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Posted: |
Nov 4, 2012 - 2:41 PM
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By: |
orion_mk3
(Member)
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Halo 1 is the earliest and simplest of the lot, but contains virtually all the motifs that were developed throughout the series. Considering the limited budget, the synths sound a lot tinnier than in the other games and the "live" parts are pretty much limited to the main theme's now-iconic Gregorian chant. It does have the best album presentation, though, without the mammoth "frozen playthrough" tracks of the later games. Classic score fans will probably get the most out of the title theme but there's a lot of nice electronic and choral stuff if you have a tolerance for it.
Halo 2 is probably the best score out of the original trilogy. The composers massively beefed up their synths and added live orchestra and choir for many of the pieces while reprising many of the best themes from the first. Stuff like "Earth City" is the best that Halo has to offer. Unfortunately, the album situation is easily the worst: a lot of the best music is on the "Volume 1" CD mixed in with nauseatingly bad "songs" by Incubus and "various artists" that does not appear in the game. "Volume 2" has the rest of the score but is not only missing all the stuff on "Volume 1" but the tunes are combined into massive 8-10 minute suites, often with the best parts buried amidst less interesting material.
Halo 3 has the same basic ingredients as Halo 2 but structures the tracks much better than "Volume 2" of Halo 2, clocking in at around 5 mins apiece. There's still a lot of cases of upbeat orchestral or techno material edited together with less interesting stuff (chiefly the "Flood" music), but also some powerful statements of prior themes and only one terrible rock song. This is the album I'd recommend starting with if you've never played a game.
ODST has the best highlights out of any game in the series, with a delicious neo-noir saxophone and smoky jazz appearing in many places, often with subtle electronic and orchestral accompaniment. It's mature, downbeat stuff largely lacking huge statements of the Halo theme but really great on its own merits. Unfortunately, as with Halo 2 and to a lesser extent 3, these gems are often buried at 13:22 of 22:47 suites. I ultimately used an audio editor to break the suites up, something that should have been done on the production side.
Halo Reach is almost like a sequel to ODST with a less-compelling but still very mature and deliciously downbeat theme (with a chorus that evokes but doesn't state the main Halo theme). Disc One is all suite-ified, like ODST, though the best material tends to be at the beginning of tracks rather than buried within them. Disc 2 splits things up a little and has some nice thematic reprises.
Halo Wars is by a different composer but uses the main Halo theme (if somewhat sparingly). On the whole it's much more ambient and electronic than the other games, with less choir and less theme but lots of atmosphere. I'd recommend sampling it first before buying since it definitely stands a bit apart from the others, but the album is well-assembled and there's enough continuity for sticklers (far more than in Halo 4).
I haven't listened to Halo 4 outside of samples yet, but to judge from those and the reviews it's a decent effort in its own right but it jettisons virtually all of the themes and the aural atmosphere of the previous games with only a short nod here and there and no real attempt at continuity beyond that. That's disappointing but I'm withholding judgement until hearing he whole shebang.
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