How would you make Masterchief a more compelling and flawed character?

[malestrithe]

And made it pretty much have the same story/backstory as every other action game in the past, oh, 5 or so years.

I'll do you one better. This is the staple cliche of the action movie genre and it goes back almost 50 years. Here are some common variations of it: It is the grizzled old veteran that has been in war longer than he can remember(Saving Private Ryan). It is the office worker that has been beaten down all his life and had one last bad day (Falling Down). It is the vigiliante cop that decides that the law gets in the way of justice (Dirty Harry). It is the old gunfighter that made a mistake in the past and cannot escape from it (Shane). Wow, 4 instances of the same cliche used and they are memorable iteration of it.

It does not matter if he is becomes everyone else because if he has no personality, no history that is explored for longer than a few cutscenes early in the first game, and nothing to distinguish him from the others in the genre he set the current paradigm for. If you want the character to be anything more than another forgettable icon that is instantly replaced as the new thing comes along,

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Then give him a little back story: What was it like in the Spartan labs? Why is he the only one left? How does that knowledge affect him? Does our hero want to do something else other than kill? What was the ultimate point of Spartan? Was it purely a militaristic thing? Or did it have something more sinister?

All this stuff is discussed in detail in the first installment in the Halo franchise.

Apparently not well enough because many non halo fans still do not care about Johnny 117. If it were done a lot better, than more people in the gaming industry would not hate him for existing.

It's actually mostly because most "non halo fans" didn't read the first installment in the franchise (yes, I do mean 'read').

 

[Plurralbles]

take off his helmet for 90% of the game woudl be a good start.

Considering that for about 90% of the game, including cutscenes, John is being shot at or otherwise engaged in firefights with, the Covenant, taking off his helmet would not be a good idea. Especially when it's explained in all three games, plus the books, that his helmet is the only means of communication John has with Cortana. She's uploaded into a neural link in his brain, and that is connected directly to his armour through his helmet, remember?

I've never played the game, but I've played Metroid and thought that it would be a similar situation as I can't seem to see any personality wahtsoever once there's a helmet in the way. makes everything abotu teh character a lot more impersonal and just makes it really difficult to think of it as even human.

I'm sure there's more characterization for Master Chief though, as he speaks.

 

[Kollega]

If i wrote Master Chief, i could have tried giving him a bit more lines and "jerk with the heart of gold" personality.

But he's actually pretty good as he is. He was raised to be supersoldier (which means no angst), and you expect him to be a deep character? That's not how it works.

 

[omega 616]

The tried and tested flaw of him being an alcoholic, it would also make shooting things alot more fun!

 

[malestrithe]

Then give him a little back story: What was it like in the Spartan labs? Why is he the only one left? How does that knowledge affect him? Does our hero want to do something else other than kill? What was the ultimate point of Spartan? Was it purely a militaristic thing? Or did it have something more sinister?

All this stuff is discussed in detail in the first installment in the Halo franchise.

Apparently not well enough because many non halo fans still do not care about Johnny 117. If it were done a lot better, than more people in the gaming industry would not hate him for existing.

It's actually mostly because most "non halo fans" didn't read the first installment in the franchise (yes, I do mean 'read').

Then that means it was largely ignored even by the game's developers and my point is still valid. Because you said "read," I am assuming that there was very little gameplay devoted to this. It was either in the instruction manual or as some extra in gameplay that very few people actually looked at.

Still not good enough. It needed to be a part of gameplay itself. As it stands right now, Masterchief is just a nameless person stuck in a blatant ripoff of Starship Troopers (the move and not the book). He is just liked because the multiplayer is decent, even though Haze had decent multiplayer as well, but no one bought it.

 

[malestrithe]

take off his helmet for 90% of the game woudl be a good start.

Considering that for about 90% of the game, including cutscenes, John is being shot at or otherwise engaged in firefights with, the Covenant, taking off his helmet would not be a good idea. Especially when it's explained in all three games, plus the books, that his helmet is the only means of communication John has with Cortana. She's uploaded into a neural link in his brain, and that is connected directly to his armour through his helmet, remember?

For a cheat used only because the designers did not want to animate faces, you are coming up with excuses that are not necessary. Is is really the only way? Seriously, in the far off future filled with technology significantly more advance than ours, the best they could come up with is a helmet like this. They could not use a ocular implant that picks up these signals, an optical implant for visual feedback, and a wireless hookup built into the suit itself.

Sorry, but this fanboy cop out does not fly because there are other science fiction games that have power armor, wireless communication, and you can still see the person's face.

 

[almostgold]

OK, so I previously said he doesnt need flaws because he's supposed to represent a perfec soldier and badassitude. I take that back. Give him one, huge, personal flaw. Something monstous. My idea is he raped somebody once. Have it brought up in a cutscene. Mention that Master Chief has never felt bad about this. Thus he is both 'perfect' (as a soldier, and still uncompromising), but still 'flawed'

 

[Kukakkau]

Give the player a sense of him questioning if what he does is right or wrong, not just act as instructed all the time

Or even better: TAKE OFF THE HELMET

 

[Mr.Squishy]

Make him behave like a person with emotions and not some sort of killing robot?

You mean to say he's NOT a killing robot? I mean...the lack of emotions while killing hundreds of aliens and encountering space zombies...the dull, almost montone voice and the big, bulky metal frame that never exposes any flesh...huh...

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Then that means it was largely ignored even by the game's developers and my point is still valid. Because you said "read," I am assuming that there was very little gameplay devoted to this. It was either in the instruction manual or as some extra in gameplay that very few people actually looked at.

Still not good enough. It needed to be a part of gameplay itself. As it stands right now, Masterchief is just a nameless person stuck in a blatant ripoff of Starship Troopers (the move and not the book). He is just liked because the multiplayer is decent, even though Haze had decent multiplayer as well, but no one bought it.

I was talking about Halo: The Fall of Reach which was published a couple months before Halo: Combat Evolved.

Now let me describe to you the brilliant presentation of the Halo Universe. There are three basic levels of appreciations:

1 - Normal Player. Just playing for the fun of virtual death and destruction. May or may not play campaign and may or may not watch the cutscenes.

2 - Halo Player. Appreciates the game's story and presentation for what it is. May or may not look into other Halo media.

3 - Halo Fan. Has a deeper understanding of the universe than others thanks to their consumption of all the myriad Halo media. Appreciates the game's story more thanks to their understanding of the nuances and references.

With this setup only those who are actually interested in hearing the backstory will be the ones getting the backstory. Everyone is happy, even those looking for an excuse to mock the Halo games (which calling Halo a blatant rip-off of the Starship Troopers movie clearly indicates you to be).

Also, it's Master Chief not Masterchief. Short for Master Chief Petty Officer which is his rank. Master Chief's actual name is John-117 though he'd normally introduce himself as "Spartan One One Seven".

take off his helmet for 90% of the game woudl be a good start.

Considering that for about 90% of the game, including cutscenes, John is being shot at or otherwise engaged in firefights with, the Covenant, taking off his helmet would not be a good idea. Especially when it's explained in all three games, plus the books, that his helmet is the only means of communication John has with Cortana. She's uploaded into a neural link in his brain, and that is connected directly to his armour through his helmet, remember?

For a cheat used only because the designers did not want to animate faces, you are coming up with excuses that are not necessary. Is is really the only way? Seriously, in the far off future filled with technology significantly more advance than ours, the best they could come up with is a helmet like this. They could not use a ocular implant that picks up these signals, an optical implant for visual feedback, and a wireless hookup built into the suit itself.

Sorry, but this fanboy cop out does not fly because there are other science fiction games that have power armor, wireless communication, and you can still see the person's face.

John's face is never shown so that players can project their identity on to him.

 

[Sanguinius- The Angel]

I would hire new writers.

But really though, In my opinion, he is a really shitty character. That is, in the games, anyway. In the books, he actually has a voice, and a brain. But honestly, I think they need to actually give him some bloody conversation instead of a mess of one liners.

"Give me a gun."

"To finish this fight."

Etc etc.

 

[RatRace123]

He's a soldier, bred through life to act like one, soo.
Besides, he's not a character in an RPG, he's a shooter hero, his role could be replaced by a turret on a pogo stick, and you'd still have the same result.

Actually, that sounds like a badass weapon, I want a pogoturret.

 

[Daedalus1942]

I don't know if it's just me, but all Masterchief did since the first Halo game was be a completely unbreakable badass who was nigh invincible and respected and revered by everyone around him, also being incapable of showing any emotion at all besides determination and conviction.

In the first Halo game, Masterchief was a fearless soldier who was an expert at combat but didn't seem to know much else. Masterchief was somewhat impatient, a bit dimwitted, clueless at times, and easy to manipulate. Cortana was usually the one making the decisions for him and pointing out his objectives while taking care of all the technical work hacking systems and providing data. I'm not saying Masterchief should of stayed this way for the rest of the series. His character has to develop throughout the series, obviously, but making him a completely bland and generic super soldier wasn't the best idea, in my opinion.

So, how would you write his character to be more interesting?

It would be kind of cool I think if he accidentally killed an innocent person, like a small child or a mother or something along those lines. That would some depth into the character, as he'd always be wracked by the guilt of the awful event that transpired.

 

[Therumancer]

I do not believe that every character has to be deeply flawed to be interesting. I personally get tired of all the Angststy, Emo whining by today's "heroes". One of the things that I think makes Master Chief cool (even though I'm not a big Halo fan, I do think the character okay) is that he's not like that. He was neither presented as especially flawed and vulnerable, nor some kind of Warhammer 40k inspired psycho.

Sure, people can talk about how characters like Captain America and Nick Fury have been done before, but everything has been done before pretty much, and you see far less characters like that than you do deeply flawed, tragic, reluctant heroes. Without the straightforward heroes the emo crowd has nothing to compare itself to anyway.

 

[lucky_sharm]

Reading the posts here, people often seem to be confusing "flaw" with "angst". A flawed character doesn't always have to be perpetually moody and depressed. Masterchief wasn't all that interesting in Halo 1, but he did atleast show a little bit of emotion at some points. He showed regret at the end of Halo 1, lamenting that he was the only one that made it out of Halo before it blew up (i know Sarge and some marines made it out of Halo, too, but Masterchief didn't know that yet). He was a bit of an impatient person such as when Cortana was trying to explain what Halo was when they first got to the control room(then again, you can't really blame him, considering the situation that he was currently in). Masterchief was kind of dim, too. He quite nearly destroyed the universe, led by 343 Guilty Spark into thinking that it would only destroy the Flood. Cortana seems to always have to point out the objectives and targets for Masterchief while working on getting information on the Covenant and hacking various channels and systems.


Okay, I'm not saying that Masterchief was a totally revolutionary, inspired, and gripping character in Halo 1. I'm just saying that he was a bit more subtle and had some bits of personality in him. And yes, I know about the novels and how they expand on Masterchief's character more. Not everyone knows about or has read them, though.

 

[quiet_samurai]

Introduce his controlling and manipulative wife in the next installment??

 

[Mr. Gency]

A personality, and a past (the books gave him one why can't the games do it)

 

[LethalGT]

If anyone here had read the books, he does have emotions... but he is a super soldier with completely war-driven motives and has been injected with several things that make him much more emotionless so that he can be more efficient.

 

[Thaius]

I think he was rather interesting throughout. He didn't change all that much, but that's because his change all happened during his conditioning, before the first game. This story is about the fruits of that change, how the man he has become affects the fate of the galaxy's sentient life. It starts about humanity, but in the end, the story becomes a much more personal one as he starts really caring about keeping his promise to Cortana and protecting the people he cares about.

Master Chief is a much more complex and interesting character than most people give him credit for: but you have to look at bit. That's one of his more interesting qualities, really: he has a tough outer shell, but there's a lot under it. Read the books: that'll help you understand.

And personally, I thought the story of the first one was great. The plot twist near the end was pretty brilliant, and the story remained engaging throughout. The second one lacked the wonder and mystery of the first, but made up for it by delving deeper into Covenant society and mythos. The third one was a much more personal story, focusing almost completely on Master Chief and his mission to get to Cortana. All this wrapped in the grand narrative of the war between Covenant and Human. It actually is quite an epic tale, one with much more depth than the bleating Halo-hating lambs understand or acknowledge.