops" then you might get a more solid picture of what we theorize. This particular game mode saw a bunch of UNSC Spartans training and completing story missions together. It introduced a bunch of context for what would later become Halo 5: Guardians, despite not quite hitting the nail on the head.
Alternatively, this leaked Halo Infinite End-Credits scene could hint about future Halo campaigns, and the direction in which 343 Industries might take us next. Whatever the case, it is pretty clear that the Master Chief was meant to stumble across more UNSC soldiers, whether it be Marines or Spartans. These soldiers were probably going to form the crux of whatever was expected to come next in the franchise, even if it was just simply another game mode for Halo Infinite. We're not sure if we'll ever find out, but we have to admit, we're pretty excited to dive further in!