The new trilogy has seen allot of hate by the fans but it has also seen allot of love. I was wondering what exactly was wrong with it at the core with campaign and In my solid opinion I think the Old trilogy was much better because it blended so well. Let me Explain.
The Original Trilogy was groundbreaking to some extent but what gave it that edge that made it the best series of it’s time was the sense of immersion that was brought in. Sure it wasn’t as interactive as Halo 4 where we are seen actually doing things in first person outside of just shooting. But the Original Trilogy’s winning feat was indeed Marty. Marty’s music brought forth some of the best gaming music in the gaming industry, not only could it be heard by itself in fascination but it heightened whatever emotions and experiences the developers were trying to evoke into the player.
Halo Combat Evolved proves the most effective in immersion with music as the music changes very smoothly according to scenario. But in terms of tear jerking, H3 takes the cake with Never Forget (or whatever variation it was) I leave out H2 because H3’s atmosphere was filled with desperation and completion unlike H2.
Halo 4 has a beautiful campaign don’t get me wrong and comparing it to the other games it would actually be better in terms of interactivity and achievements the Chief does, but what lacks is the music. The music is good don’t get me wrong but Marty just knew exactly what he was doing. His music IMHO is the reason Halo was such a success. Apart from the awesome story, there have been other shooters with a more elaborate in game story but the score for Halo is unmatched by any shooter save the Mass Effect Franchise.
To this day everytime I hear the chellos and monks I get tears of nostalgia and have a grin on my face because I feel the pain humanity went through in the original campaign.
I really loved the original score and admire Neil’s work but it cannot compare to Marty at all so far.
Yeah! Marty was Bungie’s trump card. That legend knew what he was doing and where each snippet of a particular soundtrack would be required. His songs actually served as an ultra bonus combo to Master Chief and his struggles in the first games. He adjusted his music very well for Reach and ODST but still kept the Traditional Halo song experience at the core of each game.
343i does not have a particular ‘ace up my sleeve’ kind of guy at the moment and so they lack in consistency of their compositions as compared to the previous trilogy (or in fact Halo CE’s soundtracks.
Plus this is post war Humanity which has already truimphed in its fight compared to the ‘Humanity under severe duress’ of the previous trilogy, so the music can be different but it lacks the vibe the old soundtracks have except for maybe the song ‘117’ which is in itself repetitive.
Story wise, I say the Reclaimer Saga is as good as the original trilogy, Halo 3’s story is a major disappointment, Halo 2 was meh, I only enjoyed the Arbiter sections, Halo CE was pure gold, Halo 4 is also pure gold, both CE and 4 have my favorite stories and I hope 5 and 6 don’t end up being equivalents of 2 and 3 (even though a dual campaign would be sweet)
Have you guys heard the Halo Spartan Assault soundtrack? It’s amazing, and has a very halo sounding feel( as people call it). I hope they bring music like that for Halo 5.
> Have you guys heard the Halo Spartan Assault soundtrack? It’s amazing, and has a very halo sounding feel( as people call it). I hope they bring music like that for Halo 5.
I have only heard legacy and it does have that classic halo touch to it I would love to hear more of his tracks.
I’ll agree that the soundtrack wasn’t implemented very well for Halo 4.
But it did have a lot of amazing tracks like 117, Arrival, Revival, and more.
In terms of story, I think Halo 4 overall wins because of how much it is trying to connect and the scale of its story. Granted, some things should’ve been explained better, but if you knew whatwas going on it was amazing. If only it was longer.
Sometimes its hard, or not worth trying to compare the campaigns of past and present Halos. They have different stories and visions to strive for… and ultimately were made to have a different feel, style. And I think both do what they wanted to do quite well.
I love Neil’s work, that main menu chorus is absolutely breathtaking and among other songs mentioned above are great. But despite how brilliant his work is Marty was just connected with the game, being on site had allot to do with it as mentioned above. I hope 343i allows Neil or Neil has time to be on site to compose his music. I know Neil has the potential to maybe be on par with Marty’s consistency or even surpass him , look at Spartan Assault, many say it’s a true Halo score.
Now considering Halo 5 is going to be the darkest Halo in the new trilogy/saga, I have hope for Neil to blow us away much like Marty always did.
The biggest problem I have with the start of the Reclaimer trilogy is the misshapen character development. (Chief & Cortana are cool, I’m referring to pretty much everyone else.)
343 got cross-eyed with the spinoffs and marketing tie-ins. Which Didact were we dealing with? How’d Halsey get off Reach? Why is Del Rio so… poorly sketched? Palmer seemed to really divide the community - you liked her well enough or you hated her guts. The S-IV’s weren’t memorable to me.
Recco to 343: introduce the key players in your title game then push the books, dvds, etc.
> I’m honestly waiting for the list of criteria that makes Halo music “Halo”
Yea me too actually. When most people say " Halo" music the are actually referring to “Marty’s” music. People need to understand that Marty and Neil have different styles. The point of being an artist is to have the freedom to express things the way you want to. So when people say that Neil needs to make more “halo like” music in Halo 5 their actually asking him to give up his freedom of expression and be more like Marty; which I think is something he shouldn’t have to do. But I do agree that 343 should let him become more involved in the game’s development so he can make his music more “in tuned” with the game. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved Halo 4’s music and some of its tracks are of my favorite throughout the entire Halo series.
I say Halo music because it had a coherent theme. Much like if Starwars had music composed by John Williams the original trilogy and another guy the prequels. Catch my drift? A series as good as Halo had a fascinating coherent style. Marty changed his music allot from the original trilogy to compose for Reach and ODST but the coherence of the Halo score remained. Sure it may have been due to the fact it was Marty but regardless, Neil could use his own style just as long as it brings the same coherent atmosphere as Marty’s work did.
Some of Neil’s work reminds me fondly of the past titles but most of it seems to sci-fish and clean compared to the gritty yet tribunal music Halo is known for. Considering Halo 5 to be the darkest Halo yet, I want that gritty atmosphere again, I want that amazing adrenaline rush only tribal drums mixed with the trademark monks can bring. I want to feel like I am part of the Halo Universe
> I say Halo music because it had a coherent theme. Much like if Starwars had music composed by John Williams the original trilogy and another guy the prequels. Catch my drift? A series as good as Halo had a fascinating coherent style. Marty changed his music allot from the original trilogy to compose for Reach and ODST but the coherence of the Halo score remained. Sure it may have been due to the fact it was Marty but regardless, Neil could use his own style just as long as it brings the same coherent atmosphere as Marty’s work did.
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> Some of Neil’s work reminds me fondly of the past titles but most of it seems to sci-fish and clean compared to the gritty yet tribunal music Halo is known for. Considering Halo 5 to be the darkest Halo yet, I want that gritty atmosphere again, I want that amazing adrenaline rush only tribal drums mixed with the trademark monks can bring. I want to feel like I am part of the Halo Universe
I usually use Halo Wars as my example, Stephen Rippy brought his own distinct style to the game, and it was obviously not Marty writing the score for the game, but at the same time it still felt really in tune with all of Marty’s work throughout the other Halo games to date. It’s one of the reasons why I really love Halo Wars’ soundtrack, because as different as it is, it still feels so very much the same. In long running series like Halo you need to make sure you stick close to the themes, styles, tones, etc. of the rest of the music, being different is good, but you need to have enough from the older titles that the music for the new is recognizable as belonging to the same series. If Neil Davidge is going to stick around, that’s something that he needs to work on. It’s by no means bad music…it just doesn’t sound particularly like Halo except for maybe one or two tracks out of the ones I’ve heard.
And something that 343i itself needs to work on with the music is in the campaign. They need to fix the volume on all of their sounds. As it was in Halo 4 everything else drowned out both the music and the dialogue. The sound effects for the guns and vehicles especially over powered dialogue So yeah, music shouldn’t be treated as a background event that you can ignore, it should be treated as if it’s part of the whole surroundings (that was part of the magic of Marty’s music, it felt like it was actually part of the scene) and not relegated to the background where it’s barely noticeable and the dialogue in gameplay needs to be amped up a bit so that it can at least be heard clearly alongside all of the other sounds.
I personally think the New Trilogy is better, simply because of what it is setting itself up to be. Master Chief just lost Cortana. Prometheans and Covenant remnants posing a threat, while humanity is now at risk of a new threat, by the Didact.
Now, the flood gave a great twist, but for the most part, I hated fighting them, and lots of people do too. The way we can fight Prometheans isn’t that different from fighting the covenant. Developing new strategies is fun, and since there are two more games coming up in the trilogy, we’ll have plenty more to explore, learn, and dwell in like the nerds we are.
The old trilogy is old now, and it is good, so I might be biased due to how I’m slightly bored with the whole ‘covenant armies gonna destroy us all’ plot.
So yeah, music shouldn’t be treated as a background event that you can ignore, it should be treated as if it’s part of the whole surroundings (that was part of the magic of Marty’s music, it felt like it was actually part of the scene) and not relegated to the background where it’s barely noticeable and the dialogue in gameplay needs to be amped up a bit so that it can at least be heard clearly alongside all of the other sounds.