343 Industries wasn't shy about sharing its ambitions with Halo Infinite and what the studio wants to set the stage for, all the while taking the series back to its roots in several ways. The Banished and Master Chief's new AI partner, The Weapon, are both prime examples of this mentality by taking old staples of the series and giving each a fresh twist along with new additions such as The Endless. However, it appears there were some notable elements on the game's cutting room floor as a new development leak shows.

The leaks come courtesy of Twitter user Leaks_Infinite which, as their name implies, has recently leaked several test and development videos for Halo Infinite. A good portion of the videos Leaks posted showcase early weapon concepts, such as a light rifle and a new version of the Promethean scattershot, which ultimately didn't make it to the game's armory. Two of the bigger pieces of cut content, though, appear to be wildlife which was teased in the first Halo Infinite teaser trailer, and the Prometheans, which had played a major part in Halo 4 and Halo 5.

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Introduced in Halo 4, the Prometheans ostensibly replaced The Flood as the second major enemy faction Master Chief found himself fighting, along with the returning Covenant. The robotic army was Forerunner, in origin, and revealed to have been living beings converted to machines as part of the Forerunner's war against The Flood. Leaks' videos show Promethean Knights, Watchers, and Soldiers were in the early stages of development as another potential enemy force, but it appears the force didn't make it past this stage.

Some of Zeta Halo's potential wildlife, on the other hand, appear to have made it much further into development before 343 cut them from the game. The leak shows the split-horn rhino seen in the original Halo Infinite teaser had an early model created, though it doesn't appear to have gotten further than this stage. Another creature, dubbed the Crusher, made it much further and had two models created, one of which appears to have been outfitted with Banished armor to act as a type of living tank.

Of the two, the former may come as the more surprising cut to veteran Halo players. The Prometheans had been a central part of 343's Reclaimer Saga since the studio took Halo's reigns from Bungie and was just one way the studio tried to put the Forerunners front-and-center in Master Chief's new story arc. Whether the enemy force does make a return in either a future Halo game or Halo Infinite DLC, only time will tell.

Halo Infinite is currently available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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Source: WindowsCentral