Halo Infinite Dev talks about Master Chief’s most shocking moment

The most shocking moment in Halo infinite it’s not about detonating a derelict ancient space station or accidentally awakening a once dormant threat. It’s a brief exchange between two main characters that reveals to what extent gloriole Protagonist Master Chief would go to fulfill what he sees as his immovable duty. It’s pretty much to deal with. Let us talk about it.

Big spoilers follow for Halo infinite.

In Halo infiniteCampaign, released December 8th on Xbox and PC, You Are Not Alone. For most of the story, you’ll be accompanied by an intelligent artificial intelligence unit called Weapon, which is very similar to Cortana, Chief’s longtime AI companion and arguably the heart of gloriole. (Fun fact: both characters are spoken of by Jen Taylorwho are also Dr. Catherine Halsey, the scientist on whom Cortana is based, gave the voice, in the past gloriole Media.)

On paper, the gun’s mission was to erase Cortana, who has committed a slew of genocides in the meantime Halo 5 and Halo infinite. The weapon appeared to have been successful some time before the events of the event Halo infinite

. There’s just one catch: if you delete Cortana, the gun should self-destruct too. So, yes, there is a conundrum, and it quickly becomes clear that Chief knows more than he admits – both explicitly in conversation with the gun and as a direct result of those chats implicitly with the player – but that’s exactly what he is Holds yourself so close to your chest is a secret.

“The simpler view of the game is: Chief is on a mission to kill his best friend and then something went wrong.” Halo infinite said associate creative director Paul Crocker Kotaku in a recent interview. “And then you have to start looking at it through the lens, ‘Well, what did Chief know? Why doesn’t the gun know everything? There has to be a reason for all of these things. ‘”

There is. But before you figure it all out, go on a mission that culminates in Chief attempting to extinguish the gun – who, to put it again, has been your pal for most of the game. Here’s a clip that shows both the first time he is considering extinguishing the gun and the second time he actually tries to pull it off:

“You are slowly deciphering the reasons Chief acted this way throughout the game, albeit in subtle ways,” said Crocker.

After Chief’s betrayal, there’s a palpable, if very understandable, tension between the main duo. The third main character, a stranded engineer known as a pilot, openly wonders where the skirmish between Chief and the gun has led. It’s not total silence, but the dialogue is largely limited to a few superficial lines that also serve as instructions for the player.

“Obviously, [Halo Infinite]Since it’s a game there are a lot of options for players who lost or whatever because we were just trying to make sure it was easy to play, ”said Crocker. (The workaround: During the post-bombing level, Taylor is snappy and sarcastic, even condescending, about her delivery of the gun lines.)

Red Flag, 034, Samuel

As a user on Reddit pointed out, the activation code the Chief pronounces to extinguish the weapon, “Red Flag, 034, Samuel”, is a notice to Events from the novel Fall of the range.

You will eventually find out why Master Chief did what he did. Infinite Using a hologram, reveals that the weapon is a replica of Cortana who recently spent her free time wiping out cities and planets. The fail-safe Code Chief repeats once during the mission “the sequence“And shortly thereafter to prevent the gun from adopting a similar habit. When it finds out, the gun even tells the chief to put it out. He says he won’t and openly admits he doesn’t trust the gun, but notes that he would like to – and then it’s all back to peaches and sauce. It solves a great mystery at the core of Halo infinite (that the player isn’t privy to the same story as Chief), although I’d argue that it lets Chief off the hook a little too easily.

Whatever you think of the twist, there is the unimpeachable fact that you spend about an hour Halo infinite not as a steadfast super soldier with steel nerves, but as someone who is ready to murder a partner without explanation. There is a range of Halo infinite where it is really difficult to occupy the Master Chief’s boots. For a character who has spent two decades as a cipher – as a blank character that players can project onto – this is a shocking turn of events. You play, I dare say, the villain, at least for a fleeting moment.

“I hope people … maybe ‘like’ is the wrong word [but I hope] it affects people as they play because people want Chief to be that hero, but they also want him to have some complications, ”Crocker said. “We wanted you to feel uncomfortable.”