Halo's music is as important to the series as John Williams' score is as important to Star Wars and 343 Industries seems to be taking that to heart with Halo Infinite. The developers spoke about the process of finding the sound of Halo Infinite in a new blog post, noting the importance of its hopeful and honorable motifs.
Halo Infinite currently has a lot of pressure on it as 343's third Halo game and its first since 2015. The team has been taking plenty of time to try and ensure it can right the wrongs of the previous title, even going as far as delaying Halo Infinite to miss the Xbox Series X release. It was a tough blow, but seems to be a necessary one to ensure it meets the standards of fans. One of the things that has been lacking in previous entries is the music, as original Halo composer Marty O'Donnell left the series when Bungie went to go work on Destiny. The latest games haven't had bad music by any means, but it has been missing some of the magic that fans come to expect.
In a new Halo Waypoint blog post, the team at 343 Industries spoke about the audio of Halo Infinite ranging from music to audio design. Audio Director Sotaro Tojima spoke about the "spiritual reboot" element of Halo Infinite and what that means for the music. "The original games also had dark elements in their stories, but the music largely focused on the brighter side, which worked very well," said Tojima. "I contemplated why the brighter music fit so well with the darker stories and I think it simply boils down to, “because it’s Master Chief.” The Master Chief and Halo players have never been overwhelmed by challenging situations, even facing the potential end of humanity or the end of the universe. There is always a sense of hope, heroism, and confidence. So, when it comes to the music in Halo Infinite, we believe we should focus more on these brighter, positive themes to support Chief’s story and the player’s experience."
Halo Infinite is already looking promising and 343 Industries has been showing an incredible level of transparency over the last few months. The full blog post has numerous audio clips and in-depth breakdowns on the design process, giving not only a rare and great behind-the-scenes look on an AAA game, but showing key looks at the highly-anticipated game.
There was a lot of concern, especially throughout 2020, that Halo Infinite may bomb. After keeping the game under wraps for years, 343 Industries showed the game over the summer and was heavily criticized for its visual flaws. Though normally not a huge issue for a work-in-progress build, it was mere months before release and was meant to show the power of the Xbox Series X. Halo Infinite developers also kept jumping ship throughout the year, causing concern, but now that the studio is feeling more confident and continues to be transparent, many concerns are being squashed.
Source: Halo Waypoint
Halo Infinite will release sometime in 2021 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.