25 Greatest Musical Tracks From The Halo Series

13. Out Of Shadow - Halo 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=e96DEZKJvW0 Since Halo 3 was the grand finale of the trilogy, things of course had to be shaken up a bit. O'Donnell and Salvatori did an excellent job ratcheting up the drama as mentioned before both visually and audibly, so its no surprise that more of that emotion from Halo 3 made its way further down the list. The key here is distinguishing itself in pieces; how does a game that concludes a trilogy differentiate its moments both visually and audibly to create more satisfying and fulfilling ideas that connect with the player? How does a game like Halo 3 step its game up outside of eventual character deaths? The answer is simple: give them a scene of destruction. A scene of mayhem. Something that grabs at their attention and holds on. The level Tsavo Highway does exactly this at a strong visual standpoint, displaying the carnage brought by the Covenant in the sprawling African landscapes, with destroyed highways and massive parts of debris strewn everywhere. This level made the "last stand" saying much more effective. And so did the audio. "Out of Shadow" is what I like to consider one of Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori's best. By taking an old tune from Halo 2 (which is disclosed until later in the list), they remastered the human theme and made it into one of exploration and deviation. Since the Tsavo Highway level gives the player several viewpoints for which to survey the destruction wrought by the Covenant, a tune was needed to fit the mood. "Out of Shadow" is one of those tunes that is played when looking out into a vast expanse, taking it all in and traveling through it all. In some ways it's about being smaller than the whole picture, a mere speckle of dust on a tapestry. Imagine this while listening to the tune up above: three humans riding together in a vehicle driving through a wasteland, swerving in and around pieces of debris for miles and miles, dodging aliens and aircraft, only to eventually run into a gargantuan crater dug up by said aliens, which uncovers an alien object that could potentially mean the end of all life. This is obviously the grand finale.