great soundtrack – Page 2

Thoughts on: OFF

13/09/2025 13/09/2025

Closer to the end of the 2000s the independent game development scene was starting to bloom. Independent developers have been doing it for a very long time by that point, but the mix of availability of tools and the evolution of the internet changed the game. People didn’t consider the commercial releases for their games yet as often as they do now, so a lot of genuinely impressive, influential and highly praised titles were released completely for free. OFF was one such title – originally released in 2008, completely in French, it was a surreal horror themed RPG made in RPG Maker 2003 with a memorable soundtrack. And a couple years later, with few unofficial fan made English translations, the game started going rounds around the internet and was often a target for then rising popularity of Let’s Play format of recorded game playthroughs on YouTube.

And now in 2025, after years of being talked about and influencing other developers, the game is officially translated into English, ported to Unity and is available as a commercial release. A faithful recreation of the original project with some improvements and some side-steps.

Thoughts on: Old Skies

11/07/2025 18/10/2025

If you like point and click adventure games, you have seen the Wadjet Eye Games logo at least once or twice in the past 15 years. They have developed and published some of the best adventures of the past decade and have been one of the most prominent users of Adventure Game Studio. And ever since I’ve decided to try the Blackwell series back in 2013, I was never disappointed with a release developed by them since. Even when it was short and simple like The Shivah or The Blackwell Legacy, or as rough around the edges as Blackwell Unbound. Their Unavowed from 6 years ago is easily one of my favorite adventure game titles ever. So to say that I was excited about Old Skies is to say nothing. And yet, somehow, this game was easily the least enjoyable title from Wadjet Eye Games I’ve played.

Happy about: World of Goo 2

19/06/2025 19/06/2025

Many many years ago there was a cool website called Experimental Gameplay Project, that, as I didn’t even realize at the time, was full of university projects (specifically of students from Carnegie Mellon University). There were lots of short but very memorable and fun little projects, some of which were just silly fun like Attack of the Killer Swarm, On a Rainy Day, Gravity Head, Tower of Goo or Super Tummy Bubble! (which is basically Suika Game decades before the actual “Watermelon game”) and some were more mysterious and strange like The Crowd. The team behind this project would later form Tomorrow Corporation, but even prior to it, they’ve collaborated on other projects. One of which was done by a mostly two-man team at 2D Boy. The game was a fully realized idea previously shown in Tower of Goo – World of Goo, which was released in 2008 to huge critical success and become one of the earliest biggest examples of independent developer success stories (at least from the critical reception perspective).

Yet, despite the success, following that game up with a direct sequel would’ve been strange. It felt like a more or less well developed idea and its “story” was quite simple. So it made sense that Tomorrow Corporation worked on different puzzle titles that continued some of the themes and ideas, but played very differently. However in 2024 World of Goo 2 was released on several platforms (but with odd exclusivity deals on PC). With the latter being finally over, I was able to complete it and while I have enjoyed it quite a lot, I have to say its existence still feels strange.

Read more“Happy about: World of Goo 2”

Thoughts on: Wizordum

13/06/2025 13/06/2025

While there have been a lot of classic FPS titles coming out in the past decade, the usual expectation of them is that the title will take Doom or Quake or Duke Nukem 3D as a reference point and then evolve the ideas from there. Wizordum does things differently. For one, its main gameplay and level design reference point seems to be something more along the lines of Wolfenstein 3D and Rise of the Triads, so gameplay area is far more “flat” than what Doom introduced with stairs and elevators. For another – instead of looking and sounding like a typical classic FPS, it instead goes for epic fantasy atmosphere. So, think less Hexen and more Might and Magic VI. Which is probably the main reason I decided to stick with the game til the end, because as an FPS title, it isn’t particularly exciting.

Revisiting Grand Theft Auto V (Enhanced)

06/06/2025 06/06/2025

Ten years ago I’ve experienced Grand Theft Auto V for the first time. My opinion on it was very positive, but somewhat underwhelmed – not by the quality of the game itself, but rather by how evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, it all felt. Again, it wasn’t really much of a fault of a game that it couldn’t quite follow up on the previous entries (especially the first three 3D games) in terms of their inescapable impact on the entire game industry and defined an entire genre. But either way, in 2015 I felt very pleased with the game, but not too excited. Now with the Enhanced version of the game being out, I’ve decided to revisit the entire series with this new playthrough of GTA V being the final title. And surprisingly, I’ve found myself loving the game a lot more than I did ten years ago.

O tempora: Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered

11/05/2025 11/05/2025

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Almost precisely a year ago, I’ve experienced Tomb Raider I-III Remastered collection and my thoughts on it were conflicted. One one hand, it was the best way to experience three classic titles in the influential franchise. On another – all games apart from the original weren’t that good and collection itself had some questionable choices made. As a result, I was quite curious about what Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered could be, given that I already considered The Last Revelation the best classic TR title and liked most of Chronicles. These were the games I’ve played a lot and the games that, in my opinion, aged a lot better. The collection includes The Angel of Darkness as well, of course, that I did not expect much from this re-release, given how dreadful my first and only experience with the game was over 20 years ago. So, how did it go this time? In some ways worse with the collection itself raising a lot more questions.

O tempora: Sonic Origins Plus

24/04/2025 24/04/2025

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

I watched my friends play Sonic games a lot, I played Sonic games a fair bit, the style, the soundtracks, the Knuckles himself… So many memories about these games that… I don’t love that much, if I’m honest. I’m not much into platforming games in general, unless they focus on exploration and/or puzzle solving, so despite the era of games I grew up with having so many great (and not great) examples of the genre, I didn’t play a lot of them much or at all. But after replaying Sonic Generations for the Sonic X Shadow Generations release that I really liked, I was in the mood for more Sonic. So after giving Frontiers a try and getting frustrated with it after a few hours (even though it has so many things done so well), I’ve decided to finally play Sonic Origins with the Plus expansion. And this return to the classics was somewhat predictable, but still necessary for me.

O tempora: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater – Master Collection Version

02/04/2025 02/04/2025

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

If there is one entry in the Metal Gear franchise that is unanimously beloved, it would be Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Impressive for a PS2 release, wonderfully balanced in gameplay and storytelling, funny and dramatic, systemic but easy to understand. Yet, it was never among my personal favorites. I’ve only played the game (specifically Subsistence release) once and while I liked it enough, many things about the game frustrated me. And due to that, MGS2 remained my favorite. And yet, surprisingly, as I was revisiting the games through the Master Collection, I found how MGS1 and 2 didn’t age as well as I had hoped… While MGS3 felt a lot better than I have remembered.

O tempora: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty – Master Collection Version

24/03/2025 24/03/2025

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

For the longest time I’ve considered Metal Gear Solid 2 to be my favorite entry in the series, from the mechanical perspective. Not the most popular opinion, to say the least, given how much controversy surrounded MGS2 and how much more beloved MGS3 usually is. But in many ways, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was the final evolution of what Metal Gear was up until that point and a glimpse into what it turned into for the next couple of entries. And because of how much I liked that simpler stealth action approach of the earlier titles, it was very nice to see the idea taken to its logical conclusion. Still, it’s been decades since I’ve played the game so I was a bit worried if I will like it again, as it did before. I did. But it definitely didn’t age as well as I’ve remembered.

Few notes on: Videogame music 2024

19/03/2025 19/03/2025

Fourth year of me writing about wonderful soundtracks in gaming while listening to Ukrainian Air Force protecting my life from russian missiles and killer drones behind the windows. I’m starting to get slightly angry at games that include air raid sirens in their soundscape, which is somewhat funny, but also a bit sad.

But speaking of games like that, Silent Hill 2 remake from last year is not even going to be included in the list because the original had a better soundtrack and was included last time. Plus, Akira Yamaoka composed one of his best soundtracks last year for a different game you will find listed. Anyways, as usual, I am listing the games and their soundtracks that I’ve played or re-played since the last time I’ve done this type of an article last year. This time it was about the same amount of new titles and re-releases. And while re-releases do win in numbers, a few of the new games had soundtracks that are bound to become instant classics.