A thought has been floating around in my mind as of late that came back to slap me in the face while I was playing The Darkness earlier. It's on the topic of soundtracks and the games they belong to, and it goes thus: Why do I never notice the music more often? I had to stop for a moment and think about it, and as I did, I realized that there were so few of the hundreds of games that I've played that I could remember the music to, or even remember having music. Even the ones I had played recently fell into the sweeping category of unrecognizable scores.
There are a few noticeable titles that stand out, such as Halo, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Mass Effect, and, as of today, The Darkness.
Now, as far as standard cinema-sounding orchestral scores go, Halo was par for the course. It stands out, however, because it stood out just enough for me to remember it. It never felt particularly aurally pleasing upon playing any of the games, but it does stand out in my memory.
One of my favorite moments in Human Revolution was very early on in the game, a moment which was, unfortunately, never repeated. It actually happened on multiple occasions. Once, in the cluttered office building of Sarif Industries, the lighting engine shone beams of sunlight through the tinted office windows as I fiddled with items and a computer on the desk, and a beautiful, Mass-Effect-y song played in the background. It was very surreal, and accented the neo-fururistic vibe the Deus Ex series represents excellently. The second time was similar, but even more impressive as a similar track began to play while in the protagonist's apartment, with huge pillars of light shining through the window panes with the Detroit sunset in the background. While it may sound like I'm praising the visuals more than the sound itself here, the real reason these scenes were so enchanting was because of the fitting, and frankly gorgeous sound that was set to them. There were many, equally visually striking scenes scattered throughout the game, but none of them worked together with the soundtrack well enough to provide such an experience again.
As you might've guessed from me using "Mass-Effect-y" as an adjective in the previous paragraph, Mass Effect's music has always been one of my favorite of any video game or entertainment medium, and is one of the many reasons why I come back to dote on it from time to time. Similar to the above, it fit the futuristic, space-faring Commander Shepard's adventure amongst the stars to a "t", with the aggressive synthesizer use painting the backdrop of the entire game. The end result was something very similar to Human Revolution's experience, albeit not as strong, and lasting almost the entire game.
Now, I'm going to skip my description of The Darkness, because I'm sure you all get it by now, but my point in describing the above was to give me a firm place to stand as I reiterate my original question: why do I never notice the music?
In most games, the music is only background sound. Occasionally I'll notice it as a romp around, but my brain quickly files it away. The only times I ever notice a game's soundtrack is when it deliberately annoys me or when it is outstandingly beautiful. While this isn't too outrageous on its own, I'm bothered by the fact that neither category seems to ever happen. A game's soundtrack, especially those of the large "AAA" titles we have more and more of now, seems to always be bland. Specifically designed to blend in and stay in the background as part of the sludgy paste. And that's not the same as weaving into the visuals and gameplay feedback, I understand and recognize when that happens. My issue is that so few scores are anything other than boilerplate.
There's always the odd orchestral sting to liven up a boss fight or mournful piano music to meet sadness or a lost childhood friend, or, depending on your game, loud heavy metal playing in the background of gunfights, all of which are becoming increasingly token, but beyond the points where you know the game's music is going to jump up and wave its arms to get your attention, it all seems to fade away and join the aforementioned sludgy paste with the rest of the elements a game isn't pushing into your face at that very moment.
It may be that most game developers are just amateurish in this department and only a select few stand out, or that so few people are determined to enjoy it that it's not made a priority, or maybe it's something with my personal tastes, or something else completely. But either way, there's my modest rant on video game soundtracks. Let's see what discussion value you can squeeze out of it.
There are a few noticeable titles that stand out, such as Halo, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Mass Effect, and, as of today, The Darkness.
Now, as far as standard cinema-sounding orchestral scores go, Halo was par for the course. It stands out, however, because it stood out just enough for me to remember it. It never felt particularly aurally pleasing upon playing any of the games, but it does stand out in my memory.
One of my favorite moments in Human Revolution was very early on in the game, a moment which was, unfortunately, never repeated. It actually happened on multiple occasions. Once, in the cluttered office building of Sarif Industries, the lighting engine shone beams of sunlight through the tinted office windows as I fiddled with items and a computer on the desk, and a beautiful, Mass-Effect-y song played in the background. It was very surreal, and accented the neo-fururistic vibe the Deus Ex series represents excellently. The second time was similar, but even more impressive as a similar track began to play while in the protagonist's apartment, with huge pillars of light shining through the window panes with the Detroit sunset in the background. While it may sound like I'm praising the visuals more than the sound itself here, the real reason these scenes were so enchanting was because of the fitting, and frankly gorgeous sound that was set to them. There were many, equally visually striking scenes scattered throughout the game, but none of them worked together with the soundtrack well enough to provide such an experience again.
As you might've guessed from me using "Mass-Effect-y" as an adjective in the previous paragraph, Mass Effect's music has always been one of my favorite of any video game or entertainment medium, and is one of the many reasons why I come back to dote on it from time to time. Similar to the above, it fit the futuristic, space-faring Commander Shepard's adventure amongst the stars to a "t", with the aggressive synthesizer use painting the backdrop of the entire game. The end result was something very similar to Human Revolution's experience, albeit not as strong, and lasting almost the entire game.
Now, I'm going to skip my description of The Darkness, because I'm sure you all get it by now, but my point in describing the above was to give me a firm place to stand as I reiterate my original question: why do I never notice the music?
In most games, the music is only background sound. Occasionally I'll notice it as a romp around, but my brain quickly files it away. The only times I ever notice a game's soundtrack is when it deliberately annoys me or when it is outstandingly beautiful. While this isn't too outrageous on its own, I'm bothered by the fact that neither category seems to ever happen. A game's soundtrack, especially those of the large "AAA" titles we have more and more of now, seems to always be bland. Specifically designed to blend in and stay in the background as part of the sludgy paste. And that's not the same as weaving into the visuals and gameplay feedback, I understand and recognize when that happens. My issue is that so few scores are anything other than boilerplate.
There's always the odd orchestral sting to liven up a boss fight or mournful piano music to meet sadness or a lost childhood friend, or, depending on your game, loud heavy metal playing in the background of gunfights, all of which are becoming increasingly token, but beyond the points where you know the game's music is going to jump up and wave its arms to get your attention, it all seems to fade away and join the aforementioned sludgy paste with the rest of the elements a game isn't pushing into your face at that very moment.
It may be that most game developers are just amateurish in this department and only a select few stand out, or that so few people are determined to enjoy it that it's not made a priority, or maybe it's something with my personal tastes, or something else completely. But either way, there's my modest rant on video game soundtracks. Let's see what discussion value you can squeeze out of it.
