Project Spark is my first true foray into the world of modding, and something of a passion of mine. For years I've been deeply obsessed and fascinated by the plethora of cut content in the Halo franchise, and that fascination eventually fueled an identical passion for cut content in other franchises I love, such as Mass Effect, Total War, Jak and Daxter, etc. The topic is something of a bittersweet one for me: while they fascinate me, as it offers a gateway into the development cycle of a game and how the devs handled the project, its also sad, but it shows us a slice of "what could have been", and that last part is truly what puts a fire in my heart. For years, I've imagined how such cut content could have fit into the game, and until now, that's all I could do. I'm not a game dev, and I didn't have the balls to even try to learn the tools.

All of that changed when the CE mod tools were announced for MCC. Sure, Custom Edition and its mod tools already existed, but now MCC had them...and as content creators and modders let their dreams run wild, I was inspired. Projects like Halo 2 Uncut and even the ongoing Digsite project showed me that cut content restoration was a real possibility and, if I put my mind to it and really knuckled down and learned the tools, I could make my dream a reality. So I did, and now here we are. I'm proud to announce and release Project Spark and its 1.0 release today, and offer you a window into the possible future of this mod, because I'm not even close to done. Not by a long shot. 

First however, I must state for the record that this mod, while initially operating SOLELY within the confines of cut content restoration to the exclusion of all else, is more of a hybrid. This wasn't intentional, but as a modder, I had too many ideas that came to me that I just HAD to act on. And as I'm sure any modder who has started learning the tools and has begun to realize just how much they can do can sympathize, it's hard to rein in renegade thoughts. It's a rush of exhilaration to see your creative process explode onto the game engine, and it's addicting. Which is why I add this small caviat: this mod isn't entirely cut content restoration. Details will be explored in this detailed rundown of the mod and its contents, but this mod will have three categories of content:

• Cut content, which is entirely based on restoring content as Bungie originally envisioned;
• Speculative cut content, which gives me more flexibility to adapt cut content as I see fit or to the extent I can see Bungie intending, including adding content that may or may not have been cut from the game, speculating on certain encounters or events, and so forth. Essentially, I'm winging it;
• And, finally, original ideas. Content that is purely my own ideas and concepts injected into the game in an effort to offer fan service or simply because I think it's cool. Whether this be entirely new encounters or events or even easter eggs (yes, there are easter eggs), this content was not Bungie approved, but damn did I have fun putting them together.
  

For content that falls into these three categories, I will specify as such. I do this in the spirit of transparency, as people are obviously going to expect a cut content restoration mod, and will probably be a little disappointed (for whatever reason, valid or otherwise) by my admission that parts will be wholly or speculatively original. With that said, you can download the mod now and go in blind, or read on, and learn what I have in store for you in detail, as well as a blurb at the end discussing what lies in the future for this mod, if my skills continue to improve (which my God, I hope they do, because I'm excited for what lies ahead :D).

Miscellaneous

• The fuel rod gun is now implemented across the entire campaign and as a usable weapon. For now the weapon is using the Gearbox multiplayer variant and capabilities, but I do plan to make the campaign fuel rod gun fully usable in a later update. This content is partly speculative, as its unknown whether Bungie intended the CE version of the fuel rod gun to be usable at any point, but its also technically cut content, as it can be seen being used by the player in earlier Pre-Xbox builds of the game (source: Macworld 1999 build).
• In addition to the fuel rod gun being made usable, the fuel rod grunts themselves now carry the usable fuel rod gun and have been balanced to better make use of the new weapon. This is due to the multiplayer fuel rod gun functioning differently to the campaign variant, the latter being a charged single shot while the former is semi-automatic: this leads to fuel rod grunts running into the problem of spam firing the weapon, making them a nightmare to deal with, especially on Legendary. I've tried my best to balance tweak them so now only fire three rounds at a time, allowing them to use the fuel rod gun as its designed without firing it wildly. Legendary may still differ due to the fire rate of enemies scaling with difficulty, something which I'm fairly confident is beyond my current capacity to fix. 
  

Anyway, I digress. The fuel rod grunts now make use of this weapon and I've also tweaked their appearances in campaign. Originally they were introduced on Two Betrayals, followed by the SpecOps variant on Keyes and The Maw. They are now introduced on Halo, and appear on The Truth and Reconciliation, The Silent Cartographer, Assault on the Control Room and Two Betrayals, with their SpecOps variant making their usual appearances on Keyes and The Maw as in vanilla. Obviously, this means fuel rod guns will no longer detonate when dropped by their users, allowing the player to pick it up and use it.This is entirely speculative as there's no evidence that exists that Bungie intended for fuel rod grunts to appear earlier or more frequently in the game, and the encounters where I've placed them is entirely my own creation. However, I consider this speculative because had fuel rod guns been usable, its unlikely that they would have been confined to only the last two levels of the game, and given fuel rod grunts are the only enemies in vanilla that use fuel rod guns, the chance to use them would be restricted to having them present in earlier levels.
• The flamethrower is now implemented in the campaign as a usable weapon. The flamethrower is a cut weapon intended to appear in CE but at some point after the 1749 build it was removed from the game. For now the weapon is using the Gearbox multiplayer model, but I plan to recreate the original Bungie flamethrower at some point: this will be easier due to the fact the Gearbox flamethrower largely retains much of the original Bungie flamethrower's animations and first person model, with only a few UI differences and the weapon's digital ammo counter being radically different: as such, this flamethrower is faithful enough to the original version to suffice for now. I've made the creative decision to have the flamethrower first appear on The Library instead of 343 Guilty Spark like Bungie intended largely due to my theory that the flamethrower was intended as the dedicated anti-Flood weapon prior to the shotgun (perhaps unintentionally) filling that role in its absence, and therefore having it debut on a Flood level makes more sense to me. 
  

        The weapon's implementation is complete, including fuel canisters scattered throughout the levels it appears in: the player will even start with a
        flamethrower on Keyes now instead of a plasma pistol (source: 1749 build, leftover files on Keyes).

• In addition to the flamethrower being implemented, I've also restored a cut variant of the Flood combat form that uses the flamethrower. This cut enemy is still leftover in the game files and was very easy to reimplement because it is, by default, set to use a flamethrower, a tag which is shared with the Gearbox version, allowing it to use the weapon seamlessly and by default. Versions of flamethrower Flood exist for both the elite and human combat forms, and both have been fully reimplemented into the campaign, first appearing on The Library, and then Two Betrayals, Keyes and The Maw. Some encounters use the 1749 build as a reference, while others I took some creative liberties in implementing due to a lack of relevant information, allowing me some flexibility in deciding which encounters to include them in.
• My personal favourite to reimplement are elite ultras. My sole existing proof for their existence is a single advert showing a snippet of a scripted encounter on The Silent Cartographer showing (for a split second) a white-coloured elite running past (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFbafvx2Dyg at 0:05). Now, I know that's QUITE  a stretch to assume Bungie was planning ultras back in CE and that the white-coloured Elite wasn't just a case of a a) shader error/placeholder or b) an enemy that differed from Bungie's eventual idea for the ultras in H2 - onwards, but you know what? I've got A LOT of room here to speculate, and until Bungie confirms otherwise, I'm assuming they're ultras and they're back in the game. While they don't function quite like their H2 counterparts, they encompass the basic ideas of one: stronger shields, white-coloured armor and incredibly dangerous. My version can occasionally lob a grenade, will have stronger shields than a major but weaker than a zealot, can use plasma rifles, needlers and energy swords, and for the first two will have a much higher rate of fire and are more accurate, making them very dangerous foes. Also, just for fun, I've added a secret variant that acts like a BOB in a way, with only one (or a few) existing on each level an ultra appears in, and possessing a very powerful weapon...and an equally powerful reward for killing them. ;)
  So aside from the secret variant, the elite ultras are technically a restoration of cut content in the sense that white-coloured elites were possibly planned at one point. They are introduced on The Truth and Reconciliation, and appear on The Silent Cartographer, Assault on the Control Room, Two Betrayals and Keyes.
• Stealth Flood are implemented into the campaign. This one toes the line quite a bit, mostly because I have zero proof this is cut content but my gut feeling. Thing is, stealth Flood already exist in the game, as a lot of players know by now. They are encountered only on The Maw, specifically spawning when you hang around in the armoury too long...but that's it. Now my gut feeling tells me this is proof of leftover content Bungie either forgot to remove or they liked the stealth Flood enough to keep them specifically for this encounter alone, but it tells me that (at least in theory) that they were planned to have a greater role in the game? So, I've acted on that. Stealth Flood will now appear from Two Betrayals onwards, and frequently. Not only that, but they will now also use weapons, including even the flamethrower. They will also now use fuel rod guns and energy swords, which leads into the next piece of content to discuss.
• Flood with fuel rod guns and energy swords are implemented into the campaign. This isn't cut content whatsoever (to my knowledge), zero proof of it exists and this is entirely of my own design. Sword Flood will behave identically to unarmed Flood, only difference being their melee attack is an instant kill on Normal, Heroic and Legendary, just like sword elites. Fuel Rod Flood will be quite dangerous but nowhere near the level of Rocket Flood, as their attacks are more inaccurate, despite having a higher rate of fire. Both appear on Two Betrayals and The Maw, and have stealth variants as I've discussed above.
• Implemented the Rocket Warthog into the campaign. This one is going to be a mix of cut content and original idea, blended together. I say that because, yes, the Rocket Warthog was actually a vehicle planned to be implemented by Bungie and you can see it in Pre-Xbox builds and the E3 2000 build, but the problem is that it uses what would eventually become the weapon design for what would become the Gauss Warthog. So, instead, while reimplementing the Rocket Warthog, it will retain the Gearbox multiplayer design over Bungie's vision, and I don't intend to change this. Where the warthog appears is entirely speculative, but it works as intended. It will be the vehicle dropped off by Foehammer at the start of The Silent Cartographer, the flipped over warthog on Two Betrayals is now a Rocket Hog, and some of the warthogs present for the player to take at the start of the Warthog run on The Maw are now Rocket Hogs as well. I've even added some Rocket Warthogs to the background of the game's intro where Johnson gives his speech. Go have a look!
• I've made some changes to the Scorpion's machine gun. As most players know, the CE's Scorpion secondary gun is useless because its projectile error is ridiculously wide and therefore it can barely hit anything. Well, if you're a fan of the H2 version of the gun, you're in luck. This is a preference change, not cut content. 
• Implemented a drivable Wraith into the campaign. This one required a shit ton of work on my behalf to work, and I'm still not entirely satisfied with how it turned out, and I plan to make changes to it later. As is common knowledge now, the Wraith isn't drivable in CE, but through cheats, and nowadays through mods, it was discovered the Wraith was intended to be drivable at some change, as it has a placeholder HUD (using the rocket launcher reticle), and even a semi-functional third-person camera. The 1749 build finally confirmed this where drivable Wraiths were present. Despite this, a lot has changed since the 1749 build. While Chief originally had a unique animation for entering the Wraith in 1749, it was stripped and removed from the final game, so I've had to use a workaround by having the Wraith use the ghost seat so that both Chief and Elites can use it. The third person camera for using the Wraith was also busted somehow between 1749 and final, because using the Wraith now by default has a camera that is far too high above the vehicle, making it virtually impossible to use. I spent hours trying to recreate the original camera position using 1749 as a reference, and while I think I've finally got that, the Wraith's plasma mortar is very wonky and awkward to use, and the aiming is off. I've also replaced the rocket launcher placeholder reticle used by the Wraith with the H2 Wraith reticle, although it is low quality due to an issue with MCC resolution scaling. Again, as I said, I'm not wholly satisfied with the end result and plan to make significant revisions down the track. I'm still new to the modding scene so I'm still learning.
• The number one weakness all Hunters have (their exposed, unarmoured sections) that often lead to them being insta-killed by pistols and sniper rifles with a single shot has been buffed, allowing them to take FAR more damage. This is a change I've made in the spirit of making Hunters the tough, armoured tanks they should be, and now you'll require heavy duty weapons to take them down, as I'm sure was originally intended. No more pushover Hunters. NOT cut content, purely preferential. 
• Shotguns now appear much earlier in the game. This decision is twofold: a) the reintroduction of the flamethrower and its role as an anti-Flood weapon makes introducing the shotgun later in the campaign pointless and b) this was likely the intended result anyway, as the 1749 build does show the shotgun appearing in earlier levels, appearing as early as Halo. As such shotguns are now introduced on Halo, and also appear on The Truth and Reconciliation, The Silent Cartographer and Assault on the Control Room. Shotgun marines will also appear on these levels as your main source for these weapons. 
  

The Pillar of Autumn

• Rocket Warthogs have been added to the background of the intro cutscene.
• Restored a cut encounter with a crewman at the start of the level when Chief is trying to reach the bridge. Just after leaving the cryo area, jumping over the pipe and moving down the corridor, a crewman would have been seen running from the right before being killed by an explosion. My theory for why this was removed is because at some point Bungie added an invisible barrier to stop the player entering the area to the right and because the crewman starts on the opposite side of this barrier, it causes them to run into the barrier, run in place for several seconds, and then just die. In order to get around this, I've completely re-designed how the encounter occurs, including adding an extra crewman and even some new dialogue that I voiced myself. (source: level script, "burn_crewman")
• Keyes now has his smoking pipe in his mouth. (source: level script)
• Restored the original sequence in which Chief gets his pistol. In the final game, Chief is given the pistol by Keyes. Originally, Bungie intended for the player to retrieve the pistol from a crewman just outside the bridge who you witness defending the bridge briefly before he is killed by the first batch of grunts you fight in the level, allowing the player to pick up his pistol. This sequence is still present in 1749, but it was completely stripped from the game by retail, so I had to rebuild it from scratch, with one minor change for continuity reasons. When Keyes gives you the pistol in vanilla, he says "I don't keep it loaded son, you'll need to find ammo as you go", but when you pull out the weapon, it's always fully loaded. I've changed this so the player starts with the pistol as normal, but with only two rounds, and the player gets their ammo from the dead crewman. 
  Interesting little tidbit is that this cut sequence actually made it into the book Halo: The Flood even though it was cut from the game it's based on. There's a scene where Chief retrieves ammo for his pistol from a dead crewman just outside the bridge, just before the first batch of grunts. Just thought that was interesting. (source: 1749 build)
• There's an easter egg I've added to the level that's entirely of my own creation. How it's triggered and what it contains I'll leave up to you to find out. Although, I will say this: try every difficulty ;)
• Sam's corpse will still be present in a pool of blood in the control room overlooking the cryo bay when you return later in the level. Not cut content, but a continuity change.
• A small portion of the level, located just before the lifeboat bay with the maintenance tunnel you have to enter, is sectioned off and inaccessible in the final game, but was fully accessible and open in the 1749 build, including a cut encounter with a squad of grunts. This has been restored. I can see why it was cut, but its cut content, so hear you go.
  

Halo

• The entire beginning of the level is changed. Old builds and demos show a far different vision of how the level started, and its clear through design that Bungie eventually decided to change the start to a more stealth oriented section where the player avoids combat rather than engaging in it. This is reflected in a number of things. For starters, the player would have originally started with a squad of marines, as they were originally intended to survive the lifeboat crash, and would have accompanied the player to the first group of survivors. Secondly, the first dropship's behavior was originally more dynamic, being able to intercept the player and deploy troops directly to their location, a behavior that can no longer be replicated entirely in the final game as it likely existed back when the dropships utilized their own AI, prior to Bungie utilizing recorded animations instead due to the AI having trouble landing their dropships (just a theory though, I have no proof of that. The reality is that it was cut for unknown reasons). Thirdly, a rendition of the Halo theme would have played as the player was crossing the bridge. Fourthly, jackals were originally intended to appear at the start of the level, with a few appearing with the elite and grunts towards the exit from the first area, and an additional trio of jackals that were supposed to spawn at the bridge and move up to your location towards the exit of the pass. Fifthly, the pair of Banshees that attack you at the start were originally supposed to spawn in from the sides of the cliffs where the dropship approaches from, as evidenced by two leftover, unused Banshee teleport flags in those areas. 
  With all of this in mind, I have done my best to restore this encounter along with some additional polish and decisions of my own. The marines will no longer die in the lifeboat crash (except for one), and you'll be accompanied by five marines at the start. As the player moves to cross the bridge, an entirely new sequence of my own creation can be witnessed: the dropship that approaches your area, flying alongside a squad of three other dropships escorted by two pairs of Banshee escorts, one of which continues to follow these dropships out of view, while the other pair follows the dropship into your area, then takes off and disappears in the direction the original pair of Banshees spawn from: this entire sequence is inspired by Cortana's line "I'm detecting multiple Covenant dropships on approach". As you cross the bridge, the pair of Banshees that you normally face will appear from both sides of the cliffs, flying into the canyon before turning to attack you: as this happens, the rendition of the Halo theme that plays during the opening beach attack of The Silent Cartographer will start playing. The Spirit dropship will now change its landing site based on the player's location: if you stay at the crash site, it will land as normal, but if you cross the bridge, it will swoop in and intercept you near the top of the pass, and drop off its troops there instead. The cut group of jackals that would have appeared alongside the elite and grunts at the top of the pass (two on E/N, three for H/L) will be present, and when the player reaches a certain point, a second Spirit dropship will appear and land near the bridge, dropping off a trio of jackals behind you that will pursue you to the top of the pass. I made a Spirit dropship drop them off instead of them just appearing there because they can be seen spawning in and it just looks better to have a dropship do it. Once the player has either left the pass to head into the next area or all enemies are dead, the Halo theme stops, signifying an end to the encounter.
• Shotguns are now introduced on this level, and shotgun marines are present at the first group of survivors, the rubble group and the river group. (source: 1749 build)
• Fuel rod guns are now introduced on this level.
• An additional Pelican will turn up alongside Foehammer to the first group of survivors to pickup the marines that start with you at the lifeboat. This isn't cut content but largely a necessity as Foehammer cannot carry both the marines of the first group and the lifeboat marines as well. 
• Fuel rod grunts are introduced on this level.
• Two fuel rod grunts (three on H/L) will ambush the player as they're crossing the light bridge, serving as their introduction.
• Ghosts are introduced on this level. This is speculative, as the level's design (and presence of a Warthog) suggest more than just mere transportation and hint at what was intended to be vehicle combat. As such, I've decided to make this the level ghosts are introduced, with the player encountering quite a few throughout the level. 
  

The Truth and Reconciliation

• Fuel rod grunts now appear on this level.
• Elite ultras are introduced and appear on this level.
• A special elite ultra variant is hidden in this level.
• Restored a cut introduction cinematic for the hunters. Originally Bungie intended for a cinematic to play when the hunters came down the gravity lift, and a left over camera point for this cutscene is all that remains in the level's scenario file. As such, I've largely had to reconstruct this cinematic from scratch. (source: 1749 build).
• Upon entering the hangar, the Spirit dropship that takes off and leaves now carries a Wraith and has a pair of Banshees that escort it take off alongside it. This is a mixture of content: the Spirit carrying a Wraith is cut content, as there is a script for it to carry a "hangar_wraith" in the files, but the Wraith itself was removed from the scenario file and the script disabled in the final game. The Banshees, however, are my own addition, inspired by AltSierra117. In general, this encounter also showcases an unused feature of the Spirit: the ability to carry and drop off vehicles. Bungie had numerous instances of the game where this was intended to be used, all of them cut from the final product. 
• Restored a cut sequence on the second level of the hangar where, upon calling for reinforcements from Echo 419 (the one where you have to lower the shield door), a grunt would make a run for the switch, and if the player didn't kill the grunt quickly enough, they would reactivate the shield door, and THEN you'd have to open it to call in reinforcements. The entire sequence is present in the script, just disabled, and I've now restored it. 
  

The Silent Cartographer

• Fuel rod grunts now appear on this level.
• Elite ultras now appear on this level.
• A special elite ultra variant is hidden in this level.     
• Shotguns now appear on this level.
• Sniper rifles now appear on this level.
• Fuel rod guns now appear on this level.
• Ghosts and Banshees now appear on this level, and the Wraith is introduced. The Ghosts are present in the 1749 build, and the Banshee encounters were still present in the game files, just disabled. The Wraith's presence is hinted at in the Gamestock 2001 demo, and other pre-release demos of the level. The Banshee is, sadly, not usable on this level due to its high potential to break level scripts.
• The entire opening beach sequence has been redesigned. For starters, the number of enemies has been drastically increased, with more grunts and elites, jackals added, some elite ultras and an elite zealot with a plasma rifle: there is also a pair of hunters that appear towards the end of the encounter on E/N. The number of marines has also been drastically increased, with shotgun and sniper rifle marines added. A pair of Wraiths are present in the encounter, one of them parked and one active on E/N, and both active on H/L. A single Banshee is parked on the beach and will remain inactive on E/N, with an Elite piloting it on H/L. 
• Rocket Warthogs are introduced on this level.
• The Warthog Foehammer drops off at the start is now a Rocket Warthog.
• Some additional rocks, foliage and trees have been added to the second beach section, just before the Cartographer, more closely resembling the Gamestock 2001 demo.
• A Spirit dropship will drop off a pair of ghosts just before the Cartographer, or just before the security facility. The script for this encounter was left in the files and was a simple matter of re-enabling it. I've had to slightly adjust it however due to the Spirit's spawn location being where the new trees I've added are placed, so it now lands closer to the water. 
• Added a sequence where a Spirit dropship flies by the beach, closely escorted by a pair of Banshees, shortly after clearing the first beach encounter. This sequence isn't cut content and is my own creation, inspired by AltSierra117.
• Numerous Ghosts are parked around the level for the player to use, and a single parked Wraith outside the Cartographer on the beach. 
• A single Wraith will be present on the beach outside the Cartographer when you return from the security facility.
• A pair of Banshees spawn after emerging from the Cartographer after the door is locked (or after unlocking the door from the security facility) and will fly around the island, harassing the player every step of the way. This encounter is unique in that the Banshees can attack the player from anywhere on the exterior portion of the map.
• Restored a cut squad of marines that would have spawned outside the crashed Bravo 022 Pelican and engaged the Covenant at the crash site. These marines in the final game are killed in the crash, but I've made it so they are now alive and engaging the Covenant in the surrounding area.
• Restored a pair of Ghosts that would have spawned at and patrolled Bravo 022's crash site.
  

Assault on the Control Room

• Fuel rod grunts now appear on this level.
• Elite ultras now appear on this level.
• A special elite ultra variant is hidden in this level.     
• Shotguns now appear on this level.
• Fuel rod guns now appear on this level.
• Added some parked Wraiths across the level to give the player an opportunity to use one.
• An additional Wraith is present during the encounter before the exit to the first canyon. Added this to fix the balancing issue caused by restoring the part below.
• Both Wraiths and three of the ghosts in the encounter before the exit to the first canyon are now being dropped off by Spirit dropships as you're arriving. This sequence was first discovered in the 1749 build and is still leftover in the game files, just disabled, so all I did was re-enable it and fix a few issues.
• Restored a cut encounter with an elite zealot wielding a plasma rifle just outside the control center at the top of the staircase. This encounter is leftover in the scenario file, just disabled, so I've re-enabled it.
• I've fleshed out the final push into the control center. After killing the initial set of Covenant present after opening the first door into the control center, there is a second group of Covenant behind the second door, including three elite ultras, a pair of shade turrets manned by grunts, and a squad of jackals: there is also some additional scenery objects to make the area feel more "lived in". After killing most of this encounter, the third door to the control center will open and a pair of hunters are waiting behind it, but only on H/L. The corridor leading to the control center has also has more scenery objects added as well.
  

343 Guilty Spark

• Restored the cut sequence where the crazy marine commits suicide. As the player is leaving the room on the top level, they will hear the marine mumble something, followed by a pistol shot, and when the player goes back, the marine is now dead. There is actually a leftover script referencing a custom animation for the marine committing suicide, confirming this was cut at least somewhat late in development.
• Made it so the elite corpse seen in the Flood reveal cutscene is present before the cutscene when the player enters the room. When the player comes back later (read further down), the body is now gone, representing that the Flood used it as bait and has since infected it.
• Restored the cut "Paint It Black" song that would have played during the start of the Flood reveal cutscene, where Johnson plays his music. Originally Bungie wanted "Paint It Black" by Rolling Stones to play during this scene instead of the "Shreddin'" track Marty custom made for the cutscene. The reason it wasn't ultimately used was because they couldn't get the licensing to use it. 
• Redesigned the first Flood encounter in the Flood reveal cutscene room. Originally, the encounter went VERY differently: every single door in the room, including the two on the upper level, would have smashed open at random, and instead of just infection forms piling out, it would have been human and elite combat forms, including ones with weapons. This was changed in vanilla to have the doors break open in order from back > front right > back left > front, to only have pod infectors pour out of the first three doors then more from door four and unarmed elite combat forms, with human combat forms introduced later on and, eventually, combat forms with weapons. I've taken elements from the original and melded them with vanilla: an additional door (back right) will break open after the back left door, spilling out more pod infectors, before the front door breaks. Also, after the front door breaks open and after some enemies are killed, both of the doors on the upper level will break open simultaneously, elite combat forms and pod infectors pouring out of both. As such, this isn't fully cut content, but inspired by it. 
• Restored giving the player access to the room with the crazy marine after the Flood reveal cutscene. In vanilla, both doors are damaged after the Flood reveal cutscene, making it impossible to return to the room. In my version, the top door is open, but the bottom door is blocked, requiring the player to bash it open to gain access to/leave the room. The only proof that exists that this room was intended to be accessible again is due to a Flood encounter present in this room that can be seen in 1749, which still spawns even in the final game, you just can't see it. However, the human combat form I've added to the room is purely done for creative license on my part, as its supposed to be the infected crazy marine.
• Restored access to a cut elevator room. There's a cut elevator room with flaming controls and a Flood encounter that is only inaccessible because one of the doors leading to the upper level that you need to get to in order to get inside this room is broken. Changed this to make the door still broken, but allows the player to bash it open. 
• Restored a cut sequence where the marines the player encounters upon reaching the surface again are seen only just arriving inside, running away from a swarm of pod infectors. These pod infectors and the marines they're chasing are still present in the game, only with their spawn disabled, and the marines you encounter in vanilla are actually a different group entirely, likely added after the first group were cut. I've created a blend of both: the vanilla group are present, racing to assist the cut group as they flee the pod infectors attacking them.
  

The Library

• Flamethrowers are introduced on this level.
• Flamethrower Flood are introduced on this level, along with a special introduction for them.
• Added an easter egg (if you've read Halo: The Flood, you know).
  

Two Betrayals

• Flamethrowers now appear on this level.
• Flamethrower Flood now appear on this level.
• Elite ultras now appear on this level. 
• A special elite ultra variant is hidden in this level.     
• Fuel rod grunts now appear on this level more frequently.
• Fuel Rod Flood are introduced on this level.
• Sword Flood are introduced on this level.
• Stealth Flood are introduced on this level.
• Added some scenery objects, dead bodies, blood, fire and destroyed vehicles across the entire control center to make the area more visually interesting.
• Restored a cut sequence on the landbridge in the first canyon just after exiting the control center where a pair of elites on both sides of the bridge fended off waves of Flood carrier forms. This sequence was present in the 1749 build and is still present in the script for the level, just disabled, although the actual encounters in the scenario file were scrubbed completely, so I had to do them from scratch.
• Added some parked Wraiths across the level to give the player an opportunity to use one.
• The flipped Warthog is now a Rocket Warthog.
• There's a Flood waiting to surprise you somewhere. :)
• Added an additional encounter to the third canyon at the Covenant encampment (the one with the two Wraiths) where waves of stealth Flood drop down from the canyon walls to attack the unsuspecting Covenant below, infinitely respawning. This sequence is entirely original and my own idea, it is not based on any cut content. 
  

Keyes

• Flamethrowers now appear on this level.
• The player now starts with a flamethrower instead of a plasma pistol.
• Fuel rod grunts now appear on this level more frequently.
• Elite ultras now appear on this level.
• A special elite ultra variant is hidden in this level.     
• Flamethrower Flood now appear on this level.
• Stealth Flood now appear on this level.
• Restored cut pair of hunters in the hangar at the start of the level that only appear on H/L.
• Implemented jackals across the level. Originally the level was going to have jackals, as there are numerous encounters referencing jackals (which still spawn in vanilla, but their actors were switched to grunts instead) so all I've done is take the encounters that were specifically going to be jackals and restored them, as well as added a few more. There's also at least one encounter that was cut from the level entirely that's been restored.
• Restored cut sequence where a pair of Banshees would have flown over the area filled with coolant and the pair of hunters fighting off carrier forms. This encounter is still present in the level files, but I had to record new animations for it as the cut ones where dodgy and you could see the Banshees clipping through the Covenant cruiser above (which is likely why Bungie cut it to begin with). 
• Restored cut sequence where a pair of Banshees perform an airstrike on the Flood in the area with the gravity lift, before flying off. This sequence was first discovered in 1749, and its still in the game files, just disabled, so I've re-enabled it, adding new animations to generally polish it up and remove some of the jank.
  

The Maw

• Flamethrowers now appear on this level.
• Fuel rod grunts now appear on this level more frequently.
• Flamethrower Flood now appear on this level.
• Stealth Flood now appear on this level more frequently.
• An encounter with 3 Stealth Flood appears if the player stays near the airlocks at the start of the level for too long after the first group of Sentinels appears. This isn't cut content, this is something I've added on my own.
• Restored a cut encounter with a group of 4 (and a whopping 7 on H/L) carrier forms just before the door that bashes open at the start of the level.
• A Sword Flood (3 on H/L) are running down the corridor at the top of the cryo bay into the cryo control room as you enter the room. This is not cut content, this is something I've added on my own.
• Unarmed Stealth Flood will attack the player in the maintenace tunnels. This is not cut content, this is something I've added on my own.
• The Stealth Flood that attack you in the armoury will now use weapons in addition to being unarmed.
• Restored a cut pair of hunters that are waiting behind the door to the elevator as it explodes. I too was shocked to find that Bungie planned to have a pair of hunters attack you here, but there you have it!
• Added an easter egg (if you've read Halo: The Flood, you know).
• Rocket Warthogs are now among the Warthogs you can choose to drive in the warthog bay at the start of the warthog run.
• Restored Echo-419's extended death sequence. Originally Echo-419 had an extended death sequence, with two audio files of dialogue for her death cut from the game. The first details Echo-419's attempts to avoid getting hit (followed by the "I'm hit, mayday" dialogue she says in vanilla) and the second is her death scream. This sequence has been restored to its full capacity.
• The pair of Banshees that attack Echo-419 during her death sequence now have their cockpits closed and are firing at Echo-419.
• The entire finale has been significantly revamped, vast majority of which is original content, not cut. I've always felt the end sequence, while epic, felt a little hollow, as it was just a handful of elites fighting a handful of Flood as you fought towards the finish, with this giant hangar bay just feeling empty. As such, I've made significant changes. In addition to more Flood and Covenant, Sentinels are now part of the fighting as well: there is also a battle between Covenant and Flood to the right on the lower level as well, with a lot more scenery objects and additional background details added. A pair of hunters will appear during the final run as well (this actually is cut content btw) on H/L, and fuel rod grunts will appear alongside the shade turrets on the upper level to shoot down at you, although they'll be killed off as explosions tear at these areas you move forward. A pair of Spirits will attempt to leave, only to be shot down (the suggestion being they are Flood-controlled dropships being shot down by the Covenant). Finally, a klaxon will sound as you enter the hangar to represent an evacuation alarm due to the reactor going into meltdown. Overall, a bunch of details to make the final run to the Warthog that much more epic. Warning: there be slight performance issues. Please report any you find.
  

No, I think we're just getting started...

This release is called 1.0 for a reason: there's more planned! What I've added here is just the basics, and what I have planned is far more ambitious than anything I've ever done. I plan to start learning Blender soon so that I can start to design custom weapons, vehicles, units and...that's right, levels. 

I've got a lot of ideas in the pipeline, and I've been working on them for well over a year. Bungie originally intended for Halo CE to have 25 levels...the game only shipped with 10. But what if it had shipped with 25? What would that have looked like? Well, I want to make at least something of an effort into making that vision a reality. Now, of course, the vast majority of these lost 15 levels are unknown and we know nothing about them, with only 3 of them having any details at all surrounding them: one was described as a volcano level with heavy machinery, another involving Alpha Base, and the third is currently being worked on by Digsite and appears to be the map used in the E3 2000 demo, or similar to it. Aside from that, the other 12 levels are unaccounted for...which leaves me with a lot of wiggle room to get creative. And so I did. 

I know how ridiculous this sounds and the ambition is off the charts, but I'm committed to making it happen: on my own, or with help. Having made these level concepts from scratch, I've come up with something that I'm deeply excited about. Not only levels, but new and cut enemy types, weapons, vehicles, powerups...all of it is something I want to see restored eventually. I don't know how long it'll take, but I do know this...where there's motivation to see this through, I'll be there working my ass off to see it happen. I know projects like SPV3 have already scratched that itch for a lot of people, and my mod is going to be inevitably compared with the phenomenal work made by AltSierra117 in his PreRelease Halo mod. However, my goal is simple: while a lot of this content will be original, as is a necessity when you're trying to restore content you don't have the slightest clue on what it was (therefore having to speculate), I will remain as true to the original game's tone, theme and vision as I possibly can. While I love SPV3, the game's art style, tone, music, level design and enemy types varied greatly from the original game: that's not what I'm here to do. I won't be adding Brutes because they weren't even thought up yet. My concepts, even if they deviate, are inspired by and looking to encompass the spirit of actual cut content. 

The advent of Digsite is a huge blessing for my project too. Instead of wasting months, possibly years, rebuilding all this content from scratch, we've got the magnificent and talented team at Digsite bringing these models right to our doorstep. Now, instead of designing them, I can get straight to work with implementing them into the game! But even with what Digsite is doing, there's a lot of work that lies ahead, and that I'm prepared for. While I could go into endless detail about the 15 new levels I have planned, we'd be here forever and this isn't the place for it. Instead, I'll present you a list of them, their planned in-game code names (eg. a30), and their descriptions. 

• The Pillar of Autumn (a10), Halo (a30)
• 3. Siege of Alpha Base (a20) - "Fight up the hill and capture an important Covenant base."
• 4. Lost and Found (a40) - "Storm an ancient facility and find where the Covenant are holding Captain Keyes."
• The Truth and Reconciliation (a50)
• 6. The Chasm (b50) - "Investigate this strange chasm and the Covenant's stranger interest in it." 
• 7. Temperate Martyr (c50) - "Mount a daring strike on a Covenant citadel."
• 8. Interference (e20) - "Frustrate the Covenant endeavour to extract the weapon."
• 9. The Vault (e40) - "Battle the Covenant on the water and dive for the vault beneath." 
• 10. Smoking Gun (b10) - "Explore the depths of Halo to discover its purpose within."
• The Silent Cartographer (b30)
• 12. Fortress World (b20) - "Race through the underbelly of Halo to reach the control room."
• Assault on the Control Room (b40), 343 Guilty Spark (c10)
• 15. Containment (e30) - "Assist the Monitor and contain the Flood."
• The Library (c20), Two Betrayals (c40)
• 18. The Gauntlet (C30) - "Sterilize these Flood-infested catacombs as you fight to reach the surface."
• 19. Abomination (d10) - "Use the Cartographer to locate Captain Keyes...and cleanse an abomination." 
• 20. Transit (d50) - "Break the Monitor's trap and spring a surprise."
• 21. The Corruption (e10) - "Return to a festering Covenant citadel and deny the infection its escape."
• 22. Broken Shield (e50) - "Find a way to break the shield that has trapped you with the Flood." 
• Keyes (d20)
• 24. Waypoint (d30) - "Rescue survivors for a suicide mission."
• The Maw (d40)
  

I'll update you guys with more details as I go along, but I'm very excited for this. And I hope this has you excited too. But alas, that is the future, and this is now. So go, enjoy this mod, or at least I hope you do. Leave feedback and let me know what should be fixed, or what should be improved. I've worked on this thing for months now, and it's a relief to finally release it to the public. :)

Credits

I'd just like to thank a few people in the modding community for their help, inspired and direct, for you made this project possible and continue to make its future possible. 

Thanks to Vengeful 'Vadam, AltSierra117, Lord Zedd, Generalkidd, Hunterunt, Sean T, the Digsite team, Rejected Shotgun and more for inspiring this project. Your respective efforts and your phenomenal mods have given me the confidence to make my own, and I wouldn't be here now if not for the motivation you gave me. Whether it to be simply educating me on cut content I didn't know about, or your own mods, all of it has inspired me. Thank you so very much.

Special thanks to the Discord group Halo Modding Reclaimers, who helped me every step of the way and put up with my stupid questions and badgering. I'm still relatively new to the mod tools, and I built this project as I was learning them, and that process came with a lot of stupid mistakes and questions, all of which that group was there to answer. Without them, a lot of the stuff I made wouldn't have come to fruition, or would have taken longer to figure out. As such, I would like to thank:

s3anyboy, Galap (especially for his help in getting the Spirit intercept on a30 to work, this guy basically wrote the entire script for me and helped me figure out what was wrong with it before and I'm immensely thankful for that), Vaporeon, FD, con, Silicon and more.