Master Chief (Halo)
Master Chief is the protagonist in the Halo game series and spin-off media. Also known as Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, the character appeared in the 2001 video game Halo: Combat Evolved, a science fiction first-person shooter that became a long-running video game series. The character also appears in spin-off Halo media such as the 2012 film Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, the 2022 Halo television series, and several graphic novels and books.
John-117
Master Chief Petty Officer
Halo: The Fall of Reach (2001)
Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)
- Steve Downes
- David Wald
- Alex Puccinelli
The Master Chief is a towering supersoldier known as a "Spartan", trained from childhood for combat. The designers intended for players to be able to project their own intentions into the character and thus reduced his voiced lines and concealed his appearance under his armor. In the video games, the character is voiced by former disc jockey Steve Downes, who based his performance on Bungie's description calling for a man of few words, similar to Clint Eastwood. In spin-off media, he is portrayed by different voice and physical actors, most notably Pablo Schreiber on the 2022 live-action TV series.
A pop culture icon, Master Chief is widely regarded as one of the greatest video game characters of all time, with the character being seen as a mascot for Halo and the Xbox brand.[1] His 2001 debut received a generally positive reception for his character design, with publications praising how the narrative allows players to inhabit the character, while others have criticized him as under characterized. In later Halo games developed by 343 Industries, the characterization of Master Chief earned praise for exploring his humanity and his relationship with Cortana.[2][3]
Cultural impact[edit]
Reception[edit]
Master Chief has been described as "iconic" in multiple media outlets, including IGN, Kotaku, Glixel, GamesRadar, and The Sydney Morning Herald.[71][72][73][74][75] The character has appeared on lists of the best video gaming characters by UGO,[76] Empire,[77] GamesRadar,[78] Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition,[79] Complex,[80] and Time.[81] IGN speculated that the dramatic death of the character would become one of the most powerful events in gaming.[82] Voice actor Steve Downes realized the character was such a huge hit only after children lined up around the block for his autograph a year after the first game shipped.[24] In 2024, a poll conducted by BAFTA with around 4,000 respondents named Master Chief as the eighth most iconic video-game character of all time.[83]
In an article in Time, Lev Grossman called the Master Chief a "new kind of celebrity for a new and profoundly weird millennium", as well as a sign of video games becoming a more legitimate art form.[30] The recognition of Master Chief has spread to mainstream culture; Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas has developed a wax sculpture of the Chief. At the ceremony, Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy called the Master Chief a hero of the times as much as characters like Spider-Man and Luke Skywalker were for previous generations.[84] Master Chief has also been called the de facto symbol for Microsoft, their Xbox console, and a generation of gamers.[74][85][86][87] BusinessWeek listed the Master Chief among several video game characters who have been branded beyond their respective video games, "helping them transcend the very medium in the process".[88]
The faceless nature of the character has alternatively been praised and criticized.[89] Writing for The Artifice, Sam Gray argued that the character's lack of conflict made him uninteresting, as he uncomfortably straddles the line between silent and active protagonist.[90] O'Connor noted that players invest the character with much of his meaning, creating a conflict between players who prefer more personality and those who prefer "a sort of paragon of useful emptiness".[91] Jesse Schedeen of IGN has called him gaming's most overrated character, due to his status as a "generic" action hero.[92]
The more character-focused portrayal of Chief in Halo 4 was positively received. Todd Martens of the Los Angeles Times called Halo 4 a more introspective Halo game, and the first to explore the motivations and emotions of the Master Chief.[87] While reviews found the game's story hard to follow, they praised efforts to flesh out Master Chief's personality and relationship with Cortana.[73][93][94] Halo 5 received backlash from fans about Master Chief's reduced role in the story, as he appeared in fewer story missions compared to Fireteam Osiris.[95] Kotaku's Stephen Totilo wrote that the confrontation between Locke and Master Chief felt "under-cooked", preferring how Hunt the Truth presented the story of a rogue Master Chief.[96] O'Connor responded by promising to refocus on Master Chief in future media.[97]
Analysis and comparisons[edit]
Reviewers have suggested that Master Chief's birth name John-117 could be a Biblical reference.[98][99] Comparing Halo to the Christopher Rowley's novel Starhammer, IGN noted similar elements between Master Chief and the character Jon 6725416.[99] Michael Nitsche of the Georgia Institute of Technology compared Master Chief to Half-Life protagonist Gordon Freeman, as both characters "are the independent, individualistic, and often lonely heroes that gain admiration by constantly proving their superiority ... in technology-driven, hostile, often closed spaces."[100] Roger Travis, associate professor of classics at the University of Connecticut, compared Master Chief to the epic hero Aeneas, as both settings involve superhuman characters protecting civilization against militaristic enemies.[101] Matthew Stover compared Halo to the Iliad, due to the shared theme that "war is the crucible of character".[102] Stover also argues that the cyborg is an apt characterization for the Master Chief, since the character is more relatable than a pure machine, but still not fully characterized as a human being.[102]