Bringing back Halo's iconic soundtrack status

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

The problem with Halo 4 is that the soundtrack feels slapped on. There are some good tracks, but some just seem to be in the wrong place or aren’t given enough time to stick.

Example: “To Galaxy” was one of my favorite tracks, but it only played in one part and was very faint in the background and was never heard again. Too bad cause this song had a potential to be the new Halo theme, it even uses some dynamics as the famous warthog run.

Another one is 117, another good track, but we only hear it at the end.

Halo needs a theme song, like most great adventures. Star Wars, Back to the Future and Indiana Jones all had that iconic theme song. However, Halo 4 does not have one. Ask somebody to hum/sing the Halo 4 soundtrack and no one will be able to do it.

Halo needs to focus on the good music and repetition. The music needs to stick. It needs to be an anthem.

Yes, it’s a game, but music also contributes a lot. Even classic games like Mario had an iconic theme song. I believe that music is one of the factors that connects or entices non-gamers to be interested in gaming.

Another issue. Timing

If you looked back at the old games you’d realize that the music is well timed with the gameplay. Halo 3 was the best example. It felt like every explosion was fixed to match the music. Also, each Scarab fight also matched the music. By the time you finish destroying the Scarab, the music ends. I strongly believe that they’ve calculated the average time it takes to finish a certain encounter so that it ends just right. Another guess is that the music loops for a while until you reach a key moment which triggers the song’s outro.

In Halo 4, however the music almost always ends before the encounter is finished. The transition from gameplay to cutscene music is very noticeable. At the last level, the track “Arrival” is looped poorly. The song sometimes ends before your even done with the level, which is just not Halo.

In summary, music is important to Halo.

2

Amen, bro. I’ve said it countless of times: Halo 4 music is boring. Kazuma did an splendid job with his themes being 117, Intruders, Atonement and even Never Forget Midnight version the best examples of his talent. However, Neil Davidge music is not meant for Halo. To Galaxy is the only theme I actually enjoy. You hit the nail with everything in this post.

Also, I think the word ‘iconic’ is the correct one to describe Marty’s work. And also agree, Halo’s music shouldn’t be a filler for the final work… the music is actually part of the game! As you said, Halo 3’s One Final Effort is an example of this… when you beat those Scarabs… uh, old times…

And yes too, there’s no main theme or monk chants, something that ruins the Halo perspective. Imagine a Mario game without its oriented music? Every Mario game includes its original main theme, but also its style. If I’d heard the Halo 4 soundtrack without knowing it’s from a Halo game, I wouldn’t even recognize it. Even Halo Wars music was more oriented to the Halo style!

I don’t know who’s composing Halo 5 music; I just hope is not that Davidge again or Halo music is already done.

3

Honestly, how many of these threads are we possibly going to make?

4

Yes there needs to be a music change in halo. Bring back the good old halo2/halo3 music!

5

> Honestly, how many of these threads are we possibly going to make?

343i needs to hear about the issue

6

This is the point I’ve been trying to make since Halo 4 came out.

Get Martin O’Donnell and keep Kazuma Jinnouchi!

7

The only track I liked on Halo 4 was Arrival everything else was pretty meh to forgettable. Wasn’t quite like the old Halo soundtracks but than again he had some pretty big shoes to fill.

8

> > Honestly, how many of these threads are we possibly going to make?
>
> 343i needs to hear about the issue

An issue people seem to arbitrarily be concerned about all of the sudden?

9

The way some people dismiss Neil as of late is so cartoonish, it’s comically sickening.

God forbid there’s a person behind an art.

10

> Honestly, how many of these threads are we possibly going to make?

Most threads are usually about “More Good Music.” It’s not simply about good music. I’m a musician myself and Halo 4 is solid, but I’m talking more about implementation, timing and the soundtrack together as a whole instead of being individual tracks compiled together. Halo’s music is not a compilation, it’s an anthem and that’s something we’ve lost.

11

> > Honestly, how many of these threads are we possibly going to make?
>
> Most threads are usually about “More Good Music.” It’s not simply about good music. I’m a musician myself and Halo 4 is solid, but I’m talking more about implementation, timing and the soundtrack together as a whole instead of being individual tracks compiled together. Halo’s music is not a compilation, it’s an anthem and that’s something we’ve lost.

I would say it had an anthem rather than was one, it had a very dramatic style which worked all the way through the game. Halo 4 didn’t have that and there were times where I missed it, but the tracks Halo 4 did have were extremely good and thematic in their own right.

12

> 343i needs to hear about the issue

And so they have, for the last 300 times a thread like this has come up. Spamming the forums with these kinds of threads is not going to make 343i more likely to listen. If they were going to consider this feedback, they would have already done it by now, which one may conclude is why Neil Davidge is not returning for Halo 5.

13

> Most threads are usually about “More Good Music.” It’s not simply about good music. I’m a musician myself and Halo 4 is solid, but I’m talking more about implementation, timing and the soundtrack together as a whole instead of being individual tracks compiled together. Halo’s music is not a compilation, it’s an anthem and that’s something we’ve lost.

Thats fair enough. But i think it’d be so much smarter if people stuck to one super thread. Music implementation for Halo 4 is fair criticism, in fact, i don’t hesitate to bash it myself. But ‘iconic themes’ is something that has been discussed to death, i think.

14

The only music that almost were in all Halo games is the Never Forget/Unforgotten. I’m curious are they gonna make another version for H5G.

15

I can’t speak for the soundtrack, I’d never buy a video game soundtrack TBH.

But I can speak to the overall vibe I get from playing the game:

-It’s a marked break from the past. It was intentional – do it now, on an end-console title, just to see if it sticks. If not, H5 will go back to what worked.

-It’s not bad, per se, but like so many things Halo, it is not what came before, therefore it is not as well liked

-Personal opinion: The opening credits are too similar to the Battlestar Galactica intro. Any time I hear it, my mind immediately wanders into the heavy drumbeat from that show.

16

> If they were going to consider this feedback, they would have already done it by now, which one may conclude is why <mark>Neil Davidge is not returning for Halo 5.</mark>

Actually, I think Neil is still working on Halo 5, it’s just that he’s no longer the main composer. Kazuma Jinnouchi landed that role, which is ironic since a lot of his compositions sounded more cinematic and less Halo-like than Davidge’s.

17

I believe it was to late to try a new musical approach to the series when there had already been 5 (6) earlier installations in the series. The monk chants were and will always be a big part of Halo and to remove them abruptly in one of the main games was a really unwise decision.

Halo 3 ODST was alright since it was a spinoff with a different approach to gameplay and scenery. Halo 4 on the other hand is just the continuation of the original trilogy and in my opinion there has to be some connection in the musical sense to what we already knew and loved.

18

Been seeing these threads around for awhile. I’m just shocked that so many hated Halo 4’s music. Most people connect Halo’s music with chanting. Halo 4’s music was totally fine. Each Halo game has a slight change to its musical theme and all of them have been great in my eyes.

Truth be told I just think people try to find a reason to dislike Halo 4.

19

> Actually, I think Neil is still working on Halo 5, it’s just that he’s no longer the main composer. Kazuma Jinnouchi landed that role, which is ironic since a lot of his compositions sounded more cinematic and less Halo-like than Davidge’s.

There’s been absolutely nothing to suggest that Davidge is working on Halo 5. The only thing we know about the games’ music is that Kazuma Jinnouchi is working on “the vast teeming bulk of it”.

Then again, there was a thread that had linked ‘Halo 5 music’ a while ago, apparently from 7Hz records (Davidge’s recording company) that got edited as a leak. Since thats the case, i thought that it was indeed accurate. Since then, however, nobody has mentioned Davidge for Halo 5.

20

Halo 4 is the ONLY halo game that I haven’t bought a single song from the soundtrack. To me that highlights an obvious problem, it didn’t sound halo to me and I didn’t like any of them enough to download whereas I own most of the soundtracks for the other halo games.