The Master Chief

The Master Chief

Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 is a fictional character and protagonist of the Halo fictional universe, created by Bungie. Master Chief is a player character in the series of science fiction first-person shooter video games: Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4. Outside of video games, the character appears in novels – Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood, Halo: First Strike, and Halo: Uprising – and has cameos in other Halo media, including Halo: Reach, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, The Halo Graphic Novel, Halo Legends and Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. He is voiced by Chicago disc jockey Steve Downes in the video games in which he appears.

Master Chief is one of the most visible symbols of the Halo series. Originally designed by Bungie artists including Marcus Lehto, Rob McLees and Shi Kai Wang, the character is a towering and faceless cybernetically-enhanced supersoldier; he is never seen without his green-colored armor and helmet. Downes based his personification of the Chief on an initial character sketch which called for a Clint Eastwood-type character of few words.

The Master Chief is a video game icon, a relative newcomer among more established franchise characters, such as Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog and Lara Croft. The character has received a mixed reception. Some have described the Chief's silent and faceless nature as a weakness of the character, while other publications suggested these attributes better allows players to assume his role.