It didn't take long for Reach to fall. Our enemy was ruthless. Efficient. But they weren't nearly fast enough. For you had already passed the torch. And because of you, we found Halo, unlocked its secrets, shattered our enemy's resolve. Our victory - your victory - was so close... I wish you could have lived to see it. But you belong to Reach. Your body, your armor - all burned and turned to glass. Everything...except your courage. That, you gave to us. And with it, we can rebuild.
The one objective that is impossible..., but damnit if i didnt make it as hard as posible for my enemy. For a Spartin never dies, they just go missing in action.
One of the best portrayals of the inevitability of the loss of Reach is the very first cutscene. You load in to the game, hear the somber music, knowing Reach will be lost. You customize your spartan's look, choose your difficulty, and click play. The scene you are greeted with is your freshly created helmet lying unoccupied in a field with a hole through the visor.
Oh so the helmet matches your design? That's smart. And it's why real time cutscenes are so much better but I get why most games back then did prerendered
Reach is a prequel. The "one ship that escapes the massacre" thanks to noble team's efforts and sacrifice is carrying some of the heroes of the original halo trilogy.
@@NeO_SaNdMaN4040and all of 2 odst and most of 3. Accept the ending scene. all in 2552 in fact all of the final few months. The invasion of reach is in July and ends on August 30. so all of that and first strike is all in 6 months.
@@OniLink147 What politics? His only real platform is anti-massive corporation and anti-government overspending. His campaign is one of the most milque-toast I've ever seen
Halo 1-3 gave the feeling of fighting back to the never ending odds. ODST gave the feeling of being alone, trying to find our way back. Reach gave the feeling that we have already lost, but are trying to pass the baton to the next for a better chance. #RememberReach
Man Reach was so good… we just don’t get games like this anymore. I’m curious to see what you’ll think of the coming Halo games, as this was the final soundtrack made by Marty O’Donnell and Bungie.
@@sandman8920 There’s a lot of things wrong with 343’s games, I honestly wouldn’t say the music was one of them. Sure, they went in a different direction with it but like so did ODST and Reach. And that’s just for 4 and 5. Infinite’s OST is absolutely stellar and probably top 3 in the franchise IMO.
I'll never forget when I was listening to that epilogue music around 24:12 and a message from Bungie pops up on the screen and basically says: "Thank you for coming along with us on this journey and being here all these years." I grew up with Halo and it has always been my favorite game so seeing that message, knowing it was the end of Bungie's Halo, with that beautiful music in the background brought tears to my eyes for sure!
Grew up with the original 3 & ODST. When the epilog played and the thank you for the many great years, I realized I was a grown man and my childhood/ teenagehood was over. I even cried a little 😅 lol
The intro to Reach is such a great display of storytelling. You’ve just finished customising your Spartan, making them look all cool and stuff, then you start the campaign and one of the first shots is the helmet you picked out laying in the dirt, scorched, and with the visor shattered.
"tip of the spear" or "Fer-de-Lance" in French can be used to denote the vanguard of an attack as the tip of the spear is the first part of the spear that pierces your enemy, in the Level Tip of the spear you start Leading a charge of Vehicles to assault the enemy.
Halo Reach starts like a typical Halo game, but when you reach the second, one of your teammates sacrifices himself to destroy a ship, only for hundreds more to take its place. It's this exact moment when you realize how hopeless this fight really is. The second half is filled with loss after loss, losing all of your teammates one by one, until you stand alone and are forced to watch your character die, surrounded by death and destruction, as the planet burns to ash
When Marty made these OST versions of the background music. He often found ways to turn all the music from a single level including it's cutscenes into single tracks. This was necessary because the in-game tracks don't really have a solid ending to stop on, so he would just blend them into one big score for the OST version.
I literally cried when the song started playing, I played this game when I was 12 and Kat's death just coming in out of nowhere like that, absolutely rips my heart out.
@@thesauce1803 i was sitting here listening to the song with a lump in my throat wondering who was cutting onions and then this made me bust out laughing
Halo 3, ODST and Reach will always be a part of me as the halo games I spent my childhood playing. Such amazing games and fantastic soundtracks. I really miss those days.
If you knew Halo lore when they announced Reach, you knew you were in for something different and this whole score helped shape and define that feeling of helplessness that sits on the entire game. It's the best one in the series imo.
@XD-zg1cr The Eric Nylund books are overrated tbh, just not enjoyable to read. They're like outlines of stories rather than actual stories, like reading the plot of a backstory rather than the actual story. They cover events similar to how the Bible reports the events of a Bible story, but they never feel like you're actually experiencing what's happening as a good book is supposed to do. I prefer good books like Contact Harvest and The Cole Protocol. They actually immerse you in the narrative. The Fall of Reach is nowhere near as fun to read as people pretend it is.
Halo Reach is very different from the other game in terms of tone. Unlike in the main games where your on and adventure and kicking ass saving humanity. In Reach your a passenger watching the world burn down around you no matter how hard you fight. So yeah this game has a lot of darker themes compared to the rest of the games.
This game came to my hands out of nowhere. I barely played Halo 2, just a few missions, then my little brother came to me and say 'brooooo, this is the begining of the story, please, play it with me' and because we are a duo of dunks we play it in legendary, 1 run, and it wasent quick, took us days because fps wasnt my kind of games, anyway, we play it thinking we are gonna win at some point, but mission after mission we get our minds down, until at last, we played epilogue, after a hard two weeks of solo playing Reach, and the first thing we do, after drop some tears, without looking, we fistbump each other and proceed to play the better than ever in my entire life, and let this torch pass, to those who can carry the flame. Beautifull story, beautifull mechanichs, beautifull music, just a beautifull game
"Tip of the Spear" is a British idiom, meaning the first military unit or operation to engage the enemy, referring specifically to an attack that breaks the enemy's formation. Since the tip of the spear is more dangerous than the shaft, and can be followed up with extra swordsmen, cavalry, or whatever else. The modern day equivalent would be akin to a drone strike. It actually does apply the same way to Reach, despite using guns as their weapons, as it's the name of the mission where you are taking down the enemy shield generators.
5 months late, but it is really cool to see that people are just discovering these games and these soundtracks for the first time. I wish I could hear/play these things for the first time again.
@@MannerdDesert7 yeah but you can play halo 2 for just playing halo. I'd argue halo reach is the biggest case of "you are playing it for the story" which can be a good and bad thing
@@MannerdDesert7 the main issue that I have with reaches gameplay is too much of it is doing too little. Tip of the spear where you are blowing up aa guns are cool until ur doing it at oni base, again. Speaking of oni base almost that entire level is just doing nothing chores before u get to enter the base. If there was more moments where the gameplay was also propelling the story (like on Exodus, even if I don't like that level visually it does this really well) I feel id enjoy more of reaches campaign. Gunaplay generally is good feeling to me tho.
Reach, 1, 2 and 3 all have fantastic story. 1's story is fairly short, and there's a lot of "filler" gameplay spacing it out, but for the story it has its a good one
the epilogue hits so hard in the context of the game you fought tooth and nail across planet Reach, losing your comrades in defense of a doomed planet but then the remaining members of Noble Team are tasked with delivering humanity's last hope, an AI named Cortana to The Pillar of Autumn, the spaceship which Halo 1 begins aboard as you battle your way there, the remnants of your squad continue to dwindle, sacrificing themselves for the cause until you finally reach the ship but a Covenant cruiser is preventing it from taking off, and the only hope is the create a window of time for the Autumn to escape using an anti-aircraft gun when told to come aboard the Autumn, you the player, Noble 6, respond: "Negative. I have the gun." you then desperately fight your way to the gun and fire it, saving the Autumn and allowing it a chance to escape safely but then this leaves you stranded as the sole survivor on a doomed planet, who can only fight until your inevitable death cue the epilogue music, a chapter titled "There'll be another time..." and the only objective given to you is to survive. of course, you can't survive, and when you finally lose the battle you witness Noble 6 removing their damaged helmet and giving one hell of a final effort before at last being overwhelmed you then see Noble 6's broken helmet sitting in the dust, and a time skip forward reveals that humanity returned to Reach after the war was finished, the helmet still in the same place, all overgrown with grass, but you know that Noble 6, and all of Noble Team's sacrifices were worth it in the end.
8:02 for those of you who haven't played Halo 2 or forgot about it, she's reading the dialogue from the opening of the campaign during the Arbiter's trial
I love how Even tho Halo has been slowly dying for years every once in a while a small yt Channel reacts to something out of the Games like the Soundtrack or cutscenes, gathering the Community in the comment section People sharing Stories and memories, exlpaining the Plot to people who are unfamiliar to the Games, thanking bungie or Marty O‘donnel. It‘s pure nostalgia for me and i love it. Even tho i am Late to the party (being Born 2002, started playing Halo 3 ODST in 2013/14) i am still very proud to be a Part of this Community. I will Never forget the good times i had playing Halo and i will Never stop listening to the soundtrack once in a while.❤❤❤
You'd love Kai Zammits channel then! He's a filmmaker reacting to the cutscenes, I believe he's done most of the halo games at this point. He actually really gets involved into the story
oh man i feel sorry for you, halo 3 back in 2007-10 was just something crazy the custom games and everything was just peak halo imo. glad youre able to love the games now
The official soundtracks are arranged to be kinda like movements that roughly align with the levels and tracks played. In the game some things that seem to be one continuous theme don't play all the way through in game. Some bits play throughout the game, some battle music, ambient stuff, etc. The first song for Tip Of The Spear didn't play that way in the game, except in the credits. That little cliffhanger bit is where it ends in game.
Bungie was also among the first game studios, if not the first, to have a music engine which would, to a degree, remix the music and keep it going in time with the player’s progress. The music didn’t play out until the level or battle ended, no matter how long the player took to complete it. See also, Halo: CE - The Library
It’s also really interesting, if you know what to listen for you can hear Marty’s style changing in this soundtrack into what we would eventually get with Destiny 1. Like honestly there parts of this OST where I think it sounds closer to Destiny than the other Halo games.
ODST is that soundtrack for me personally. Even though that was developed prior, I just hear a bit more of the D1 soundtrack in it. At least with a lot of the more ambient sounds in the tracks
Most elite units of any country in the modern world are referred to being the tip of the spear as they are the "sharpest point" in their countries armed forces, in the music piece tip of the spear it is referring to the fact that you are the first part of the UNSC and reach army to engage the covenant officially
The background breathing at 3:34 might have just been the instrumentalists. I do a lot of recording work and that sounded like a breath that was either too intermixed in the "good" take to remove, or added to give it some space.
it sounded like vocals to me. It matched what the prominent instruments were doing very closely and was very quiet. My guess is it's there to add a faint ethereal feeling for those who have the hardware to hear it.
From the door gun of a Falcon, my squad and I watched as New Alexandria burned, the water of the bay below us reflecting the orange flames. It was almost beautiful. We could do nothing as fleeing civilian aircraft were cut down by the purple beams of plasma from orbit. Above the endless mayday calls, an air traffic controller begged UNSC command to dispatch rescue teams. "Negative, Control... no point..." The wrecked planes sank into the water, a few hundred more souls who would never leave Reach.
@@markalvarado4450No just remembering a moment that stuck with me in new Alexandria. When that civi ship tried to run and gets cut down. Wanted to tell it like I was there.
Halo Reach, my favourite Halo personally. My brother and I spent so many hours playing Firefight or replaying the campaign. Those long tracks seem to be the soundtrack for the entire level and cutscenes for that level. It's great how I can still imagine exactly where most of these play. Tip of the Spear meaning the first into the fight. The rest of the spear is following behind after you, the elite forces. Although you can use an alien energy sword in the game.
Watching all your reactions I can conclude that I still absolutely love Halo's soundtracks. The shiver I got on my spine when Ashes started. I'd love to recommend Endless Legend and Endless Space 2 for a react. The soudntracks are gorgeous. Endless Legend has a more unplugged vibe while Endless Space 2 has that synthwave space vibe.
This is Marty o’odonnelds last soundtrack working on this game as well. The original composer for this franchise. Every halo game after this is composed by different people
Tip of the spear is a military term for the unit the initially punches through enemy lines in an attempt to make room for further military action. It's related to the mission in which the song takes place
The breathing you're hearing is probably the musicians inhaling, Marty used an actual orchestra for Halos music, and in a lot of the tracks available thru Apple Music you can hear sharp inhaling. Also, no worries on the video bein late, it arrived on my 21st bday :D
Reach is a story of loss and how inevitable the loss was. You begin with your helmet burned and scorched in the dirt. You realize that loss is where this story ends. After a while of progressing through the story, you believe that victory is possible. But then your squadmate makes the ultimate sacrifice. His life for the destruction of the aliens largest capital ship. He believes he saved the planet, only for hundreds to replace the ship you fought so hard to destroy. Five of six remain. You fight your way through a falling megacity to find your the rest of your team as ever more ships appear. You are assigned to help the evacuation of the planet, all but one ship escapes. You are flown by helicopter to return to your team. As you fly by, you see how fruitless the fight for the normal army is as you watch soldiers, men, and women be butchered by genocidal aliens. As your team attempts to flee the city, the bombardment is so intense that everything is melting into glass. Another one of your team is without warning is killed by a sniper. Four of six remain. You head to a fallen military base to assist a scientist to get her and her vital research off planet. The team splits with one going with the scientist and the other three with the research. You are met with a roadblock you can not pass, a tank armed with a laser intended for mining by vaporization. Your team leader makes his sacrifice. He wishes you good luck as he flies his ship into the tank, destroying it. Three of six remain. You make it to the last ship capable of leaving the planet. You help the ship to give it time to leave. One of your team members on a large gun is killed by a squad of aliens, with a sword through his chest. He is unable to fire on the ship that is preparing to destroy the last way off the planet. Two of six remain. You deny an invite to leave on the ship, so you may destroy the ship intent on eliminating the last escape route. You fight your way to the gun and destroy the ship, ensuring that all on board the human ship can escape. You are trapped and alone on a doomed planet. You fight until you can fight no longer. One of six remains. The last spartan of Noble team. Jun goes on to survive and train the next generation of Spartans and help ensure the survival of humanity.
Well Reach _was_ supposed to be a sombre game.Honestly its my favourite game in the series and the music plays a huge part in elevating it.Marty as always bringing the heat.
Was a bit shocked that nightfall was suggested as much as it was, it’s definitely very atmospheric but it doesn’t have as much impact as some of the other tracks she missed
@@MannerdDesert7 winter contingency would have also established the atmospheric "reach voices" that she only heard like right at the end, as well as having the noble team theme right in the middle, and that memorable electric guitar bit at the end. Nightfall just feels to much like background noise / weaker versions of better tracks in different levels
This is my favorite game of all time, with a close second Halo 3. Odst was also a Gem. Halo just stays in a special place at my heart. The emotion, the narrative, the events and the meaning of it all. It's just beautiful.
If I remember correctly, Reach had dynamic in-level music that reacted to the player, so the soundtrack versions are actually a bit different to how you'd experience it while playing.
There was so much of them i didnt recognize, then all of a sudden i was back playing it over a decade ago. It is still my favorite one. I loved reading others experinces with it too.
3:40 That breathing is the ensemble taking deep breaths between each measure. I don't mind, it's my favorite small piece of music in the menu (possibly the ost too, but there's the piano piece in lone wolf and etc.)
Hands down one of the best halo games to exist, amazing story, great music, great gameplay, truly a masterpiece, the story hits the hardest out of all the halo games in my opinion, there is no happiness, it’s all grim, death, all about humans being destroyed by a greater threat, your new friends all die fighting for the great good, except for one, but ultimately the sacrifice was worth it, the discovery of the halo ring and the events that followed would have never happened if it wasn’t for those who sacrificed themselves on reach. Such a great game.
Love that you mention the tracks belonging behind a cutscene. As theyre usually played as youre playing the level, which shows how cinematic these games were!
17:07 "Tip of the Spear" in this context is a metaphor. The "Spear" here is the army, or formation. Being the "Tip of the Spear" means you are at the front of the formation and are expected to make contact with the enemy first.
Halo Wars released before ODST. She should have already listened to it. 2007 - Halo 3 2008 - Halo Wars 2009 - Halo ODST 2010 - Halo Reach 2011 - Halo CE Anniversary 2012 - Halo 4 We had quite a run back then
@@--mr4yoI actually thought it was after ODST but before Reach, I was more saying that's the one she should do next and that it made sense to make the last one of the Bungie era being the black sheep of the Bungie era. I guess it did kind of sound like I was saying it was the next one up in release order though so I can't fault you for interpreting it that way.
@@LordFinai Oh, I agree. Halo Wars needs to be done. It's the first non-Marty, non-Mike Halo score, but it's also the one that connects the most strongly to the OSTs of those original Halo games. Would be criminal not to do Halo Wars, and listening between Reach and Halo 4 is quite fitting.
22:05 The cracks form in your helmet. You feel the blood spill out of your wounds. Your alone. But you’re used to it. 22:30 You fall, finally, ready to go. 23:10 Remember Reach.
i remember loading into reach after putting one the recon helmet i had to pre order for when i was 9. and the very first scene is seeing that same helmet and colors with a cracked visor with a bullet hole right in the middle. the ground around you scorched and burned to dust and glass. was absolutely shocking and thats just the first minute
17:10 Tip of the spear refers to the person front and centre in a formation, similar to the term 'taking point'. They're the first one in, similar to how the pointy end on a spear always comes first.
Reach is the most emotional of the games. Nightfall is played during the level where your team finds the site where the invasion is taking place. Tip of the Spear is played when the UNSC begins their response to the attack on Reach. It ends very badly for the UNSC and they soon realize the immense scale of the invasion. 60% of the entire human fleet is headed to Reach to defend the planet. Ashes plays a bit later on. The threat was destroyed but then a massive fleet of Covenant ships arrive and they begin orbital bombardment on the planet targeting civilian populations. Ashes plays as the city you so hardly defend is lost alongside someone important and it’s important to note that by this point the UNSC has just about lost Reach most human ships begin fleeing Reach except for the Pillar of Autumn which is still fighting at Reach. I always found Ashes haunting especially with the context. Epilogue Reach is lost to the Covenant and you have your final stand taking out as many Covenant as you can but Reach's fall led to the discovery of Halo and eventually led to humanity's survival from near extinction.
The fact that this games advertising slogan was "From the Beginning, you Know the End"......it still hit hard. For context Reach was destroyed shortly before the original Halo, and this game was the last halo made by Bungie, and was meant to tell that sad story.
The long awaited video !!! I’m so happy you got to react to Halo Reach’s soundtrack. :) It holds a special place in my heart and its music is no exception.
Somebody has probably commented this already but it's called tip of the spear because that track is from the level where you have to get to the top of a super duper tall covenant spire
24:13 I can always hear pieces of what would set the mood for some Destiny soundtracks made by Marty in Reach (that particular part IS in Rise of Iron note for note and everything) and both D1 and D2 use halo reach tracks in some Hive songs (as in one for one like the wretched eye ost). Actually in general Rise of Iron from D1 has tons of cross over from Halo reach. Even the mountain felwinter peak is a replica of Reach's mountain seen in the epilogue.
Been very excitedly awaiting this one since the start of the series! Hope things get better for you soon, and the video was great regardless nothing to worry about
And that's a wrap on Halo. Man, it's such a satisfying ending imo. I'm glad you experienced the whole series like this. I expect that in your free time you're gonna be listening to the rest of the tracks that you didn't cover in this journey, and I heartily recommend it. I especially recommend it on something like Tidal or Amazon Music tho rather than Spotify, ofc. For tracks like these, I definitely think the added bitrate is huge, cause of the strings and the percussion.
Reach as a narrative is really great it deals with a lot of themes, fighting against impossible odds, loss, and hope among other undertones, it is a great game in the series and my personal favorite
You really need to do a video where you listen to Reach's soundtrack from start to finish. Its LONG but holy hell it tells you the story without a single visual. Its amazing and also by far the saddest one of all the Halo soundtracks no question. Reach is a pretty rough story that takes kick em while they're down to another level.
A spearhead assault is a type of attack intended to break through an enemy's defensive line and go deep. As a Spartan, you not only take part, but are at the front - the tip of the spear.
You seriously need to play this game for yourself to really get the emotions behind the soundtrack, or at the very least, watch a lets play. Please, treat yourself with this absolute gem of storytelling!
I got excited when she said Ashes was her favorite because its one my favorites as well but also makes me tear up every time I listen to it. I get whelmed by the sadness of the game & associated past romantic relationship I just got out of around the time of the game. Its a bittersweet theme that I love to death.
Epilogue is the moment that no matter what type of Halo player you were. You became Noble 6. You became the last Spartan on Reach, and you weren't going down without a fight. When I beat the game the first time I was playing 4 player co-op. When we all saw "Survive" appear as the mission objective. We all knew we were going for broke. Even when one of us would fall we wouldn't leave the game or the party. We stayed and witnessed the fight until the very end.
It didn't take long for Reach to fall. Our enemy was ruthless. Efficient. But they weren't nearly fast enough. For you had already passed the torch. And because of you, we found Halo, unlocked its secrets, shattered our enemy's resolve. Our victory - your victory - was so close... I wish you could have lived to see it. But you belong to Reach. Your body, your armor - all burned and turned to glass. Everything...except your courage. That, you gave to us. And with it, we can rebuild.
o7
remember reach
you feel this in the music fr
RIP Noble 6
Still gives me chills
"You want to know if we're losing?"
"I know we're losing, I want to know if we've lost."
20:28 starts playing.
Current objective: Survive.
"There'll be another time..."
The one objective that is impossible..., but damnit if i didnt make it as hard as posible for my enemy. For a Spartin never dies, they just go missing in action.
@MasterCrawford343 lmao u can hide behind the 3 boxes in the building if u position them in the corner
I left it on for 10 hours and 6 was still fine
Quit campingggggg said the elite@@constantlyphil
@RupertOW all I heard was "AAAAWUBADUGH" (ahhh, i found you!) Then immediate death by a legendary difficulty kick, followed by "WORT WORT WORT"
One of the best portrayals of the inevitability of the loss of Reach is the very first cutscene. You load in to the game, hear the somber music, knowing Reach will be lost. You customize your spartan's look, choose your difficulty, and click play. The scene you are greeted with is your freshly created helmet lying unoccupied in a field with a hole through the visor.
"Oh no that's me!"
Its actually the worst but ok
@@XD-zg1crLeast noticeable rage bait
@@temc7673bait used to be believable
Oh so the helmet matches your design? That's smart. And it's why real time cutscenes are so much better but I get why most games back then did prerendered
Reach is a prequel. The "one ship that escapes the massacre" thanks to noble team's efforts and sacrifice is carrying some of the heroes of the original halo trilogy.
Crazy how all that game AND Halo 1 take place in a year
@@NeO_SaNdMaN4040and all of 2 odst and most of 3. Accept the ending scene. all in 2552 in fact all of the final few months. The invasion of reach is in July and ends on August 30. so all of that and first strike is all in 6 months.
@@NeO_SaNdMaN4040 2 ODST and the bulk of 3 also take place in the same year. The Bungie Halos take place over the span of 8 months.
Forgot my favorite one. “We’ve been engaged.” (Sick guitar riff starts playing)
" Bad Guy coming out! "
Five, six, clear the hole.
That's part of Winter Contingency, unfortunately she didn't listen to it
In the wise words of heavenly from that one Russian Badger vid,
“BOW-NOW brdrbrdrbrdrbr”
Yes my friend......Winter Contingency
Reach was a verrrrey emotional game because not only the music but this was Marty's final halo game he scored. We miss you Marty! ❤❤❤
He's running for Congress now, apparently, so this may be the last we hear of his music for a while
I miss Marty's music, but not the man or his politics.
@@OniLink147 What politics? His only real platform is anti-massive corporation and anti-government overspending. His campaign is one of the most milque-toast I've ever seen
@velraven8944 he's MAGA, pro life and just overall an absolute asshat
@@velraven8944besides that. Marty is an absolute douche. The “don’t you know who I am” kind of arrogant douche.
Halo 1-3 gave the feeling of fighting back to the never ending odds. ODST gave the feeling of being alone, trying to find our way back. Reach gave the feeling that we have already lost, but are trying to pass the baton to the next for a better chance. #RememberReach
Man Reach was so good… we just don’t get games like this anymore.
I’m curious to see what you’ll think of the coming Halo games, as this was the final soundtrack made by Marty O’Donnell and Bungie.
I like the other soundtracks as well. Halo 4 and Infinite have some nice themes I think
@@wimvangelderHalo 4 certainly has decent tracks, but only one or two of them could be clearly identified as feeling like "Halo".
We all know the answer.
@@sandman8920 There’s a lot of things wrong with 343’s games, I honestly wouldn’t say the music was one of them. Sure, they went in a different direction with it but like so did ODST and Reach.
And that’s just for 4 and 5. Infinite’s OST is absolutely stellar and probably top 3 in the franchise IMO.
@@aksis2133 I don’t agree. Some tracks are ok in 4&5 and infinites best tracks are remixes of Marty’s tracks. Can’t hold a candle to bungies work.
I'll never forget when I was listening to that epilogue music around 24:12 and a message from Bungie pops up on the screen and basically says: "Thank you for coming along with us on this journey and being here all these years."
I grew up with Halo and it has always been my favorite game so seeing that message, knowing it was the end of Bungie's Halo, with that beautiful music in the background brought tears to my eyes for sure!
Grew up with the original 3 & ODST. When the epilog played and the thank you for the many great years, I realized I was a grown man and my childhood/ teenagehood was over. I even cried a little 😅 lol
The intro to Reach is such a great display of storytelling. You’ve just finished customising your Spartan, making them look all cool and stuff, then you start the campaign and one of the first shots is the helmet you picked out laying in the dirt, scorched, and with the visor shattered.
"tip of the spear" or "Fer-de-Lance" in French can be used to denote the vanguard of an attack as the tip of the spear is the first part of the spear that pierces your enemy, in the Level Tip of the spear you start Leading a charge of Vehicles to assault the enemy.
I guess this phrase isn't as well-known as it used to be...
Thanks for the history lesson. I did not know that and give the mission more meaning
@@ALivingBruhMoment happy to share
Yes. In
Yes. In general parlance, used to emphasize the quality of your most highly skilled warriors; that they are at the very "pointy end" of the battle.
Halo Reach starts like a typical Halo game, but when you reach the second, one of your teammates sacrifices himself to destroy a ship, only for hundreds more to take its place. It's this exact moment when you realize how hopeless this fight really is. The second half is filled with loss after loss, losing all of your teammates one by one, until you stand alone and are forced to watch your character die, surrounded by death and destruction, as the planet burns to ash
"We all make it sooner or later"😭😭😭
Second what? Mission?
@@Fuk999992nd half of the game
700+ million people died on Reach.
So much death and loss and yet, hope, as the Autumn breaks through the atmosphere and outruns the fire and glass below
When Marty made these OST versions of the background music. He often found ways to turn all the music from a single level including it's cutscenes into single tracks. This was necessary because the in-game tracks don't really have a solid ending to stop on, so he would just blend them into one big score for the OST version.
"Where does he get off, calling a demolition op, Priority On-" 17:37
*grunt birthday party sfx*
@@thesauce1803 No, that is too cursed.
I literally cried when the song started playing, I played this game when I was 12 and Kat's death just coming in out of nowhere like that, absolutely rips my heart out.
@@thesauce1803Hah. That’s funny. Hey, look here real quick. 🔫😄
@@thesauce1803 i was sitting here listening to the song with a lump in my throat wondering who was cutting onions and then this made me bust out laughing
23:20 "Our Victory... Your Victory was so close I wish you could've lived to see it" -Dr. Holsy at the end of Halo Reach
Halo 3, ODST and Reach will always be a part of me as the halo games I spent my childhood playing. Such amazing games and fantastic soundtracks. I really miss those days.
Those are my 3 favorite Halo games. Reach (1), ODST (2), and 3.
If you knew Halo lore when they announced Reach, you knew you were in for something different and this whole score helped shape and define that feeling of helplessness that sits on the entire game. It's the best one in the series imo.
"From the beginning, you know the end. Remember Reach."
I know the halo lore and i can tell you that halo reach its one of the worst representation of the fall of reach. The book still 10000x times better
@XD-zg1cr The Eric Nylund books are overrated tbh, just not enjoyable to read. They're like outlines of stories rather than actual stories, like reading the plot of a backstory rather than the actual story. They cover events similar to how the Bible reports the events of a Bible story, but they never feel like you're actually experiencing what's happening as a good book is supposed to do. I prefer good books like Contact Harvest and The Cole Protocol. They actually immerse you in the narrative. The Fall of Reach is nowhere near as fun to read as people pretend it is.
Halo Reach is very different from the other game in terms of tone. Unlike in the main games where your on and adventure and kicking ass saving humanity. In Reach your a passenger watching the world burn down around you no matter how hard you fight. So yeah this game has a lot of darker themes compared to the rest of the games.
it's a war movie you can play not a sci-fi shooter game like halo.
@@davidhines7592it's both
This game came to my hands out of nowhere. I barely played Halo 2, just a few missions, then my little brother came to me and say 'brooooo, this is the begining of the story, please, play it with me' and because we are a duo of dunks we play it in legendary, 1 run, and it wasent quick, took us days because fps wasnt my kind of games, anyway, we play it thinking we are gonna win at some point, but mission after mission we get our minds down, until at last, we played epilogue, after a hard two weeks of solo playing Reach, and the first thing we do, after drop some tears, without looking, we fistbump each other and proceed to play the better than ever in my entire life, and let this torch pass, to those who can carry the flame. Beautifull story, beautifull mechanichs, beautifull music, just a beautifull game
"Tip of the Spear" is a British idiom, meaning the first military unit or operation to engage the enemy, referring specifically to an attack that breaks the enemy's formation. Since the tip of the spear is more dangerous than the shaft, and can be followed up with extra swordsmen, cavalry, or whatever else. The modern day equivalent would be akin to a drone strike.
It actually does apply the same way to Reach, despite using guns as their weapons, as it's the name of the mission where you are taking down the enemy shield generators.
YOU FORGOT WINTER CONTINGENCY. ITS SO GOOD.
I think she should do ONI:Sword Base
@@BxRob927 Inbound Imminent is my favorite track.
She’s going in blind bless her.
That’s disappointing I was looking forward to some winter contingency
Time Stamps:
0:02 - Overture
5:45 - Nightfall
11:29 - Tip of the Spear
17:33 - Ashes
20:27 - Epilogue
5 months late, but it is really cool to see that people are just discovering these games and these soundtracks for the first time. I wish I could hear/play these things for the first time again.
If there was ever a halo game to play for the story, itd be reach.
I’d argue Halo 2 has the best atory
@@MannerdDesert7 yeah but you can play halo 2 for just playing halo. I'd argue halo reach is the biggest case of "you are playing it for the story" which can be a good and bad thing
@@onewheeledcar6030 reach is probably my least favourite gameplay wise pf all the Bungie games but i still think it has very good gameplay.
@@MannerdDesert7 the main issue that I have with reaches gameplay is too much of it is doing too little. Tip of the spear where you are blowing up aa guns are cool until ur doing it at oni base, again. Speaking of oni base almost that entire level is just doing nothing chores before u get to enter the base. If there was more moments where the gameplay was also propelling the story (like on Exodus, even if I don't like that level visually it does this really well) I feel id enjoy more of reaches campaign. Gunaplay generally is good feeling to me tho.
Reach, 1, 2 and 3 all have fantastic story.
1's story is fairly short, and there's a lot of "filler" gameplay spacing it out, but for the story it has its a good one
the epilogue hits so hard in the context of the game
you fought tooth and nail across planet Reach, losing your comrades in defense of a doomed planet
but then the remaining members of Noble Team are tasked with delivering humanity's last hope, an AI named Cortana to The Pillar of Autumn, the spaceship which Halo 1 begins aboard
as you battle your way there, the remnants of your squad continue to dwindle, sacrificing themselves for the cause until you finally reach the ship
but a Covenant cruiser is preventing it from taking off, and the only hope is the create a window of time for the Autumn to escape using an anti-aircraft gun
when told to come aboard the Autumn, you the player, Noble 6, respond: "Negative. I have the gun."
you then desperately fight your way to the gun and fire it, saving the Autumn and allowing it a chance to escape safely
but then this leaves you stranded as the sole survivor on a doomed planet, who can only fight until your inevitable death
cue the epilogue music, a chapter titled "There'll be another time..." and the only objective given to you is to survive.
of course, you can't survive, and when you finally lose the battle you witness Noble 6 removing their damaged helmet and giving one hell of a final effort before at last being overwhelmed
you then see Noble 6's broken helmet sitting in the dust, and a time skip forward reveals that humanity returned to Reach after the war was finished, the helmet still in the same place, all overgrown with grass, but you know that Noble 6, and all of Noble Team's sacrifices were worth it in the end.
"...and this must have been quite the cutscene if I am right."
Yes. Yes it was.
8:02 for those of you who haven't played Halo 2 or forgot about it, she's reading the dialogue from the opening of the campaign during the Arbiter's trial
I love how Even tho Halo has been slowly dying for years every once in a while a small yt Channel reacts to something out of the Games like the Soundtrack or cutscenes, gathering the Community in the comment section
People sharing Stories and memories, exlpaining the Plot to people who are unfamiliar to the Games, thanking bungie or Marty O‘donnel.
It‘s pure nostalgia for me and i love it.
Even tho i am Late to the party (being Born 2002, started playing Halo 3 ODST in 2013/14) i am still very proud to be a Part of this Community. I will Never forget the good times i had playing Halo and i will Never stop listening to the soundtrack once in a while.❤❤❤
You'd love Kai Zammits channel then! He's a filmmaker reacting to the cutscenes, I believe he's done most of the halo games at this point. He actually really gets involved into the story
oh man i feel sorry for you, halo 3 back in 2007-10 was just something crazy the custom games and everything was just peak halo imo. glad youre able to love the games now
I feel the same way. I was born in '99 but didn't start playing Halo until 2014 with Halo: Reach.
The official soundtracks are arranged to be kinda like movements that roughly align with the levels and tracks played. In the game some things that seem to be one continuous theme don't play all the way through in game. Some bits play throughout the game, some battle music, ambient stuff, etc.
The first song for Tip Of The Spear didn't play that way in the game, except in the credits. That little cliffhanger bit is where it ends in game.
Bungie was also among the first game studios, if not the first, to have a music engine which would, to a degree, remix the music and keep it going in time with the player’s progress.
The music didn’t play out until the level or battle ended, no matter how long the player took to complete it.
See also, Halo: CE - The Library
i feel like at 22:33 when you said "may their sacrifice be remembered" could not have been at a better moment considering the music to come
I love halo reach, I can’t believe no one recommended the winter contingency for the video, it’s one of the best songs in reach in my opinion
It’s also 13 minutes
@@connorhowey7685 I’m aware, it’s also quite epic ✋👌
@@virtualpancakes oh I agree, but for the sake of time and making a video, I don’t know how feasible it is
I literally thought the same
It’s also really interesting, if you know what to listen for you can hear Marty’s style changing in this soundtrack into what we would eventually get with Destiny 1.
Like honestly there parts of this OST where I think it sounds closer to Destiny than the other Halo games.
ODST is that soundtrack for me personally. Even though that was developed prior, I just hear a bit more of the D1 soundtrack in it. At least with a lot of the more ambient sounds in the tracks
Most elite units of any country in the modern world are referred to being the tip of the spear as they are the "sharpest point" in their countries armed forces, in the music piece tip of the spear it is referring to the fact that you are the first part of the UNSC and reach army to engage the covenant officially
Winter Contingency alone necessitates a part 2 to this.
Halo Reach one of my favorite halo games
The unsettling section of the epilogue soundtrack plays in the cutscene where your player character dies
The background breathing at 3:34 might have just been the instrumentalists. I do a lot of recording work and that sounded like a breath that was either too intermixed in the "good" take to remove, or added to give it some space.
it sounded like vocals to me. It matched what the prominent instruments were doing very closely and was very quiet. My guess is it's there to add a faint ethereal feeling for those who have the hardware to hear it.
From the door gun of a Falcon, my squad and I watched as New Alexandria burned, the water of the bay below us reflecting the orange flames. It was almost beautiful. We could do nothing as fleeing civilian aircraft were cut down by the purple beams of plasma from orbit. Above the endless mayday calls, an air traffic controller begged UNSC command to dispatch rescue teams. "Negative, Control... no point..." The wrecked planes sank into the water, a few hundred more souls who would never leave Reach.
this was actually really well said. was this from a book?
@@markalvarado4450No just remembering a moment that stuck with me in new Alexandria. When that civi ship tried to run and gets cut down. Wanted to tell it like I was there.
Halo Reach, my favourite Halo personally. My brother and I spent so many hours playing Firefight or replaying the campaign. Those long tracks seem to be the soundtrack for the entire level and cutscenes for that level. It's great how I can still imagine exactly where most of these play. Tip of the Spear meaning the first into the fight. The rest of the spear is following behind after you, the elite forces. Although you can use an alien energy sword in the game.
Actually, a game OST I think you might enjoy, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Watching all your reactions I can conclude that I still absolutely love Halo's soundtracks. The shiver I got on my spine when Ashes started.
I'd love to recommend Endless Legend and Endless Space 2 for a react. The soudntracks are gorgeous. Endless Legend has a more unplugged vibe while Endless Space 2 has that synthwave space vibe.
"How long?"
"Question of my life..."
“If the question is, when will this station be back online, two weeks, earliest.”
@@FlaminTubbyToast "two minutes is too long"...
@@i_woke_up_in_a_new_buggati which is why I’m splicing it into the over line bundle to get you a direct connection to col. Holland.
Honorable mentions that didn’t make the video: Long night of solace, Exodus, Pillar of autumn
This is Marty o’odonnelds last soundtrack working on this game as well. The original composer for this franchise. Every halo game after this is composed by different people
"It's very mellow...very somber."
She doesn't know.
Tip of the spear is a military term for the unit the initially punches through enemy lines in an attempt to make room for further military action. It's related to the mission in which the song takes place
I imagine riding a horse into battle in the scorching hot sun in the Middle East whenever I hear Tip of the spear OST 😂
Tip of the Spear would work perfectly for a specific mission in Call of Duty: Black Ops II.
@@Tar-Numendil 100%
Look up the closing cinematic from Halo: Reach, here on UA-cam.
It will give you a whole new appreciation for the Epilogue.
The breathing you're hearing is probably the musicians inhaling, Marty used an actual orchestra for Halos music, and in a lot of the tracks available thru Apple Music you can hear sharp inhaling. Also, no worries on the video bein late, it arrived on my 21st bday :D
Reach is a story of loss and how inevitable the loss was. You begin with your helmet burned and scorched in the dirt. You realize that loss is where this story ends. After a while of progressing through the story, you believe that victory is possible. But then your squadmate makes the ultimate sacrifice. His life for the destruction of the aliens largest capital ship. He believes he saved the planet, only for hundreds to replace the ship you fought so hard to destroy. Five of six remain. You fight your way through a falling megacity to find your the rest of your team as ever more ships appear. You are assigned to help the evacuation of the planet, all but one ship escapes. You are flown by helicopter to return to your team. As you fly by, you see how fruitless the fight for the normal army is as you watch soldiers, men, and women be butchered by genocidal aliens. As your team attempts to flee the city, the bombardment is so intense that everything is melting into glass. Another one of your team is without warning is killed by a sniper. Four of six remain. You head to a fallen military base to assist a scientist to get her and her vital research off planet. The team splits with one going with the scientist and the other three with the research. You are met with a roadblock you can not pass, a tank armed with a laser intended for mining by vaporization. Your team leader makes his sacrifice. He wishes you good luck as he flies his ship into the tank, destroying it. Three of six remain. You make it to the last ship capable of leaving the planet. You help the ship to give it time to leave. One of your team members on a large gun is killed by a squad of aliens, with a sword through his chest. He is unable to fire on the ship that is preparing to destroy the last way off the planet. Two of six remain. You deny an invite to leave on the ship, so you may destroy the ship intent on eliminating the last escape route. You fight your way to the gun and destroy the ship, ensuring that all on board the human ship can escape. You are trapped and alone on a doomed planet. You fight until you can fight no longer. One of six remains. The last spartan of Noble team. Jun goes on to survive and train the next generation of Spartans and help ensure the survival of humanity.
Well Reach _was_ supposed to be a sombre game.Honestly its my favourite game in the series and the music plays a huge part in elevating it.Marty as always bringing the heat.
Winter contingency should have been put here instead of nightfall tbh
Was a bit shocked that nightfall was suggested as much as it was, it’s definitely very atmospheric but it doesn’t have as much impact as some of the other tracks she missed
@@MannerdDesert7 winter contingency would have also established the atmospheric "reach voices" that she only heard like right at the end, as well as having the noble team theme right in the middle, and that memorable electric guitar bit at the end. Nightfall just feels to much like background noise / weaker versions of better tracks in different levels
need a part 2!! so many more incredible tracks like Winter Contingency!
Hope everything is going ok for you.
This is my favorite game of all time, with a close second Halo 3. Odst was also a Gem. Halo just stays in a special place at my heart. The emotion, the narrative, the events and the meaning of it all. It's just beautiful.
Btw the breathing sound was literally the low brass players taking breaths so that they could keep playing.
If I remember correctly, Reach had dynamic in-level music that reacted to the player, so the soundtrack versions are actually a bit different to how you'd experience it while playing.
what i would like to see is you watching the cutcenes where these songs are used, they are used so well in the context of the scenes
This is my absolute favorite Halo Soundtrack. A lot more gritty and militaristic in tone. So much nostalgia
There was so much of them i didnt recognize, then all of a sudden i was back playing it over a decade ago. It is still my favorite one. I loved reading others experinces with it too.
i love how the fantasy part is pulled back and the military feel is pushed forward. they really compliment their games / settings so well
3:40 That breathing is the ensemble taking deep breaths between each measure. I don't mind, it's my favorite small piece of music in the menu (possibly the ost too, but there's the piano piece in lone wolf and etc.)
Hands down one of the best halo games to exist, amazing story, great music, great gameplay, truly a masterpiece, the story hits the hardest out of all the halo games in my opinion, there is no happiness, it’s all grim, death, all about humans being destroyed by a greater threat, your new friends all die fighting for the great good, except for one, but ultimately the sacrifice was worth it, the discovery of the halo ring and the events that followed would have never happened if it wasn’t for those who sacrificed themselves on reach.
Such a great game.
i just realised the end of the soundrack had the same strings as the beginning of halo 3 when cortana talks about luck for john
Love that you mention the tracks belonging behind a cutscene. As theyre usually played as youre playing the level, which shows how cinematic these games were!
17:07 "Tip of the Spear" in this context is a metaphor. The "Spear" here is the army, or formation. Being the "Tip of the Spear" means you are at the front of the formation and are expected to make contact with the enemy first.
Halo Wars is next up I believe
Halo Wars released before ODST. She should have already listened to it.
2007 - Halo 3
2008 - Halo Wars
2009 - Halo ODST
2010 - Halo Reach
2011 - Halo CE Anniversary
2012 - Halo 4
We had quite a run back then
@@--mr4yoI actually thought it was after ODST but before Reach, I was more saying that's the one she should do next and that it made sense to make the last one of the Bungie era being the black sheep of the Bungie era. I guess it did kind of sound like I was saying it was the next one up in release order though so I can't fault you for interpreting it that way.
@@LordFinai Oh, I agree. Halo Wars needs to be done. It's the first non-Marty, non-Mike Halo score, but it's also the one that connects the most strongly to the OSTs of those original Halo games. Would be criminal not to do Halo Wars, and listening between Reach and Halo 4 is quite fitting.
22:05
The cracks form in your helmet. You feel the blood spill out of your wounds.
Your alone. But you’re used to it.
22:30 You fall, finally, ready to go.
23:10 Remember Reach.
Been waiting for this one, it's one of my favourite soundtracks
Idk why I look forward to your reactions so much, but I do. It's wonderful listening along with someone who presumably hasn't heard this before
i remember loading into reach after putting one the recon helmet i had to pre order for when i was 9. and the very first scene is seeing that same helmet and colors with a cracked visor with a bullet hole right in the middle. the ground around you scorched and burned to dust and glass. was absolutely shocking and thats just the first minute
8:02 I'm just now finding out that this plays when you boot up MCC before the main menu shows up
Halo Reach, what a game!!! and the overture is my fav piece of music throughout the series!
17:10 Tip of the spear refers to the person front and centre in a formation, similar to the term 'taking point'. They're the first one in, similar to how the pointy end on a spear always comes first.
its so cool to see people playing this game so many years later, this game had a HUGE impact on me when i was 12
You'd be surprised, I recently checked the games servers (on MCC) to my surprise ppl are still playing, the games are full and still fun!
Reach is the most emotional of the games. Nightfall is played during the level where your team finds the site where the invasion is taking place. Tip of the Spear is played when the UNSC begins their response to the attack on Reach. It ends very badly for the UNSC and they soon realize the immense scale of the invasion. 60% of the entire human fleet is headed to Reach to defend the planet. Ashes plays a bit later on. The threat was destroyed but then a massive fleet of Covenant ships arrive and they begin orbital bombardment on the planet targeting civilian populations. Ashes plays as the city you so hardly defend is lost alongside someone important and it’s important to note that by this point the UNSC has just about lost Reach most human ships begin fleeing Reach except for the Pillar of Autumn which is still fighting at Reach. I always found Ashes haunting especially with the context. Epilogue Reach is lost to the Covenant and you have your final stand taking out as many Covenant as you can but Reach's fall led to the discovery of Halo and eventually led to humanity's survival from near extinction.
The cello solo in Overture has some effect on me and it's POWERFUL
The fact that this games advertising slogan was "From the Beginning, you Know the End"......it still hit hard. For context Reach was destroyed shortly before the original Halo, and this game was the last halo made by Bungie, and was meant to tell that sad story.
The long awaited video !!! I’m so happy you got to react to Halo Reach’s soundtrack. :)
It holds a special place in my heart and its music is no exception.
I highly recommend Perfect Dark and Banjo-Kazooie for the Nintendo 64. Grant Kirkhope made GORGEOUS music for these games.
Somebody has probably commented this already but it's called tip of the spear because that track is from the level where you have to get to the top of a super duper tall covenant spire
god, surviving hordes of covenant knowing im going to die while epilogue played had me actually crying, it was hard to shoot lol
24:13 I can always hear pieces of what would set the mood for some Destiny soundtracks made by Marty in Reach (that particular part IS in Rise of Iron note for note and everything) and both D1 and D2 use halo reach tracks in some Hive songs (as in one for one like the wretched eye ost). Actually in general Rise of Iron from D1 has tons of cross over from Halo reach. Even the mountain felwinter peak is a replica of Reach's mountain seen in the epilogue.
Been very excitedly awaiting this one since the start of the series! Hope things get better for you soon, and the video was great regardless nothing to worry about
And that's a wrap on Halo. Man, it's such a satisfying ending imo. I'm glad you experienced the whole series like this.
I expect that in your free time you're gonna be listening to the rest of the tracks that you didn't cover in this journey, and I heartily recommend it. I especially recommend it on something like Tidal or Amazon Music tho rather than Spotify, ofc. For tracks like these, I definitely think the added bitrate is huge, cause of the strings and the percussion.
Bro soon as I heard overture I instantly got goosebumps every time I hear this is give me goosebumps cause I. How nostalgic it is to me
Reach as a narrative is really great it deals with a lot of themes, fighting against impossible odds, loss, and hope among other undertones, it is a great game in the series and my personal favorite
Tip of the Spear serves as the analogue to the Halo theme for Reach. In a similar way to Unyielding being the Arbiter's analogue to it in Halo 2.
You really need to do a video where you listen to Reach's soundtrack from start to finish. Its LONG but holy hell it tells you the story without a single visual. Its amazing and also by far the saddest one of all the Halo soundtracks no question. Reach is a pretty rough story that takes kick em while they're down to another level.
This was basically bungies goodbye to halo, the last few frames of cutscene are the opening to halo ce
I don’t know why but listening to the Halo Reach soundtrack always reminds me of Egypt for some reason especially the menu music and Tip of the Spear
A spearhead assault is a type of attack intended to break through an enemy's defensive line and go deep. As a Spartan, you not only take part, but are at the front - the tip of the spear.
You seriously need to play this game for yourself to really get the emotions behind the soundtrack, or at the very least, watch a lets play. Please, treat yourself with this absolute gem of storytelling!
17:00 the reason it's called tip of the spear is because that usually refers to the front lines in military lingo. marines are a good example.
The thing about Overture is it accompanies the main title screen into the first cutscene which is like 4 minutes long XD
I got excited when she said Ashes was her favorite because its one my favorites as well but also makes me tear up every time I listen to it. I get whelmed by the sadness of the game & associated past romantic relationship I just got out of around the time of the game. Its a bittersweet theme that I love to death.
The scene that plays during the epilogue always gets me
Yooooo! I was just listening to the halo reach OST then decided to check my notifications then boom! I love your serendipitous upload schedule!😊
Epilogue is the moment that no matter what type of Halo player you were. You became Noble 6. You became the last Spartan on Reach, and you weren't going down without a fight. When I beat the game the first time I was playing 4 player co-op. When we all saw "Survive" appear as the mission objective. We all knew we were going for broke. Even when one of us would fall we wouldn't leave the game or the party. We stayed and witnessed the fight until the very end.
Thanks for making these videos, it's been delightful to hear you jam out to these soundtracks