Good music and sound effects can make all the difference in a video game, but a reader is worried that modern games are becoming less distinctive.
As we all occasionally find ourselves in life, I stand atop a large, alligator themed, rollercoaster looking out over the surrounding countryside.
This rollercoaster that was, just an hour or so before, caked in layers of grime, dirt, paint, oil and rust, amongst other less obvious stains, now stands gleaming and bright thanks to my adept power-washing skills.
As the white noise of my jet washing equipment powers down I’m met with something you rarely used to find across video game history… silence.
No traffic noises, no gentle acoustic music plucking away, no passers-by chatting on phones.
With the exception of the odd bird song in the distance it’s quiet.
It’s both serenely and eerily peaceful up here.
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Full disclosure, the reason I was met with silence is because the two hour long tabletop game episode I was streaming ended some 10 minutes ago and I hadn’t yet dropped out (insert subtle hint to the streaming service here) of my power-washing binge to select something new to second screen on my phone.
This new age of pic-in-pic, multi-screening and background audio options, not to mention the dreaded copyright infringing strike of streaming content algorithms, really has done a number on the video game soundtrack industry as a whole.
In most video games the chosen soundtrack is often one of the vital foundations a game needs to set tone and expectations for the player.
The recent 25th anniversary of Westwood Studios’ Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 had me in the nostalgic mood to play it (and its expansion Yuri’s Revenge) for the first time in many, many years.
That opening… that ridiculously silly opening, transitioning into Frank Klepacki’s iconic Hell March 2 gives me goosebumps of excitement a quarter century later.
For those that don’t give a wooden nickel about the legacy of true bangers in video game music history, this year’s top Game of the Year contender Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also tops my list of most listened to OST outside of the original media award.
This is just my love letter to the slowly phased out art of putting as much love and effort into the sound of a menu, a victory screen, a level up jingle or a game over melody as anything else tangible in the medium.
A shout out to the likes of Streets Of Rage 2’s Go Straight, The Sims Build Mode 4, GoldenEye 007’s pause menu, Street Fighter 2’s Guile’s stage, LittleBigPlanet 2’s Sleepyhead, Super Mario 64’s Dire Dire Docks and probably thousands more triple-A and indie titles (like recent Game Pass hit Little Rocket Lab and Media Molecule’s Tren) I could sit here and list off. Hopefully the comments will do that for me in abundance.
Finally, consider this a get your act together message to many bigger developers. Developers that just phone-in a generic dirge of menu noise or, worse, a half-assed playlist of cheap to licence, bottom of the charts, pop/rap/alt (looking at you EA and 2K).
Silence is golden but having a soundtrack that stays with you in those quiet moments is worth more than its weight in gold.
By reader Jay Parry
The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
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