And the time has finally come. 343 Industries has just released the E3 2003 demo of Halo 2 on PC via Steam. This demo is available to everyone who owns the Halo: The Master Chief Collection. In a way, this is a dream come true for a lot of Halo fans. So, be sure to get it if you are one of them.
Back in 2003, Microsoft showcased an impressive demo of Halo 2 for the first Xbox. That demo featured visuals better than what the final game had. Basically, it was a demo created specifically for E3.
So now, after almost two decades, we are finally able to play it on PC. The demo has support for co-op action, optional navigation points to rehearse the exact demo path and an included ‘Playground’ version of the level, allowing free roam of the city.
This release represents an effort to rebuild content originally designed for a different functioning game engine. This is the first campaign collaboration between Digsite and Halo Studios.
You can go ahead and download it from this link. All you have to do is Subscribe so that you can download it. Do note that you’ll need Halo 2 Anniversary to run the demo.
The developers also plan to release more unreleased Halo demos or levels. For example, they’re working on Alpha Moon, which will come out later this month. This demo is a cut level from 2003, following the gas giant area from The Arbiter, where the chase for the Heretic leader continues on Basis, a moon around Installation 04. Pretty cool right?
And that is that. In my opinion, more and more devs should start releasing their older “E3” demos. As we’ve said before, most of those demos were special builds of their games. And, most of the times, they looked better than the final products. I mean, can you imagine if Ubisoft released the E3 demo for Watch_Dogs? Well, that is if there was a playable demo.
Have fun!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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