The sound of Halo's Mongoose comes from two distinctly different vehicles.

      Xbox Game Studios

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      Children today will not fully grasp the significance of Halo 3 for millennials of a certain generation. It was one of those rare instances where a highly anticipated game lived up to expectations, arriving at an opportune moment as broadband internet was becoming widespread across the country, allowing many of us to experience online multiplayer gaming for the first time. I must have invested thousands of hours into it, and even now, I'm still discovering new things about the game. For instance, the exhaust sound of the Mongoose ATV was a mix of a scooter and a Pontiac Fiero.

      If you're a Halo enthusiast, you might already be aware of this. It was a fact revealed in the “Making of” documentary included with the collector's editions of the game back in 2007. Reflecting on it, the UNSC vehicles in Halo always had a rich, robust sound that was uncommon for that time, even in racing games. (Don’t even get me started on Gran Turismo’s vacuum-like noises.) In the documentary, Jay Weinland, the Audio Lead for the game, describes how the distinct rumble of the Mongoose combines the sound of a Vespa he once owned with an aftermarket muffler and a colleague’s Fiero equipped with dual six-inch pipes. You can listen to it in the embedded video at 50:22.

      The method Bungie used to capture that exhaust sound isn't really different from how it would be accomplished today. A microphone can be seen placed at the edge of the sports car's rear deck, angled downwards. It’s quite amusing to see an ordinary Fiero set up this way instead of a gleaming new hot hatch. However, using gritty sound sources results in a suitably gritty output.

      “As I jump in [the Mongoose], you can hear the growl of the two-stroke,” Weinland describes in the video. “And then you’ve got this really growly, you know, four-stroke—huge-sounding exhaust.” As Master Chief takes off, the sounds meld together.

      Those weren’t the only vehicles recorded for Halo 3. Another engineer captured the hydraulic hiss of his Subaru wagon’s tailgate opening, which was then transformed into the whoosh made by the automatic doors in the game. Who knows what additional sounds were created from cars? The discussions surrounding audio capture in the film are actually quite fascinating because they highlight how designers recognize the essence of a potentially great sound in everyday life, record it, and subsequently refine it to fit the game environment. Can anyone guess the origin of the Ghost’s sound? No Googling allowed.

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