World at War: Music Design

There have been a lot of comments out on the internet concerning the music in Call of Duty: World at War. Most of it has been (surprisingly) positive, considering how unique the score is for the Call of Duty franchise. Its definitly not the typical musical score for a game in this genre, which was our desire from the outset.

Luckily, we were able to sign our composer (Sean Murray) very early on. He and I had worked together on the True Crime series, and I really liked the fact that he uses a lot of sound design elements in his music. He's a fantastic composer, willing to work hard...and he really wanted to do something innovative for the genre. In essence, he was a perfect fit for us.

So, we started by changing where our influences generally come from for this genre: "Saving Private Ryan". We wanted to create a moody, stressful atmosphere, and have music that would complement the sound effects instead of fighting for sonic space with them. We settled on the movie "Thin Red Line" and really got into it, prototyping several styles and moods using his vast array of synths.

It didn't take long before we realized that we couldn't completely abandon the roots of the franchise--it was just sounding too much like a red-haired stepchild, and less like a unique take on what we'd done in the past. It had always been a full orchestral score, with very traditional instrumentation and composition - somehow, we needed to maintain this, while also adding the fresh changes that we wanted to make.

I think it finally started coming together when working on the 'Black Cats' mission. Getting our orchestral pieces put into this map was very challenging...and sadly, the mission was just missing something. Strings (which are great for adding tension) were completly washed out by the 50 cal turret on the side of the plane. Horns, while they blasted through, didn't add the kind of intensity we were looking for.

So, I started putting all kinds of music into the level: traditional japanese, classic rock, metal, psytrace...what? Psytrance?

It worked. The driving beat of trance worked in perfect harmony with the rat-tat-tat of the machine guns. The ethereal sounds and melodies blended perfectly with the cacaphony of the explosions. It made the level feel faster paced and a lot more immersive.

But there was a major red flag:

"YOU can't possibly be thinking of putting psytrance into a World War II game, can you?" I was asked by several parties.

Honestly, it worked so well for Gameplay that for a few weeks I really did consider it, even though thematically it wasn't quite right. But then our audio programmer (Stephen McCaul) had a better idea. Create something completly new by remixing and sampling Sean's music so it's not so different and keep the driving beat.

After a several late nights, the "Black Cat" theme was born. The piece combines traditional japanese instruments and modern techno to create something completely new that really fits the level. Every sound in the music is found across the game's score (see below for Part B).

This worked out so well that we decided to sweeten up more of the traditional orchestrations that Sean had written with lots of elements, from drum sweetners to 8-string guitars. Kevin Sherwood wrote several guitar parts that we began to layer in when we wanted to bring 'anger' or 'revenge' out in a scene.

Thematically, we wanted to do something unique for each of the campaigns. The Russians invading Germany was pretty simple--they were out for Revenge and made no bones about it. The Pacific campaign was a little more difficult, however, the Japanese were known for one thing: ambushes. So we decided that the music's purpose for that campaign needed to keep the player off balance.

The Russian campaign begins in the outskirts of Germany and follows the Red Army into the heart of Berlin. As the Red Army progresses through Germany, their anger and lust for revenge really takes hold of them. The music follows suit. Early in the campaign its very traditional, but the closer you get to the Reichstag, the darker and more disturbing the score gets.

The American campaign doesn't follow the emotions of the Marines as they fight through the jungles of Peleliu---instead, we focused on the tactics of the Japanese. They were known for ambushing the marines and setting traps up in very inconspicuous places. So, we really focused on eerie, quite underscores that blend in with the ambient sound of the jungles. When the ambush(es) take place, we blast loud taiko drums that just shatters the more quiet underscore, usually making you jump.

So after a year plus of work, our game had its voice: traditional orchestral scores, sweetened (when needed) with modern instrumentation, accenting each campaign differntly but appropriately.