Halo's Prequel Bring A Different Tone

With the main Halo series seemingly over people wondered what Bungie was working on after they finished Halo 3: ODST. The rumor then started about the next game being a prequel set before any of the previous Halo games. The games was official titled Halo: Reach and it was released on Xbox 360 in 2010. The game is set on the planet Reach where the alien cult known as the Covenant hit the humans military home and in the end the planet was completely destroyed and was a terrifying loss for humanity. 

You play as the new recruit to a Spartan team called Noble Team who is tasked with fending off the Covenant, but sadly every step forward they are pushed three steps back. As you can tell by the setting that I have described to you, you can tell that this story will not have a happy ending and has an ominous and sad tone.

As with the first and all the games up till now the musical composers were Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori. As with the game before they composed, Halo 3: ODST, they were able to take the soundtrack in a different direction than in the other main series games. So to fit the games overall feeling they made a more somber and sad soundtrack. I will be talking about two tracks from the game that really have that solemn, but a tinge of hope feeling to them.

The first song that I will be talking about is titled "ONI: Sword Base". The song firsts starts to play when Noble Team is sent to Sword Base to repel the Covenant attack. This song doesn't have the high note string that the usual Halo soundtrack, but a lower noted song. The guitar notes in the song strike  back at the string as your character fends off the base in a strong clash of instruments. The darker tone of this song really sets the bar for the rest of the games soundtrack.

The other song I will be talking about is "The Pillar Of Autumn". This is near the end of the game where most of Noble Team has fallen and you are the last Spartan left and the planet has almost completely fallen. Your final mission was to deliver the AI Cortana to the ship

Pillar Of Autumn which leads to the beginning of Halo 1. The song has a upbeat feel to it, but still has a dark undertone to remind the player that this will still not end happily. 

This snippet in the Halo universe is a sad and tragic tale, but it was a tale that lead to the saving in the universe. This is one of my favorite games in the series and I highly recommend that you play it. You can listen to the soundtrack on YouTube. Thanks for reading.