Halo Creators Wanted Master Chief To Look Like He Could Take Down An Entire Army

Halo's Master Chief is now well and truly established as one of the greatest video game heroes of all time, but how did it all start out for him? In this month's episode of IGN Unfiltered, co-creator Marcus Lehto reveals how Spartan 117 actually began life as a model named Super Soldier.

The original character concepts by Shi Kai Wang featured a slender, agile, and anime-inspired look.

"Even at that time, there was a character that we called "The Super-Soldier" and that super soldier was, in all honestly, the very root of what became the Master Chief."

"One of our concept artists at that time, whose name's Shi Kai Wang, who is a fantastic, great, talented person - still with Bungie now - had worked on some early concepts that were more anime-inspired for the Master Chief. And we built that character, and it was much more slender and agile-looking, at that time. And that's the character that we showcased in the Macworld demo."

It wasn't long after Halo: Combat Evolved's Macworld demo in 1999 that Lehto realised Master Chief needed to be more of a "tank" that could look like he was capable of taking down an entire army singlehandedly.

"As we started writing the character... the actual story for Halo... and as we started writing who the Master Chief is... this empty vessel that the character would really take the reins with... [we realised] that the slender character wasn't the right kind of feel for the Master Chief, and that he needed to look like a tank that could take on an entire army."

Are you glad the Chief turned out the way he did? Leave a comment down below.