Review Summary: A journey through a modern, desecrated metropolis
When a video game amalgamates classical influences into its soundtrack, it almost always brings the quality of the game up simply by creating a window for you to dive into the complex and picturesque setting cast before you. The immersion factor can double in an instant; Halo 3: ODST OST is no exception, deftly leaping between multiple classical and modern influences while still being propelled by the same musicality that makes it so appealing and enchanting to begin with. The album tells the story of an ODST soldier, wandering through desecrated city streets, piecing together memories of brutal conflicts that quaked the ground beneath his feet, a gritty saga of survival, stealth and ambition in the dark and cold air that permeated his surroundings.
10:02 PM, New Mombasa
I awoke in my pod to the sound of murky violins, surrounding me as I struggled to maintain consciousness in a midnight-tinged setting; I had been out cold for six hours, cocooned inside a crashed escape pod twenty feet off the ground. I realized the only way out was to jump; kicking the hatch open, I took the leap of faith towards the hood of a worn down truck, cascading piano dashes accompanied me as I managed to land securely. An eerily piercing silence pervaded the atmosphere as the strings and drum work began to build. Completely oblivious to my surroundings, I had yet to notice the brute standing there, his eyes lusted for blood and his frigid unforgiving breath seemed to infect my very eardrums as I made visual contact from the corner of my eye. I quickly grabbed my rifle and in one fell swoop began to fire. The brute charged at me, his arms behind his head in the air as the percussion and bass drum rhythms peaked. I quickly ran towards the enraged beast and slid underneath him, slamming my gun hard into his groin and causing him to crash to the ground. His sudden end caused him to jerk the trigger on his gun, and several spikes shot into my arm. I rolled behind the truck and held my arm tightly; four large brutes were searching around for me. I retreated into the shadows; heart pounding and rivers of sweat traveling across my face like hurried hitchhikers. To my right, I saw fingers slowly grip the side of the truck, with eyes scanning the area for my presence. Before his gaze reached my being I rolled under the truck and pulled myself up by the underlying pipes to keep myself from being detected. They moved onto another street, and I slipped by undetected.
I ambled past, stumbling for an unknown period of time, lost and dazed in this desolated metropolis. There were numerous computers hanging off of the walls; hoping it still worked, I logged onto the terminal and managed to acquire the layout of the city infrastructure as the percussion faded into the mist. I tore off, with the rumbling bass guitar pushing me forward as I jumped from platform to platform, running down abandoned streets with wrecked cars lining the dilapidated edges. As more ambient elements kicked into the sound, I noticed another patrol heading my way so I quickly dived under another truck as the percussion once again came to a halt, and I saw their blood drenched feet pass me by as the abruptly calm and eerie orchestration seemed to grasp onto the underside of the large vehicle. I noticed movement that looked human in a window several stories above, so I swallowed my fear and picked myself up, walking forward as the soft piano illuminated my footsteps like a thousand fireflies. As the violin started to come in and accompany the piano and take precedence, I walked into the building with my rifle attached to my back and my pistol drawn as I shot grunts in the head left and right. My arm was starting to go numb, the adrenaline picked up for a second as I tore up the stairs and into the space-filled room. It was completely empty with nothing but a cracked helmet and a broken screen. My disappointment shined in the soft saxophone as I broke the helmet off the cracked monitor and stared into where the person’s eyes would be, and pondered if I was the only one left alive. I fell to my knees and blacked out, the cello’s soft embrace carrying me into my hopeless dreams of escaping this abandoned wasteland.
11:14 AM, The Highway
I woke up suddenly to a strong hand shaking me; I looked up into the eyes of a commander, who had a strange alien creature with them. He said ”Follow me, we need to get this creature back to the main ship, it has details to help us win the war”. I didn’t ask questions as the slow rattling of the ambient piano keys accompanied by soft tapping accompanied us as we slowly shifted our way through the city to find a vehicle. After 20 minutes or so we procured a large four wheeled vehicle about the size of a pick-up truck, an abandoned Warthog. I decided to drive the war machine while one of the soldiers took control of the turret. The highway was intimidating and crawling with enemy forces of all kinds, as the strings vanished and the full band slowly started to build up again we picked up speed as the enemy caught wind of our presence. As I saw the covenant forces amass on the roads before me, anger coursed through my veins and my pupils dilated as I pushed down on the gas pedal and charged forward. Distorted guitars juxtaposed with drums playing funky fills followed me as I plowed through multiple covenant forces, not even pausing to see if they were dead as the sound of dropping ammunition from the turret lit up the wind behind me.
I spun the wheels around quickly and we dived out of the warthog into an underground tunnel as a large covenant ship comparable to the size of a football field launched a plasma ray at the vehicle, obliterating it completely. My newly gained comrade put his hand on my shoulder and nodded. I understood what he meant, and we split up, mowing down covenant with our assault rifles as dueling violins clashed in the air followed by echoing drum line as I reached the balcony where the rest of the squad waited in a stolen ship. We watched our comrade give his life as he used stolen covenant flares to alert the cannons in space to a new location for the weapons to fire, right at the covenant forces themselves. Our vehicle launched as a massive beam of energy just barely grazed by us, enveloping the area in a fiery blaze, almost engulfing our ship. If we had waited just a few more moments, we would have not lived through the raging inferno.
Finale:
The Halo 3: ODST soundtrack is a beautiful composition with numerous different genre influences, and despite the occasional attempts to bridge some unsuccessful elements (such as the faster paced second half of "Deference to Darkness" which should have just been left out), overall it works perfectly for the game and stands high on its own; it's a perfect audio accompaniment for any soldier going through the treacherous apocalyptic wastes of New Mombasa.
