Devoted Halo Fans Spent an Eternity Trying To Gain Access To an Inaccessible Room

A gameplay experience can be built on a lot of things these days, but, for the most part, you've got your cutscenes that introduce something within the game, and then the stages themselves. On occasion, the two can blend together, but sometimes, you see something in a cutscene that you just can't access.

But that didn't stop a few hardcore Halo fans from trying. A particular stage from Halo: Reach, called The Package, introduced a cutscene with a destroyed science wing – something that's not actually in the game itself. However, these fans decided that they would do whatever it takes to access this area anyway.

As reported by Kotaku, Termacious Trickocity, a group that does all sorts of cool tricks in Halo games, were starting out trying to clip into an entirely different room, only to discover an abyss out of nowhere. "We took to theater mode to get a bird's eye view of what happened and found the cutscene rooms floating in the Abyss," said Aaron Sekala, a member of the team. It was here that the team discovered that some real set pieces were used for stage sequencing.

"From that moment, we knew – we had to reach those areas."

The team went through an intricate process in the hopes of finding these rooms, particularly that science wing set above – and they followed that process for seven years. And by January 2018, they had come up with the complete process, which you can see in the video above.

It breaks down a bunch of steps it took trying to access this hidden area, including going into some strange areas and finding special weapons, as well as utilizing Ghosts as floating platforms to get to the unloaded map.

"It sounded ridiculous out loud," said Sekala. "But it made sense. We knew the ghosts wouldn't disappear if we left them behind. We did some testing to figure out the perfect placement and a few hours of trying the jump across the Ghost we landed it. At that moment we knew we could complete the trick."

The team did face a particular challenge with a death barrier within the game, meaning it needed crackerjack timing to get across. "There were so many parts to the setup, when to hit certain loads, what order to hit the loads in, having players stand in correct areas, doing certain armor lock clips, the placement of the Ghosts, revert grabbing the concussion, just a ton of subtle steps that needed to be done in a certain order," Sekala continued.

The end result can be seen above, and it's pretty mind-blowing, as it kind of takes you into a Halo space seldom seen.

Better still, the squad will continue experimenting with Halo tricks, even after a time-consuming one such as this. "The interest has never faded from the group," Sekala said. "There are periods where we can think of nothing to solve certain tricks, but over time new ideas form and discoveries are made that aid in the solving of these tricks, or maybe not. Trial and error always go hand in hand with success, though. When there is an idea, there is always great excitement. But in the end, even after an unsuccessful attempt, or a thousand unsuccessful attempts, we know someday, maybe tomorrow, maybe a year from now, or ten, we will accomplish what we set out for.

"That's what drives us and keeps our interest, that drive to knock out the remaining challenges; no matter how long it takes. I remember countless hours invested into the Destroyed Science Wing, the many evolutions this trick has taken on, and the frustration, confusion, dead ends, late nights, and here we are, with the completion of one of, if not, the biggest Reach trick."

We wish them the best of luck on what they do next.

(Hat tip to Kotaku for the info!)