Game music of the day: Halo: Reach

Game: Halo: Reach

Song: The Battle Begins

Composers: Martin O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori

Above: The Battle Begins from Halo: Reach

By now, you know. You've read GamesRadar'ssuper review. You've heard the earth-shattering, heart-breaking, jaw-dropping, seizure-inducing news. And you've reacted with a corresponding degree of completely justified horror and/or delight.

I scored Halo: Reach an 8. I thought the game was "great." My sincerest apologies…

Anyway, one of the things that I found particularly "great" about Bungie's prequel was the soundtrack. It's a beautiful blend of old and new, of familiar and surprising, of triumphant and tragic. You only need to listen to a few seconds of today's track, The Battle Begins, before you recognize it as Halo. The signature chanting. The insistent, pounding drums. But something's different…

While the original Halo trilogy chronicled Master Chief's heroic rescue of the galaxy, Reach takes place when the war has just begun, when humanity is caught off guard and when the situation is at its most dire. Spoiler alert: You're not gonna get much of a happy ending here. Reach's music, therefore, is sadder. Quieter. Epic and bombastic, still, but with a somber mood of duty, finality and inevitability.

To help with the comparison, here's the original Halo theme, as performed by awesome living room amateurs:

To sample the rest of Halo: Reach's music,head here.

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