I’ve been listening to a lot of 16Volt lately, a band I discovered via the Primal game on the PS2 back when I still played PS2, because they did some of the soundtrack for the battle scenes. It got me thinking about music in games, how important it is and which games have the best soundtracks. So, uh hey, here’s one of my round up posts featuring the games I think have the best soundtracks…

Primal

There’s nothing better than heavy rock when you’re in the middle of a hefty battle scene and 16volts tracks for the Primal game were a great accompaniment. ‘Suffering you’ has to be the best song featured on the soundtrack, it’s the perfect mix of heavy guitar, throaty vocals and a fast beat to get you excited.

Bioshock

Bioshock’s soundtrack has that fun, quirky vibe but there’s also something very eerie about it in the 1940s dystopian setting. There’s something incredibly unnerving about shooting down splicers with ‘How Much is that Doggie in the Window?’ being sung in the background and that’s what makes the soundtrack such a brilliant accompaniment to the game. Plus, it’s just nice to listen to when you’re not playing.

Dragon Age Inquisition

While it will never compare to DA Origins on a gameplay level – and there’s no Alistair, nope I’m still not over it – the soundtrack for Inquisition is moving, beautifully scored and works perfectly with the game’s setting. The home screen music does remind me of the Edge of Night song Pippin sings in LOTR, but I don’t mind because both of those are lovely to listen to. DA’s soundtrack is the perfect mix of calming background music that swells into a magnificent, strong chorus when you move into a battle. The tavern songs are also great.

The Last of Us

Anyone who follows this blog knows I love this game, it’s just the perfect mix of strong, endearing characters and action packed gameplay that makes you want to carry on playing to find out what happens next. It’s so good I even downloaded the DLC and that’s saying something. The soundtrack was created by Gustavo Santaolalla, who has also put together scores for films such as Brokeback Mountain and Babel.

The Last of Us soundtrack is heavily string based, with raw guitar twangs and soft strumming that work beautifully when exploring an area or tentatively navigating through a room, in an attempt to avoid enemies. It’s simply beautiful music that deserves a place on the list.

The Sims & Simcity

I know it’s not really a ‘soundtrack’, but there’s just something super soothing about the Sims and Simcity music and when I hear it I’m transported back to my teenage years, hunched over my Mum and Dad’s old tower PC typing in cheat codes and locking people in windowless rooms until they pee themselves and die.

Also, let’s not forget Paramore’s Simlish version of Pressure that played on the rock radio station. I wasn’t a big Paramore fan at that time and didn’t even realise that song was actually a real thing and when I started listening to the band I was like ‘wait, I know this! I got my Sims to dance to it when I was trying to get them happy enough to hook up!’

Interestingly, I asked my boyfriend what his favourite game soundtracks were and he answered with the Zelda games, Final Fantasy IX, Devil May Cry, Pokemon Red and Blue and the original Dark Souls, which kind of shows how long he’s been gaming compared to me. My games are pretty recent titles, I know they wouldn’t really be considered ‘classic’ soundtracks but they’re what I love!

What game soundtracks do you love?

Jade