Why was the Master Chief missing in Halo Wars? No, it wasn't a mistake by Bungie

Back in 2009, with the Halo saga at the height of its glory and its third installment having appeared just two years earlier, Bungie decided to launch in grand style a game completely different from what was expected from the saga: a spin-off titled Halo Wars that, almost immediately, caused consternation and divided fans between those who appreciated the attempt to do something different and those who demanded Halo 4. And among everyone, in general, the same complaint: Where on earth was Master Chief? Had Bungie forgotten about him? Well. Not exactly.

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What a Boss

Today we learned, after 15 years of speculation, that it was not an oversight by the studio, but a decision made completely consciously. “We didn’t want to use the Master Chief. We needed you to care about everyone else. We believed that the moment Master Chief made his appearance, people wouldn’t care about anything else“. And they are certainly right.

And no, of course, it wasn’t easy to make a game like this. In fact, they asked themselves several times how to turn their FPS into a real-time strategy game, and how to make the Spartans not necessarily the best unit: “Our challenge was to make them an equal option compared to the rest of the units. That’s what a strategy game is”.

Of course, Master Chief returned later in more games than we can list (and was part of the undeniable decline of the saga, which has been stalled since Halo Infinite), but, even though it initially received a somewhat lukewarm reaction, Halo Wars also ended up having a sequel and proving the team behind it right. After all, who needs Master Chief to make a great game?

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