A selection of some of my favourite game music:
- Warcraft 2. (WC2 has the best of the Warcraft music, although I would rate them all quite high) There are some mp3 mock-ups of the original midis around, but they aren't as well mixed/balanced as the midis. Fast, complex, perfectly fitting music. You can never get tired of this music.
- Dark Sun 1/2. Dark Sun 1 probably has the better music variety, but DS2 has good quality live recordings. They are an unusual mix of atmospheric instrumental, fantasy, jazz, classical and rock, although the DS1 midi files are more traditional fantasy sounding than the "jazzed up" DS2 recordings
- Dawn of War 2. Phenomenal music from a composer only just getting his breakthroughs in the industry (Doyle W Donehoo). Would recommend buying the game just for the music. Hard to compare to anything with how brilliantly it fits with the Warhammer 40K setting.
- Unreal Tournament. Always really enjoyed the music from this guy (Michiel Van Den Bos), with UT being his strongest work, although all of his are rather unique and high quality (Deus Ex, Overlord, Age of Wonders). Fits perfectly to the game and has a great energising quality to a lot of it IMO
- Ultima 8. May not be much of an Ultima, but the music is almost certainly some of the best of the whole series. I am probably biased towards the dark gothic style, since the midi files are not the best put together and a lot of it is strange ambient stuff, but I stand by this music completely. Would love to hear more from this composer (Neno Vugranec).
- Call of Cthulu: DCoTE. This game was mostly "miss" in the play department but some of the atmosphere it had was great, especially thanks to the great music. There is a really unique and strange dreamlike, alien quality to all of it, and to me it is the perfect accompaniment to Lovecraft material. Few people could get so close to music befitting of Lovecraft like this guy has done (Greg Chandler)
- Ravenloft 1/2/Menzoberranzan. Grouped these together because it is identifiably the same composer (Jamie McMenamy) in quite a similar style, althought diff themes. Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession is my favourite of these with that really dark medieval-gothic style again. Don't think I have heard quite as foreboding and sinister music as this before, anywhere.
- Daggerfall. This guy (Eric Heberling, also did Al Quadim and Death Gate, great composer) really knows how to create relatively simple music with such style and identity. He really knew how to take advantage of the limitations of midi and create some truly special pieces. This guy should have stayed to do all ES music, and many more games. Great stuff.
Some other worthwhile mentions
- HoMM3. There's just something really strong and identifiably Heroes about the music, and I think it is probably the best of the HoMM music (going to try get hold of HoMM4 music though, after Sceptic's recommendation)
- Disciples 2. Music is has a very nice dark orchestral quality to it, although the tracks are low quality and there isn't that much of it once you have considered the repetitions. Still pretty good though.
- Stronghold Legends. There are some high quality orchestral tracks in here, and a lot of medieval-inspired instrumentals
- The Longest Journey. Some strong music in here with some of it very unusual atmospheric, others have a traditional fairytale-like feel to them. Quite hard to get sick of this music.
Other Game Composers worthy of mention:
- Jeremy Soule (yeah, everyone knows him, and he did probably his best with Morrowind, even though listening to it makes me feel sick after a while for some reason)
- Kevin Manthei (A real figure in game music, including Wizardry 8, Civ2, Jagged Alliance 2, Vampire: Redemption, Sacrifice, Wizardry 8, and a lot more recent games that I haven't yet heard)
- Kevin Riepl (Later Unreal Tournaments)
- Bill Brown (This guy deserves mention for the incredibly high quality production values and excellent live recordings. Games include Lineage 2, Undying, C&C Generals, RTCW)
Could go on forever, but won't.
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