Bungie: Why Master Chief hardly speaks

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 2 February, 2011

Less is more.

Bungie deliberately made Halo star Master Chief a man of few words so players would feel more like him.

"We left-out details to increase immersion; the less players knew about the Chief, we believed, the more they would feel like the Chief," explained Bungie lead writer Joseph Staten to Industry Gamers.

"When it came to the Halo novels and other products of the expanded universe, immersion wasn't as important as deepening understanding.

"Immersion was the main goal here. Also keeping the Chief a man of few words reinforced what we wanted to be a tough-as-nails soldierly persona."

Master Chief is almost as famous for his vacuous personality as he is for saving the universe. Throughout the hugely popular first-person series, he's never taken his helmet off to reveal what he looks like.

And yet the Chief bears incredible responsibility – alone. He is, after all, the only man capable of saving the earth from total destruction. This, again, was a deliberate design decision on Bungie's part.

"In the first Halo game we absolutely designed experiences around themes of loneliness and abandonment," Staten revealed. "Halo didn't dwell on the loss of the other Spartans (the closest we came was some of the 'combat dialog' from friendly A.I. For example, 'Look, a Spartan! I thought they all died on Reach...'), but we did absolutely want players sometimes to feel the weight of the Chief's heavy responsibilities.

"Take, for example, the mission where the Chief leaves Cortana to search for his commanding officer, Captain Keyes, only to end up witnessing the recorded deaths of other soldiers who might have lived had the Chief been with them."

2010's Halo: Reach was the last Bungie game, but 2007's Halo 3 was the Chief's last videogame outing. Now, with Microsoft's 343 Industries at the helm, what will become of him?

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 (27) Latest comment 1 year ago

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

  • Golgo #1 1 year ago

    Good idea. Look what happened to Samus Aran when the silly mare opened her mouth.

  • geeza2020 #2 1 year ago

    "Bungie: Why Master Chief hardly speaks"

    Because our writers are terrible at creating believable dialogue.

    I guess they couldn't really say that though....

  • crazyhorse174 #3 1 year ago

    I take it there must be another Halo game due soon, hence the obligatory Halo story?

    (I love Halo by the way)

  • gav082 #4 1 year ago

    I never felt like I was the chief, and his lack of speech made it hard for me to care about weather he lived or died.

  • oceanmotion #5 1 year ago

    They did a tiny bit better with Reach, making you feel like the main guy during game play from your perspective in non playing scenes but other than that it really doesn't work well in the game world like Half Life does. Bungie really do suck at story telling. Halo CE was jammy as the the lack of story made it better. See what happens when they do try, Halo 2 onwards, ugh.
    Edited by oceanmotion at 02/02/11 @ 15:15

  • RodHull #6 1 year ago

    I enjoyed the pulp science fiction of the first game. As soon as the alien politics and Gravemind reared their ugly heads I started to lose interest. Thanks the nipple that the games are so darned fun to play!

  • CaptainQuint #7 1 year ago

    Although the writing in the games is muddled and unnecessarily confusing, I still appreciate what Bungie were trying to do. I still enjoy it for what it is.

    I'll take their stab at spinning an ambitious videogame yarn over yet another "globetrotting" mission to kill some generic terrorists.

  • metalangel #8 1 year ago

    Master Chief good. Noble 6 and the Ethnically Diverse Action Rangers bad. I didn't give a crap about any of them, the only bad thing when one of them died in a cutscene was one less invincible NPC to draw the enemy's fire in the next level.

    Not all the Spartans died on Reach, y'know.

  • Vistrix #9 1 year ago

    Why does Master Chief hardly speak?

    Because Gordon Freeman doesn't.

  • RealityCheque #10 1 year ago

    "Not all the Spartans died on Reach, y'know."

    But from the point of view of everyone in H:CE, they did. The last thing that happens before the jump to hyperspace where you pick up the story from is a few the rest of John-117's squad dying on a spaceship (bar one) and the rest of the SpartanIIs being on a planet that was being glassed from orbit. You can understand their pessimism.

  • retr0gamer #11 1 year ago

    I thought it was because he was so generic.

  • carlitoswagon #12 1 year ago

    A gentleman doesn't speak with his mouth full and Master Chief is partial to a few biscuits ................ would have been a more reasonable answer.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #13 1 year ago

    They do have a point but in the end they failed. If your main character does not speak then you better make damn sure that the other characters (or environment) do the necessary talking to create immersion.

    Valve knows how to do that. HL2 and Portal work brilliantly. Metroid Prime works very well.

  • AVisualEpiphany #14 1 year ago

    So, for the exact same reasons R* decided not to have Claude speak in GTAIII?

  • metalangel #15 1 year ago

    @RealityCheque: Not all the Spartans were on Reach to begin with, though. Remember there were hundreds of SPARTAN-IIIs.

  • MaFlippinHeadHurts #16 1 year ago

    I think it was the correct choice, worked for me anyway as I can't wait to play as Master Chief again one day

    Reach was brilliant but I did miss Master Chief!

  • Nithron #17 1 year ago

    I always liked the minimalistic dialogue just because it made the Chief seem more badass. He had the whole Clint Eastwood thing going on.

    Also, the fact he used laconic wit and was a Spartan was a nice historical reference, although judging from this story that was just a coincidence.

  • Pumpatron #18 1 year ago

    I think it worked. Not because I felt like I was the Chief, but because it portrayed him as a no-nonsense soldier.
    He spoke when he needed to, if he'd been spouting macho bullshit every five minutes it would have ruined it for me.

  • JamieR #19 1 year ago

    I like it when the playable person talks when they added more dialog for the player in fable 3 it didn't damage the game for me at all but when mute it dose damage it because it limits the story and it looks silly when he is talked and don't reply like a retard looks like he is busy day dreaming about what girls he would take to a island give the choice of 5 celebrity women.

  • Tallon4 #20 1 year ago

    "Gimme a weapon"

    Chief hardly speaks,but what he says is fuckin' A.

    The other audio bits are awesome too. The chatter of the Marines really is hilarious sometimes.

  • rottingyoda #21 1 year ago

    If i had heard Gordan Freeman speak I think I would of liked Half-Life a lot less.

    Speaking can also ruin characters. I for one will never play a Final Fantasy game ever again after listening to choir boys with perfect tans ruin the the hard work of Cloud and Squall.

  • Rack #22 1 year ago

    Doesn't really work since I'm not a mute. Mind you I still have no idea what language he or anyone else in Halo speaks, other than "swamped out by loud explosions"

  • medicineboy #23 1 year ago

    Well duuh

  • medicineboy #24 1 year ago

    Well duuh

  • metalangel #25 1 year ago

    They're right. You might think it would be great to play as Sgt Maj. Johnson but then you'd have a completely overpowering personality swamping your game, like the dude in Bulletstorm. Duke Nukem gets away with it because the whole game is a joke, but Halo is a bit more serious and constant quips from the protagonist would spoil it a bit.

    Playing as Dutch, for example, in ODST Firefight and he makes his silly comments a bit too often. In Reach they seem to have refined it a bit, so they don't quip quite as often but when they do, you appreciate it all the more.

  • louyfitz #26 1 year ago

    Because the more he speaks the more he sounds like Jack Bauer.

    Pretty someone at bungie held a dictaphone to 24 playing on the TV.

  • azazel_fallenangel #27 1 year ago

    Well someone read an interview with Miyamoto and claimed originality.
    Link has never said a word, not even in text, to create a better sense of bond between you and the character. Even his name "Link", alludes to this.
    The fact that the Zelda games are 3rd person allows us to see, and better mould his personality.
    In the words of the master himself:
    "..."