'Halo 4' behind-the-scenes video discusses Master Chief and Cortana's humanity

In Halo 4's newest video from the development process, "A Hero Awakens," the developers at 343 Industries discuss the ways in which they humanize faceless series protagonist Master Chief.

In Halo 4's newest video from the development process, "A Hero Awakens," the developers at 343 Industries discuss the ways in which they humanize faceless series protagonist Master Chief.

The video premiered during the Halo 4 panel at PAX Prime 2012.

343i used performance capture in Halo 4's cutscenes, although the voice actors for Master Chief and Cortana differ from the performance-capture actors. The video features plenty of behind-the-scenes footage from the process. Of the story, narrative director Armando Troisi said, "Until it actually touches an actor, it lacks humanity."

Humanity is a focus for Halo 4's writers, who talk about building a human connection between the player and Master Chief: they do it with Cortana, who acts as the human side of Master Chief. It's ironic, since she's a manifestation of artificial intelligence who has her own very human problems to deal with.

Halo 4 will launch on November 6th exclusively on Xbox 360.