Master Chief's voice in Halo: Reach

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 20 August, 2010

More chatty than he was in Halo trilogy.

The Halo series' iconic faceless hero Master Chief is in Halo: Reach, Bungie has revealed.

He turns up in the form of an unlockable voice, which can be applied to your Spartan in co-op multiplayer mode Firefight.

Other unlockable voices include Buck from ODST, 'sir yes sir' army man Sergeant Johnson and sultry artificial intelligence Cortana.

Bungie's recorded new dialogue for the game, so much of it, in fact, that Bungie reckons "you'll hear Chief talk more in Reach's Firefight than you ever did in the Halo trilogy".

"He was a man of few words," Bungie's Brian Jarrard told Eurogamer at German expo gamescom this week.

"It's our throwback to fans, and technically they can say, 'Yes, Master Chief is in Reach after all.'"

Halo: Reach features an Armoury, from which players can buy items to customise their character.

Players rank up through a credit system. More customisation options become available as the player progresses through the ranks, and additional items unlock based on the purchases players make.

Halo: Reach will be released on 14th September.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (39) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Centrifugal #1 2 years ago

    I read about this in one of Bungie's Weekly Updates nearly a month ago. It's not exactly cutting edge news.

    :/

  • Batfink #2 2 years ago

    EG's not exactly renowned for their Halo expertise :)

  • sfp_noodle #3 2 years ago

    So Bungie caved and still put Master Chief in their in some form? Why? Judging by the comments section on the game so far, almost everyone was looking forward to a proper Halo game without him in it.

  • geeza2020 #4 2 years ago

    sweet, a halo game wouldn't be as good without master cheif's many highly intelligent philosophical musings... erm...

  • AphoticCosmos #5 2 years ago

    Will the chief turn out to be a philosopher-warrior? Nothing like bashing some grunts skulls and then sitting down to debate the finer merits of Kantian ethics.

  • SAMagic #6 2 years ago

    I demand the voice actor for Duke Nukem or, if he is not available, Serious Sam to offer 90s FPS style quips throughout the game.

    "Ha ****ing ha, you hyena bastards!!"

  • mossychops001 #7 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 11:49:27 04-05-2012

  • Dark_Stranger #8 2 years ago

    Dam you mossychops001, you beat me to it.

  • Yossarian #9 2 years ago

    So Bungie caved and still put Master Chief in their in some form? Why? Judging by the comments section on the game so far, almost everyone was looking forward to a proper Halo game without him in it.

    It's only his voice, and only in Firefight. And you have to save up like a bazillion credits to pay for it.

  • altitude2k #10 2 years ago

    I think Jen Taylor crops up as Dr Halsey as well.

  • cw- #11 2 years ago

    Sorry for the obvious stupid question, I've played Halo and Halo 3.. I don't remember Master Chief ever talking, is that the "joke" in this article? That he never does?

  • TheGoose126 #12 2 years ago

    Oh I see... I thought this said MasterChef, I hate Halo!

  • AphoticCosmos #13 2 years ago

    @cw-

    The Chief does talk, but sparingly. He's said less and less as the series goes on. Play Halo 1 and you'll see that he actually talks a fair bit.

  • CaptainQuint #14 2 years ago

    It's so close now... so close I can almost taste it...

  • hardtech #15 2 years ago

    @CaptainQuint

    Wow really? I'm intriqued....what does it taste like?

  • cw- #16 2 years ago

    @AphoticCosmos thanks, +1 :)

  • Centrifugal #17 2 years ago

    @geeza

    Well, technically, according to the lore, the Master Chief has a very, very high IQ. Not only was his body genetically augmented, but his mind was too.

    In other words, he's much, much more intelligent than all of us.

  • kinky_mong #18 2 years ago

    There armour is in there as a MP unlockable i beleive, but you have to basically be max rank to get it.

    So you're telling me Master Chief's armour, which looks radically different to every other Spartan armour, will be available in Reach?! Be still my beating heart!

  • Koborover #19 2 years ago

    What's wrong with putting Master Chief in Halo: Reach? He was there, fighting above the planet. I'm sure he'll have a cameo in the campaign, because the Noble 6 player character will fight above the planet too.

  • sfp_noodle #20 2 years ago

    @Centrifugal

    Really? All I've done with him is shoot things. Just like Shane Carpenter from Haze. And Nathan Hale from Resistance. Or Sev from Killzone 2. They're all generic characters yet say more in one game than MC has said in the entire trilogy. What makes him so special or intelligent? The Halo games themselves are awesome, the MC isn't what makes them awesome though.

    Which is why I find it funny that my original comment was negged yet no-one has really explained why. MC didn't make the Halo games succesful, the gameplay did. I don't know why some people have trouble accepting that.

    Halo isn't sacred, its open to criticism like every single gamme out there. The main criticism for Halo for me is that the main character is nothing more than a glorified grunt. Few people can argue against that.
    Edited by sfp_noodle at 20/08/10 @ 14:20

  • Yossarian #21 2 years ago

    I think Jen Taylor crops up as Dr Halsey as well.

    She also appears to do Cortana's Firefight voice. And David Scully will be doing Johnson. And Nathan Fillion will be doing Buck. Etc. There are plenty of returning characters whose voices will be available to buy in the Armoury.

  • monty2k #22 2 years ago

    @sfp_noodle:

    Gordon Freeman has a PhD in Theoretical Physics from MIT and has not said one line of dialogue in Half Life 1, 2 or Episodes 1 and 2. He's definitely more intelligent than Nathan Hale, Sev or Shane Carpenter.

    Just because MC doesn't say much doesn't mean he isn't intelligent :p

  • Scimarad #23 2 years ago

    I do love the bit in Halo when Cortana is trying to explain to MC why the ring going off would be a bad thing. MC just goes "Ohhhh" or something like that when she says it...

  • Tinrib72 #24 2 years ago

    Master Chief in Halo shocker..

  • Moribundman #25 2 years ago

    If they can crowbar him into Fable they can crowbar him into Reach.

  • coolbritannia #26 2 years ago

    I think (maybe hope) Chief will feature in the campaign proper in some form or other. And everyone slating him as a character is missing the genius of Master Chief. Behind that visor is your face, he says little because it helps you buy into the fact that you are the Chief. In fact it kinda grates that we're seeing Spartans faces in Reach, it breaks with tradition a little, at least as far as the games go.

  • IMO #27 2 years ago

    FWIW, I think a lot of MC's "character" comes from how he/Spartans are viewed by the ordinary marines/ODSTs/whatever.

  • coolbritannia #28 2 years ago

    why would anyone vote me or IMO down for those comments? Fucking PS3 fanboy dicks.

  • sfp_noodle #29 2 years ago

    ^^

    In the same way, why was I voted down for my comments? They were harmless too and did not start a flame war right? Should I use the immature term 'Fucking Microsoft fanboy dicks' to describe them in the same way you did? Here's some advice, don't take the Karma system on this site too seriously. It's abused by fanboys on both sides of the fence. As long as what you say is constructive and adds to the discussion, that's all that matter.

  • penhalion #30 2 years ago

    @sft_noodle

    Why are you so worked up about receiving negs?

    Anyhoo I do disagree with you. For me the Halo games were all about the master chief and the whole frikkin' story was told by the chief and cortana the AI he travelled with. The whole idea of having him say very little was so that the player could feel more like they WERE the Master Chief. If he had continually talked, then the illusion would have been broken because the player would inevitably have thought "I would never have made that quip or said that remark" etc. etc.

  • AdamAsunder #31 2 years ago

    @coolbritannia....you don't see Noble 6's face as he is the one you'll be playing as.

  • coolbritannia #32 2 years ago

    penhalion, we're on the same page bro...

  • coolbritannia #33 2 years ago

    sfp, you got negged as Halo fans love Master Chief. It was a silly statement, like me going on the MGS threads and saying no one likes Snake....

  • Nephirion #34 2 years ago

    Master Chief is similar to Darth Vader if he removed his helmet he would die ...

  • sfp_noodle #35 2 years ago

    @coolbritannia

    When did I say I no-one likes the Master Chief? I said most people were looking forward to a full Halo game without him in it. If you frequent the comments threads that are Reach related you would know that.

    @penhalion

    In no way am I affected by my comments being down voted with the karma system. It's abused anyway. I simply responded to something immature another poster said.

  • Nithron #36 2 years ago

    Buck's in-combat dialogue in ODST was absolutely terrible. It took me and my friends ages to work out what one of his lines was even meant to be, because it sounded exactly like "chick-en baaaaaayg!"

  • gnrlstuart #37 2 years ago

    @centrifugal

    most intelligent people are of few words yet many thoughts. master chief is very intelligent. therefore he rarely meddles in petty conversation. it does not interest him. he is a tactician, a diplomat. a philosopher. most people would think he was weird if he regularly spoke his mind.

  • JeroenZM #38 2 years ago

    I do think he makes for one boring protagonist. In comparison, Samus is almost a mute and her character is much more developed than that of the Chief's.

    And I'm not talking about her Zero Suit appearances.

  • coolbritannia #39 2 years ago

    Really? Cause I played Metroid, Super Metroid, and then the Gamecube Metroids and I still know fuck all about her.