We’ve been talking a lot about Dark Void on the site. We can’t agree more with composer Bear McCreary’s assessment of Western game music while also sharing love for classic 8-bit music, so we had high hopes for the game and his soundtrack. While we later learned that McCreary would be able to demonstrate his love for 8-bit music by scoring Dark Void Zero, there’s still the orchestral epic that is the Dark Void soundtrack to address. So, is it any good?
I suppose I’m really skirting around the fact that this game got horrible reviews nearly everywhere. Now that I’ve said it, the question is whether or not the poor review scores also reflect on Bear McCreary’s contributions to the game. What I’ll tell you before jumping into the review is that he delivers on his promise to do something different in a Western videogame, but it’s admittedly not all that different from what he’s already been doing in film and television throughout his career.
Find out if that’s a good or bad thing in our review of the Dark Void Original Video Game Score after the jump!
Starting from the top we have “Theme from Dark Void,” which everyone should be intimately familiar with by now. I have to say that the melody really caught me after listing to the 8-bit version (which is featured at the end of this CD), but having accessed the theme through that version, I find the orchestral version here to be almost an arrangement of sorts, and I love it. I know I’m working backwards from his 8-bit arrangement to the original, but I’m sticking with it! It’s a great theme, and I love how it’s incorporated into a number of pieces throughout the score, especially in the emotional “”Will and Ava.”
I was saying in the intro that McCreary doesn’t stray too far from what he’s done in television and film in terms of his cinematic approach, but it’s still quite different than the typical orchestral fare we tend to see in videogames. He incorporates all sorts of ethnic instruments into his music, including the nebulous “ethnic woodwinds” along with instruments that I’d never even heard before: the erhu and Yialli tanbur. I highly suggest checking our Bear McCreary’s blog where he extensively goes into the instruments, performers, and recordings sessions, as it’s a fun and informative read. These instruments are joined by a full orchestra, complete with sweeping strings and powerful brass, but also lots of organic tribal percussion that generates a lot of momentum.
“Village Attack” in one such track, coming as an intense action cue with powerful brass stabs, but the few excursions into the Dark Void theme, voiced by some lovely woodwinds, provides a wonderful contrast. “Taking Flight” is equally action-packed with foreboding string stabs and explosive orchestral hits that keep the piece moving forward. Tracks like “Archon” and “The Collector” have an epic air about them, proceeding with a bombardment of percussive sounds. I particularly enjoy the violin work towards the end of “Archon” with layered effects that almost make it sound like an electric guitar. Another standout is “Ava and the Rocket,” which is a short cinematic cue that really drives home the sensation of rocket-propelled flight with its adventurous sound. “Void Requiem” is the longest track on the album, approaching the 8-minute mark. It’s a dark and foreboding piece that drips with atmosphere. It creates the impression that something terrible is right around the corner, laying in wait.
“A Mysterious Jungle,” on the other hand, is contemplative, making effective use of silence to give the piece a sense of gravity. As the title suggests, it’s definitely mysterious with its uncertain string progressions and distant woodwinds, and is one of my favorite tracks here. “The Prophesized One” is another great track that slowly builds upwards with layers of electric guitar that are distorted and filtered, creating an abstract grunge fest of sorts. Later, “Survivor Camp Combat” also gets its rock on, working in some funky bass and almost seductive woodwind melodies. It’s really a great track that will have you bopping your head. “Tesla’s Laboratory” is another shorty-but-goodie, sporting a minimalistic twangy guitar progression that generates a distinctly foreign atmosphere.
The final push is accompanied by “The Dweller,” which uses an intense flurry of strings, ominous brass, and thunderous percussion to drive the player towards the end. The credits theme is surprisingly short, clocking in at only two minutes, and it features a rather haunting woodwind arrangement of the main theme. Strings fade in and out of the mix to further enhance this feeling of isolation that’s left with the listener.
But this soundtrack won’t leave you on a down note. The final track is the “Theme from Dark Void (Mega Version Bonus Track).” This is the 8-bit version of the main theme that made me fall in love with this theme. McCreary works in some very Mega Man-esque percussion, and keeps the theme at a skipping pace. It’s quite lovely, and a great bonus.
The interesting thing about the Dark Void soundtrack is that it’s a customizable experience. It can be listened to casually in the background where it provides an excellent ethnic ambiance for the listener, or for those who listen closely, it can be an incredibly complex and expansive score with many different instruments and elements. To quickly mention the packaging, there’s actually a foldout booklet that has an extensive list of credits along with a few pages of comments from Bear McCreary, which is really a nice touch. While I may have wanted to walk away with more of McCreary’s melodies stuck in my head (unfortunately the main theme is the only track that will likely stick with you), I’m satisfied with his cinematic approach, and am looking forward to the Dark Void Zero soundtrack to really drill some melodies into my head. You can pick up the Dark Void soundtrack from Sumthing Else Music Works.
Do you have any thoughts regarding Dark Void now that it’s out? Do you think the “Mega Version” makes for a cool bonus track?
Tags: Bear McCreary, Capcom, Dark Void, Music Reviews, Orchestral, Reviews, Sumthing Else, Videogame
The current RRP for this game here in Australia is over a hundred bucks. And I really, really wanted to get it. To see how Bear would pull this one off. How, not if. Buuut…I’m going to settle for the soundtrack for now.
Honestly, I’ve sort of been bombarding myself with Bear’s music lately. Of course the BSG OSTs are still on my playlist, but I’m also watching Caprica and Human Target, two of the three shows he’s currently scoring week to week. And while it can get samey, it’s always a complex samey. And I’ll take that over the samey-ness of say, Soule, Zimmer or (groan) Jablonsky anyday of the week.
Oh, and I second the recommendation to check out Bear’s blog. If the dude weren’t a musical genius, I’d consider him first and foremost a very good, natural writer. (What, a polymath? In this day and age?…Maybe…)
The movies have this style of having a single theme and then modulating that one theme to the “boy theme” “girl theme” *mood* theme etc. I wonder if picking one style and defining most of the experience through that is a good idea. Although, every level with its own unique twist using similar instrument set (not theme) sounds better for me.
I liked the way you reviewed the OST, telling how the instruments, tempo etc helped in feeling the emotion etc, but its only praising it saying it did what the “title suggested”. Would have loved it if it was reviewed more with the game in mind, like how much does it all feel while playing the game, does it add to the immersion, how a certain moment of the game was made more relevant thanks to the music, etc. Or maybe that’s not how you aim to review it? The last parah makes me feel that the review is strictly on a music standpoint and it just happens that this music is featured in a game.
IMO a game OST review should express how good it is and how much sense it makes when playing the game and does it do what the music is intended to do when you actually hear it as you play. As there is a complete story going on and character that you are involved with and maybe the music, although good, doesn’t actually convey the feelings of the player and waters down the experience.
Only saying if the music is good or not would be like reviewing graphics of a game and describing the art style and rendering methods it used to achieve it but not actually saying how the visual cues, the camera, and effects are used to make the experience a total package.
Very valid point, and I totally agree. There is that aspect, but you also have to consider when they’re trying to sell you a CD to enjoy the music outside of the gaming experience, how the album stands on its own as a standalone experience. If it can only be enjoyed in the context of the game, then why sell the CD?
I had this discussion with a friend recently, particularly regarding the pros and cons of a musically-accomplished OST review versus one that focuses on the ‘feel’ behind the music and its sensual place in the overall work. I said that taking it *completely* out of context and reviewing the music solely as music is indeed like reviewing a game’s graphics in terms of its technical specifications. But a good game review does, to some degree, consider that a factor. Just as it does the sound/music — but OSV doesn’t do game reviews.
Unfortunately, reviewers don’t always have access to the source of the music, and in these cases have only the music to go on. And in some cases (and here Jayson did note this early on), the music may even eclipse its source — when that occurs, it’s possibly advantageous to consider said music out of its context as well.
I’ll admit the graphics/sound analogy lacks much in the way of tenable rigour, mainly because you can play a game with only graphics and without music, but a game without graphics and only music is sort of hard to imagine. Like it or not, the aural aspect of a game will always be at worst destructive and at best synergetic, augmentative. A spectacular game soundtrack cannot make a bad game spectacular. For the hardcore vgm devotee, it can make that game worth playing (HI, YS III LOOKING AT YOU!), but mostly it just makes you wish they’d release the music separately (which they thankfully did. Repeatedly).
Which brings us to Jayson’s last (and somewhat hypothetical) question — a sentiment I happen to share whole-heartedly.
I have a few VG OSTs with me. I only have them because whenever I listen to them I get sent back to the game world and memories of playing it, the experience, rushes through my head. It sets the right mood. It makes me feel nostalgic.
When I play a game I devote a lot of myself to it than I would when watching a movie. The music in it feels like the “description of my life” when I was playing it. The OST plays a role of sending me back to that life without me having to play it.
Well, I just wanted to say that, why not review the game aspect of it too, its “video game OST” review right? I see more people buying game OST discs after experiencing the game (as observed from my friends too) Therefore a VG OST review, if oriented more towards “how well did it do in being the BG music to a video game” would be better.
Or at least a parah about that 😛 I mean, why not play games, then review the OST of the game you played by buying the disc later review purpose. (to cover both aspects)
Any artist good at making music, will make good music, but is he able to make something that is not just “good music” but is more “relevant music” is how it should be assessed.
I mean, video game movies are made by people who mostly think that its just “writing a story” which is similar to the one in the game, but it usually fails. (Hope my analogy was clear)
But hey, I like that there is someone doing a review for such things, keep up the good work 😀 I hope you cover those other parts sometime in the future too, because, I added the site to my feeds after seeing that you cover video game music and that the reviews would criticize the need for artists to be more focussed on their game world and something that will encourage them to do better than what is usually being observed in VG Music now a days (There’s no denying most of the OSTs are lacking)
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