omgodzilla wrote...
Payne by name wrote...
The music
I’m sorry but it was nowhere near as good as the first one.
.
BLASPHEMY!!
I did answer this point earlier in the posting but I appreciate that it's a lot of pages to wade through! If you don't mind, I've lifted some of that response and added some other bits -
What I liked about the score for ME1 was it's 70's/80's sci-fi minimalist feel that was so wonderfully demonstrated in the track Vigil. It only strayed into full 'epic' mode near the end when you were engaging in well an 'epic' battle to save the Citadel.
It laid down a marker that this would be iconic and part of the Mass Effect brand. It chose a style and a mood that you assumed would remain throughout the trilogy. Ok, future themes wouldn’t be exact replicas but variations on the theme it had created. .
Music makes an emotional connection, it creates a mood and ambience. They clearly went for that style of music in the first one for a reason so I think they can't be surprised that people didn’t ‘
feel’ the same when playing the second one.
In my opinion, the ME2 soundtrack was trying to be too Zimmer-esque, which didn't fit as the actions weren't always quite epic. Yes, taking on the collector ship at the end was big but you can't say it was the similar level of epic set piece (both visually and story wise) as pulling together all the races to combat a common enemy. I concede that the track ‘Suicide Mission’ was very good but overall the soundtrack did not have enough ‘nods’ to the previous work to keep you anchored in the universe that they had gone to so much trouble to recreate.
I know many say '
oh things need to evolve, always be fresh' but there’s no point in establishing a sound and feel if you aren’t going to reference it. Change for change for sake isn’t always best. Look at the Halo franchise music. Love it or hate it, the Gregorian chant music is certainly evocative, and iconic, for the series. Similarly, the first three Star Wars films all have good soundtracks with their share of standout pieces, but John Williams made sure that they all feel they originate from the same place. It’s a different film but it’s part of the same story.
Mass Effect had a chance with it’s music, but IMO that has passed.