Tone Setting Music

[SajuukKhar]

few games have been able to match Homeworld's soundtrack

 

[Magus44]

snip

I loved the syndicate wars soundtrack so much, I put the CD in my CD player and had it on repeat in the background. Cept I had to get up every now and then coz it would hit the data track.

On a side note I loved the Total Annihilation soundtrack. Jeremy Soule composed it IIRC, and it had different tracks that related to whatever was going on. So if you were building it would play something like...

Spoiler

this
But a fight on land was something like...
There was even aquatic sounding music for whenever navies engaged.

I actually have a theory that you can play TAs music with anything and it will be amazing 100% of the time.

 

[Cheesepower5]

This song is used in pretty much any battle in the game focused on Ramza's character arc in the story. It's in all the politic heavy, "why do some suffer while others prosper" sort of battles and it makes them awesome as all fuck. It sets a tone that makes the exchanges between Ramza, Delita and Algus/Argath or Ramza and Miliuda/Meliadoule come alive.

Plus it's just a good song.

On another note, who here knows about infrasound? Making good use of that in a game could set the atmosphere very well if you're looking to cause awe or dread. Have any games used this?

EDIT: Aww yeah baby, 800 posts.

 

[Death Carr]

I'll be honest here. I never knew the Valve theme music was an actual track.

Otherwise, and damn you for making me find and listen to this again:

Opening music to Katawa Shoujo.
Too many feels!

Spoiler

OT:
I think the Left 4 Dead soundtrack sets the tone quite well.
Especially the music that starts playing right before a horde.

 

[TheMann]

This is an interesting thread. The music that perfectly sets the tone for the section of a game is indeed slightly different from simply "best music in a game". So, with that I have a few:

Okay, with this game I could just post the whole damn soundtrack, but this particular track was just so incredibly haunting for that level.

Spoiler: I think I loitered in that area just to hear it a little longer.

Half Life 2: Episode One has this gem titled "What Kind of Hospital is This?", that plays soon after you defeat the gunship in the hospital attic. Alyx finally holsters her small machine pistol in favor of a shotgun and you go on a zombie/combine massacre with her.

Spoiler: This music seriously pumps you up for that.

Unreal Tournament is all about fighting in really bizarre, nigh-impossible sci-fi landscapes. This track, "Atlantis", from UT 2004, is just unbelievably surrealistic and awesome. Fits the game perfectly.

Spoiler: It's one of my favorite in-game background tracks of all time. I have this as an .mp3.

I love Starcraft and I love being Terran. I love gritty feel, the bullets, bombs, rockets, nukes and sarcastic dropship pilots. This is the in-game theme "Terran 1" from Starcraft 2, which perfectly, in music form, encapsulates exactly what it means to be Terran.

Spoiler: It makes killing Zerg 20% easier and 200% more awesome.

 

[Smeatza]

Have you seen 28 Days Later?

 

[Shadowsetzer]

The Dead Sea theme from Chrono Cross: you walk out of a cave and see an entire modern city in the middle of being destroyed by gigantic waves, but the waves have stopped in place like time just froze, and you're walking through this city, avoiding or fighting ghosts, while this music plays....


Still gives me chills, even years later...

 

[Richardplex]

Every soundtrack in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I basically listen exclusively to soundtracks, and I love DX:HR's music, but I cannot listen to it by itself. It has become intrinsically entangled with the game; one cannot be separated from the other. They define each other. The damn splashscreens set the tone for Rah's sake.

 

[Eddie the head]

All the music in Fallout 3 and New Vegas set the tone of a post apocalyptic 50's setting well if you ask me. On this topic the First Mass effect has music that sets tone, but I don't think it's the right tone. I find it to be a bit to whimsical? Mysterious? When the game is not that.

 

[TrevHead]

Glad someone mentioned Homeworld.

The Total War series has some good music.

I think most good VGM sets the mood aswell as the theme, even with retro genres (Usually Japanese for the older stuff) with simple settings you have Streets of Rage, Bubble Bobble, FF7 battle music, hell even shmups have video game music that aswell as been great on it's own sets the mood and theme.


While i'm notinto the genre myself some visual novels have good VGM. Ryu Umemoto and his work with FM Synthesis is one that springs to mind


EDIT

Oh and how could I forget Crayon Physics Deluxe!

 

[Razentsu]

I'll be honest here. I never knew the Valve theme music was an actual track.

Otherwise, and damn you for making me find and listen to this again:

Opening music to Katawa Shoujo.
Too many feels!

Agreed. The entire soundtrack for KS is excellent for mood setting though, my favourites being Painful History, Moment of Decision and Red Velvet.

Gah, too many feels indeed. I also agree. KS' soundtrack really does a great job of setting the mood. ;_;

 

[Andrewtheeviscerator]

Well I have an add on for wow that plays music during high level dungeon bosses. When I get to the final dungeon boss I gotta play this

Spoiler

Also for one that's in game

Spoiler: from max payne 3

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Have you seen 28 Days Later?

That song practically defines the entire film. The opening piano is the emptiness and loneliness of Jim's waking moments. He meets Selena and the guitar joins in. Then the accompaniment joins, and it slowly begins to build. As the events progress, they get increasingly more desperate, until finally, Jim snaps, and the guitar goes nuts. All the events culminate in the bloody slaughter at the guard house as the music reaches its apex. All before finally dying down as the conflict is over, and instilling a sense of hope into an otherwise bleak setting. They survived, and they get to rest.

I love that song.

 

[nomzy]

game got ninjad but I'll post this track anyway.

The soundtrack for Deus Ex: HR is definitely my favourite of any game of the past few years, by far.

 

[Yali]

For me personally definitely Fallout 1 and 2 music. I was absolutely thrilled to find out a while back that all tracks have been remastered and are now available to download for free.

(aurealnetwork seems to be down but you can still get it via nma)

Mark Morgan will write the music for Wasteland 2, too.

Oh and the intro for Dungeon Keeper http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjbXb2xPdgE So many good memories.

 

[Woodsey]

All of the Human Revolution music makes me cum, especially the track over the opening credits. Gives a real sense of weight and definition to Adam's changes.


Probably the best soundtrack in any game I've played.

There's also Mass Effect 3's ultra-depressing track which plays over a few scenes, I think - it's by Clint Mansell who's done a bunch of great soundtracks, this one reminded me of Moon a lot. It really conveys how much shit is just being lost.