Legendary Master Chief actor says he didn't like doing voice work for Halo 5's misleading ads because it made it harder to "stay true to the character"

The iconic voice of Master Chief in Halo, Steve Downes, has spoken out about Halo 5's weirdly misleading promotional videos... more than 10 years later.

In case you weren't around or have forgotten, before Halo 5's release in 2015, 343 and Microsoft released various trailers and promotional videos showing all sorts of stuff that would end up not being included at all and in some cases was seriously misleading, specifically Master Chief's relationship with the game's other playable protagonist, Spartan Locke.

According to Downes, it was difficult to perform for these misleading ads because he felt like it was a betrayal of character.

"When I was in session for the game, we also did separate sessions that ended up being promos and trailers to promote Halo 5, and as many of you know, those stories, those trailers sort of led you to believe one thing when in fact it was another thing in the actual game," said Downes in a recent YouTube AMA. "And I sort of knew that when we were doing it, and felt that perhaps the Chief was being pushed in a direction that I didn't feel was particularly right. So, trying to keep the director happy and also be true to the character became a little more of a challenge than what I was used to."

The Voice of Master Chief Answers Halo Fans’ Biggest Questions | Steve Downes Q&A - YouTube

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There's never been an official explanation for why these pre-release materials were so deceptive, but a common theory is that the game went through a major rewrite after the ads had been produced and it was too late to re-do them.

At another point the AMA, Downes got onto the much more topical issue of generative AI in video game development, and made his stance very clear: AI voice cloning is "where we cross a line."

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