Halo‘s Master Chief has always been seen as an incredibly powerful force across the franchise’s many games. Halo Infinite is not different, with 343 going out of its way to ensure players know Master Chief may as well be winning a war all by himself. One interesting question worth asking is whether the Master Chief of Halo Infinite is comparably strong to the Master Chief of Bungie’s years, or even the original Halo: Combat Evolved. A clip comparing the first and the latest Halo games in the franchise poses just that question.
The video of focus takes clips from both Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo Infinite, providing a humorous but also quite interesting comparison of Master Chief’s relative strength in the games. Or, to be more specific, a comparison of Master Chief’s armor and shield strength between the two games. Both clips feature Master Chief taking a full blast of hardlight from a Forerunner Monitor.
The first blast comes from Halo: Combat Evolve‘s 343 Guilty Spark, who turns on Master Chief after learning of his goal to destroy the Halo installation. The example taken from Halo Infinite features the Forerunner sub-Monitory Adjutant Resolution, which attacks Master Chief due to his plan to disable Installation 7’s Spires. Adjutant Resolution appears to use an identical attack against Master Chief as Guilty Spark did, only his hardlight laser is all but ineffective compared to Chief being laid out by Guilty Spark’s attack.
Responses to the video online are largely lighthearted and treat it as the fun and not-so-serious comparison that it is. For example, one fan says if the game was on Legendary difficulty, Master Chief would have been vaporized. Another offers a simple, one-word answer: “Nanobots.”
A surprising number of Halo fans embrace the comparison, however, and flex their knowledge of lore to provide a rational explanation for the difference in strength. The most popular response is that Halo: Combat Evolved‘s Master Chief is wearing Mjolnir Mark V armor, made prior to humanity interacting with Forerunners in any capacity. In Halo Infinite, Master Chief is wearing GEN 3 armor, made after humanity has become well acquired with hardlight weaponry. Others note that in Halo Infinite, players are also able to strengthen their shields with Spartan technology.
Master Chief has undoubtedly been through many impossible missions through the years. And there’s no argument that fans want to see Master Chief take on even bigger challenges, rather than be laid low by something he got hit with years ago. With these clips, 343 is likely saying that Master Chief isn’t going to be caught off guard again. He has more important things to focus on.
Halo Infinite is available now on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
