It feels like newer games are just too quiet. No background music, just “ambient noise” if you’re lucky. And as someone who really likes Video Game Music I find that disappointing.
Is it just me or do newer titles really lack BGM?
It honestly feels like newer games are ashamed of looking or feeling too much like stereotypical video games and overcorrect as a result.
Like is it just me? Or have you noticed this too?
Absolutely not just you. I HATE the shift to “ambient music” over a composed soundtrack. I think it happened along side the APIs to make it easy, like the DirectSound (at least I ‘think’ such a system showed up around the DX9 times? maybe later for one that worked more automagically) auto-composition stuff that was well over probably two decades ago by now. You just give the API a few instruments and some basic composition instructions for each ‘tone’ of gameplay, shift that ‘tone’ around as the game gets exciting/dull/etc, and it composes the soundtrack on the fly.
Of course that’s greatly simplifying it, but the effect is the same: a ‘neat’ sountrack that usually ‘fits’ the game well, and transitions very smoothly when done right… but it’s SO FUCKING BORING most of the time!! Most games that use such a system compose the most basic crap that you can ignore. Sure, it makes the game less static, and less silent, but fuck me, I’d take chiptunes over most of that crap…
Some games actually compose good music for such systems, and give neat transitions/etc for it to work with, but most just make bland trash that blends easily, but most are so damn forgettable.
Of course there are plenty of newer games with great soundtracks, but there are so many more with ambient trash.
Wilderness from Diablo 2 is just great! I don’t know if you consider that ambient, or other works like that from early Diablo games, but that was the way to do it, for that style of game!
It was explicitly composed as a song, and plays as a sound file, so I’d say it’s not in the same class of ‘ambient’ as the basically-generated stuff.
Diablo 2’s soundtrack is a forever classic. Definitely turns a decent game into a whole experience.