Game soundtracks

[Pop]

So I was recently slogging through Jade Empire, and the thing about the game that jumped out the most at me as being high-quality was the music. The soundtrack was very epic in an Icewind Dale kind of way with some eastern flourishes thrown in (and although I enjoyed it, it may have contributed in some way to the general feeling on inauthenticity and shallowness in the game setting) so I procured a copy of the soundtrack and noticed that it had joined a growing collection of soundtracks in my library. Deus Ex, Fallout, Diablo, Streets of Rage 2, etc.

 

So I decided it would be prudent to start up a thread here pertaining to game soundtracks, open it up to discussions, recommendations, and the like. I may venture to share a few of the soundtracks in my collection, as well.

[theslug]

Halo church music?

COD 4 - When you kill someone some like hardcore rock song starts playing it's so epic

[Meshugger]

Halo church music?

COD 4 - When you kill someone some like hardcore rock song starts playing it's so epic

 

Epic hardcore kill?

 

Anyways, i always considered the Final Fantasy-soundtracks with Nobuo Uematsu as a league of their own, few composers are even near this guy's talent. Maybe Motoi Sakuraba (Batos Kaitos), Hamazu (Did some arrangements on FFX) and the guys behind FFX-2 have some potential as well. Deus Ex, Unreal 1 and PS:T are also good. KotOR 1 & KotOR 2 + Jade Empire are ok-ish, too much filler-tracks though. Despite the crappiness of Oblivion, the soundtrack by itself is pretty solid.

 

No cookie for guessing the composer for the best intro ever

[Pope]

both the God of War soundtracks

[mkreku]

Gothic 3 has awesome music. It was performed by the Orchestra of Bochum and totaled 8 hours of recorded music! It sounds fantastic in-game and really adds to the atmosphere of the game. Few game soundtracks do that for me.

 

Hitman: Blood Money also had some awesome music.

[SteveThaiBinh]

The Arcanum soundtrack (for strings) is a favourite of mine and fitted the atmosphere of the game perfectly.

 

Quest for Glory IV and V both had excellent music. I particularly recommend the necrotaur battle music from QfGIV and the dryad dance from QfGV.

 

Also very good is Civilization IV, for the soundtrack as a whole but especially for the modern era and for Baba Yetu.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Icewind Dale is the best. Both Baldur's Gate games are decent.

 

Bloodlines has good music both the game ambient and the bands.

 

Both of the Fallout games were perfect, it suited the setting well.

[Zoma]

Freespace

 

Homeworld

[GreasyDogMeat]

So I was recently slogging through Jade Empire, and the thing about the game that jumped out the most at me as being high-quality was the music. The soundtrack was very epic in an Icewind Dale kind of way with some eastern flourishes thrown in (and although I enjoyed it, it may have contributed in some way to the general feeling on inauthenticity and shallowness in the game setting) so I procured a copy of the soundtrack and noticed that it had joined a growing collection of soundtracks in my library. Deus Ex, Fallout, Diablo, Streets of Rage 2, etc.

 

So I decided it would be prudent to start up a thread here pertaining to game soundtracks, open it up to discussions, recommendations, and the like. I may venture to share a few of the soundtracks in my collection, as well.

 

Somebody else liked the old sega Streets of Rage music too eh? Favorite tune was the first stage in Streets of Rage 2, 'Go Straight', and Streets of Rage 1 had some good tunes too. Perfect 'beat-em up' soundtrack.

 

-Some of my favorites of the old 16-bit era games are the Donkey Kong series, Sonic games usually had a few good ones and I liked the Genesis 'Batman & Robin' soundtrack. Had awesome boss music when fighting the joker. Thinking about these oldies takes me back. There are some great 'improved' and modernized versions of old game music at http://www.ocremix.org/. I especially love the Donkey Kong remixes, they sound amazing. Streets of Rage also has some great remixes.

 

-Icewind Dale had a fantastic soundtrack all around and is one of the few games where it is hard for me to find a weak track. Its actually kind of hard to choose a favorite overall soundtrack when it comes to Icewind Dale 1 vs Planescape.

-Icewind Dale II had some really great songs, but, the whole soundtrack wasn't quite as good overall imho.

 

-SiN episode 1 has an awesome main menu track and ending credit track.

 

-Most WWII shooters have excellent orchestral main menu tracks. Few, imho, top Medal of Honor Allied Assault.

 

-Resident Evil 4 has an awesome soundtrack. I love the 'infiltration' track and the creepy heartbeat music.

 

-Hitman series has some awesome music. Jesper Kyd is second only to Jeremy Soule as far as video game composers go imho.

 

-Descent blew me away when I played it years ago, both with it's awesome graphics and techno/electronic soundtrack. Perfect for a game about blowing up robots. The sequels had a few decent tracks, but I loved almost every single track in Descent 1, especially the awesome/creepy/atmospheric briefing music before each mission. Sounded like it was lifted from some big budget AAA sci-fi flick.

 

-Crusader No Regrets/Remorse has a few awesome tracks. Never actually played the game, just got some of the music and loved the menu track and mission 1 music.

 

-Battletoads the Arcade Game.

 

-Most game soundtracks by Jeremy Soule. Its funny though, I thought his worst music was actually in Oblivion, despite it winning several awards for the music... go figure.

 

-While I prefer id's online shooter's better than Epic's (Better balancing & gameplay imho), I think the Unreal series has excellent sci-fi music.

 

-Quest for Glory series had some great music for it's time.

 

-Alien Trilogy had some cool music, often with odd sloshing/bubbling alien noises.

 

-Bill Brown usually does good video game music. I loved the theme/main menu music to Undying. No idea what 'spearo sparrow' means though.

[Krookie]

Grand Theft Auto had awesome 80s rap songs.

[Pope]

Oh yeah that's right, Vice City had about the coolest soundtrack ever.

 

Of course, it was basically "Best of the 80's".

[Starwars]

Recently, I think MotB has a very strong soundtrack. One of the best RPG ones I've heard in fact. The Witcher also seems solid enough.

 

The Silent Hill soundtracks are excellent. 2 is my personal favourite. 1 might be a bit much for some people.

 

I mostly listen to Fallout, Arcanum and PS:T soundtracks. I think those were spot on in terms of the games directions, and the soundtracks really served to enhance the games.

[Tel Aviv]

Anachronox? Grim Fandango. The Half Life series also.

[Starwars]

Oh yeah, Grim Fandango is fantastic. That's a game that I really need to replay.

 

The Monkey Island soundtracks are great as well.

[Zoma]

Star Ocean 2!

 

Diablo's town theme was memorable too.

Edited November 7, 2007 by Zoma

[Big Bottom]

The Bloodlines music is cool but they completely ripped off Massive Attack with the title theme.

[WITHTEETH]

Hitman: Blood Money also had some awesome music.

Damn, you beat me to it! One of my favorite games of all time.

[Tale]

Chrono Cross, Xenogears, and Xenosaga: Episode I. I love Yasunori Mitsuda.

 

They moved to a different composer for Episode II and III. He had his moments, but was not as good in general.

Edited November 7, 2007 by Tale

[Sand]

I enjoyed Bloodlines' music as well as Icewind Dale's and Planescape Torment's. I have a special folder where I keep all my games' music files in just in case I just want to play the soundtracks. Jumping from KotOR 2's opening theme to Bloodlines' Ministry song Bloodlines can be a bit jarring but fun.

[Hurlshort]

I agree with the Quest for Glory nominations. That was the first game that really captured my attention with the music, particularly the remake of 1.

 

I also enjoyed the Heroes of Might and Magic Opera music, and I'll always remember playing Monkey Island with my first sound card, what a difference that made!

[samm]

some of the best sountracks I know were already named, people here show good taste I love

- PS: T, the soundtrack (and the soundeffects) are part of why this is the best game I've played

- Quest for Glory V (didn't play the predecessors)

- Icewind Dale (IwD2 sounded annoyingly bad in most places imo)

- Baten Kaitos

- Total Annihilation (Soule at his best )

- Some tracks from Etherlords

- Some tracks from Darkstone

- Zelda: Ocarina of Time (I don't know if it still holds a top position nowadays, but man that was cool when the game came out!)

- Some tracks of The Dark Eye 3: Shadows over Riva

- Vampire Bloodlines (title-track = ripoff? It does sound like Massive Attack, but it's not a copy... I like all the original game music and the licensed titles)

- Outcast (oh man... time flies! it was wonderfully fitting the scenery, when coming out of this first daoka you heard that music...)

- Some tracks of BG2 (I noticed that I liked the ones from BG1 mostly for nostalgic reasons, not because of quality...)

- Some tracks from NWN2: MotB (not all were memorable, but those who were, were very good)

- Some tracks from the Witcher

- Omikron: The nomad soul (It's Bowie, you know )

 

Also, GSoundtracks has reviews that mostly fit my taste, if it weren't for the dislike of rock and electronics

Edited November 7, 2007 by samm

[Pop]

The Vampire theme is reminiscent of "Angel" the way Ministry's "Bloodlines" is reminiscent of "So What". Beyond cosmetic differences, they're very much the same song.

[Musopticon?]

Outcast, especially the city theme. Very original composition and absolutely tear-jerking sound from the Hungarian Radio Choir. Ways ahead of it's time as well. The music sounds almost too much like a modern John Williams st.

 

Hitman 2 and Hitman: Blood Money. It's funny how much Kyd has improved with every game he has scored. This guy can do practically any kind of genre and style.

 

Thief series, thanks to a certain Brosius. Incredibly solid and fitting sound for games released years ago. Still have some of the best atmosphere of all time.

 

I found Rune to have a great mix of rock, viking choirs and ambient. If you can find the soundtrack, Galbadia Hotel should have it, listen to the bonus tracks. Some of the best ambient I've heard there. You'll crap your pants.

 

Soule, Klepacki, Hoenig, Ruskay, Brown(ospierro pero!) and the sound guy for HL 2.

Edited November 7, 2007 by Musopticon?

[samm]

The Vampire theme is reminiscent of "Angel" the way Ministry's "Bloodlines" is reminiscent of "So What". Beyond cosmetic differences, they're very much the same song.

I just compared VtMB to "Angel" and, well, they are similar indeed - however, the theme basically consists of two notes, one of which is repeated multiple times in a certain rhythm. Can't do much different things with one note

 

[edit]

I just read the manual, title track is indeed by ministry's al jourgensen. they don't mention ASP's track (played at that church-club with venus) in there, strange... also, there were collide posters ingame, but no piece of music by them [edit2] why isn't there a sad smilie...

Edited November 7, 2007 by samm

[Dark_Raven]

Bloodlines hands down is the best. Deus Ex, both Fallouts and Icewind Dale rule. The Kotor games were pretty good in some parts.