Mass Effect 1 and 2 are, as far as I’m concerned, two of the best albums ever released, and the games they put out to promote them aren’t bad either. That’s in no small part down to composer Jack Wall, whose fingerprints are all over the iconic, wobbly synths of tracks like Vigil, Suicide Mission, and that one that plays in the galaxy map.
You know what his fingerprints aren’t all over, though? Mass Effect 3, whose music was done by Clint Mansell instead. ME3 had some bangers, sure, but it was a very different vibe, and Wall’s absence was a major reason the game felt like such an odd duck in the original ME trilogy. Now, in a chat with The Guardian, Wall’s reflected on what caused his absence from the third Mass Effect: he had a John Lennon and Paul McCartney-style split with Mass Effect series lead Casey Hudson.
“Casey was not particularly happy with me at the end,” says Wall, and though “Fallouts like that happen,” his spat with Hudson was “one of the few times in my career that’s happened. It was a tough time, but it is what it is.”
Alas, Wall doesn’t say why he and Hudson fell out, just that they did, though he seems to suggest Hudson wasn’t quite happy with ME2’s ending. That’s baffling to me. Mass Effect 2’s crescendo, that suicide mission they keep banging on about, is so striking and memorable in no small part because of Wall’s incredible soundtrack. “I’m so proud of that score,” remembers Wall, who notes that “It got nominated for a Bafta, and it did really well” in spite of the fact “it didn’t go as well as Casey wanted.”
Making the suicide mission theme was, says Wall, “the biggest mind-fucking thing I’ve ever done in my life. And there was no one available to walk me through it, because they were all freaking out trying to finish the game.” When he finally turned it in, BioWare devs had to “do a lot of massaging” to make it fit what they’d made. “The result,” reckons Wall, “is still one of the best ending sequences to a game that I’ve ever played.”
I have to agree. Although I’m a paid-up member of the ‘ME1 was best’ alliance, ME2’s climax is a high-point for the series as a whole. I’m curious how Wall’s music fell short of it in Hudson’s eyes. Perhaps he resented all that “massaging” the devs had to do, or perhaps he just had a completely different creative vision. Whatever the disagreement, it meant Wall’s signature sounds were absent from ME3. To that game’s detriment, I think.
