Is Master Chief overrated?

I'm gonna say no.
He's certainly beatable and most Halo fans tend to get that except the real crazy ones that all fanbases have.

I don't think a majority of people read Halo's books compared to those who play the game. In game I'd have to agree that MC has little to no personality and Cortana seems to be the only interesting character between the two

Yeah he's not the most fleshed out character in the game. But really that's a common weakness of FPS protagonists.

I found it amusing that it took another company taking over to get Chief to talk more lol

I don't think Chief is overrated as a character, but his fanboys tend to think in-game mechanics are canon. Such as, oh I don't know, flipping a Scorpion tank effortlessly. The creators said its a mechanic to make the game fun, and if you read the books it puts the Chief in (if I remember correctly) the 2 ton-ish range.

Other than that its hard for people to see him as a great protagonist if they have only played the games. His flat voice and one-liners make him seem like a bad 80s macho action hero. A lot of his character development and personality comes through in the outside media, the Halo books and movies.

I dont think the Cheif is overrated... but i do think the Arbiter is underrated. It sucks, he doesn't get his own story just because the fans kept rawring about how much they wanted to play as Master Cheif instead of the Arbtier.

Halo 2 will always be my favorite Halo.

No

NAO NAO NAO NAO NAO NAO NAO NAO NAO NAO. NAOP.

Lol. I was thinking you'd go over the top with the "no's" ;P

Came here to see your reaction. I was not disappointed :P

In this thread: YNCG tries to turn into a Japanese cat.

Never Played any of the games so I can't really comment.

Dead Space?

@vortex13: Dead Space isn't an FPS, but yeah what's his face doesn't seem that fleshed out as a character in the first game. Then again I didn't get very far. >.>

@yourneighborhoodcomicgeek: Not since 2007 lol

Nope, somes character deserve their fanbased MC is one of those characters

Naaah. Halo was the first game of this generation i've played. So i have reasons to treat him as a king :P

Nope, but i do have some friends who overpower him ( one said he could beat Flash -_- )

Isaac Clarke,and Isaac wound up having a personality and pretty much transformed as a character after they had him start talking in 2 and 3. Anyways out of curiosity..How many are voting truthfully and not just because they like Halo?

yes

How? He stopped galactic genocide twice, takes on armies by himself, redefined first-person shooter, and killed marines with punches when he was a teenager.

Not really. But he has the potential to become overrated.

Going to list a number of things I've seen MC fans say over YT videos,forums,etc

• Can survive a fall from space(which he has)which seems like PIS when guys like Commander Shepard die when falling through a planet's atmosphere
• Can beat people with his amazing "reaction time and reflexes"
• Has defeated the Didact...even though they don't mention he had help from Cortana
• Him training to fight since he was 6 years old seems to make him seem like he has a massive array of combat experience
• Can run at over 50mph
• For some reason they treat Promethean tech,or just Halo's tech in general,as if it's more advanced then any other sci fi

Those are mostly facts however I've seen MC fans blow such things way out of proportion. For ex,Master Chief's reaction times and reflexes means he can hang with the Hulk as I've seen said..Possibly true however Hulk would probably wind up ripping chief in half. What's the most ludicrous thing you've seen a MC fan say?

with the first one it should be noted that without the Mjolnir armor then he would have probably died

as for reaction time...he's about 300% faster than a normal human and he had a ton of surgery enhancements done that included giving him better eyesight so I would imagine that his reaction time is pretty dam$ good

he has trained since he was six and does have a massive amount of combat experience....not only that but they trained all of the Spartans in combat tactics and the history of war

little bit faster...they can go from 0 to 60 pretty much instantly

Promethean tech is definitely out there but I don't know enough about it to compare it to other scifi tech since I haven't read any books with the Prometheans yet....the human tech is waaaaay lower than say Star Trek or even Star Wars tech....they were just getting the hang of ftl drives during Reach and still need A.I.'s on every ship to plot their ftl jumps....the reason they were losing to the Covenant so badly before the Spartans entered the fight was because the Covenant tech was so much better than theirs...Covenant plasma fire could easily melt right through a UNSC ship with only a single shot...even with the Spartans they were getting their butts handed to them most of the time...it wasn't until they started fighting on the ground of Halo that the war turned in the UNSC's favor and that was only because the Covenant was so scared of damaging the Halo with a space battle and the Covenant's ground troops were outclassed by Master Chief along with the Flood being spread throughout the Halo ring during the battle

Master Chief is an A-hole...... I let that dude borrow my copy of Fifty Shades of Grey, and when I got it back there was skeet all over it, pages were missing, and the book smelled like doo doo......... What kind A-hole does that?

@gambit474:

1. How is it PIS when it is done multiple times and even by different people such as Noble Six? Not to mention Noble Six's armour was critically damaged (iirc) because he has a lesser version of the Mjolnir armour.

2. Point? His reaction is 75 times average human in his armour. Seems right to me.

3. Cortana did help him, I don't see why they wouldn't mention that.

4. He does have a lot of combat experience lol. He has at least forty years on him.

5. True.

6. I don't know what to say here.

Is this a Master Chief rant?

Looks like the polls are leaning more towards yes now. People talk about how MC has defeated all these armies..However how efficient would he be without Cortana?

Guess we'll see in the next two games. I find it weird that the poll is flipped to Yes now when the majority of people are saying No but meh.

Judging by some of the responses..Those who don't let loyalty to Halo control their answer will vote truthfully on whether they do or do not think he's overrated.

Overrated in what sense? Any character in which someone has little knowledge can be overrated or underrated. A lot of people may evidently base everything they know off of the games but it's also the EU that digs deeper into the character and others like him.

Can he be overrated? Yes, but this can be said for any character with a fan base. Does that speak for everyone? No.

@deranged_midget: Preach it!

I'm going to say no

Let's go with portayal against other characters. If we compare MC to other sci fi heroes like say Jim Raynor or Isaac Clarke..MC is a pretty bad character compared to them.

"He stopped galactic genocide twice, takes on armies by himself, redefined first-person shooter, and killed marines with punches when he was a teenager"

Exactly why he can be seen as overrated as well..He does this all by himself? Kind of ridiculous if one tries to look at it in a realistic sense..One super soldier is able to topple advanced alien species that greatly outnumber him and Promethean tech that is far beyond him. When they took a vote on who was the most overrated VG character on IGN for ex,here's what was said

"Why he's overrated: Given the pedigree of some of the yahoos on this list, we're almost surprised you went with Master Chief as the most overrated character in gaming. But who are we to argue with the readers?

Granted, the hubbub over Master Chief is disconcerting at times. Halo fans make this Spartan soldier out to be a paragon of storytelling greatness, but really - what is there underneath all that armor to warrant such praise? Chief rarely even talks, much less offers up compelling nuggets of drama. Half the time he could be swapped out with Gordon Freeman and gamers wouldn't know the difference.

No, the truth of the matter is that 95% of what makes Halo so enduringly popular is not exclusively tied to its hero, but rather to its multiplayer mode. The other 5% is the catchy theme music. At the end of the day, Master Chief is just a generic action hero riding on the coat tails of a much better game."

For me,overrated is when the halo fans make MC out as some kind of godlike character who can almost never be beaten or that his accomplishments are things that have never been done before

@gambit474: Still don't see how you think he's overrated. Is it his character? His feats? His fans? What IGN said didn't explain anything lol. They're basically saying "He doesn't talk, so he's overrated".

I could definitely say his fans are a big problem. It's fine to like MC and think he's a cool character..It's not ok to go around proclaiming he can beat Hulk,Dante,Beyonder,and whoever else they think MC can beat because "MC is the best! MC always wins!"

Fanboys will be fanboys. Doesn't mean he's an overrated character.

Like said before, he's not a very fleshed out character like say, Ezio from Assassin's Creed, but they are working on it.

As for feats. Spartans were designed to take out more advanced civilizations, but I have my doubts that MC is your average Spartan.

For fanboys. I guess the fact that MC is around Captain America level and Captain America has hung with Hulk. IDK. Fanboys will be fanboys. Some are just unreasonable no matter what they're a fan of.

You ARE a Japanese cat.

@gambit474 said:

I disagree. I think Master Chief is one of the best sci-fi characters. Eric Nylund did a fine job expanding John-117, as well as the SPARTAN-II Program and his fellow teammates. Even the SPARTAN-II's that had a short life had immense character, such as Samuel-034.

Not ridiculous at all, because he never did any of those all by himself. He had the help of the UNSC Marines, Arbiter, etc. etc. That being said, there are plenty of moments where Master Chief shines solo (even without Cortana), because that is part of his character. Even though he is a Team Leader, he is the last SPARTAN-II in active duty, and must carry the weight of humanity on his shoulders. He is the living metaphor or no matter what the odds, no matter how tough the situation is, mankind will pull through. On top of that, a major factor in his character is his luck, which Dr.Hasley and Cortana themselves have noted as an immeasurable trait John possesses. Even the heavy stereotype of Chief being a lone brick was thrown in for the mainstream Halo fans in Halo 4, when, even though he had the help of the UNSC, the Didact still threw him around like a ragdoll. Take note that Halo 4 was an even more personal story regarding to John and Cortana's relationship. As for the non-mainstream fans, they already know Master Chief isn't god-like. Fall of Reach flawlessly depicts how Master Chief and his fellow SPARTAN-II allies worked exceptional on their own, but were still only human and worked better in teams (especially before their MJOLNIR armor was upgraded).

This is so wrong in so many ways its not even funny.

First of all, even though Master Chief (in the games) is a man of few words, his few words speak a lot. His character is very passive, but very strong. You can feel his pain through his body language. You don't need words to define you. Generic action hero? Point to Call of Duty IGN.

Compare Master Chief to fellow sci fi heroes/anti heroes Kerrigan,Isaac Clarke,Commander Shepard,Jim Raynor,and a good deal of characters who have a far better personality then he. Oh god master chief's luck..That's another thing I forgot to bring up as to why some MC fans tried to say he can beat characters that greatly outclass him. "Because master chief has the power of luck!"

The entire Halo franchise is overrated as a whole.

Master Chief is overrated as a character.

@gambit474:

Obviously his luck won't be able to enable him to defeat opponents out his league, but it would most likely allow him to merely survive the encounter. In fact a major part of the Halo lore is the SPARTAN-II's duty to "live to fight another day". Obviously you're in no position to judge Halo if you don't know much about it. I know I wouldn't start ranting on Fallout since I don't know much about it, although its protagonist isn't exactly known for speaking either.

@vercingetorixthegreat said:

You dare have your own personal opinion that disagrees with mine? Begone with you!

I do have knowledge on Halo..that's the thing. The problem however is when people are using MC's skills and trying to make it sound like he could survive encounters with characters that would utterly destroy him. Would MC's luck help him survive fighting the Scarlet Witch at her House of M levels? No..Yet you'll find MC fans who try to say otherwise

Well than those are just the non-knowledgeable fanboys. Fanboys do not apply to everyone.

Did you recently discover internet comments or something, because you can't read the comments on a youtube video and then presume to understand an entire fanbase. Also based on your other comments it sound like you don't actually know anything about halo which makes me wonder if you're some kind of Sony fanboy just looking bash Halo or something.... the PS4 beat Xbox you can stop now lol.

I've played Halo 1-4,and have achievements from 3 and 4 on my gamertag,Gambit458, if you wish to accuse me of not knowing anything..Since you know,I've played some of the games and all. I've never said I presumed the entire fanbase,however halo's fanbase is notorious for having bad fanboys..Same goes for Call of Duty. Those two have the worst fanbases

This 1000 times over

He is not overrated. If you know anything about him at all, you'd know that he's actually a very flawed character. His haters on the other hand, are those that are out of hand. From what I've seen, his haters outnumber his fanboys by a huge amount anyway.

@gambit474: Halo is notorious for having bad fanboys? Is that a proven fact or just your opinion. I think you just simply hate Master Chief.