I will go ahead and say it: I like Halo 4‘s music. A lot. Back when the game was released, quite a number of reviewers and fans criticized the soundtrack claiming the music didn’t match the caliber of the previous games. But honestly, when you have soundtracks as iconic and memorable as Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori‘s work on the Halo franchise, can you fault Neil Davidge for trying something different and going in a unique direction for Halo 4? The music may not have been as bombastic overall as previous entries in the series; yes, it did lack the iconic main theme of the franchise. However, Mr. Davidge wanted to do something different and I applaud him for doing so.
Halo 4‘s soundtrack is fantastic. How do you hear “Belly of the Beast” and not be excited to shoot some aliens in the face? And while I am on this soapbox, Halo ODST was a nice change of pace and Halo as a series is… hang on. I got sidetracked it seems. My inner voice says I need to get off the soapbox and deliver what you came here to read. My apologies dear reader. On to the moment!
***HERE THERE BE SPOILERS***
Halo 4 had its share of memorable moments and songs, but none made an impact quite like the eighth mission, “Midnight.” This is the final mission in the game and finds Master Chief desperately trying to stop the Didact from eliminating life on Earth.
There comes a part in the mission where you find the Didact inside a shield and ready to unleash h*** on our planet. Master Chief has a nuke to eliminate the threat, but the nuke cannot be used until the shield has been lowered. In order to lower the shield, Chief must go to several terminals and let Cortana do her magic, lowering the shield so the Didact can be taken out with the nuke. Simple right? Well the terminals lie on several little floating platforms crawling with enemies desperately eager to murder you. And then you still have to eliminate the Didact himself. Spartan life sure is rough.
Not long after you enter the room and Cortana assesses the grim situation, the song starts. The genius of the song is how it starts slowly and swells into a grandiose song fitting of a dire situation. The song swells to a peak that heightens the excitement of the confrontation, ebbs back to the slow burn, before swelling again to another peak. What really made the song memorable, besides being terrific in its own right and accompanying a memorable mission, are the swells in the song. I swear during my playthrough, some of the swells coincided with a particularly n**** firefight and then the song slowly ebbed away into the background until another peak and firefight. The song hits all the right notes, managing to be memorable and get the blood pumping for the climax. The name of the song is “Arrival”. Quite a fitting name given the setting eh? At the end of the day, this soundtrack was terrific and more than worthy of accompanying a Halo game.
Here is the song with gameplay.
Here is just the song.