Hulick composed for Mass Effect 3, contributing to the conclusion of a science fiction trilogy whose musical identity is built on analogue synthesiser textures rather than on orchestral fanfare. The approach deliberately evokes an earlier era of science fiction cinema, where scores were electronic and unhurried.
He is an American composer working primarily in games, and he was among the composers who established the trilogy's sound across its three entries. Electronic film scoring of the nineteen seventies and eighties is the acknowledged model, alongside ambient music, and he writes with the medium's requirements in mind, since a cue may loop for as long as a player stays in a location.
Recurring subjects: isolation, wonder scored without swelling, and themes that establish a mood rather than announce a character. He favours sustained pads, slow harmonic movement and restraint, and he writes deliberately quiet music for a genre that usually demands the opposite.
His contributions to the trilogy are among the most recognised in game music, and several of his cues circulate widely outside the games themselves. His work is frequently cited as an example of restraint being more effective than scale in scoring science fiction.
For listeners who want ambient science fiction scoring. Suited to anyone who played the trilogy and remembers the quiet moments more than the battles, and to those interested in the electronic film music traditions he draws on.
