Survival Horror Sounds: Overlooker Original Soundtrack (Review)

Overlooker is a Gameboy Color inspired Survival Horror game created by Connor O.R.T. Linning in just under 22 days. He supplied OSV with a review copy of the soundtrack he created for the game which he describes as a top down 2D game combining elements from action and horror genres.  His goal was to keep the game as minimal as possible and used it as the basis to learn about video game development.  He also wrote the music for the game which I took the time to listen to this week.

The game is free to download and although I didn’t play it, I spent some time this week listening to the music. Read on to hear my thoughts on the soundtrack to Overlooker.

Play as Arianna, a woman lost in a giant building, and escape the terror in this Gameboy Color inspired Survival Horror nightmare! Overlooker is a top down 2D game combining elements from action and horror genres.

The soundtrack to Overlooker is brief, spanning 12 tracks and is only about 25 minutes long. The opening track “Title Screen” sounds like digital wind blowing, and distant cold screams. Track two “Tunnel Vision” has some low toned atmospheric sounds throughout. Track 3 “Safe For Now” is a much warmer synth track with a sustained simplistic melody that reminded me of Mark Snow’s work on The X-Files.

Listening to the soundtrack to Overlooker  I felt that it was inspired heavily by the soundtrack to the original Silent Hill and at times seems to imitate it.  I also had to check the volume a few times listening to the music as it sounded like is was just border-lining poor mixing. I’m not sure if this was the intention of the composer or not, as it can sometimes be a stylistic choice.

The soundtrack to Overlooker is available digitally for $7 on bandcamp, and at only 25 minutes in length you may want to try the game first, as it’s free to download from the composer’s website.

If you like 16-bit sound and horror titles, this is might be worth your while in checking out.

Have you played Overlooker or its sequel Overlooker 2?