Halo 2 E3 2003 demo is a remarkable feat of preservation and showcases everything great about PC games

This weekend, something very special happened to our hobby. The Digsite team, which is a group of Halo-modders working with Halo Studios to restore lost artifacts from Halo history, has delivered the mother lode: a playable version of Halo 2's "Earth City Demo".

The world got its first glimpse of the sequel when the mission was played live at E3 in 2003. The demo, which lasted just nine minutes, was designed to introduce the Covenant invasion of Earth. It also showcased features that would make Halo 2 a beloved (and criticized!) chapter in the series twenty years later. Listen to the crowd roaring as Master Chief dual-wields SMGs, ghostjacks a Brute and fires the battle rifle (which was at that time a single shot rifle like Reach's DMR). Earth City was removed from the final campaign, and has been hidden for 20 years.

The Digsite team uploaded the (H2) E3 2003 Demo to The Master Chief Collection Steam Workshop on November 9, Halo 2’s 20th anniversary. Alex Wakeford, a community writer for Halo Waypoint said that it took a lot of work to reconstruct this demo from an old version of the Halo 2 Engine. The modders also had to tweak its scripting so that it didn't break constantly.

The post states that "Massive improvements have now been made to the visuals and overall stability of the experience, as the initial demo required players to hit specific triggers to ensure the game did not crash." "Players will notice that nav markers guide them through every beat of this mission, from the moment they step out of the Pelican to the time when they board the Ghost and escape into the highway tunnel."

Earth City is an amazing experience, even though I'm not familiar with it (I wasn’t cool enough at seven to watch E3 videos), but I have played through a few Halo 2 games. As soon as Chief stepped out of the pelican I felt like I had been drafted to a stage show without any rehearsals. The demo is not flexible like the Halo sandbox. It's more like a Call of Duty early campaign where you can't move forward if you don’t follow the NPCs correctly. Despite Digsite's efforts to stabilize scripting and my best attempt to stick to the critical pathway, I managed softlock the mission just as Chief was supposed to pick up the second SMG. This is a finicky creature--can you imagine the sweating that Bungie cinematics director Joe Staten had to have been experiencing on stage?

It's fun to play Bungie's abandoned gameplay experiments. The demo includes a three-hit melee combination where Chief follows up his initial gun blast with two more quick strikes. I thought the maneuver was great, but as I was beating a brute down, I could hear a conversation that led to its removal. Make melee more spammy, and you upset Halo’s already perfect “shoot–shoot–punch” combat loop. The DMR battle gun is also super weird. The rhythmic hum from the three-round burst of the battler is what I associate with Halo 2. This single-shot version is weaker and doesn't sound like Master Chief's weapon. It's still cool to see the wheels turn on what would eventually become Halo Reach's punchy, DMR.

Earth City is a true miracle from a preservation perspective. Earth City is an amazing demonstration of PC gaming power. It's a win for everyone that this important piece of gaming history doesn't have to be a grainy video on YouTube. Halo Studios' interest in preserving Halo’s legacy is admirable, but the project would have never been possible without the Halo mod scene. This scene began with Halo: Combat Evolved’s first PC port and continued with Halo 2’s eventual Windows Vista release. It has since blossomed thanks to official mod support included in The Master Chief Collection.

Three days ago Halo 2's E3 mission that was lost was a piece of trivia. Now you can play it with just three clicks. I can't imagine a better reason for companies to embrace fans who want preserve, remix and keep aging games alive, instead of being hostile towards them.

The Halo 2 Earth City Demo is available for free, but there's a catch: it is only available through the MCC Steam Workshop, so consoles and Game Pass are not compatible, and you must own Halo 2: Anniversary to use it. If you're still feeling warm and fuzzy after playing the demo, I recommend jumping into Halo 2 multiplayer, which has a vibrant community, or joining in the nostalgia party that is going on with Halo Infinite.