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Windows Central

Technology

Brendan Lowry

"It would have ROCKED!": Today I learned a Halo dev prototyped an Alien crossover — here's what it looked like

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Have you ever wanted to see Master Chief fight a Xenomorph? Being the gigantic Halo fan that I am, it's something I've thought about ever since I saw the original Alien film, and I'd wager it's a showdown plenty of other science fiction lovers would enjoy viewing, too. Of course, the chances of that actually happening in any official material are pretty slim, but today, I learned that at one point, it may have been surprisingly close to being made reality.

That's because I've come across concepts and screenshots from Eric Arroyo — a lead 2D/3D character and vehicle artist who worked at Bungie on 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved, 2004's Halo 2, and 2007's Halo 3 — that show a mock-up Alien crossover he created while working on the final game in the series' trilogy. You can view these images on his ArtStation profile here or below; the crossover stills are at the bottom of the post.

"If the Master Chief turned a corner and was swarmed by these? It would have ROCKED!" reads a note from Arroyo on the images of a Xenomorph he made for Halo 3. Notably, the predatory creature was fully modeled and textures, and looks to have been about as large as a Covenant Elite or Brute in-game.

A full look at Eric Arroyo's Halo/Alien crossover concept. (Image credit: Eric Arroyo on ArtStation)

"This is a Warrior/Drone from the movie Aliens," explains Arroyo in additional comments. "I created it for use with the Halo 3 engine in hopes of prototyping a Halo meets Aliens encounter." It's also stated that the model had 3,700 polygons in total — Master Chief's had 5,000, for comparison — and featured a bump map texture that was hand-drawn in Photoshop. In total, it took 10 days for Arroyo to build the prototype.

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It's not clear if there was ever an actual crossover planned or if this was just a personal project of Arroyo's, but regardless, an encounter between Master Chief and a Xenomorph never came to fruition. Still, it's very cool to see what one would have looked like in Halo 3, and fun to imagine how the beasts would fare against Halo's United Nations Space Command (UNSC) marines and Spartans, its zealous Covenant Empire, and its frightening parasitic Flood organisms.

I'd expect the Xenomorphs to have a field day with regular UNSC troops, though battles against Spartans, the Covenant's more powerful and skilled aliens, and the Flood would be more evenly matched. There's always the possibility a Xenomorph gets infected by the Flood, too, which would surely lead to the creation of a Flood form far more terrifying than anything encountered in the Halo games thus far.

Imagine if the Flood got their tendrils on a Xenomorph. Would anywhere in the universe be safe? (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

I strongly recommend giving the rest of Arroyo's ArtStation post a read, as it features plenty of other concepts and designs he created for Halo while working at Bungie. Included are plenty of notations and relevant technical details about the process, giving fans a close look at how several of the franchise's iconic characters and vehicles came to be.

"Long, long ago I was the core artist on Halo 1, 2 and 3. I had the absolute pleasure and privilege of creating the iconic looks for the Master Chief, Cortana, the Warthog and many other key assets that made Halo what it was, and still is today," Arroyo explained in the description of the post. "In addition to the hundreds of things I created for the series, I also built entire levels like the Trench Run from scratch, and influenced design with ideas I implemented like the Gravity Anchor/Elevator. I'm also responsible for creating new vehicle types like the Mongoose and epic Brute Chopper — still one of my favorite vehicles I've designed to date."

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All the Halo games Arroyo worked on are available to play on Xbox One systems, Xbox Series X|S consoles, and on Windows PC via Steam and the Microsoft Store through Halo: The Master Chief Collection. It's $39.99 and includes Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, and Halo 4, along with the remastered versions of the first two titles. Notably, it's also playable through Xbox Game Pass, and stands as one of the best Xbox games and best PC games.