Videogame soundtracks

[Wyrmlord]

I was just browsing around IMDB, and I found out that most of my favourite game soundtracks have been done by one person.

It's by this man: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0815819/

Apparently Jeremy Soule is the composer of Icewind Dale. I daresay that's the finest music one can ever hear from a videogame, right from the menu music. The Upper Dorn's Deep music and Dragon's Eye music are amazing. Also, the Easthaven music was pretty well done, because you hear two versions of it, when you see the town in a typical day, and when you see it destroyed. I found that to be truly stirring. And if that weren't enough, he is also the composer of CoH and KotOR. Both of them have good soundtracks. He also composed NWN's soundtrack, and I have to say that the game atleast did have some really good music.

Another favourite of mine is Mark Morgan, who is the composer of Planescape: Torment and Fallout 2. Planescape: Torment's Fortress Of Regrets battle theme is my all-time favourite music from a videogame, and I just love hearing it. The credits music and the Smoldering Corpse bar music were good, because they sounded so wierd and different.

I also think honorable mention goes to the celebratory music played at the end of every Doom level. :D

But anyway, what games did you think had good soundtracks?

 

[JarlFrank]

The obvious Planescape Torment and Arcanum soundtracks, of course, because they're so different from other soundtracks and fit the athmosphere of their games so well.

Then there's Monkey Island. The first two Monkey Islands. Good old piratey midi music. I love it till this day.

 

[A user named cat]

Divine Divinity - Probably the best soundtrack I've heard in any game. Songs actually sounded like they were composed based on each setting perfectly.

Final Fantasy 7 - Despite being in cheap midi still was done very well. Probably has the most memorable themes of any RPG.

Silent Hill 2 - The use of muffled, lo-fi sounds was done beautifully. "Promise-reprise" was a wonderful track, also used in the movie.

Planescape Torment - Already brought up, just great stuff.

Chrono Cross - Didn't care much for the game, but had some very good themes. The main celtic-like song was fantastic.

Tropico 2 - Good old pirate songs, all done very well.

Deus Ex - Awesome 80's sounding synths, loved it.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Everything was done just about perfectly, despite N64's shortcomings in the audio department.

Goldeneye - Great, atmospheric themes to shoot your friends to. Almost every level has a theme that you'll remember forever.

 

[asper]

Read this thread: http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=20376

Obvious: Arcanum, Torment, Fallout, Monkey Island.

Doom, Doom2. If you like the Doom soundtrack, check out Marc A. Pullen's work. He composed soundtracks for a number of games, including linux fps's Sauerbraten and Cube. It's instrumental metal and a lot of it is awesome.

Portal - very good ambient music.
Eve Online - some tracks are quite good (gallantean1), electronic music, idm-like
Homeworld - excellent ambient, and one piece by Samuel Barber I believe.

Edit: Forgot some stuf...

VTM:B ! The tracks "chinatown theme", "downtown theme" etc. are all quite good and can even be listened to on their own There is also a soundtrack CD full of horrible emo-metal

The Witcher: Very nice music, also listenable on its own.

Diablo 1, Diablo 2: A few pieces are really good, very claustrophobic dark ambient with some very evil guitar playing..

In fact, forget all of the above and tune in to the BEST RADIO STATION EVER, KOHINA. The Commodore 64 SID chip is the mose awesome electronic sound device ever created and everyone should kneel before it in AWE :D Here's a new chiptune by one of the old masters...

 

[barker_s]

Icewind Dale 2 - the track that plays in Targos

Morrowind - main theme

VTM: Bloodlines - it had some nice, climatic music as well as some 'real-life' songs played in bars and clubs.

 

[Herbert West]

I just wish that some composer as versatile as Jerry Goldsmith would write music for video games. I consider him the best soundtrack composer ever and Soule doesn't even compare to him. However Icewind Dale soundtrack was very, very good for a video game.

 

[MetalCraze]

I'm a technofag so I like Alex Brandon (Deus Ex, Unreal, Unreal Tournament) and Rom Di Prisco (NFS 3-5). also soundtracks from Jesper Kyd (Hitman series and UT3, btw together with di prisco there)
I also like ToEE electronic ambient soundtrack. whoever made it.
Christopher Franke's fusion of electronic sounds with classical instruments is also fine in my book. though the only game on PC where you can hear that specific style of his music is fanmade B5 spacesim IFH.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

I always loved the music in the original Red Alert by Frank Klepacki. Classic.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Shawn Lee did a fantastic soundtrack for Bully. Very Danny Elfmanesque with strings and stuff, very cool. Check it out.

Jeremy Soule is very overrated but he did Total Annihilation and you can't be angry at someone who composed music that awesome once upon a time. You just can't.

Frank Klepacki, as noted above, is classic techno metal mofo music and Red Alert (1) is the best. Should be in everyones collection.

Edit: Also: Alexander Brandon, Eric Brosius and Mark Morgan. Fantastic composers. Does anyone know what they're up to these days? Brandon I think work for Obsidian now.

 

[ghostdog]

My all time favorite game soundtracks are from Deus Ex and the Silent Hill series. Alexander Brandon and Akira Yamaoka are the top of the top in my list.

Aside from those two I really liked some of the epic scores in baldur's gate and icewind dale games and also the atmospheric classical oriented music of Arcanum.

And let's not forget the great midi music of the older games. Dos had some good music but the exceptional tunes I remember are from my nes games.

 

[JarlFrank]

It's not a game but a TV series, but... Battlestar Galactica has a fucking awesome soundtrack. Fucking. Awesome.

 

[Jormungandr]

Daggerfall
Morrowind
FF 6
Super Metroid

 

[fastpunk]

The guys from Womb Music made some great soundtracks so far. They did work on Bloodlines, which was very fitting for the game... however their biggest performance so far has been the Mask of the Betrayer soundtrack. Man oh man, that Mulsantir theme is sublime. I think Alex Brandon also contributed to MotB, he's at Obsidian now isn't he?.

And speaking of Alex Brandon, did he work on the UT2003/2004 soundtrack too? Some themes in that one are hair-raising, like the ONS-Severance theme.

Then there's Jesper Kyd, who's work on Hitman: Contracts I really love. Don't know if he worked on Hitman: Blood Money too, never played that game. He also did the new UT3 soundtrack, which is quite good.

And Amon Tobin is quite good with soundtracks, his Splinter Cell 3 OST was quite spectacular. He's also a good musician though, if a bit weird.

And then there's Jeremy Soule's work on Icewind Dale, which turned out great. It's one chilling soundtrack. Also worth mentioning are the soundtracks for Planescape: Torment, Deus Ex, Anachronox and Icewind Dale 2.

 

[The Dude]

Outcasts soundtrack (composed by a guy named Lennie Moore) is one of the best ever, every game musician wanting to do orchestrated stuff should really listen too that. Pretty surprised no one mentioned that, but sadly that excellent game weren't as widely played as it deserved.

I also really enjoy old chip (and some mod) tunes by guys like Rob Hubbard, Chris Hülsbeck and Ben Daglish. Even though they were as much programmers as musicians, you can't help being pretty impressed by what they did with such limited means. Games like Last Ninja, Turrican, Great Giana Sisters, Rambo and Commando have catchy and kickass soundtracks.

 

[NiM82]

I'm quite fond of the newage-ish ambient stuff in X3 Reunion. GTA Vice City, Wipeout, SS2, MOTB, I-WAR2, TOEE and the Hitman series all have great stuff too.

Don't know if he worked on Hitman: Blood Money too, never played that game.

Yeah he did, the soundtrack is awesome.

Battlestar Galactica has a fucking awesome soundtrack. Fucking. Awesome.

Agreed, shame Bear Mcreary hasn't had a go at doing any game scores yet, he seems capable of quite a diverse range.

 

[Jaesun]

I just wish that some composer as versatile as Jerry Goldsmith would write music for video games. I consider him the best soundtrack composer ever and Soule doesn't even compare to him. However Icewind Dale soundtrack was very, very good for a video game.

He's as overrated as Soule is. Bleh.

Elliot Goldenthal> Tired old Goldsmith. Hell even Christopher Young is better then Goldsmith.

Also I'll second that the Battlestar Galactica's music is brillant. It's a bit like the soundtrack to the Movie Solaris. Good stuff.

 

[kingcomrade]

The Final Fantasy 8 orchestrated soundtrack (called like Fithos Venus Wanker Chimney or something) is great, I think they got someone other than the normal dude to do the music for that one.
I've got a couple of the songs from those Jap Game Orchestra thingies where they would actually rewrite the song for orchestra rather than just try to jam the square original into the orchestra's round hole (yes oh god yes).

I recently downloaded the Freedom Fighter soundtrack which is filled with the most xxxtreme o fortuna heavy epic heroic russian choir, some with kinda techno background (I don't know the specifics of techno subgenres and don't care). I mean the songs Freedom Fighter and Choir of Liberty in particular though there's probably more, I didn't download them all, if you look them up on KHInsider or something.

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 has some fun songs, especially tower towns, inferno towns, and fortress towns.

Nicolai once made me listen to the intro (?) song to Silent Hill and if you can get past the ear grinding first 20 seconds it's pretty great.

There are a bunch of UT2k3/4 songs I like, as someone mentiond. The Atlantis is the one I always think of, but yeah Severance too. I've got one called Soeren and one called CwP-BlueProphesy but I think that's a song from a custom map. My ut2k4 folder is like 100 GB I swear to god. Level8.ogg is a great one that comes with the original, though. I think it's the song to that Tokara Forest map.

Final Fantasy 7 - Despite being in cheap midi still was done very well. Probably has the most memorable themes of any RPG.

memorable? The only one I remember is the Shinra Corporate song, which was actually pretty neat.

 

[fastpunk]

There are a bunch of UT2k3/4 songs I like, as someone mentiond. The Atlantis is the one I always think of, but yeah Severance too. I've got one called Soeren and one called CwP-BlueProphesy but I think that's a song from a custom map. My ut2k4 folder is like 100 GB I swear to god. Level8.ogg is a great one that comes with the original, though. I think it's the song to that Tokara Forest map.

Ah yes, forgot about Tokara Forest theme. It's among the best. There's also the theme from DM-Flux, brilliant stuff. Ah, I get all nostalgic. It reminds of many long, fun nights of UT2003/2004.

 

[Globbi]

Remastered Chrono Trigger and Radical Dreamers soundtracks.

 

[Dark Matter]

halo

 

[MetalCraze]

Brandon I think work for Obsidian now.

he did soundtracks for NWN2 and MotB.
too weak for him actually. hopefully with AP he will return to his electronic roots as we're facing techno-thriller there.

also Frank Klepacki is at petroglyph and producing generic music. my favorite track from him actually is Lone Troop from C&C2. such an atmospheric thing. too bad it's 22 khz mono

And speaking of Alex Brandon, did he work on the UT2003/2004 soundtrack too? Some themes in that one are hair-raising, like the ONS-Severance theme.

yes he did. though I prefer his Unreal and UT soundtracks more. with that good ol' tb303 acid machine.

Then there's Jesper Kyd, who's work on Hitman: Contracts I really love. Don't know if he worked on Hitman: Blood Money too, never played that game. He also did the new UT3 soundtrack, which is quite good.

he made soundtracks for all Hitman games. Bloodmoney soundtrack is very good - he went for much more ambient themes here.
he did only 6 tracks for UT3

 

[Korgan]

Morgan's a no-brainer, and so is Jesper Kyd, but Jeff Van Dyck has to be the greatest game music composer EVAR. Anyone who has ever played a Total War game - particulary from Rome up -knows what I mean. Defcon has some really atmospheric ambient, procedurally generated or something. It's creepy and sad and mournful and slightly diffirent each time. I didn't like the DX soundtrack somehow - it screamed "video game" at me, and not in a good way. The Dynasty Warriors has some of the gayest music ever. Feels like a fucking Indian movie.

 

[Starwars]

The new NWN2 stuff was pretty forgettable, but MotB was a great soundtrack. I wished it had been a bit more consistant though, some of it feels kinda out of place (like the good, but strangely "epic, let's go kill stuff" in the Immil Vale area).

The Final Fantasy 8 orchestrated soundtrack (called like Fithos Venus Wanker Chimney or something) is great, I think they got someone other than the normal dude to do the music for that one.
I've got a couple of the songs from those Jap Game Orchestra thingies where they would actually rewrite the song for orchestra rather than just try to jam the square original into the orchestra's round hole (yes oh god yes).

I've collected a lot of the Final Fantasy arrangement albums, some of them are actually great. Some of the "Piano Collections" are fantastic. If you want a good lulz, then check out the Black Mages. Onry in Japan.
I think Final Fantasy has generally had pretty good soundtracks.

The music for the first Tropico game is great, Not many game soundtracks can get me to sing along while I'm playing, especially when I don't even know the language, hah.

There's been a few arguments about this before, but I actually think Oblivion is one of Soules finest soundtracks. Yes, it's generic fantasy music and Oblivion is the root of all evil etc etc, but damnit I like the music. Cut away the battle music, the rest of it is great.

The Monkey Island soundtracks are wonderful as well. There is also Grim Fandango. And uh, yep, Silent Hill is great. And the usual suspects, the RPG trio.
There's a lot of good game music out there actually.

 

[kingcomrade]

Almost none of the piano collection stuff is any good.

 

[Starwars]

Actually, quite a lot of it is good.

Though there seems to be a difference in the people who arrange it. I believe there are two people, one who just basically arranges the song on the piano pretty much how it plays in the game = bad. And one who fucks around with the arrangements a lot more and tries to do something with the song instead of just playing the melody over and over = good.