'Halo 5: Guardians' Release Date: 2 Versions of Master Chief's Story

With "Halo 5: Guardians" due for release this October, the focus has shifted to the iconic hero Master Chief, who is at the center of the gaming series.

The trailers for the upcoming game released last month showed two different sides of one story. They indicated that there would be doubts cast on the Master Chief. His early life has been the subject of many podcasts and other materials which have been created to promote the game.

The seeds of doubt about Master Chief were sown in the trailers. In one scene, Master Chief was lying at the base of a statue built to honor him when Spartan Locke approached him with a gun. In the other, their roles were reversed and Locke was lying injured near the statue while the Master Chief approached.

With the trailers clearly indicating that there would be two versions of Master Chief's story, Microsoft subsequently launched a website named Hunt the Truth on Tumblr. Since then, a number of details from Master Chief's past were revealed by the fictional journalist named Benjamin Giraud.

Among the things posted were entries from a diary belonging to John 117, aka Master Chief's sister Katrina, where she described how he died when she was seven years old. A retouched photo that Giraud took of Master Chief in New Mombasa was then shown along with the original version to try show how his story had been fabricated.

In addition to these photos and diary entries, three podcasts have been published on the site. The second provided more details of John 117's death at the age of six. It mentioned the conflicting reports on what happened to him.

As for the most recent podcast released, it was titled "Critical Condition." In it, Giraud interviews a retired military officer in a beach resort named Castallaneta, which is the name of one of the rings around Saturn. The interview revealed more details about Master Chief's training, including statements from sources that were approved by the military and those who weren't.

The approved source provided a standard version of how John went into training at 16 and quickly rose to become a leader. The unapproved version stated that John had been augmented and at 13 had beaten two soldiers to death in a boxing ring.