Second Sunrise over New Mombasa

November 9, 2024 12:07 PM

February, 2003: Following the smashing, console-defining success of Halo: Combat Evolved, developer Bungie was facing a conundrum. Fan and media interest in the long-anticipated sequel was at an all-time high, thanks to the release of an epic cinematic teaser in September. But despite a veteran team of top-tier designers bursting with new ideas, the game was not in a remotely playable state... and a real-time demo was scheduled for the high-profile E3 expo in May. So they buckled down, pushed their hardware to the limit, and produced EARTHCITY -- an ambitious, semi-scripted playable demo set to a majestic orchestral score that re-introduced the Master Chief and a host of innovative features in less than ten minutes. Played live in a private theater throughout the last day of the expo, the E3 demo was a massive hit with the press and the fans -- despite barely holding together through a series of last-minute hacks and visual trickery. For all its popularity, the demo's jankiness left it unsuitable for public release and languishing in the Bungie archives... until now. Thanks to the dedicated work of the Digsite crew of fan archivists, the original Halo 2 E3 2003 demo has been lovingly restored for re-release on the Master Chief Collection omnibus on Steam, just in time for Halo 2's 20th anniversary. You can download the files here, bask in a crisp HD recording, or watch one of the Digsite modders play through this and other unearthed gems live.

The Halo universe previously on MeFi:

The Lore - The Music - The Fandom - The Master Chief Collection

Fan blog Ascendant Justice discusses the geography and backstory of New Mombasa (the titular "Earth City" featured in the demo). The city would later be revisited in Halo 3: ODST and reimagined in HD in the rerelease Halo 2: Anniversary. Famed French comics artist Moebius also envisioned a story set in the city for the Halo Graphic Novel.

ilovebees (Wiki)

Red vs. Blue - Season 1

Celebrating Halo 2’s Online Greatness Ahead of its 20th Anniversary

There's a Halo 2 nostalgia party going on in Halo Infinite and you're invited

The Last People to Ever Play Halo 2

Halo 2 menu music ambiance

posted by Rhaomi (5 comments total)

Great post. Going to be fun clicking through these links/articles.

Also works as a reminder to get back to Halo: Infinite which I've slept on the last few months, I know it's received some significant updates.
posted by Fizz at 12:53 PM on November 9

Nooooo, why was this posted, I had plans to be productive this week 😂

I’m into gaming, but Halo CE was such a huge part of my life back in the day. So much fun was had!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:12 PM on November 9

The "Make Your Own Fun" ethos of so many of that era's games was amazing, and you could make so much fun in Halo 2. You could do to gameplay what the Monster Factory people did to characters, just turn the knobs as far as they'll go in whatever order you wanted just to see what happened, and it was glorious.

Looking through that demo, I think I can see the seed crystals of the New Mombasa of ODST (in my opinion the best game in the series.)
posted by mhoye at 1:49 PM on November 9

The thing that's always kind of bugged me about Halo is how much better the trailers are than the actual game. Some of those trailers are gut-wrenching (Halo ODST) but the games are much less so. Also, the side material is better than the games.

Come to think of it, the weakest part of the franchise is always the games themselves.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 11:50 AM on November 10

What a blast from the past. I remember watching that demo back in 2003 and being blown away. I was 16 at the time and Halo 2 became the game we'd play at LAN parties at my friend's house, with two xboxes and two TVs. And the subwoofer turned up to max so you'd know the second anyone got in the tank. I got pretty good at it for a while.

That was my only experience with multiplayer shooters and I'm glad it was. I never enjoyed playing Counter Strike against foul mouthed 14 year olds online or any of the many clones that have followed, but being with 7 of my friends in a living room playing Halo remains a fond memory.

However the game had a fatal flaw. When you hit "confirm" on a new game and the countdown began, any player could cancel the countdown, and no one would know who it was. And for a group of 16 year old boys, it was an irresistable temptation. I can't help think we'd have played even more if we didn't waste half the time resetting the countdown. I think eventually we all agreed to place down the controller and put our hands in the air before the start of each round.

Now here I am, over 20 years later, still gaming and still blown away by it all. This last year I finally had a good enough PC to play RDR2 and Cyberpunk and even though I have finished both games, I still load up just to marvel at the graphics. And I know, graphics aren't everything, but damn if 16 year old me isn't still inside there and still completely blown away by it all. And as much as I miss playing with friends, I don't miss that goddamn countdown timer.
posted by Acey at 12:35 PM on November 10