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After 23 years, a new glitch has been discovered in Halo: Combat Evolved that allows players to possess enemies and even fly the game’s Pelican airship. The iconic Xbox shooter’s newest glitch can not only be achieved without any mods, but can also be performed on the original Xbox version of the FPS game.
Brand-new glitches for Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo 2 speedrunner and ex-Microsoft software engineer Mr Monopoli discovered a host of new glitches in Bungie’s original Xbox version of the game. The iconic speedrunner known for breaking Bungie’s classic games found ways to become a Flood Infection Form, an Elite and even fly the Pelican.
While no tutorials currently exist for the new glitches, the Halo speedrunner has released videos showing the glitches in action. Performed on an original Xbox, the glitches are unable to be performed on Halo: The Master Chief Collection as those versions are based on the PC version of Combat Evolved.
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First, the speedrunner discovered a way to become a Covenant Elite, complete with a plasma rifle. Available in split-screen co-op, one player is able to possess an invisible elite and run around The Silent Cartographer. Afterwards, they discovered a way to possess a Flood Infection Form which also allows them to climb walls just like the enemy AI does.
However, by far the most exciting new glitch is one that allows players to fly the Pelican airship, a dream of every Halo fan. The massive ship is able to be controlled after tricking the vehicle into a position it can’t get out of. After flipping the vehicle, players can control and fly the Pelican. It’s a dream come true.
How do these glitches work?
As for now, there’s still a lot of experimentation to be done on these new Halo: Combat Evolved glitches. However, Mr Monopoli claims the glitch should allow players to become any AI character in the game, including Grunts, Hunters and more.
We can only assume how the glitch works, but we do have one guess. As explained in a developer walkthrough of Halo: Combat Evolved many years ago, the game’s cutscenes are created by devs recording controlled movements of characters. This means that every character does have a method to be controlled, but that control is locked away from players.
“The really interesting thing about Halo 1 cinematics is that at least 60% of all the movement of the characters is done through either AI behavior or playbacks,” said Joseph Staten in 2007. “Playbacks are just someone possessing the character and recording the player input and playing that back.”
Judging from the fact that AI behaviours are kept in parity with their cutscene forms, this new Halo glitch simply unlocks the ability to control the characters without developer input.
For more Halo content, check out our thoughts on the newly discovered build of the Halo Mega Bloks game, or the leak for Halo Infinite’s upcoming new weapon.