Halo Infinite will be Master Chief's sixth time protecting humanity from the galaxy's overwhelming threats. The latest Halo Infinite preview featured a wealth of Master Chief dialogue, with one fan comparing it to his legendary appearance in Halo 2.
Master Chief is the mascot of the Xbox platform as well as one of gaming's most recognizable characters. For 20 years the Master Chief has been in the trenches of galactic scale conflicts against the Covenant, the Flood, the Prometheans, and most recently, Halo Infinite's Banished threat. As a character, the early games personified Master Chief as a stoic, and mostly reserved soldier, spouting direct responses and legendary one-liners, while more recent titles have attempted fleshing him out more, primarily through his relationship with his AI companion, Cortana. It seems that like his armor design, Master Chief will be channeling an earlier iteration of himself in Halo Infinite.
BentoDraws recently posted a video comparing Master Chief's dialogue in Halo Infinite and Halo 2 to the Halo subreddit page. The video cuts between clips from Halo 2 Anniversary's gorgeous cutscenes and segments of the recent Halo Infinite campaign preview, where Master Chief provides similar dialogue. For example, BentoDraws' video starts with Halo 2's legendary cliffhanger ending, where Lord Hood asks Master Chief what he is doing on the Forerunner Dreadnought ship, to which he simply responds, "Sir, finishing this fight." This scene is compared directly to one of Master Chief's conversations with the Pilot in Halo Infinite's introduction (presumably), the panicked Pilot saying, "We need to run!" but the Master Chief cooly retorting, "No, we need to fight."
https://old.reddit.com/r/halo/comments/qgj82y/infinite_chief_is_heavily_channeling_halo_2_chief/
While its clear that Master Chief can still deliver strong and relatively serious lines, BentoDraws also shows Master Chief's playful side is still around. Cortana challenges Master Chief in another Halo 2 cutscene chiding, "Bet you can't stick it," as he primes a plasma grenade, to which he returns, "You're on." BentoDraws compares this scene to one from Halo Infinite, where Master Chief's new AI known only as The Weapon, points out a Scorpion tank, stating, "Could be useful. If you like that sort of thing." Naturally, Master Chief assures in his gravelly voice, "Oh, I like it," as he blows a group of Grunts away with a tank round.
While 343 Industries' direction for Master Chief in Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians was ambitious, offering a more dramatic and nuanced side of the character, it didn't stick with everyone. Part of Master Chief's appeal in the original Halo trilogy was the character's balance of serious yet quippy dialogue, and his literal hard-headedness, sometimes misreading situations, but always sticking to the mission. Halo Infinite looks like a return to these roots, becoming the symbol of strength for humanity he was in the original trilogy, while also being confident and somewhat vulnerable with his AI companion.
Halo Infinite releases December 8 on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.