Master Chief has always been the face of Halo. He is as irreplaceable to fans as the plasma pistol or the warthog. When 343 Industries launched Halo 5 in 2015, fans were displeased to find the game heavily focused on Spartan Locke as a central character and, even further, would be an antagonist to the fan-favorite Spartan 117. Following the lukewarm reception of Halo 5’s single-player campaign, 343 would seemingly abandon Locke, making little to no references to him in Halo Infinite as the team created a more Master Chief-centric story like in Halo 3. However, some fans have decided to bring Spartan Locke back one more time.

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In a post that likely fooled many Halo fans, user TheChunkierBean has modded Spartan Locke into Halo 3. The brief clip starts at the beginning of the last mission of Halo 3, where Master Chief should be heroically arriving via a Pelican to the Halo ring to finally stop the Gravemind. Instead, as the Pelican is unloading its payload of heroes, Spartan Locke is in place of Master Chief and standing next to the Arbiter on the final mission. However, despite Locke being out of place in Halo 3, his character mode looks fantastic inside the old Halo engine. The Master Chief Collection has had quite a bit of work done to bring it up to current graphical standards, and it shows in this mod.

Understandably, some fans were disappointed by the appearance of Spartan Locke in such an iconic Halo 3 moment, but most took it in good jest. In fact, multiple users commented that they would have liked to see some of their own favorite Halo characters placed in this scene, such as Noble 6, The Rookie, or even Caboose from Red vs. Blue. Despite being such a disliked character, fans still managed to have some fun at the expense of Locke quite a few years later.

Modding Spartan Locke into Halo 3 is only one of the many mods fans have created ever since The Master Chief Collection found its way to PC. Other fan projects include ports of Halo 3 into Halo 2, campaign rebalancing, and expansive audio and visual overhauls. Halo remains as popular as ever, and fan-made mods will likely keep the series alive for many years to come.

Halo 3 is available on PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

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