Underrated Soundtracks

Gaming scores have almost become their own genre. They spark communities, remixes, trends, and styles that drip into dedicated bands. Twenty years ago, it's strange to imagine a band would have a song that becomes forever attached to their identity due to a video-game, but that's been the case with Breaking Benjamin, HEALTH, and Amon Tobin.

So I've thought then, what are the quality soundtracks which don't have those 1+ Million Viewed songs on Youtube? Which ones don't endlessly praise the likes of Mick Gordon, Marty O'Donnel, and Harry Gregson-Williams? Well, the idea for exploring this topic came to me when I was replaying...

Yeah, I'm not going to bang on too much about this one as I've already delved into this game's quality, including music. What's stunning about Nightfire's composition however isn't just the music itself (as excellent as it is), but the detail that's featured.

Not in the instrumentation, but the implementation. There's not just various loops depending on what the player does, there's multiple stings to cap off individual checkpoints. Most games don't do that today!

Something many games don't do immediately either is establish their tone sonically before the game's even started, and surprisingly, a genre that often succeeded in this area were racing games. Classics like Gran Turismo trigger memories for people all around the world the moment you play the West City theme.

There's actually two examples of games in this genre that do this very well, and while they don't share the same developer, they share many of the people included. GTR2 is an OST I've used various times in videos, and that's because every single track's a goddamn banger. Fast beats, heavy hitting electronics, superb atmosphere, and distinct melodies that've been reused today in the Project CARS series.

That doesn't relate to the 2nd example however, Shift 2 Unleashed (who Mick Gordon did a few tracks for) is probably one of the most unique I've ever encountered. Rather than separate licensed and original tracks, the game combined them.

Each song in the game was a remix of its ten licensed songs from an assortment of 2000s Rock groups, and created something that was strangely hypnotizing. The cinematic and dirty remixes are great conclusions for a race, but the true greats are its "Gladiator" remixes, the menu themes. These are straight up haunting at times, and are more reminiscent of dramas and thrillers than a racing game, though that was in-keeping with the developers goal.

Now, I've already recommended in the past here the music of Lara Croft GO, Slipstream, and Driveclub... but don't worry, I've got one last example, and it's a game I've discussed.

Good ol' Quantum Break, a game I'll likely never replay, though it set the stage for what would become Control, Remedy's most notable game since Alan Wake or even Max Payne in terms of acclaim and respect.

It brought along with Petri Alanko, and while his music was sadly made to be repetitive due to the game's implementation, when listened to on its own, Quantum Break's OST is emphatically powerful, its final track 'A Whisper" in particular I hold right up there with the greats, never ceasing to give chills with each play.