There’s something quite nice about a game that has a soundtrack that represents the gameplay and wide-reach world within. These days that’s almost as important as level-design or world modeling. It’s an intimate part of the story that helps to tell the tale that the designers and creators are weaving. Skyforge, a free-to-play MMORPG, has crossed that sometimes difficult barrier with a great selection of music.
The soundtrack of Skyforge is almost a rare gem, almost
There’s something sweet about a score that’s been composed completely and specifically for the scenes in the game that accurately convey the action, or inaction, that’s going on in the game. Where the instruments used, tempo and general arrangement can be imagined to be part of the universe. In this case the pieces composed by Mikhail Kotov, Dmitry Silant’ev, Pavel Prihozhay, Sergey Asbel and Dmitry Selipanov have done just that. You can listen to it right now on their YouTube channel.
It has the general “epic soundtrack” sound that you’d expect but with it’s not quite so generic or tiring on the ears. It’s more than appropriate and sets the stage appropriately and certainly makes it feel like you’re part of the epic story. Just beware that some of the action pieces might sound a bit strange when you’re not actually immersed in the game, but they’re placed perfectly.
Developers seem to be focusing on recruiting talented musicians and composers to really give an extra boost to immersion of games. Sascha Dikiciyan has just been recruited to add to his unique and emotional flavor to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Mick Gordon has helped bring back fantastic memories of DOOM and Hans Zimmer has even supplied his sonic expertise on game soundtracks in the past.
The music blasting into your ears is important, whether we realize it consciously or not, but it sets the stage, the tone and can certainly make or break a game at times. The Skyforge soundtrack is actually quite good, and a testament to the fact that even a free-to-play game that has likely one quarter the budget of DOOM or many others, has still found it possible to make something fantastic.