Reception
Reception to the soundtrack was positive. Scorenotes.com gave the soundtrack high marks, praising the presentation as well as the piano motif introduced; the reviewer judged that the soundtrack for the third game surpassed those of the previous titles. UGO Networks praised the reworked main theme, stating that the video game "would not have been the same" without O'Donnell's score. Game Informer's Brendan Vore concurred, saying that "there's nothing like hearing Halo's signature 'da-da-da-duuum' as you rush into a squad of Brutes." Conversely, IGN found the piano theme was perennially overplayed, and felt that the soundtrack "begins with a bit of a bang and then eventually sputters out". The Halo 3 Soundtrack reached a peak position of #18 on Billboard's Top Soundtracks list, #20 on Top Independent Albums, and the bottom position on the Billboard 200 on December 15, 2007. The soundtrack had an impact outside of the gaming world; fueled by interest in Halo's chants, Universal Music aggressively promoted a chant-based album, Chant: Music for the Soul, that sold 55,000 copies in its first two weeks.
Halo 3's music has been featured at several concerts, including Play! A Video Game Symphony. O'Donnell also specially arranged the Halo music for a performance of Video Games Live, and appeared at a London performance. Video Games Live has incorporated the music from Halo 3 into many of its performances, including the opening to the London Games Festival, and the 2008 Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. Arrangements featuring music from Halo 3 appears on the album releases Video Games Live, Vol. 1 and Video Games Live, Level 2.
Read more about this topic: Halo 3 Original Soundtrack
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