Buy it... if you don't own any of Michael Giacchino's scores beyond the first "Medal of Honor" game, for this is perhaps the best expansion of that sound.

Avoid it... if you do already own several of Giacchino's World War II era games and seek an exploration of his talents in other genres of games or features.

Giacchino

Secret Weapons Over Normandy: (Michael Giacchino) The creation of realistic World War II video games extended to several production houses in the early 2000's, with "Secret Weapons Over Normandy" among those to debut from new financial backing. It's difficult to figure which fact about this situation is more fascinating: the prolific popularity of video games in this specific genre and era of history, or composer Michael Giacchino's steady production of grand orchestral action music for them. Continuing his successful career writing this style of massive, overachieving music for such projects, Giacchino stayed within the familiar stomping grounds of this era of battle scenario games for this late entry. His association with the "Medal of Honor" series came to an abrupt halt when he followed most of the games' creators out the EA doors and took better opportunities at Activision and LucasArts, and it's a tad funny that the "Medal of Honor" association isn't mentioned once in the thousands of words of documentation all over the "Secret Weapons Over Normandy" score album. Most recently, Giacchino had finished the game score for "Call of Duty" and translated his music from the television series "Alias" into a gaming companion of its own. Aside from "Alias," however, casual fans could easily resume head-scratching contemplation about the consistency of Giacchino's involvement in World War II related games. It was several years prior when the first "Medal of Honor" was released to rave reviews, and Giacchino's ability to write a Saving Private Ryan-inspired score better than John Williams himself gained the young composer widespread notice. Five large-scale WWII action scores later, listeners were starting to wonder if Giacchino was a one-dimensional composer. His work for "Alias" tended to disprove this notion, and his success for major motion pictures would follow not long after, but that didn't stop "Secret Weapons Over Normandy" from sounding repetitive and related in many ways to Giacchino's previous work recorded by Seattle performers for the genre. In short, his well of fresh ideas for these video games was beginning to dry up. For the composer, though, "Secret Weapons Over Normandy" would present a challenge that doesn't really factor into the listener's mind unless he or she is actually playing the game.

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In most games, the music, no matter how large and impressive, is typically restrained to thematic passages before, in between, or after missions, and stock, looped material is inserted into the game play underscore situations. The challenge for Giacchino in the case of "Secret Weapons Over Normandy" was to write music that followed the basic needs of the game play scenarios. In other words, if you were near victory in a mission, the music would be switched by the game to convey that excitement. On the other hand, if you are blown to smithereens and die an unceremonious death, the game inserts at that very instant the sounds of a tragic cue of failure. This idea isn't specifically novel in this game, but it is utilized to such a great degree that Giacchino ended up doing what the likes of Bernard Herrmann did for CBS shows of the 1950's: writing stock cues for different emotions that the game would choose to insert at any time during the mission. That said, all of the music for "Secret Weapons Over Normandy," no matter its purpose, is consistent with the grand scale of orchestral bombast that Giacchino had provided time and time again for these games. His themes are saturated with American spirit, and the heavy, fast-paced brass usage will continue to remind of John Williams' works. If you've heard his previous, similar scores on album, then the refreshing moments will be those of unique character in this score, such as the choral usage in "Operation Sea Lion," "Stalingrad," and "East Prussian Factory Run." The best of these orchestral and choral combinations is "Fjords of Norway," an elegant piece that restrains the pace of the battle behind the majesty of the music's own scope. The central sections of the album for this game, dealing mainly with the Japanese front, include drum performances by the Seattle Kokon Taiko Ensemble, and the thought could enter the mind that this is exactly the kind of material that players would have heard had Giacchino continued with the "Medal of Honor" series to score the "Rising Sun" game. The album for "Secret Weapons Over Normandy" includes one full CD of the best suites, although the second CD of 14 minutes has some of the more notable cues of short duration and a collection of multimedia material that reveals considerable insight into the scoring and recording process for the game. Overall, for your money, this music is still a good deal, but there was merit to the lingering interest that many fans had in hearing Giacchino finally branch off into other genres for his talents to tackle. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Michael Giacchino reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.37 (in 21 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.23 (in 12,367 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.