Watch the E3 live gamplay footage of Halo: Reach and, 67 seconds in, you might hear.... is that techno music? That's part of the game's soundtrack? Why, yes it is!
While the Halo series is known for having music that is so sweeping and lovely that you could set your wedding to it, it doesn't usually sound so peppy and techno as it did at E3 last week. The first land battle the game's developers at Bungie Studios showed the press included a lot of shooting set to more of an electric, techno soundtrack than I — and maybe you? — expected.
Bungie's Brian Jarrard told Kotaku yesterday that, no, that was not the influence of some meddling Microsoft person gone amuck. That is actually a composition by long-time Halo composer Martin O'Donnell, who did all of the music in the clip in this post.
"We were all a little bit surprised when we heard it for the first time," Jarrard said yesterday as I re-experienced the music while he played the E3 demo level in front of me. But it's the real deal.
Unexpected, yes, but it's growing on me already.
And who is to fault O'Donnell for experimenting? Last year, he tried more of a jazzy soundtrack during the nighttime sections of Halo 3: ODST. Good for him not doing the same old, same old.