Halo 2 Original Soundtrack

Background

In summer 2004, composer Martin O'Donnell and producer Nile Rodgers decided to present Halo 2's music in two distinct volumes. The first volume contained finished game themes and inspired-by offerings from other artists, released alongside the video game on November 9, 2004. Because the soundtrack was finished before all in-game music was completed, none of O'Donnell's tracks appear in Halo 2 in the same arrangement. Bands such as Breaking Benjamin and Incubus were enthusiastic about contributing; Incubus produced a suite of music appearing as four movements across the soundtrack.

Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger stated that Halo was the only video game that inspired the band to write a whole suite. O'Donnell's first pieces for Halo 2 were promotional: he scored the cinematic announcement trailer on August 2, 2002, and interactive music for the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2003 demo. He confirmed that the chanting monks from Halo: Combat Evolved's choral theme would return, along with additional guitars by Steve Vai. The new African setting prompted O'Donnell to explore Afro-Cuban influences, though most of that music did not make the final product.

Rather than using leitmotifs for characters in a Peter and the Wolf approach, O'Donnell wrote music to match the mood of each moment; recurring themes developed more by accident than planning. Orchestral recording was completed over several sessions with the Northwest Sinfonia orchestra at Studio X in Seattle, Washington. Nile Rodgers produced both volumes and also wrote and performed the track 'Never Surrender' with Nataraj. Rodgers, a video game player, noted that 30 to 40 percent of the recording budget was spent on downtime playing video games, which led him to become hooked on Halo 2.

Promotion

The first volume was timed to coincide with the game's launch to capitalize on the Halo effect; the first several million copies of the game included promotional inserts for the soundtrack. Sumthing Distribution planned an aggressive marketing campaign with special listening stations and side-by-side soundtrack and game placement at retailers. The 'Halo Theme MJOLNIR Mix', the first track on Volume 1, was released on November 22, 2007, as a free track for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock on the Xbox 360.

Reception

Reaction to Halo 2's score was generally positive, but reception of the two soundtrack releases varied. Volume 1's inclusion of other artists drew both praise and criticism: Mike Brennan of Soundtrack.net found the inclusion of Hoobastank, Breaking Benjamin, and Incubus made the soundtrack more harsh and lacking cohesion, while G4 TV praised Incubus's four-part Odyssey as a progressive rock fusion jam not heard since the 1970s. Nuketown.com declared Volume 2 the soundtrack fans had been waiting for, and other publications agreed it felt like the real soundtrack to Halo 2.

IGN found the soundtrack enjoyable but felt traditional orchestration clashed with ambient and electronic sounds, making the album divided. Volume 1 sold more than 100,000 copies and peaked at number 162 on the Billboard 200, the first video game soundtrack to enter that chart. The success was pointed to as a sign of increasing legitimacy of video game music. 'Blow Me Away' by Breaking Benjamin was released as a single in 2010 and became platinum certified in the United States by the RIAA.

The soundtrack won the Game Developers Choice Award, Best Original Video Game Soundtrack from Rolling Stone, and Best Original Soundtrack at the 2005 G-Phoria Awards and 2005 Game Audio Network Guild Awards.