The Greatest Game Music

Reviews of truly outstanding game music

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Dear Esther Soundtrack – Review

Dear Esther Soundtrack

Dear Esther Soundtrack, Jessica Curry, 2012

It seems fair to say that it’s usually indie video games that push the boundaries of the medium and have gamers and audiences asking “But is it a game?” (“Is it art?” being a close second). One of these games, Dear Esther, was initially a research project at the University of Plymouth. Players find themselves on a barren island in the Hebrides and are left to explore the surroundings. Meanwhile, a male voice-over reads out random letter fragments to a woman named Esther. With no threat of death and no tasks to be fulfilled, Dear Esther instead aims to capture gamers’ intrigue simply by letting them figure out – or just interpret – the fragmented narrative, hinting at a tragedy that precedes the events in the game. Encouragingly, this experiment in digital storytelling received significant critical acclaim and was a commercial success as well.

Dear Esther also launched the game music career of composer Jessica Curry. Curry’s body of work before Dear Esther included arts installations, film soundtracks and cross-media projects. A co-founder of Dear Esther’s developer The Chinese Room, Curry was closely involved in the game’s creation from its inception. Her aim was for the music “to add an emotional dimension” to the game. That was a crucial task, given that Dear Esther‘s challenge-free gameplay doesn’t reward the player with a sense of odds overcome, but instead must satisfy gamers by delivering a memorable experience.

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Tagged With: 2012, Interactive Fiction, Jessica Curry, Orchestral, PC, The Chinese Room

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture Soundtrack – Review

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture Soundtrack

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture Soundtrack, Jessica Curry, 2015

Coming off the critical and commercial success of Dear Esther, British indie developer The Chinese Room began work on two projects: Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Out of the two games, the latter was no doubt the bigger undertaking, co-produced by industry giant Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. By and large, Rapture took the same gameplay approach as Dear Esther. Gamers are tasked with walking through a deserted village, trying to piece together what happened to those who once inhabited this piece of idyllic English country side – no battles, perils or game over screens in sight. Not surprisingly, the limited interactivity within Rapture’s world wasn’t to the liking of everybody. All in all though, reviews were positive, with critics particularly pointing out the game’s strong narrative, placing Rapture on several year-end lists.

Rapture did reap several awards as well, including for its music. As with previous The Chinese Room titles, Jessica Curry provided the game’s soundtrack – deservedly taking home a BAFTA and two Game Audio Network Guild Awards for her efforts. Curry was involved with Rapture throughout the entirety of its three-year development period, both as composer and director of the project. It’s no surprise then that the music’s shape and function within the game was carefully considered. With the game’s design strongly influenced by the peculiarly British sci-fi sub-genre of the “cosy catastrophe”, Curry’s music was bound to follow suit.

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Tagged With: 2015, Interactive Fiction, Jessica Curry, Orchestral, PlayStation 4, The Chinese Room

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