I can appreciate the strong silent type, but in MC's case, you never get any sense of his humanity. It's kind of like, why should I care about MC, I know nothing about him, and that doesn't really change a whole lot. He doesn't need to be a Chatty Cathy, but give me something that clues me in to his persona! (It should be noted, I only played Halo 1 and watched a friend play 2)

Altair from Assassins Creed 1, unassuming and quiet? Are we playing the same game (because I am playing it right now, never finished it...)? He spends most of his lines whining, being threatening, or acting kind of pompous! In short, Altair is kind of a ***!

For the record, Sam Fisher is 1,000% BAMF!

The problem for me with Masterchief is pretty much what Drubacca has said which is that he doesn't seem like a character a more like a vehicle to move you along from one battle to the next...characters don't need to talk to be exciting or deep, if I recall the character in Shadow of the Colossus doesn't really talk, nor does Crono in Crono Trigger...but something that makes a character human and more believable is some kind of story, some kind of emotion, some kind of reaction...none of which MC seems to have in my opinion...

This blog immediately reminded me of Shawn Gordon's blog about character's that suck.

gameinformer.com/.../a-cast-of-characters-that-suck.aspx

People took the title as a deep insult to the characters, but in reality the characters don't offer much in the way of a deep story arch. The only thing that truly defines them is the actions they take, which are controlled by the player. In this way, the character is very shallow and could really be interchanged with another character and it wouldn't really matter.

For me, that is the way I view the Halo series. The actions taken are great, but if it were any other person that you were playing as, it would be basically the same experience (see ODST). Granted, the Halo universe has a greater story arch where Master Chief is concerned that is not addressed in the games. But I think this is a disservice to the character and opens up debate for the quality of character possessed from a literary standpoint.

I'm kind of (really) tired, so I hope this actually made sense.

Yeah, I really like Samus Aran and Gordon Freeman and they're both quiet and unassuming. This is a big factor in my struggle to adapt to Metroid: Other M. In this game, they are trying to provide a backstory for a character that we've never had a backstory for, and on top of that, she's gone from no talking (in previous games) to quite a bit of talking. It's very jarring...

I've only played the first Splinter Cell game, so I only partially realize Sam Fisher's awesomeness. However, I have a feeling that even if I played more of the games, I'd still be a Metal Gear Solid / Solid Snake fanboy. :P

Oh, and John Marston was B.N.B.!!! (which is the acronym I use, that's short for "Bad News Bears.")

I don't know, but I think Commander She-pard blows MC out of the water, and she's hardly silent- being in that one of her many strengths is her powers of persuasion and diplomacy (particularly if you're a more heroic Shepard; otherwise you talk less and punch/shoot more).

Master Chief is just fighting a losing battle as far as making me care. In my mind he's another in a long line of fairly generic space marines; if you don't read or otherwise make yourself to the Halo fiction outside of the games, you never get much of a feel for his personality, or that he has one; he's in a game that I find to be generic/uninspiring pretty much across the board; and lastly, he's in a genre that simply does not produce a lot of well-rounded/developed leads- largely because it's not totally necessary for such a title.

I would also add that I divide shooters, these days, into ones that are story-centric and ones that are action-centric (not that there isn't some cross over, but this simply describes the primary focus). CoD and Halo I'd call action-centric, and Bioshock and Half-Life story-centric; again this doesn't mean CoD doesn't have story or that Half-Life doesn't have fun gameplay. However, I find I am never very compelled to care about or become strongly attached to the action based titles beyond whatever fun they provide in multiplayer (that is to say I might get hooked on one for awhile, but after that it doesn't stick with me like a more cerebral game might). As a pretty general rule, be it MW2 or Halo3 or whatever, I can just barely tolerate the campaign modes in standard FPSes (the action based ones) as I find the stories are always uninspiring, full of the same tropes, and simply no-where near as fun as their multiplayer components.

So, I guess I'd say that A) MC just isn't my cup of tea in terms of the game he's in and that B) the genre of that game doesn't do him any favors as far as setting him up as a strong character from what I suppose you could call a literary standpoint.

Also I think that your Marcus Fenix types are way too dude-bro/ way too 1980s- early '90s. For the most part, if the primary aspect of a character that a fan is likely to mention if their "badassedness" then I don't like them. Duke Nukem was okay because he got the joke, but even his resurrection seems past its expiration date.
I don't know I suppose part of it, as that unlike some people might understandably have, I have no particular love for military-hero type characters- I don't necessarily dislike them, but they don't get points just for being a space marine or whatever. And I'd tend more towards a stringy Pvt. Joker type than a thick-necked Fenix any day.

But MC falls into a group that I think are just not great characters, whereas Fenix falls into the group that I consider bad characters. Like Demon, and the article he links point out, there are plenty of characters from great games, that aren't great characters; and that the genre of the game often dictates or informs to what degree the game is story driven. Mario is another good example of a great icon, and the hero of good games, but a poor character in terms of personality/story/writing.

*Edit, also to be a contrarian on one last point: BAMF is the sound that Nightcrawler's teleportation makes, not a grizzly guy who doesn't take no guff from anyone, and it most certainly doesn't describe anything about Dane Cook, ever.

John Marsten and Marcus Fenix really don't compare to MC, except in the strong area, those two guys are anything but silent in their games.  During Red Dead, Marsten CLAIMS he doesnt have much to say, but that doesn't seem to stop him throught the story.  I played and enjoyed the first Halo, but after playing the others, especially 3, I have to agree in saying MC was boring.  I never felt all that awesome playing Halo, MC never gave me that "holy *** look at what I just did" feeling.  And it's a shame since Halo is so successful, it just doesn't do it for me.

Most people do not recognize subtlety.  A voice is not the only window to the personality...gestures, tone, and a myriad of other things are as well.  I love the Master Chief character, and I think he is full of personality...especially while interacting with Cortana.  I know many people bash the Halo storyline...but I'm not sure why.  It's fairly inventive as far a sci-fi goes, but it never strays way too far to left field.  I mean, for instance, everyone loves the story in AC2.  However, Halo had some of the same elements (such as humans that existed before Adam and Eve) years earlier(I understand Halo was not the first to have this...but why is Halo bashed and AC2 not?).  Another thing---what is story?  Someone commented that Half-Life is story-centric.  Are you kidding me?  The story is dull, then.  It's basically: go from here to there (kill bad guys and solve puzzles), and then go back somehow, and, oh, go another place that you need to hit a switch....and so on.  That is a group of action set pieces, and not a story.  Half-life, I love it, but it is not the story-driven experience that everyone makes it out to be.

Mastechief is a BAMF, but is he a person? You may be surprised by our findings. Or you may ignore it. The findings will be revealed at a later, unspecified date (probably after I beat Halo 1 and 2).