Did you ever lose yourself in a game? Well, since you’ve opened this article, it’s a safe bet to say that you did. Most likely, that happened not just thanks to a smooth and engaging story and gameplay, but to the music as well. Music helps to create a truly immersive experience allowing us to feel ourselves as if we’re actually within this game.
Some soundtracks are so great that we enjoy listening to them even when we’re not playing that game — just for pleasure. And we’re sure, you have your own list of the best soundtracks. But we want to share our list so that you can either download these tracks via https://odownloader.com/ and add them to your list or disagree with us — that’s fine, too.
What’s the role of music in games?
When the first video games were created, they were captured within huge machines you could see in old movies. And they looked different from our modern games. Well, they were simpler. Way simpler. The first games looked like clusters of pixels and had simple rules — you can imagine Pacman to get some understanding. However, even Pacman is a much better-looking game. Seriously, the first games were very basic. So game developers needed to help players to navigate the game better. That’s why at first, the purpose of sound in games was to support a gamer.
Sounds would let a gamer know that the shot is fired or that something is getting closer. Considering that the sound capabilities of those machines were quite limited too, in-game sounds were just 8-bit beeps.
Later, as machines advanced — and with the appearance of gaming consoles and first personal computers — sounds became more complicated and games received theme tracks. So eventually, the music and sounds in games received two main purposes: to assist and give hints to a player and to create an immersive experience. Music started adjusting to whatever is happening in a game. You can notice how the soundtrack becomes grimmer as you get closer to some threat, and how it is calm and light when there is nothing for you to watch out for.
So a good videogame soundtrack is the one that allows you to completely escape from the real world into a virtual one and helps you to navigate through this game.
What are the best soundtracks?
We’ve outlined the criteria for determining the best music. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at the five best soundtracks.
Mario series
Sure, this is not the most complex soundtracks out there. But let’s be honest — who doesn’t know that? Who doesn’t experience a sweet and bitter sense of nostalgia when remembers or hears the tune? All sounds in this game — from the way the music changes as you jump to the underworld, castles, and back to the sound of coins, mushrooms, jumps, etc. — are very thoughtful and vivid. The way the main theme makes us feel more cheerful, the way the castle theme makes us a bit anxious — that’s the great power of music from the Mario series. So it’s not even about the tremendous fame the tune has. It’s truly high-quality and reaches its goals quite precisely.
The Sims
The calming and cheerful music, the gibberish of the characters’ conversations, the sounds of the player’s activity are one of the reasons why The Sims games are so engaging that it’s almost impossible to start playing. You quickly begin feeling like you’re within the game actually living the life of your sims. Every sound is recorded and placed into the game very thoughtfully creating an immersive experience. And even the music you can play on your sims’ stereo is some kind of a mix of real-world and sims-world sounds. So this game’s music definitely deserves to be on our list.
Assassin’s Creed
The hauntingly beautiful and melodic music written by Jesper Kyd is one of the best things about this famous game. It perfectly captures the mood of the Assassin’s Creed world while complementing all the astounding visuals and undoubtedly engaging and thoughtful storyline. And, of course, in-game sounds make the gameplay even smoother and easier to navigate as they give a player some hints if you’re attentive enough.
Resident Evil
The first game from the series was released back in 1996, and it became an absolute definition of survival horror. This game became so popular that it received a lot of sequels and even feature films. But in addition to the story, there is another reason why Resident Evil is so loved — the unsettling atmosphere it has. And, of course, a big role in creating that atmosphere played the soundtrack. It is eerie and rather unnerving, and it quickly gets captured almost on the subconscious level making you freeze anticipating the worst on the edge of your seat. It’s honestly hard to find another soundtrack that would get under your skin just like the one from Resident Evil.
Halo
Each game from this series has uniquely sounding and captivating soundtracks that allow players to dive deep into the gameplay right from the loading screens. And the fact that Halo has the best-selling videogame soundtrack proves us right. The best thing about the music in this series is that each game has a different soundtrack. Not a polished and slightly changed melody from the previous release — a completely new piece of music. The mood of soundtracks perfectly captures what’s happening in the game thus allowing a player to become a part of the sci-fi world of halo.
We hope our list has inspired you to listen to some of these soundtracks or refresh your memory by playing your own favorite music from games. Creating a good and immersive soundtrack for a game is no doubt a difficult job that allows us to enjoy this in some way unique form of art.