There have been more than a few articles about how useful gaming music is for working or studying to. Spadeart reblogged this one on tumblr. There was also this on lifehacker, and this on reddit.
It got me to thinking about similarities between gaming soundtracks above and beyond the composers.
I have an ongoing fascination with soundtracks and scores in general (OST? I think we’re going to go with OST for the duration of these). My iPods tend to run the whole day and into the night, and are my co-pilots in all travel situations, far better than anyone sitting with me to keep me awake. I find music to be a better solution than chocolate for stress and distress. The number of times I declared myself a score whore over the years is, frankly, appalling considering one of the words in the title. Still, I’ll probably always be a music maven when it comes to OSTs, so there we are.
There have been some real home runs in the game OST department lately, ones that I’ve gotten really excited about, so I thought I’d go on about some of the other awesome game OSTs that I’ve come across recently.
The reviews will be based on re-play value (both how much you want to listen to them later and how easy it is to listen to them on repeat), soundtrack cohesion (how does the OST stand up as an album), play through ability (how well does the album transition from song to song), and extended use of the music (can the music be used for anything else, which will be a feat in and of itself because my undergraduate school actually had a Super Mario Brother’s rock Opera).
I will also be making note of the tone of the OST, as I realized what a wide range of genres I have set for myself to review. When discussing the tone of the album I will not only be discussing the genre of the game – and by this I mean a bit more in depth than just a general swipe at where the game sits such as horror / survival horror, but also where it would sit if you were experiencing the game as a novel. So while a Biohazard game – Resident Evil 5, for instance – is ostensibly a survival horror game when considering the franchise, that particular game is more of an action horror game with a side helping of angst. Expect a lot of adjectives during that section of the review.
I’ll be approaching these reviews in terms of either using the soundtracks as focus music for writing (which I love) or as a general for-play soundtrack. If I have played the game or watched a playthrough, I will be happy to offer a brief explanation of the game mechanics or story and how the music supports them, but that’ll be an add-on. Feel free to Ask me to review one, if you’re curious about anything.
So be prepared! I’m going to go through these:
- Ori and the Blind Forest (Gareth Coker)*
- * I already did a very short review for this back on my tumblr, but it fell short of giving an in-depth review like what such good gaming music deserves. So I’m going to expand on it according to this format.
- The Order: 1886 (Jason Graves)
- Journey (with a side helping of Flow, which is also by Austin Wintory)
- inFAMOUS: Second Son (Marc Canham)
- Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (TRI-CRESCENDO)
- Endless Legend (FlyByNo)
- Remember Me (with a side helping of Bound by Flame which is also by Oliviere Dividiere)
- The Last of Us (Gustavo Santaolla)
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Jeremy Soule)
- Dishonored (Daniel Licht)
- Dragon Age: Inquisition (Trevor Morris)
- Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation (Winifred Phillips)
- Assassin’s Creed Unity: Volume 1 (Chris Tilton)
- Assassin’s Creed Unity: Volume 2 (Sarah Schachner)
- The Secret World (Marc Canham & Simon Poole)
- Thief (Luc St-Pierre)
- Eternal Poison (Takashi Okamoto, Yuki Nakagawa)
- Dragon Age 2 (Inon Zur)
- Dragon Age: Origins (with a side helping of Leliana’s Song Inon Zur)
- Child of Light (Coeur de Pirate)
I have already started separating these OST into groups, but the list isn’t chronological in any form or fashion.
The two groups above represent soundtracks that stand as an actual album versus soundtracks that are a collection of the songs from the game.
I’ll work on getting a more thorough write-up on Ori & the Blind Forest by the end of the week.
Onward!
