There is an old thread around (I'd rather not ressurect that, necromancy is frowned upon even in real life) regarding epic songs in games. I'd like us to share our thoughts on the matter.

How important would you say music is in games? Can you enjoy a game with forgettable music, or even bad? Do you think highly of a game with good music?
I'd like to see some examples of what you consider quality music in games and I will start by offering two myself.

All Gone (Aftermath) by Gustavo Santaolalla
I could easily say his entire work for The Last of Us is outstanding. It's difficult to choose a particular song. In the end I went for All Gone (Aftermath) due to the in-game event. I'm not one to be easily impressed on this level, but that particular scene brought me to tears. There, I said it.

As for the second choice, again a difficult call since The Witcher 3's soundtrack is excellent. If I were to pick just one tune, I'd go for The Slopes of the Blessure. I think it captures the essence of Toussaint, its colour and life. Plus, it's somewhat fitting for the end of Geralt's journey, after so many adventures.

So, how about you?

Edit:
Have you ever felt compelled to replace the soundtrack of a game with something of your liking, in order to have a better or different experience?

Can definitely enhance a game, well-known example: Outcast's orchestral soundtrack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkhv-sMTeI0

A game like Jedi Knight also wouldn't be the same without the Star Wars tunes.
But I don't think music is essential for a good game, there are many great games with little or no music.

Was throwing around an idea of making such a thread myself.

Hopefully, this becomes one of those eternal game threads. Love finding good game music and what better way to do that than check out others' recommendations.

I find that a good soundtrack can do wonders for the enjoyment of the game. I don't care much if the music is bad/generic, but definitely remember some of the good ones and thus the games in which it was used.

My picks for now:
Titan Quest - When Gods Fall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dltJT9ZQ2bc

Credits music after finishing the game. The most important part is the first 3 minutes, the rest could easily be cut off. Even better when you look up the translated lyrics. Overall, the entire Titan Quest has absolutely killer music and I really like the way they utilize the central theme in many of the tracks.

Heroes of Might & Magic V - Academy Town Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85lMRTWNDiQ

A really wild start, but the middle part is so charming I could listen to that non-stop. The music in all the Heroes games is awesome. Definitely helps that they managed to keep the same guy for it for all the games.

Have tons more, but gonna space them out a little and not dump them all at once :P

I have a lot I could talk about on this topic, but am too tired at the moment to go into it.

For me, the music matters a good deal. Great music can enhance a game, while terrible music can ruin it, perhaps even make it a game I can't play for significant lengths of time.'

I can enjoy a game with forgettable music easily, as long as that's just what the music is - unremarkable, and not outright bad or strikingly mismatched for the game. And good music alone would not be enought to make me like a game, but it can certainly elevate an already good game. Honestly I don't remember music from games all that often. I just don't think many games have soundtracks as memorable as movies tend to.

Of course, there are also games that put greater emphasis on music, where it's more than just soundtrack and is more woven into the game and/or the storytelling. Bastion and Pyre are great examples of that. Alan Wake and Alan Wake's American Nightmare are not quite there, but I do love the use of the music by Poets of the Fall, performing in-game as the fictional band Old Gods of Asgard. Not only do I love their songs, but there's an aura of mystery around them (the in-game band that is), and it ties into the spooky mood of the whole game beautifuly, and the themes of reality and fiction.

I'm still torn whether I should count Old Gods of Asgard as one of my favorite fictional bands, since their music is performed by an actual real life band.

There's games with music that is cut off, meaning you can't hear the rest of it in normal gameplay. Mega Man 3's ending theme is one famous example of this; it's a nice theme if you hear it in full, but you can't actually hear the full theme in-game because the game cuts to the credits before it finishes.

On that topic, I happen to like Sonic the Hedgehog 2's Hidden Palace theme. The level didn't make it into the final version of the game, but the music made it into the sound test, so you can at least listen to it.

In the original GTA (and maybe in later games, haven't played them) there were those radio stations which played patently idiotic songs of various genres:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEi_yNAre2I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Iv-hZIPUD8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3mi2HY6MT8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoG5ACI09sc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6t9bEeeIFc
Reinforced the silly nature of that game, wouldn't have been the same without them.

Since morolf mentioned GTA in the above post, I got reminded of Gruppa krovi featured in GTA IV (Vladivostok FM). Kino put up some great songs in the 80s. Such as Spokoynaya noch'.

Well, good music can enhance a game, can make a major difference for atmosphere, setting the mood, emphasizing certain moments and delivering the story. But if it comes to a developer trying to decide how to spread limited resources that are insufficient to do everything just right, I'd put it way down the list of priorities. Definitely. I mean, it usually is forgettable for me because I rarely remember a game's music, and if I do it's probably just a main theme / menu song or the credits one, typically if it's vocal, not just instrumental. If I remember the atmosphere or particular moments that'd be significantly helped by music, it'll be the moments or that overall feeling that may stick to mind and not the music playing then as a separate element.
As for truly bad music, that would actually bother me to a significant extent... Well, I'd hope it can be turned off and have the game played without? And if somehow it couldn't be, well, I'd still call it just a nuisance to put up with, far less of a problem than many other issues games can have. See above. Not for the music itself, usually. I'll make a note of theme / menu songs I particularly enjoy (hello Two Worlds) or maybe other actual songs that I find striking (like Cain in Bloodlines, maybe Isolated too), but those aren't what one typically understands by a game soundtrack and, either way, they're not primary reasons for liking the games.

I recall a percentage >50% thrown around a lot when it comes to that. Seems appropriate to me. Arguably there's no such thing as bad music. I rather see it as "misplaced music" the person in charge just put in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Forgettable music" I consider music that just does what it's supposed to do, as in supporting the enjoyment of the visual sensation without me consciously noticing it. Neither a positive nor a negative thing, as far as I'm concerned. Generally, yes.
The Mass Effect series which, on the contrary I absolutely despise for several reasons (it being one of the standard bearers of the infamous "pop-a-mole" type of combat or the absolutely terribad paragon/renegade morality system, among other very questionable things) would be an exception to the rule, though.


A first batch of soundtracks worth checking out (and available for purchase on GoG, too, for the most part), and yes, as per the well-known quote about the futility of writing about music there will be no further elaborations to go along with them:

Battle Brothers Original Soundtrack by Breakdown Epiphanies
Standout Tracks: The Homestead, Rise and Fall of House Kaltenborn (Noble Houses)

Gothic & Gothic II Original Soundtracks by Kai Rosenkranz
Standout Tracks: Free Mine, Lobard's Farm

Gothic 3 Original Soundtrack by Kai Rosenkranz
Standout Tracks: City Nights, Ishtar, Northmar's Clans

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus Original Soundtrack by Guillaume David
Standout Tracks: Caestus Metallican, Noosphere

Carrion Original Game Soundtrack by Cris Velasco
Standout Tracks: The Lab, Containment Unit

Disjunction Original Soundtrack by Dan Farley
Standout Tracks: Cypher, Web

As for Battle Brothers, my favorite is Thug Life. Can't help but tap a body part to the rhythm.

As for Cris Velasco, I really liked some of the boss fight tracks he made for Darksiders 3. Really gets you pumped. The main reason I know his name.

Examples:
Wrath - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHAHtr6sHw8
Abraxis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wiTjUKBM5E

Music that causes physical pain to the listener is bad music. At least for RPGs, I would say that music is more important than story for me.

In competitive online multiplayer games, no.

In single-player games, quite important (depending a bit on the type of game and genre). For instance, loud triumphant music wouldn't just fit e.g. Thief The Dark Project, while you are trying to hide in the shadows. In such cases it is more about the atmospheric background sounds, than actual in-game music.

Either way, both in games and movies, music is quite often important to me, and I might enjoy even a pretty bad game or movie, if it has great music. In games I consider music similarly like "a story": a good story might enhance the gaming experience a lot, but a game can also be very interesting without any story. Or music. Sure. Thief Gold for example. When I think of its music, all I can think of is the music in the intro, not any ingame music.

Or Team Fortress 2, I think it would feel just odd there would be some constant music playing while I am killing masses of other online gamers. Definitely, unless it is really out of place (like Super Mario music playing constantly in Thief The Dark Project or Spec Ops: The Line; it just wouldn't feel right). Some of these may be intro music (not music you hear during the actual gameplay), but some I've also mentioned in similar threads before:

Soul Reaver intro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNWSDvDqm9g

Descent 3 (Mercenary expansion pack level 1 music):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msp581b0QiY

Utopia (old Roland MT-32 MIDI music):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8MBWctyqxE

Crysis 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LfdbHI4oDE

Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Baal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB7T6Kd9cYg

Hitman 3 Contracts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBazgcmSQXI

And so on and so forth... I have already bookmarked many of the earlier "your favorite game or movie soundtracks" discussions... Maybe I will bookmark this too, if there are many interesting links not mentioned in the earlier threads.

Good music can definitely enhance a game. As an example, If the battle theme in an RPG is fun to listen to, grinding can become quite enjoyable. :)

I can tolerate music that doesn't fit the tone of the game...I just turn the music off in most cases (imagine epic orchestral pieces being played all the time without much happening, it becomes somewhat laughable), but if the soundtrack fits the theme and helps drawing you into the game even more it can elevate a good game into a great one.


Last Surprise - Scramble - Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers
Could play this song all day long on loop without getting tired of it. Too bad it's a boss theme and no normal battle theme. :P

Aetheres - Amid Evil

Mud and Lead, Blood Red - Battle Chasers : Nightwar

Just recently bought soundtracks for kings bounty and star wars jedi fallen order on apple music, it is a shame they only provide mp3 quality but outside that, it is a nice to have.

the intro song for star wars jedi fallen order is also quite spectacular, a mongolian band performs as a sort of intergalactic rock band spoken in a language developed together with the star wars theme

game intro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIVQ5D9fevs

complete song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJZfEh3EciU

a lot of grand strategy games come with their own composer suit that really add to the game, anno 2205 for example with dynamedion or the endless space series with their composer FlybyNo. also a special notion for Christopher Tin and his flight theme provided for civilization VI ( which you won't find on the official soundtrack )

but to return to the question. Music is all in all not that important, i play just as easily with music as without music