Hello Halo fans!
I, like many of you, love the sound of Halo. From the awesome music, to the heroic dialogue, to the very fine details of weapons firing, to the brass bouncing off the ground and the sound of rocks falling off of a slope, after a tank shell just collided with the side of a mountain. It is amazing what sound designers are able to capture with objects that we have at home and transform them to sound…out of this world. Of course, sound effects for explosions and weapons firing are probably not captured within the comfort of a peaceful home. But what is great to see, is how raw the sound in each Halo game is, and how much time and effort it takes just to get a certain sound of a detonation of a grenade or a Promethean vehicle hovering. In fact, even the same weapons that are carried over into other Halo games, the developers tweak the sound when the weapon is fired. This prevents the weapons from sounding too much the same from another Halo game and perhaps really provokes a fantasy of what it would be like if the weapon was real. How awesome would it be to fire the DMR and hear the Halo 5 DMR sound effect echo throughout the land?! Pretty awesome I think!
However, there are people that wish the old sound effect for the Halo 3 assault rifle was brought back in the Halo franchise. You wanna know what I think? I think we should let the developers keep coming up with new sounds for the weapons. Even if there are just slight tweaks or additions to the sounds of the weapons firing. What do you think?
I went ahead and made a video. This video on my YouTube channel, compares the sounds of different Halo games with the same weapons. I express that developers should continue to improve or add in new sound, replacing some sounds that were already used. Yet I do try to relate with a sound designer and I give this example.
(Shortened version of what I say in the video)
Imagine working consecutive days, equalling to weeks to months, and you finally collaborate the perfect sound effect for a grenade exploding. (You collaborated the sound of dirt and mud kicking up and settling to the ground as well.) Once you finally have what you think is a great sound effect and it’s actually approved, imagine now having to come up with a sound of this explosion from a distance. Several years down the road, the game you worked on the sound for is released…but then a sequel is announced. Meaning you now have to scrape that old explosion sound and start over, and thats just the sound for an explosion from a grenade.
No doubt some sound effects are probably carried over. But the Halo games sure do sound different from one another. To us Halo fans at least.
I hope you enjoy the video! Share what you guys think when it comes to weapons that have been in the Halo series from the start. Keep the old sounds and keep eating the memberberries? Or do you enjoy the new sounds the developers come up with?
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt9IDftPdJ0