Game Music

Game Music Review: This is a review of the video game score Dark Void by Bear McCreary.

“It is a really good game music score and despite it flaws should deliver the players a wonderful experience.”

Dark Void is a video game developed by Airtight Games and published by Capcom. Humans face an alien threat that humanity had previously banished. A pilot crashes in the Bermuda Triangle and is teleported to a parallel universe where he encounters other humans, called Survivors. The battle begins and his wish to come back to the earth he knows propels him on. This marks Bear McCreary’s first video game score, and one should hope first of many.

Track List
01. Theme From Dark Void (*****)
02. Prologue and Main Title (****)
03. Village Attack (****)
04. A Mysterious Jungle (****)
05. Altar Sacrifice (***)
06. Archon (****)
07. Ara and the Rocket (****)
08. Tesla’s Laboratory (***)
09. The Prophesized One (*****)
10. Taking Flight (****)
11. Crash Site (****)
12. Void Requiem (****)
13. Ava and Tesla Return (***)
14. Above the Canopy (****)
15. Hieroglyphs and Betrayal (***)
16. Defending the Ark (****)
17. The Collector (*****)
18. Survivor Camp Combat (****)
19. The Watcher Airship (****)
20. Watcher Prison (****)
21. The Imperator (***)
22. Will and Ava (****)
23. The Oweller (****)
24. Ava’s Sacrifice (****)
25. Will at the River (****)
26. Dark Void End Credits (****)
27. Theme from Dark Void (Mega Version Bonus Track) (****)

Bear McCreary has always wanted to do a video game score, or so he says in the liner notes of Dark Void and I believe him. His passion for scoring and writing is quite amazing and I still can’t get over that he is actually younger than me. Despite all of this, he will struggle hard to be “the composer who wrote music for Battlestar Galactica”, but if that is his legacy, then I can think of much worse fates. I truly enjoy his work and he has developed a style for himself. I recognize him by the use of percussion which he use to dictate tempo and emotions.

Orchestral Score

So here we are with McCreary’s first official game score and he promises a great orchestral score. This is definitely not a bad thing as most game scores tend to be very action-oriented with lots of electronic sounds. McCreary however was adamant that there should be no synth orchestra (or ‘fakestra’ as he called it) in Dark Void and to this end he succeeds. I think it’s a good choice, but on the other hand it’s never good to tie yourself down to a certain style so you can’t experiment along the way. I sense he wrote this when he wrote the score for the TV show Human Target because the main theme sounds very similar, almost too similar. That jolted me a bit because I’ve recently started watching the show, but despite that I wasn’t going to let it ruin my experience.

Already with ‘Theme From Dark Void’ he sets the tone with his usual heavy percussion rhythm. The main theme sets in around 0:15 and you can clearly hear it’s similarities to the already mentioned Human Target. Despite this, I really love this cue, and it’s a great theme after all. There’s a lot of “Battlestar Galactica” sprinkled into this score, and the McCreary-style percussion never lets go. He experiments a little in the cue ‘The Prophesized One’ that sounds slight more ethnic in it’s approach with a jarred guitar noise used as a dramatic element. Heroism and dramatics you can clearly hear in cues like ‘The Collector’ which is my favorite. It get’s the pulse going and is very much an action cue from start to beginning. I also love how he made an 8-bit version of the Dark Void main theme Mega Man style in the remix version at the end.

Conclusion

I do wish Bear McCreary stirred the pot a little bit as it is a bit predictive, but I have to say that I love McCreary’s style and I hope it never grows old on me. It is a really good game music score and despite it flaws should deliver the players a wonderful experience. The heavy percussion will have your pulse going and if you are familiar with McCreary’s style and enjoy it, then this should be just right for you.

Listen to Dark Void by Bear McCreary below:

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Game Music Review: This is a review of the video game soundtrack Army of Two: The 40th Day by Tyler Bates.

The anticipated sequel to the excellent co-operative shooter game Army of Two has finally arrived almost three years later than the first one. This on is titled The 40th Day and even though the game has improved technically, it still feels a little less fun than the original. Music of course has a big impact and this game feels different with Tyler Bates as composer. If you remember, the first game was composed by Trevor Morris who is probably too busy writing music for the excellent The Tudors Season 4. With Tyler Bates comes a different kind of game music experience, but is it good?

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This is a review of the video game soundtrack Assassin’s Creed II by Jesper Kyd.

“What is in here is enough quality to make even the most sceptic of game music fans come alive.”

Jesper Kyd is back with the sequel to Assassin’s Creed, and this time with lots more music. The game itself was released back in 2007 and it was an incredible game, but they have managed to make it even better. The original soundtrack from 2007 was well received by fans and critics, but not by me. I didn’t quite like the score, which felt messy and wasn’t atmospheric enough for the game. At times I think I am the only one who thought that, because I believe it even scooped up some awards (please correct me if I am wrong). The last time around, the music was about 45 minutes, and now it is a massive 1 hour and 53 minutes on 2 CDs. Fans of game music rejoice! But wait, we are missing one crucial point here, is it any good? Let’s find out! Read the rest of this entry »

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This is a review of the video game soundtrack Halo 3: ODST by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori.

“I like the originality of the Halo scores. They have always felt a bit different from other game and movie scores.”

Halo has to go down as one of the most successful game series ever and they have clearly done almost everything right. Luckily for us, the Halo series has featured some great music and knock on wood, everything has been released. That is really saying something as a lot, and I mean a LOT of games that has great music, never get a soundtrack release. This is a crying shame and releasing the soundtrack with the game itself is getting to be a popular sport. I don’t like it as I would just love to have the soundtrack and not the game itself. Yes, we do exist! Anyhow, the composers of the first three Halo games are back Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori. That is good news, very good news in fact. Halo Wars by Stephen Rippy was a bit of a disappointment so it wasn’t a big surprise that they chose to go with O’Donell and Salvatori.

Track List

CD1

01. Overture (***)
02. The Rookie (***)
03. More Than His Share (***)
04. Deference For Darkness (****)
05. The Menagerie (***)
06. Asphalt And Ablution (****)
07. Traffic Jam (****)
08. Neon Night (***)
09. The Office Of Naval Intelligence (***)

CD2

01. Bits And Pieces (****)
02. Skyline (****)
03. No Stone Unturned (****)
04. One Way Ride (***)
05. The Light At The End (****)
06. Data Hive (***)
07. Special Delivery (***)
08. Finale (****)

Less Action

It has always surprised me that even though the nature of the Halo games are pure multiplayer action fun, yet the music never really reflect that fully. The first Halo game had some nice action pieces, but there seems to be less and less of that in the later scores. Halo 3: ODST is no different in that respect. What is different, is the lack of choirs as that has always been a major ingredient in all Halo scores. There simply isn’t any here. Good or bad? A little of both. I am a fan of choirs, but I don’t see it as a requirement to make a great score.

Almost 2 Hours of Music

There’s almost 2 hours of music here spread across 2 CDs so there’s plenty to get you Halo (and music) fans going. The sound is very electronic, very alien from the start. They even have included some special effects (rain) in the first cue on CD1 called ‘Overture’. The easy beginning with the human tones soon turns to aliens and mystery. ODST stands for Orbital Drop Shock Troopers by the way. The music is very atmospheric and in-sync with the game, but an outside would question it’s validity because it sounds like music from an explore-type strategy game like Settlers or Civilization.

There’s more interesting stuff here than previously. The sound quality is overall very good and there are even some cues that would pass the muster of orchestral music fans. The piano is used more widely here and in the cues ‘Deferance for Darkness’ and ‘The Light at the End’ the beginning piano theme has a very Japanese anime sound to it. ‘No Stone Unturned’, ‘Asphalt and Ablution’ and ‘Finale’ has interesting thematic stuff with the piano as the main character. Especially the beginning of ‘Finale’ sounds a bit like Thomas Newman actually. This is not a bad thing, and although O’Donnell and Salvatori mostly do their own thing, it shows that they can get inspiration from the masters of film music as well.

Conclusion

I like the originality of the Halo scores. They have always felt a bit different from other game and movie scores. They have a special feel to them and you can almost immediately recognize music from Halo if you happened to hear some parts of it. The bad thing is that this mix between electronic and orchestral sounds kind of feel redundant at some point. There’s nothing about Halo 3: ODST that grabs me and truly moves me. A good score, and that’s ok, I just want a little more feeling next time.

Let me know what you think of the score in the comments section below!

Listen to Halo 3: ODST by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori below:

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This is a review of the Video Game Soundtrack Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier by James Dooley.

“This is a fine action score and you forget that this isn’t a grown-up action game score like Modern Warfare 2″

James Dooley has recently been dabbling in video games and this his second of the year. The first one was inFamous with Amon Tobin and others, a good score if I have to be honest. Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier is of course a different venture. It follow the characters Jak and Daxter on yet another adventure. It’s the 6th game in the series and James Dooley’s debut as composer in that respect. Jak and Daxter are on a mission to find more Eco because of the shortage in their world. They are attacked by pirates and are stranded somewhere and the game begins. So what has James Dooley to offer this game series?

Track List

01. Hellcat To The Rescue (*****)
02. The Brink (****)
03. Galleon Conflict (****)
04. Laser Defense (****)
05. Sounds Of Fardrop (****)
06. Dark Eco Warrior Training Camp (***)
07. Super-Dark-Daxter Rampage, Go! (***)
08. Behemoth Air Battle (****)
09. Parallel Universe (*****)
10. Voices Of Aeropa (****)
11. Ambushed (***)
12. A Captain’s Sacrifice (*****)
13. Daxterball (***)
14. Jak vs. The Arborcider (****)

Kids Stuff

This is a game for the kids mostly and of course longtime Jak and Daxter fans. the graphics indicate as much and the score is definitively action oriented for the most part. It starts of in heroic manner with an over the top heroic action theme which starts off pretty basic. I thought it was a homage to the old midi music we used to listen to back in the day (yeah I’m old). After that, the cues are breaking away in pure action manner. There are hardly any breathing room between the cues and this is the way the game goes as well. There are always something to do and it’s usually very exciting. The score needs to match this as well and does to some degree.

It’s interesting to listen to James Dooley stuff. He is definitely a Hans Zimmer protégé and you can hear parts of Pirates of the Caribbean in here, but he also has proven that he can do other types of scores as well with Pushing Daisies fresh in the mind. His work on inFamous, The Mars Underground and now Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier has taken a turn (and these are some of his latest scores). The feeling of these scores are that these are Remote Control Production stuff and that’s fine (for those that enjoy that). There is not so much to gather from this if you expect something wildly original.

Not Wildly Original

Wildly original is not what James Dooley were going for and he even goes over the top with choirs (not unlike a certain Zimmer) in cues like ‘Behemoth Air Battle’, ‘Parallel Universe’ and ‘A Captain’s Sacrifice’. He even stretches it a little further in ‘Parallel Universe’ and ‘A Captain’s Sacrifice’ where it sounds like trailer music. What I mean by that is that it’s a little more explosive than normal scoring, where you go for impact instead of consistency. That is quite refreshing actually as I’m a big fan of trailer music and it is the best cues of the score.

Another refreshing bit is the cue ‘Voices of Aeropa’ that isn’t an action cue. It makes for a great change of pace and let you breathe if only for a short while. The cue isn’t great to be honest, but in the overall scheme of things, it’s right where it’s supposed to be. Ok, so it changes pace and has some action parts later in that cue, but that’s the nature of this score and the game. Most cues feel only slightly different and they have the same feeling about them. There’s action, but there’s energetic action. The themes has been lost in the search of it, but that’s fine. It doesn’t really need one. It has the first cue ‘Hellcat to the Rescue’ which is more than fine for this purpose.

Conclusion

This is a fine action score and you forget that this isn’t a grown-up action game score like Modern Warfare 2. It feels like it could work well for that at times, but I  like that James Dooley went this road with Jak and Daxter. They deserve a proper action score and they get it here no questions asked. Sure there’s not much originality here in the music itself except the fact that is for a Jak and Daxter game. I hope James Dooley keep making video game music as it is clearly something he masters.

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