Best soundtrack in a game?

[Yarik]

Which game has the best soundtrack, according to you?

The Last of Us: Part 1 won the 2024 Steam Award for the best soundtrack. I listened to some of it. I can say that it's really beautiful, and I enjoy it.

[Shagger]

A few that come to mind worth checking out;

 

Carmageddon:

An instrumental version of Fear Factory's Demanufacture album. Enough said.

Primal.

A soundtrack comprised of all original songs from the band 16Volt. There is a heat pounding violence to this sound along side a haunting, daunting atmosphere The game itself is an underrated PS2 classic as well that really needs to be played by more people.

Playlist: 

 

The Burnout Games.

I know, this is a little bit of cheating as these are playlists made up of licensed songs, but they are very compilations worth checking out. I'll even extend that to Burnout Paradise, even the game itself is a piece of shit. Even though it is all licenced music, some of the games did something clever with it by muffling the music while you were not boosting and that served as a genuine incentive to go hell for leather just to keep hearing the music like it was meant to be heard. Very smart audio design. I'll just post the intro to Burnout 3: Takedown as a taste of what to expect:

 

 

Here is a Youtube Channel dedicated to the music in the games to check out

https://www.youtube.com/@CrashFMBurnout


The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

It may be a familiar score, in fact the main theme is the same one from previous Elder Scrolls games, but man it upgraded big time for Skyrim. If you actually stop and listen to it, it's a very dramatic, full sound that is easy on the ear and very pretty at times too.

 

Goldeneye (N64)

I know that this soundtrack is mostly comprised of remixes of the James Bond theme, but the are original mixes and sounded fantastic, and on N64 no less. They still sound fantastic a quarter of a century later. I would go so far to say that this video game has the best version of the James Bond theme I have heard in my entire life, full stop. That alone more than deserves a shout out.
 

Final Fantasy XIII

I don't care that this game sucks, the music is fantastic, one of the best soundtracks in any FF game. I have got to be honest, I do think FFX's soundtrack is better, but I decided to focus on FFXIII as I feel this great soundtrack gets overlooked because the game itself was a bit shit. It has that serene, yet chaotic feel to it that's very unique and pleasant to hear.

 

 

Screamer

A little known DOS racing game from 1995 that I played a lot as a kid. I love it back then, but having a better understand of what was out at the time, specially on consoles, I can see the game as being pretty mediocre. However, if your PC was able to run the soundtrack direct from the CD-ROM, you were treated to the original recorded versions of the game's digitized rock music soundtrack that sounded amazing.

 

Edited May 4 by Shagger