Music in Video games

It goes without saying that a powerful soundtrack is an almost magical thing; a spell that elevates a piece of artwork from being 'very good' to something that garners critical acclaim and sticks with you long after the work is over. Ask any casual moviegoer and they would no doubt point you to Hanz Zimmer or John Williams, composers that wrote soundtracks that are as iconic as the movies they appeared in--Williams' Star Wars main title theme is as iconic in the recent sequel movie as it was all the way back in 1977. Soundtracks in movies is well-tread territory so we'll pivot to something relatively new: soundtracks and music in video games.

Games have a pretty unique relationship with music; most savvy games tend to use a dynamic soundtrack where each track shifts based on what is happening on screen, usually as a reaction to something the player does. This can be seen in Capcom's Devil May Cry (DMC) series, especially DMC 5 where players are assigned 'style ranks' based on how well they perform. As a player's style rank gets higher, the soundtrack playing also gets more elaborate, with new instruments being added and vocals being added at the highest rank.

Games and their dynamic nature allows for music to be used in interesting ways like this. Some titles utilize special variations of tracks as a sort of audio cue, like in the game Horizon Forbidden West where a high-pitched whirring noise warns the player that an enemy is about to enter a powered-up state, as you can see here. (What I mentioned occurs roughly at the 1:30 mark)

Rhythm games are an entire genre where music plays a key role in progress with some developers taking the rhythm aspect a step further. The game in this article's header, Hi-Fi Rush, is an action title that blends its soundtrack into its game world. Everything and anything, from the main character's walk animations to the wind blowing through the trees, occurs on the beat of whatever song is playing. This extends to gameplay too, where the character can only attack, dodge and jump on the beat as can be seen here.

It is truly fascinating to see how even something we take for granted, like the background music, can be elevated into a tangible system within the realm of video games. The advantages of the medium being this new means that developers are still trying to figure out news way they can mess with established tropes, ideas and cliché. It is truly exciting as both a consumer and a researcher to look at just where else the medium can go.