# Best use of atmospheric music in any game?



## RaSona (Nov 3, 2007)

For me, there's no contest. The beginning of the game proper in Homeworld, when you see the planet in flames.

I don't know who matched the music to it, but it was perfect.


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## Atariwolf (Nov 3, 2007)

Bioshock.  Don't think I need to explain it to anyone who has played it.


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## Zestence (Nov 3, 2007)

Half-life 2 

why? Because it doesnt have much, but has the few clips well placed. In most games (like MoH, CoD 2, BLACK etc...) i just turn music off because it sometimes causes me not to hear enemies.


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## webkilla (Nov 3, 2007)

RaSona said:
			
		

> For me, there's no contest. The beginning of the game proper in Homeworld, when you see the planet in flames.



thats the winner - no contest


of course -  in the category of all around good atmospheric music, then i'd say that the winner is Total Annihilation


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## Aden (Nov 3, 2007)

Atariwolf said:
			
		

> Bioshock.  Don't think I need to explain it to anyone who has played it.



Between this and Silent Hill 2 for me.

/Although I haven't played enough games for me to decide once and for all.


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## Bloodangel (Nov 3, 2007)

I'd go for Silent Hill 2 and Homeworld aswell, although in SH it was more the lack of music that got used so well.
Ace Combat has had very good music too. The last mission music in Zero was very good. Very epic.


And just if you're interested, the song in Homeworld that I think is playing at that point is called Adagio. I haven't played it in ages though.


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## Bokracroc (Nov 3, 2007)

Defcon.
It was kinda saddening when you actually thought about what you were doing in the game.


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## Janglur (Nov 4, 2007)

American McGee's Alice.


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## webkilla (Nov 4, 2007)

Bloodangel said:
			
		

> And just if you're interested, the song in Homeworld that I think is playing at that point is called Adagio. I haven't played it in ages though.



can you give us the exact name of that song? i think Adagio is a kinda common name for classical-esque music...

try searching adagio on youtube - there's a LOT of adagios...

aha! found it - its not called adagio at all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjT0G30ZDbU

Agnus Dei


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## Bokracroc (Nov 4, 2007)

Fallout 2 had great tracks.


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## Bloodangel (Nov 4, 2007)

webkilla said:
			
		

> Bloodangel said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Agnus Dei and Adagio are both the same song.

Agnus Dei is the choral version of a song origionaly written to be played on stringed instruments only.
Agnus Dei itself is the invocation of the Lamb of God which Samuel Barber put to his musical score.
Adagio is generaly named Adagio for Strings due to the fact that a lot of people just call Agnus Dei Adagio aswell.


In the game it's sung by the Santa Barbara's Quire of Voyces.


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## webkilla (Nov 4, 2007)

Quire of Voyces? you mean Choir of Voices?

but fair nuff - i'm not that eclesiarchal, so i woulnd't know the difference...

anyway, i get the mp3 with it downloaded - gods it rocks so hard


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## Bloodangel (Nov 4, 2007)

webkilla said:
			
		

> Quire of Voyces? you mean Choir of Voices?
> 
> but fair nuff - i'm not that eclesiarchal, so i woulnd't know the difference...
> 
> anyway, i get the mp3 with it downloaded - gods it rocks so hard



Nah, thats the spelling.
Here's their site: http://www.sbcc.edu/music/website/choir/qv.main.htm

And yes, it's winderful.


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## BloodYoshi (Nov 6, 2007)

In my opinion the Metroid Prime series has always been great at creating a riff that fits in with the background, wether it's creepy, catchy, calm or cool and collected.


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## Toki (Nov 15, 2007)

chrono trigger


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## blackdragoon (Nov 15, 2007)

Grandia 1 so many wonderful tracks within this game. its got one of the greatest soundtracks i have ever seen in any game of any type.


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## diarmaidhuthence (Nov 15, 2007)

The Silent Hill series, although I am especially fond of Ico. Just flickering flames, howling wind, crashing waves and footsteps. Makes quite the mood.


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## kiro02 (Nov 15, 2007)

Fatal frame for me. all you need is the ambiance to really feel that game


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## Kyouryuu (Nov 19, 2007)

It's a toss between BioShock, Half-Life 2, and GTA: Vice City.

BioShock because the soundscape is so alive.  You can just stand in one place and hear all sorts of ambient things.  The audio never lets you forget that you are 20,000 leagues under the sea and that the city is popping at the rivets against the weight of the water.  But the use of 1920s/30s-era and public domain orchestral music also works incredibly well.  Everyone who has played the game probably remembers that great battle in Fort Frolic.  No one will ever listen to "Beyond the Sea" the same way again.

Half-Life 2 because their evocative and creepy score, though seldom heard, really helps to punctuate the mood when it exists.  HL2 also has awesome sound effects.  The Combine dispatcher, the flatline sound when you kill a Combine soldier, the howl of the fast zombies, oh yes.

And finally, Vice City.  Whether you have it tuned to VROCK or FLASH FM, there's no doubt that you are in the 1980s.  If the basic, neon-laced visuals don't sell the time period, the music certainly does.  In Vice City Stories, they actually got Phil Collins to reprise that famous moment in Miami Vice with "In the Air Tonight."


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## Rimpala (Nov 26, 2007)

I would have to say Bioshock and Silent Hill

Silent Hill's ambience was very... effective in my opinion

Almost forgot Doom 3, Doom 3 had great ambience too, sometimes in the game I'd sit for a little bit and take it all in


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## Zing (Nov 26, 2007)

Super Metroid, hands down. :roll:


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## yrf (Nov 26, 2007)

Nobody mentionned EVE:Online already ? 
Jon Hallur did an awesome job !


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## ShÃ nwÃ ng (Nov 26, 2007)

ChillCoyotl said:
			
		

> In my opinion the Metroid Prime series has always been great at creating a riff that fits in with the background, wether it's creepy, catchy, calm or cool and collected.



Way to be totally correct.


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## stoelbank (Nov 26, 2007)

Halo / Zelda / Fable / Crhono Trigger / oblivion / starfox adventures


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## Talynn (Nov 26, 2007)

Earth and Beyond. The music produced by Frank Klepacki on that one is just astounding.


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## Meliz (Dec 6, 2007)

Fate of Atlantis.
yay dosbox i love you.... but i still love zsnes more. lolz ^^ try again next generation.


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## Dragoneer (Dec 6, 2007)

Clive Barker's The Undying. The music set the game and MADE it what it was. Bill Brown is one of the single greatest game composers EVER.


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## Korusho (Dec 9, 2007)

ChillCoyotl said:
			
		

> In my opinion the Metroid Prime series has always been great at creating a riff that fits in with the background, wether it's creepy, catchy, calm or cool and collected.



totally agree, escpecially during the boss fights. 

i think it is improved with MP2 : Echoes.. escpecially when your fighting that last giant ass mech.

Oh and most of the CnC games when Frank Klepacki did the music. Tiberium Dawn, Red Alert (especially), Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2


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## Ionic_Warrior (Dec 10, 2007)

Metroid Prime has terrific music to match the environment. The ambient and classical music mixing in with trance really worked out for the game.


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## HonorableThief (Dec 10, 2007)

Easily Shadow of the Colossus. The music really made some of the battles, it fit perfectly with the moment every single second. And I really loved how the final boss fight had a very sad sound to it instead of having a big, booming, echoing soundtrack like what most games would do for the final leg. It's one of the only games I actually cried with.

Half-Life 2 is a very close second.


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## Kyouryuu (Dec 12, 2007)

Still, I think Metroid Prime's music would be better off if they ditched that synthesized male choir in favor of, I don't know, a _real_ choir?  It was fine in Metroid Prime, but I was kind of disappointed that the music of Metroid Prime didn't evolve much as the series went on.  We can do better than the standard "Male Choir" option on a MIDI keyboard.

The actual melodies work pretty well with the environments, the sunken ship and Phendrana Drifts as good examples, but man... especially by Prime 3, that choir sound sticks out like a sore thumb.


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## Korusho (Dec 12, 2007)

Kyouryuu said:
			
		

> Still, I think Metroid Prime's music would be better off if they ditched that synthesized male choir in favor of, I don't know, a _real_ choir?  It was fine in Metroid Prime, but I was kind of disappointed that the music of Metroid Prime didn't evolve much as the series went on.  We can do better than the standard "Male Choir" option on a MIDI keyboard.
> 
> The actual melodies work pretty well with the environments, the sunken ship and Phendrana Drifts as good examples, but man... especially by Prime 3, that choir sound sticks out like a sore thumb.




thats totally correct. MP2/s music wasnt as good as the original, except for a few. I found Pirate Fear to get quite annoying.


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## CodArk2 (Dec 13, 2007)

I think Body Harvest for the N64 had pretty ambient music


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## the-shadow-of-light (Dec 13, 2007)

i say the Silent Hill series ^^ easly


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## Kerta-Losataure (Dec 17, 2007)

Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII. Two games that use music to great effect.


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## Twitchtail (Dec 19, 2007)

Bioshock all the way with that awesome ambience.


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## blackdragoon (Dec 19, 2007)

i must point out that the very first grandia game for ps1 has the best musical score of all time as compared to any game on the market when it came out in 1995 or compared to the games of today. this applies to its ambient music as well as battle and cinematic music as well.


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## blackdragoon (Dec 20, 2007)

i shall now bump this thread with the theme of the first grandia as proof of its epicness and thus better than anything else on the market today:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGiNEaNxOxo[/youtube]


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## Twitchtail (Dec 20, 2007)

*eyes bulge out* you're right that is awesome! Did the game live up to the theme though?


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## Wolf-Bone (Dec 20, 2007)

Since everyone else has already mentioned Silent Hill, I'm gonna say Resident Evil. The Gamecube Resident Evils especially, but even the PS1 RE's had great music. Especially the save room themes. They always manage to sound peaceful and creepy at the same time.


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## ShÃ nwÃ ng (Dec 20, 2007)

CodArk2 said:
			
		

> I think Body Harvest for the N64 had pretty ambient music


THAT GAME ONLY HAD 4 SONGS AND THREE OF THEM WERE MELANCHOLY!


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## blackdragoon (Dec 20, 2007)

Twitchtail said:
			
		

> *eyes bulge out* you're right that is awesome! Did the game live up to the theme though?



not only did it live up to the theme, but often times it surpassed it. as many people who have played it will tell you its one of the best RPG's ever made to date. the music was out of this world and played to each situation within the game perfectly. the game was as epic as the theme music would have you believe running up to about 80+ hours of gameplay on 2 discs with a graphic style that while pixelated through most of the game being PS1 was quite astounding when it came to cinematics involving a blend of 2D and 3D animation. many times having the 2 types of animation used in the same scene i.e. having the characters drawn as 2D cartoon characters against a 3D background with 3D monsters. at one point in the game having these incredibly massive paintings on the walls come to life and actually transform into 3D golems ready to attack.

but then this isnt what this thread is for. its for the best use of atmospheric music in a game and i think grandia is a perfect example of this. and i was only trying to answer your question in anycase.

on that note here is the actual intro movie that appears at the title screen:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kel1loIYjpM[/youtube]


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## Poxypaws (Dec 21, 2007)

Mechwarrior 2.


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## Reviarth (Dec 21, 2007)

hm......I have to say in my opinion Silent Hill and Metal Gear series, maybe you can throw in Megaman 8


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## suzuki (Dec 21, 2007)

Castlevania: SOTN


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## Reviarth (Dec 21, 2007)

suzuki said:
			
		

> Castlevania: SOTN


*face paw* ah I forgot about Castlevania I feel like such a gaming newbie now.

PS.Awesome avatar


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## TyrentOfThought (Dec 27, 2007)

I played a FPS/RPG game that some college student made a couple years ago and it was amazing. It had pretty good graphics(he did amazing on lighting) and every shot fired, every enemy spotted, changed the sounding. At first i thought it would be annoying but it made the game enveloping :twisted:


I havnt a clue how to find it n ow though :cry:


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## IanKeith (Dec 31, 2007)

Geometry Wars.

Loud, thumping techno that warps in and out when you bomb bright, glowy shapes.

Simple music, simple game. Bloody awesome.


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## Scythel (Jan 1, 2008)

Bioshock definately had some of the best music in a FPS. Everything felt alive, like you were always being watched, but could never really tell if anyone was there :roll: Halo 1-3 had good tracks as well in my opinion.


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## kylr23 (Jan 1, 2008)

Bio shock for the win. The music is verry creepy and yeah its freaky.

anouther is dumb roll please

call of duty 4


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## AlexX (Jan 1, 2008)

I wanna toss Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn into the mix. Most of the music is fairly ambient, but it's easier to notice the second time around, especially with access to the Sound Room after beating the game. The battle themes for certain characters are especially nice.


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## adambomb (Jan 3, 2008)

i dont mean to sound like a little pussy but silent hill 2 and 3 wins this hands down cause that game kept me up longer than 2 girls 1 cup


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## Armaetus (Jan 4, 2008)

Silent Hill series, hands down.

Command & Conquer series in second.


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