These softer, more colourful sounds signal Giacchino’s desire to broaden the score’s instrumental and thus emotional palette. More lyrical and light-footed than Medal of Honor, Underground heralds its intentions straight away with opening track “May 10th, 1940 (Main Theme)”, which features accordion, boys choir, solo cello, and a downright romantic rendition of variation “A”. What differentiates Underground more obviously though from its predecessor than these new themes is the music’s new emotional direction. The result is an immensely rich tapestry that turns the Medal of Honor: Underground soundtrack into one of the thematically best developed works in the Western game music canon. He also continues his technique to write his action tracks as variations on a newly introduced sub motif. To this malleable new main theme, Giacchino adds the expected return of Medal of Honor‘s domineering Nazi theme. This is music with a simple, yet gripping dramatic arc that provides insight into the emotions of the game’s protagonist. Despite being mercilessly attacked by other instrumental groups, the resolve motif finally erupts into a rendition of the “A” variation. The music then segues into the resolve motif on swelling strings that keep on building.
First there’s a yearning quotation of the “B” variation on solo trumpet against a hammering orchestral backdrop. This musical thought represents Manon’s determination to carry on in the chaos of battle.Ī track like “Panzer Blockade” beautifully shows how Giacchino uses these musical building blocks. Adding more complexity still to Manon’s musical representation is a swelling two-note ostinato motif. Variation “B”, on the other hand, leads into a minor 6th chord, ending on a more thoughtful note. It conveys a feeling of national purpose, similar to Medal of Honor‘s main theme, albeit less solemn and markedly lusher. After these two notes, variation “A” of the main theme leads into the Major key. Giacchino’s simple but ingeniously implemented solution is to develop Manon’s two themes out of the same musical cell, an ascending two-note motif. Giacchino finds a clever way to anchor this exploration of Manon Baptiste’s emotional states in Underground‘s thematic foundations. As a consequence, the Medal of Honor: Underground soundtrack shows greater interest than Medal of Honor in illuminating its protagonist’s psyche. These efforts highlight the game designers’ increasing ambition to enrich action-driven gameplay through the retelling of one individual’s personal story. Its main character Manon Baptiste is based on real-life French resistance fighter Hélène Deschamp Adams – who also served as a consultant on Underground.
As a result, bloggers, film score collectors and music fans in general – many for the first time – took note of the music produced for a video game.Įven more than Medal of Honor, Underground aims for historical authenticity (and thus reverence). Astonishingly, it matched the elevated standards that come with such role models. Michael Giacchino’s Medal of Honor score fashioned itself on John Williams’ action scoring of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Instead, that particular achievement would have been the wide-spread critical recognition of game music’s quality outside of the gaming community. However, the fact that the game progressed the FPS genre in terms of subject matter wasn’t its most revolutionary aspect. Medal of Honor strove hard to create a first-person shooter experience that left an impression on players beyond the mere satisfaction of shooting bad guys before they could shoot you. Medal of Honor: Underground Soundtrack (PS1), Michael Giacchino, 2000
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