I know I might be in the minority here, but I for one loved Halo 4s soundtrack. Now don’t get me wrong, its not all good. Most of the tracks that actually played during gameplay were nothing special. But when you have tracks like Arrival and Green and Blue, it doesn’t really matter. The best moment of Halo 5 for me was when in the mantis on Sangielios run you hear the familiar Mantis theme(now called walking softly.) It is a more brutal but equally awesome remix of a great track from 4. One thing I noticed, however, was that it was missing the part that sounds like 117(which was included in the original theme). That made wonder if they were saving it up for when Chief gets back into the mantis in Halo 6 or 7. Then I realized the reason Halo 5s soundtrack, while being very stellar, did not really elicit any emotions from me. It is because even though it is part of the reclaimer trilogy, it does not share hardly any themes from the previous game. To be honest, neither does the fu#!ng story…
My hope for Halo 6, besides having a coherent story, is that Neil Davidges themes are used throughout the campaign more. Some examples could be when Infinity starts wrecking shop( instead of doing nothing in Halo 5) it should play To Galaxy. Or if there is a moment where Lasky gets to be a badass( as opposed to being as useless as the ship he is captain of in H5) he gets the Axios theme used in Forward Unto Dawn( might not be Davidges work, but its still good). And when the Didact comes back… and he better… use his theme (Nemesis). Kazuma is great, and I am pretty sure 117 is the most epic piece of music ever conceived, but if he could just worry about the reclaimer saga and not making remixes of the OG trilogy, I would be a happy boy.
I agree, but lets not forget Kazuma as he did create the epic 117 theme. Halo 4 and 5 have incredible soundtracks that spark tons of different emotions for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of Marty’s work in Halo 1 - 3. I still get a whopping nostalgic slap to the face any time I hear Halo 2’s “Unforgotten” (right in the feels…) , but there is just something that speaks to me on a different level when I’m sitting at the menu screens for Halo 4 and 5. I would love to see Neil and Kazuma team up for Halo 6 combining the best of their works. While the original Halo theme will always make me of Halo as a whole, Kazuma’s 117 will always be Master Chief’s theme to me. Here’s to hoping that Halo 6 ups the soundtrack ante even more!
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> I agree, but lets not forget Kazuma as he did create the epic 117 theme. Halo 4 and 5 have incredible soundtracks that spark tons of different emotions for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of Marty’s work in Halo 1 - 3. I still get a whopping nostalgic slap to the face any time I hear Halo 2’s “Unforgotten” (right in the feels…) , but there is just something that speaks to me on a different level when I’m sitting at the menu screens for Halo 4 and 5. I would love to see Neil and Kazuma team up for Halo 6 combining the best of their works. While the original Halo theme will always make me of Halo as a whole, Kazuma’s 117 will always be Master Chief’s theme to me. Here’s to hoping that Halo 6 ups the soundtrack ante even more!
Damn straight. I was also gonna add all the good Marty and Kazuma did, which is a metric -Yoink- ton, but I didn’t want to turn my forum post into an essay. If Davidge was able to come back, and work with Kazuma and all the new themes Kazuma introduced in H5(mostly Osiris themes) I think we could have the best soundtrack ever produced. Hopefully 343 has a story that will be worthy of that music for Halo 6.
117 is my personal theme song.
Yes. Some stuff is too good…
Even solace.
I miss Marty…
Agreed, Halo 4 soundtrack is incredible and very underrated! I think it is more atmospheric than any other Halo soundtrack. There are pretty cool songs that could return.
But thanks to the ‘fans’ who said “this isn’t halo”, 343 had to get back to something familiar to Marty’s, which is awesome, but, you know, NEW stuff, new ideas, new interpretations are always welcome.
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> Agreed, Halo 4 soundtrack is incredible and very underrated! I think it is more atmospheric than any other Halo soundtrack. There are pretty cool songs that could return.
> But thanks to the ‘fans’ who said “this isn’t halo”, 343 had to get back to something familiar to Marty’s, which is awesome, but, you know, NEW stuff, new ideas, new interpretations are always welcome.
Yup. There is a time and place for both. Tank mission? Play that classic scorpion theme. Mantis level? Play that matis theme. Warthog Run? Play. Dat. Theme. Boi.
Did you even catch the behind the scenes look at how Davidge worked up the Halo 4 OST? Well worth a watch if you haven’t. Personally, I really loved some of the tracks he put together - Green and Blue is probably my favorite
I was very on-board with what we got in Halo 4. It sold me on the intensity of the Didact’s return, the story of Chief rising to accept his pseudo-super hero mantle, and Cortana’s sacrifice. Chief’s theme, the Didact’s ominous awakening theme, that fantastically intense orchestral bit as you blew through the final three fighting zones in the last level. Hum that stuff all the time.
Honestly cannot remember anything from Halo 5’s soundtrack. Other than that Blue Team’s theme incorporates the original Halo theme.
Well, from a composer’s perspective, Halo 4/5’s scores are more in the category of a film score than a traditional video game score. See, in films, tracks (or cues) are almost never repeated. Each cue is unique to that specific scene or film. That is the path that 343 and Kazuma Jinnouchi have decided to take Halo. Less repetitive, and more thematic. The Mantis cue was the only one that was basically copy and pasted. Kazuma had replaced “117” with Locke’s motif because 117 represents Master Chief, and he was not in any of the Mantis missions, so having the traditional version of Mantis would have made no sense. Such as Neil Davidge’s cues were scored to represent Requiem, which was destroyed, so bringing back old pieces of music would simply be lazy. As much as I like Marty O’Donnell’s scores for Halo 1-3, the repetition was a downfall. Re-using pieces of music from previous games is a thing of the past, and has little to no place in modern scoring.
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> Re-using pieces of music from previous games is a thing of the past, and has little to no place in modern scoring.
That doesn’t sound like a thing that’s true. Or if it is true, it doesn’t sound like a thing that’s good. Games aren’t films; music needs to serve a mechanical purpose, the very least of which is “not disrupt play.” The use of repeated music is an effective way to convey information to a player, and on the flip, you can’t convey any information about the gameplay if every tune is distinct.
For clarity: I don’t think games shouldn’t have film-style scores. But I refuse to believe that the reuse of music throughout a game should be seen as an outdated mode. More like it’s untapped potential.
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> > 2533274889565121;11:
> > Re-using pieces of music from previous games is a thing of the past, and has little to no place in modern scoring.
>
>
> That doesn’t sound like a thing that’s true. Or if it is true, it doesn’t sound like a thing that’s good. Games aren’t films; music needs to serve a mechanical purpose, the very least of which is “not disrupt play.” The use of repeated music is an effective way to convey information to a player, and on the flip, you can’t convey any information about the gameplay if every tune is distinct.
>
> For clarity: I don’t think games shouldn’t have film-style scores. But I refuse to believe that the reuse of music throughout a game should be seen as an outdated mode. More like it’s untapped potential.
I forgot to add this in my post, but I think it also has to do with personal preference. I personally fell the music should not be repetitive, but there are people (like you probably) that do better with, and prefer, repeated themes and cues. What I think I meant was that we are coming to the point where games are becoming much more cinematic, like a film that you can play, and the music is reflecting that. I think that eventually game music will be more complex, and repetition will be a thing of the past. I’m not saying that’s good or bad, just that that is what is appearing to happen. Some people like that, some don’t, but see what you mean, and I respect your opinion.
> 2533274889565121;11:
> Well, from a composer’s perspective, Halo 4/5’s scores are more in the category of a film score than a traditional video game score. See, in films, tracks (or cues) are almost never repeated. Each cue is unique to that specific scene or film. That is the path that 343 and Kazuma Jinnouchi have decided to take Halo. Less repetitive, and more thematic. The Mantis cue was the only one that was basically copy and pasted. Kazuma had replaced “117” with Locke’s motif because 117 represents Master Chief, and he was not in any of the Mantis missions, so having the traditional version of Mantis would have made no sense. Such as Neil Davidge’s cues were scored to represent Requiem, which was destroyed, so bringing back old pieces of music would simply be lazy. As much as I like Marty O’Donnell’s scores for Halo 1-3, the repetition was a downfall. Re-using pieces of music from previous games is a thing of the past, and has little to no place in modern scoring.
I don’t think anyone would mind if Arrival or Nemesis were used in newer games. Arrival doesn’t have to die with Requiem. And Didact has his theme.
I think Davidge did a fantastic job for the score in Halo 4.
So many great ones such as Immaterial, Revival, Nemesis, Arrival, Belly of the Beast and so on