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http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9015615  Allow me to let you in on a little secret: The Halo 3: ODST soundtrack is the real reason the Chiptuned blog exists. We've been writing about game music on and off for the past year in the Retronauts blog, and for the most part that worked out just fine. But ODST had, in my opinion, the single finest videogame soundtrack of 2009 -- but it wasn't exactly retro, you know? Thus we launched Chiptuned in large part so I could write the review you're reading right now. This music is that good.
When people talk about their favorite videogame music, they tend to focus on older tunes, the music of the 8- or 16- or 32-bit eras. That's because older game music sticks in the mind due to its simple, melodic, repetitious nature. Modern game music, on the other hands, tends to play the role of sonic texture: It lends atmosphere to the moment-by-moment game experience, but rarely holds up outside the context of the gameplay.
There are exceptions, though, and the work Marty O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori have done with the Halo series is one of them. When you think of Halo, you probably can't help but hear the iconic drum-and-guitar-driven "Rock Anthem for Saving the World" in your head -- it's catchy, it's memorable, and it pretty much embodies the entire concept of a first-person shooter in a few intense rock licks. The Halo trilogy soundtracks are packed with, "Oh, I remember that" moments, phrases of music that so perfectly fit the action that you can visualize the corresponding scene in your head. It's an especially impressive accomplishment given the procedural nature of the music; the series' soundtrack albums don't strictly represent the music you hear in the games, since so much of Halo's music is generated on the fly from a library of loops according to context. Even so, both the flavor and tunes incorporated into these dynamic remixes is always both appropriate and memorable.
O'Donnell and Salvatori have outdone themselves with ODST, a soundtrack that manages to be every bit as memorable as any previous chapter in the series while scrupulously avoiding the themes, phrases, and even instrumentation that have come to be associated with the franchise. Not only do the familiar stings and riffs of the dominant Halo melodies never once put in an appearance, there's barely even a hint of electric guitar. The FPS is pretty much the rock 'n roll of videogames, and it's tough to rock without a lead guitar... but somehow, ODST manages it. In fact, guitars only take a dominant role twice -- in the tracks "Traffic Jam" and "Skyline" -- and in both instances it's still more of an accompaniment than a lead. Interestingly, "Skyline" is the only track on the album that fades out rather than ending conclusively, almost as if it's embarrassed by its reliance on something so mundane as a guitar riff and quietly tries to back out of the room in the hopes no one notices how out of place it sounds.
 Rather than going for the usual "big damn heroes" sound of the previous Halo games, O'Donnell and Salvatori instead went with what they (somewhat self-mockingly) refer to as "smoky jazz." Much of ODST centers around an open-ended search through darkened city streets in a quest to track down the main character's missing comrades, and the composers elected to style the Rookie's themes after noir detective films. And it works, brilliantly. The pacing of the Rookie's segments of the game tends to be slow and tense as you evade Covenant patrols and plan routes around sniper posts, and it's punctuated by discoveries that reveal ever more of the story. It's laden with atmosphere, much of it courtesy of the sedate music. This could be the only FPS ever to feature an oboe (or is it tenor sax? I dunno, I'm not a band nerd) and piano as its lead instruments. It's unconventional, but it works.
And it fits the story, too. ODST doesn't cast the player as the series' leading man, the Master Chief, and you're not saving the universe. You're a bit player in the Halo saga, and you're a demonstrably less impressive warrior than the Chief. You don't get to have a heroic anthem, because you're just some anonymous grunt struggling to salvage a mission gone FUBAR out on the front lines.
Still, like the game itself, the ODST soundtrack isn't all smoky jazz licks and mellow piano. The Rookie's hub world leads into a number of vignettes, and each of these is accompanied by music that better fits the corresponding level. For instance, Adam Baldwin's character, Dutch, is a roughneck whose vignette revolves around driving a Warthog AWD through a veldt-like reserve in the African countryside, blowing the crap out of enemy artillery. Fittingly, the soundtrack for that particular mission is intense, heavy on the percussion and deep strings. "More Than His Share," on the other hand, accompanies Nathan Fillion's world-weary Buck during his first mission, a stealthy fight through the city streets, and is a quieter tune with thematic callbacks to similar stages in previous Halo games.
Nevertheless, it's the Rookie's portions that really stand out: Melancholy tunes that should be painfully out of place in an FPS soundtrack, yet which fit beautifully. A good game soundtrack should perfectly complement the action; a great soundtrack sticks with you afterwards. Halo 3: ODST's does both. Sure, it has its forgettable moments, but its highlights are a big part of why ODST was one of my favorite games last year. |
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accomplished
