Master Chief, also known as John-117, was first introduced in the very first Halo, Halo: Combat Evolved for the original Xbox in 2001. Over nearly two decades, the Master Chief has evolved over the course of five Halo games, novels, TV series, and more. And he will likely see more changes over the course of the next major release in the franchise, Halo Infinite, coming this fall.
The journey of Master Chief has been an interesting one, from what was basically an empty shell for the player to a fully-fleshed out character whose human side has been brought more to the forefront in the latest entries in the series. Not only has Master Chief grown in complexity of design thanks to advancing technology and re-designs, but he, John-117, has become integral to the narrative of the mainline Halo games, with Halo Infinite up next.
Halo: Combat Evolved
In Halo: Combat Evolved, the remaster of which was just released on PC, Master Chief is very famously a nearly empty shell for the player to in which to insert themselves. Bungie, who developed the original Halo trilogy, is well known for designing its main characters in this way, with the thought that anyone can pick up the controller and take on the role of Master Chief. Of course, Master Chief does speak in Halo: Combat Evolved, but his lines are short, direct, and to-the-point, quickly getting any of his character out of the way quickly to let the player take over.
Master Chief serves mostly as an avatar in the first game, a super soldier in space that is the only one who can seemingly face the threat of the Covenant and the Flood. Similar to Link in The Legend of Zelda games, Master Chief is the archetype that players assume to play through Halo: Combat Evolved.
When it comes to Master Chief's design, it was obviously limited by the power of the original Xbox. Master Chief had much simpler armor than in subsequent games, but it set the style for Master Chief. Below is one of the first pieces of concept art, drawn by Marcus Lehto, who is a co-creator of Halo and credited with the creation of the version of Master Chief fans know as his Mjolnir Mark V armor.
Halo 2
In Halo 2, Master Chief got an upgrade in design, which was explained narratively right away. The game opens on Cairo Station, a space station in earth's orbit and Master Chief is awarded and receives the Mjolnir Mark VI armor, a numerical step up from his armor from the first game.
After the popularity of the first Halo, many fans read the novel The Fall of Reach (which actually released a month before the first game in 2001), which tells the story of Master Chief, also known as John-117. This novel filled in a lot of information about Master Chief as a character, but when it came to the games, his personality still remained strong but minimal, staying out of the way of players' experience.
Halo 3
In Halo 3, Master Chief's armor did not receive a major overhaul, looking very similar to the Halo 2 version of the Mark VI armor, but the armor did get a bit of a visual upgrade because Halo 3 released on Xbox 360 as compared to Halo 2 on the original Xbox.
Halo 3 also sees more of a gradual evolution of Master Chief, as a bit more of his character comes to the forefront, most notably in relation to his relationship with Cortana. As the conclusion to the original trilogy (and the last mainline entry developed by Bungie), Master Chief's character comes more to the top instead of being just an empty shell for players to inhabit. Interestingly, this is perhaps best exhibited by the fact that Master Chief is never called by his name John in the games at all; that is, until the ending cutscene of Halo 3 when Cortana uses his name.
Halo 4
Halo 4 was the first entry in the series developed by Microsoft's own, then-newly established Halo studio 343 Industries. It notably focused heavily on the character of John-117, giving him more of a voice (literally, as he speaks more than any other previous game) and narrative presence in the game's story. It was a decision that is still divisive among fans, some of whom still prefer Master Chief to remain more "Chief" than John. But it was clear that 343 wanted to make John-117 a stronger character than just the player avatar that he had been in previous games.
John-117 also received a major design overhaul in Halo 4, giving his Mjolnir armor a huge facelift and new abilities. It served the game well, offering some fresh abilities for players to have beyond what they had known in the first three games; however, fans had to overlook how Master Chief's armor had received so many upgrades when he was had been locked in stasis since the events of Halo 3. Halo 4 was released on Xbox 360 just as Halo 3 was, yet 4 is arguably the better-looking Xbox 360 game, with 343 pushing out some beautiful near-next gen visuals including the most detailed Mjolnir armor that Master Chief had ever worn.
Halo 5
Like the move from Halo 2 on Xbox to Halo 3 on Xbox 360, Halo 5 saw a visual upgrade to Master Chief's armor from Halo 4 but more so in terms of the console upgrade rather than a design upgrade. 343 Industries continued its design of Master Chief into its second game with not too much changing visually between the fourth and fifth entry of the series.
In the same way, John-117 takes center stage again in the narrative, with his story being central whether players took on the role of Chief himself or the second main character in the story, Jameson Locke. The campaign and its story were generally regarded as a miss by players, especially considering that the marketing for the game appeared to be misleading to what the game eventually ended up being.
Halo Infinite
Halo Infinite is by all accounts Halo 6 in that it continues Master Chief's story and is still very much his game. The best look of Master Chief's armor for Halo Infinite (at least the armor he appears to start the game with should he receive any upgrades at any point of the game) came in the "Discover Hope" trailer for the game from E3 2019.
His armor seems a little more classic akin to Halo 2 and 3 than his heavily-militarized versions from Halo 4 and 5), which was also seemingly confirmed by new Halo Infinite toys that were recently shown at the New York Toy Fair. Knowing 343's history, John-117 is also likely to continue to be a strong character in the story, continuing to develop his character rather than to let him fall into the background, but time will tell when the game releases later this year.
Halo Infinite releases Holiday 2020 for PC and Xbox Series X.