Originally I thought the Halo 4 soundtrack was weak, lacked the Halo feel, and overall felt like it had no love put into it. I have since changed my mind after a long listen of the soundtrack, this is an amazing soundtrack.
It captures the feeling of the game perfectly like past Halo games. Halo 1 was a mysterious, almost creepy game about a ring, a parasite, and an alien race. The whole game is a an escape into the unknown of a place built years ago by a civilization long lost, and the soundtrack with its choirs, Gregorian chants, and strings show that. Halo 2 was a game about fighting for the survival of humanity, its stand against invading forces of enemies on its homeworld, and its attempt at saving the galaxy by stopping a tyrannical religion from firing the ring. It was epic, grand, and this showed with its electric guitar, epic tracks, and grand choirs. Halo 3 was a game about humanity’s last stand, a soldier being driven towards his lost companion, and finishing the fight against the covenant, all while losing many great heroes. Again, the soundtrack showed that with its piano, somber tracks, and multitude of strings. Then we come to Halo 4, a story about a deteriorating AI dying from madness, a technologically advanced species coming from the dead, and a fight to save Earth from an ancient alien, and the soundtrack also shows this. The soundtrack contains electronic sounds because of the Forerunners and Requiem, an almost entirely electronic planet. The choruses with female voices put through a studio shows the mystery of Requiem and the Forerunners, and the mystery of a powerful alien back from the dead. The epic tracks are there because of humanity’s stand on Requiem against the evil alien and his electronic henchmen and the fight to save humanity on Earth from vaporization.
This soundtrack many not feel like past Halo, but that’s because it is a different composer. Halo 4 is also a different game, so the soundtrack must be changed as such. We can’t expect an entirely different composer with an entirely different vision to give us a carbon copy of the work of a past composer (hmmmmmmm I see something here). And also take into consideration, Neil Davidge is a Halo fan, and tried his best in giving a fresh take on the Halo universe while preserving what we had from Marty.
Again, this is a different game. The past Halo games were about a war and saving humanity from an evil alien race and a mysterious zombie parasite, while Halo 4 is about an AI growing insane going to its inevitable death, a machine finding its humanity, and a mysterious alien race from the past coming back to life in the present. The soundtrack is appropriate for this because it’s darker. Not to say that past Halo games weren’t dark (I myself got super scared on 343 Guilty Spark when I was younger), but Halo 4 especially as a whole was fairly mature and realistic. The game has orange glowing alien laser guns for God’s sake, and you expect it to not have electronic sounds?
Overall as a soundtrack it is amazing, and if you take into consideration the differences between games in a series, it is completely Halo. Because in my opinion Halo is reflected on the universe the game is in and its themes, not as a series as a whole. Each game has its differences, and that’s why it’s great. This is also why I think Halo 5 will be one of the best Halo’s yet.
I watched the halo 2 documentary and it gave me a whole new appreciation for the score. They did a great job with the music, and it is often under-rated in this game and many others.
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> I watched the halo 2 documentary and it gave me a whole new appreciation for the score. They did a great job with the music, and it is often under-rated in this game and many others.
Halo 4 is the least mature game yet, to safe and friendly, it never went beyond the borders, the soundtrack or atmosphere never scared me, and honestly no one important died and there was no real threat to the earth.
This entirely contrasts with the other 3, as well as Reach, which other than Halo 3, i’d say is the darkest Halo. There’s what, 2 good pieces of music in Halo 4?
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> Halo 4 is the least mature game yet, to safe and friendly, it never went beyond the borders, the soundtrack or atmosphere never scared me, and honestly no one important died and there was no real threat to the earth.
>
> This entirely contrasts with the other 3, as well as Reach, which other than Halo 3, i’d say is the darkest Halo. There’s what, 2 good pieces of music in Halo 4?
That’s your opinion, but don’t act like it is fact.
And what is so “dark” about Halo Reach?
Seriously though I like your post. You bring up a lot of good points about the soundtrack that other people seem to skim over. It’s more of a focus of finding one’s humanity and dealing with one turning insane and rampant so the music should reflect that. I agree that the music of this new trilogy (or saga) should have a different feel to it because we’re exploring a different part of the universe now.
> 2533274905448651;4:
> Halo 4 is the least mature game yet, to safe and friendly, it never went beyond the borders, the soundtrack or atmosphere never scared me, and honestly no one important died and there was no real threat to the earth.
>
> This entirely contrasts with the other 3, as well as Reach, which other than Halo 3, i’d say is the darkest Halo. There’s what, 2 good pieces of music in Halo 4?
Uh Cortana was a very important character to the storyline, and the Ur-Didact composed an entire city of, what, 7 million people. Explain that one.
Also, you can’t really say Reach is dark. We knew everyone was going to die. That right there takes away the suspense.
I was in the same boat as you, and after playing through Halo 4 again I’ve decided there are about 3 or 4 tracks that are excellent and feel like something in Halo. Beyond that, I still think the rest is completely generic. I’ve never thought that the music itself wasn’t “good,” but the problem is that I can go hear it in any big budget sci-fi movie. It has no identity. That’s the main problem. I mean, the music that plays at the beginning of Composer makes me cringe like nothing else, because it’s almost indistinguishable from Star Wars music.
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> I was in the same boat as you, and after playing through Halo 4 again I’ve decided there are about 3 or 4 tracks that are excellent and feel like something in Halo. Beyond that, I still think the rest is completely generic. I’ve never thought that the music itself wasn’t “good,” but the problem is that I can go hear it in any big budget sci-fi movie. It has no identity. That’s the main problem. I mean, the music that plays at the beginning of Composer makes me cringe like nothing else, because it’s almost indistinguishable from Star Wars music.
…do you know WHY to this day the HALO theme and the star wars theme are some of the most popular and recognized soundtracks of all time?
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> > 2579517108010176;10:
> > I was in the same boat as you, and after playing through Halo 4 again I’ve decided there are about 3 or 4 tracks that are excellent and feel like something in Halo. Beyond that, I still think the rest is completely generic. I’ve never thought that the music itself wasn’t “good,” but the problem is that I can go hear it in any big budget sci-fi movie. It has no identity. That’s the main problem. I mean, the music that plays at the beginning of Composer makes me cringe like nothing else, because it’s almost indistinguishable from Star Wars music.
>
>
> …do you know WHY to this day the HALO theme and the star wars theme are some of the most popular and recognized musics of all time?
Yes, because when you hear them you immediately say, “that’s Halo!” Most of the tracks in Halo 4 won’t cause that same reaction unless you religiously listen to the soundtrack. Even my friends who are not big Halo fans at all perk up within the first few notes of the original Halo theme because its that powerful. Their brains literally hear its Halo before they even consciously realize it. And I’ve played music from Halo 1-3 that they’ve never heard, and they immediately have said, “oh, is that from Halo?” The majority of Halo 4’s music does not have this effect.
The same thing applies to Star Wars, which is why the song at the beginning of Composer immediately made me (and everyone I’ve shown it to) think about Star Wars and NOT Halo.
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> > 2533274800110367;11:
> > > 2579517108010176;10:
> > > I was in the same boat as you, and after playing through Halo 4 again I’ve decided there are about 3 or 4 tracks that are excellent and feel like something in Halo. Beyond that, I still think the rest is completely generic. I’ve never thought that the music itself wasn’t “good,” but the problem is that I can go hear it in any big budget sci-fi movie. It has no identity. That’s the main problem. I mean, the music that plays at the beginning of Composer makes me cringe like nothing else, because it’s almost indistinguishable from Star Wars music.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > …do you know WHY to this day the HALO theme and the star wars theme are some of the most popular and recognized musics of all time?
>
>
>
> Yes, because when you hear them you immediately say, “that’s Halo!” Most of the tracks in Halo 4 won’t cause that same reaction unless you religiously listen to the soundtrack. Even my friends who are not big Halo fans at all perk up within the first few notes of the original Halo theme because its that powerful. Their brains literally hear its Halo before they even consciously realize it. And I’ve played music from Halo 1-3 that they’ve never heard, and they immediately have said, “oh, is that from Halo?” The majority of Halo 4’s music does not have this effect.
>
> The same thing applies to Star Wars, which is why the song at the beginning of Composer immediately made me (and everyone I’ve shown it to) think about Star Wars and NOT Halo.
No…the answer is FAR more simple…while you are right to a degree.
Think about it…what CAN you do with the soundtracks from Halo, Star wars, Jurassic Park, harry potter, indiana jones that you CANNOT with most of halo 4 soundtrack
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> > 2533274905448651;4:
> > Halo 4 is the least mature game yet, to safe and friendly, it never went beyond the borders, the soundtrack or atmosphere never scared me, and honestly no one important died and there was no real threat to the earth.
> >
> > This entirely contrasts with the other 3, as well as Reach, which other than Halo 3, i’d say is the darkest Halo. There’s what, 2 good pieces of music in Halo 4?
>
>
> Uh Cortana was a very important character to the storyline, and the Ur-Didact composed an entire city of, what, 3 million people. Explain that one.
>
> Also, you can’t really say Reach is dark. We knew everyone was going to die. That right there takes away the suspense.
> 2533274905448651;4:
> Halo 4 is the least mature game yet, to safe and friendly, it never went beyond the borders, the soundtrack or atmosphere never scared me, and honestly no one important died and there was no real threat to the earth.
>
> This entirely contrasts with the other 3, as well as Reach, which other than Halo 3, i’d say is the darkest Halo. There’s what, 2 good pieces of music in Halo 4?
Umm… Cortana? Dr. Tillson brutally disintegrating in front of you, from skin, to muscle, to bone? The seven million people killed in New Phoenix?
No real threat to Earth? How about the Forerunner ship a quarter the size of Earth’s moon that smashed through Home Fleet and shrugged off the entirety of the Orbital Defense Grid, managing to kill seven million people in a few minutes at a randomly chosen target on Earth?
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> > 2533274912984822;8:
> > > 2533274905448651;4:
> > > Halo 4 is the least mature game yet, to safe and friendly, it never went beyond the borders, the soundtrack or atmosphere never scared me, and honestly no one important died and there was no real threat to the earth.
> > >
> > > This entirely contrasts with the other 3, as well as Reach, which other than Halo 3, i’d say is the darkest Halo. There’s what, 2 good pieces of music in Halo 4?
> >
> >
> >
> > Uh Cortana was a very important character to the storyline, and the Ur-Didact composed an entire city of, what, 3 million people. Explain that one.
> >
> > Also, you can’t really say Reach is dark. We knew everyone was going to die. That right there takes away the suspense.
>
>
> Seven million people.
>
> Halo 4 has some really nice tracks.
> Also, I like this exra one… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9w8A64ZATU