Summary
- Jack Wall composed the first two Mass Effect games, giving us some fan favourite tracks.
- However, he did not come back for Mass Effect 3, due to a falling out with director Casey Hudson.
- Wall suggests that Hudson was unhappy with his work on Mass Effect 2.
If you were to ask a Mass Effect fan which entry is their favourite, the answer would more likely than not be Mass Effect 2. This is largely seen as the peak of the series, with its satisfying gameplay, darker tone, and of course, the iconic suicide mission to round everything off.
Many would also argue that Mass Effect 2 has the best score, with Jack Wall returning from the first game, but with a very different vibe. This all accumulates in several tracks for the suicide mission, playing as we either beat impossible odds, or kill off a bunch of beloved companions one by one.
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Now, in an interview with The Guardian, Wall sheds some light on why he didn’t return to score Mass Effect 3 – he had a falling out with series director, Casey Hudson. While he doesn’t share the details, he does say that Hudson was “not particularly happy” with him in the end, suggesting that they clashed during development as Wall had a more hands-on role that time around.
Jack Wall Explains Why He Didn’t Compose Mass Effect 3
“Fallouts like that happen, it’s just part of the deal”.
As Wall explains in the interview, he was more active in Mass Effect 2’s development, as he implemented the music into the game itself. This came about after he was unhappy with how his score was handled in the first game, saying that the transitions were “terrible”.
“It was the biggest mind-f**king thing I’ve ever done in my entire life,” he tells The Guardian. “There was no one available to walk me through it, because they were all freaking out trying to finish the game. I handed it in, and they had to do a lot of massaging on their end in order to get it to work, but they did it.”
As he puts it, “The result is still one of the best ending sequences to a game that I’ve ever played”. Many fans would agree, making his absence from Mass Effect 3 all the more confusing.
“Casey was not particularly happy with me at the end […] But I’m so proud of that score. It got nominated for a Bafta, and it did really well.” He then adds that it “didn’t go as well as Casey wanted,” suggesting that Hudson had issues with either Wall’s work on implementation, or the score itself.
He doesn’t got into specific details, but he does add: “Fallouts like that happen, it’s just part of the deal […] It’s one of the few times in my career that’s happened, and it was a tough time, but it is what it is.”
It probably wasn’t that fan-favourite Suicide Mission score that made Hudson unhappy, as Wall says that he liked it “pretty much immediately”.
Regardless, other Mass Effect composers, Sasha Dikicyan, Sam Hulick, Christopher Lennertz, and Cris Velasco would return for the finale, with Clint Mansell also joining the team. A newcomer to the series, John Paesano, would then be brought on for Mass Effect: Andromeda.
- Released
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November 20, 2007
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Violence