Posted February 11, 2014
I'm still not quite sure what happened that I missed this bundle, but I sure am grateful for the opportunity, Elinnea! To the Moon is probably the single outstanding indie of the past few years that I've been absolutely sure I'd like to play yet never got around to getting it, so please count me in!
Can't lie, though, I was also eager to wax prosaic on the topic of game music. It's surprising how often the music in games plays second, usually even third, fiddle to graphics and gameplay. In fact, one of those usually has to suck for music to be brought up as a redeeming factor. I guess it's just easy to turn off bad music and, truth be told, there's not much really good music to go around. Competent and adequate, sure! But truly great?
I can't think of any of my all-time favourite games without remembering the music. I always keep a working midi synthesiser and the Warcraft 2 soundtrack on hand. I know the Terran themes from StarCraft, note for note, and I don't think Blizzard have made another truly great game since they stopped producing such bold and memorable music. I still marvel at the evocative score that Barry Leitch managed to arrange for Drakan, so clearly produced on a shoestring and so desperately crying for a proper orchestration. Even the two unused pieces he made for the sequel outshine the entirety of its soundtrack (have a listen to them, and some other samples, too).
There is a plethora of Star Wars games out there, and for each one a nameless sound designer whose sole duty was to rehash the same old score from the classic trilogy into properly suitable chunks for each level or trigger. Then there were a few who were ambitious enough to do their own thing. Jeremy Soule's score for KotOR is great, to be sure, but you can not for a second forget that he is not John Williams. In a Star Wars game, this matters. Then there is Chris Hülsbeck. He did something for Rogue Squadron that few others have had the opportunity or talent to achieve: he imitated John Williams; and he did it oh so well! You can go through his entire score never knowing it was anything but original JW. If you're a particularly avid fan of JW's, you'll spend most of it uncomfortably wondering why you can't quite place which movie and scene a certain piece comes from. But you're still sure it's ripped straight out of the original trilogy, no question about it! And if this much holds true for the music on its own, it is so much truer from within the game. The immersion is astonishing!
One would think that with such a solid legacy in Williams's scores, Lucas Arts' other soundtracks would be second rate and uninspired. Peter McConnell would beg to differ. Indeed, if there is one soundtrack to listen and inhale, without game or activity attached to it, make it Grim Fandango's. All the superlatives in the world simply can't measure to the broody groovy edgy soothing thrill that can be had from a quick listen to it. Go do that now. The rest of the post can wait.
But even such high praise doesn't quite measure up to my absolute favourite game soundtrack. You'd think it'd have to be Mozart to live up to this hype. You'd be right. Which brings us to Europa Universalis 2. This isn't really fair towards Andreas Waldetoft, Paradox's in-house composer in more recent years, whose works are inspired, moving, epic, evocative... Really, they're everything you'd want in music. Alas, immersion is a fickle beast to tame. Epic and inspired is absolutely perfect for a strategy game. But a Grand Strategy, where battles, losses, daring stratagems are mere numbers on a map... that's different. Which is why the EU2 music is so uncannily proper! It's a compilation of period music from 15th century court music straight to Mozart and Beethoven. These aren't your run-of-the-mill poutpourri, though. They are largely unknown pieces, many by anonymous authors, their precise origins the subject of scholarly research. Some are outright annoying, as folk music is wont to be. They are authentic, in the most loaded sense of the word. And they tell you exactly what you need to hear: the map before you is just a map, in an office, in a well-secluded court; the task before you is grander than any single battle: preserve the realm, bring it prosperity, keep the music playing. Because when it stops, so does your game.
Can't lie, though, I was also eager to wax prosaic on the topic of game music. It's surprising how often the music in games plays second, usually even third, fiddle to graphics and gameplay. In fact, one of those usually has to suck for music to be brought up as a redeeming factor. I guess it's just easy to turn off bad music and, truth be told, there's not much really good music to go around. Competent and adequate, sure! But truly great?
I can't think of any of my all-time favourite games without remembering the music. I always keep a working midi synthesiser and the Warcraft 2 soundtrack on hand. I know the Terran themes from StarCraft, note for note, and I don't think Blizzard have made another truly great game since they stopped producing such bold and memorable music. I still marvel at the evocative score that Barry Leitch managed to arrange for Drakan, so clearly produced on a shoestring and so desperately crying for a proper orchestration. Even the two unused pieces he made for the sequel outshine the entirety of its soundtrack (have a listen to them, and some other samples, too).
There is a plethora of Star Wars games out there, and for each one a nameless sound designer whose sole duty was to rehash the same old score from the classic trilogy into properly suitable chunks for each level or trigger. Then there were a few who were ambitious enough to do their own thing. Jeremy Soule's score for KotOR is great, to be sure, but you can not for a second forget that he is not John Williams. In a Star Wars game, this matters. Then there is Chris Hülsbeck. He did something for Rogue Squadron that few others have had the opportunity or talent to achieve: he imitated John Williams; and he did it oh so well! You can go through his entire score never knowing it was anything but original JW. If you're a particularly avid fan of JW's, you'll spend most of it uncomfortably wondering why you can't quite place which movie and scene a certain piece comes from. But you're still sure it's ripped straight out of the original trilogy, no question about it! And if this much holds true for the music on its own, it is so much truer from within the game. The immersion is astonishing!
One would think that with such a solid legacy in Williams's scores, Lucas Arts' other soundtracks would be second rate and uninspired. Peter McConnell would beg to differ. Indeed, if there is one soundtrack to listen and inhale, without game or activity attached to it, make it Grim Fandango's. All the superlatives in the world simply can't measure to the broody groovy edgy soothing thrill that can be had from a quick listen to it. Go do that now. The rest of the post can wait.
But even such high praise doesn't quite measure up to my absolute favourite game soundtrack. You'd think it'd have to be Mozart to live up to this hype. You'd be right. Which brings us to Europa Universalis 2. This isn't really fair towards Andreas Waldetoft, Paradox's in-house composer in more recent years, whose works are inspired, moving, epic, evocative... Really, they're everything you'd want in music. Alas, immersion is a fickle beast to tame. Epic and inspired is absolutely perfect for a strategy game. But a Grand Strategy, where battles, losses, daring stratagems are mere numbers on a map... that's different. Which is why the EU2 music is so uncannily proper! It's a compilation of period music from 15th century court music straight to Mozart and Beethoven. These aren't your run-of-the-mill poutpourri, though. They are largely unknown pieces, many by anonymous authors, their precise origins the subject of scholarly research. Some are outright annoying, as folk music is wont to be. They are authentic, in the most loaded sense of the word. And they tell you exactly what you need to hear: the map before you is just a map, in an office, in a well-secluded court; the task before you is grander than any single battle: preserve the realm, bring it prosperity, keep the music playing. Because when it stops, so does your game.
