because 343 focused so much on creating an emotional tone for each key point of the narrative that they forgot to create an overall tone for the entire game. from a previous post i made. [quote]... I disagree with the magic comment. 343 does have their own style that I love, but I think what you're referring to is how Bungie managed to create an emotional tone that flowed through their entire games. Whereas 343's work is excellent at creating a tone for a specific moment, Bungie creates one that can be found throughout the entire game. For example, the soundtrack for Halo 4 has some stunning individual tracks (IMO), but when you think about it as a whole, it lacks an overall tone. It sounds like a bunch of tracks just piled on top of each other. Compare Belly of the Beast to Arrival to Green and Blue. They don't really have much in common. Whereas if you take Marty's scores, they generally incorporate a set of instruments that's present throughout the whole game. In CE, it was the synth. In 2/3 it was the choir. In Reach it was the orchestra. In ODST it was the sax/piano. That's what people mean by "Halo feel." It's not that the soundtrack doesn't have that feel- indeed, there is [i]no such thing[/i] as a particular Halo feel- it's just that the soundtrack doesn't have a flow that permeates through it. When you think of the soundtrack as a whole you don't think that "That's Halo." You think "Well this one was Halo. And this one. And this one. And this one." until you list off every piece and then you have yourself scratching your head. It's like this for the direction of the entire game. 343 was so caught up in having the player experience the moment that they didn't make the player experience [i]the journey.[/i] Of course, this is all my opinion...[/quote]