raycevick

Raycevick Recommends: Halo: The Fall of Reach OST by Tom Salta

Added 2020-01-13 14:00:06 +0000 UTC

Halo: The Fall of Reach movie is really, really... bad. I prefer to use more sophisticated descriptions when a film doesn't live up to its potential but 2015's animated recreation of Eric Nylund's book (or rather, a part of it) is terribly acted, poorly animated, and is consumed more like a Youtube Playlist of Short-Films rather than a cohesive film.

It also repeats an error that Halo's 4&5 made, as well as the more recent Wolfenstein's. The score mixing is horrendous, with music being almost completely faded in all but a handful of scenes.

Good news is, the film's OST is available online and isn't just good, but great enough to make me believe its composer, Tom Salta, finally be given a big break after 10+ years in this industry, and work on a major entry in this franchise. He's the same man behind Spartan Assault & Spartan Strike's surprisingly good scores, but what separates Fall of Reach for me is its variety. Where Spartan Assault for instance echos Halo 3's Piano & Choirs, the bulk of music is made to fit the game's top-down shooting mechanics. Fall of Reach, being a film, doesn't need a consistent tempo for combat.

Though, if you enjoy Fall of Reach's OST, those two soundtracks act as great companion albums. Halo Wars proved long ago someone other than the all mighty duo of Marty & Michael can nail Halo's atmosphere, and I believe Tom Salta is one of those people.