The Best Video Game Music of 2022: Nominees

ign.com:

From sweeping orchestral scores to retro mash-ups that trigger memories of fusty arcades, music can make the difference between a great game and an amazing one. It helps set the tone and carry the narrative, and although each of the five games shortlisted here takes a different approach to its audio, one thing is consistent – every soundtrack is a banger.

Here are the nominees for Best Video Game Music in 2022; be sure to come back next week when the winner is announced.

There are five credited composers on the Elden Ring soundtrack, which shows that this gargantuan task required a team of talented musicians to execute. One listen to the expansive soundtrack (which clocks in at over 60 tracks) and you can hear a wide expanse of classical styles, from somber ballads to ginormous orchestrations. Regardless of which track you’re listening to, you can see the composers working hard towards creating the biggest, full-scale video game soundtrack of 2022. Just listen to the opening song, which begins with just a few notes before exploding into a massive, powerful theme. A feeling mimicked by the player as they first step into the Lands Between.

The main melodic line of the new God of War games is simple: Three chords up, and three chords down, often sung by a choir. This simplicity belies an unseen complexity, an attribute that it shares with the series’s main character, Kratos. Nordic battle tunes, mournful dirges, triumphant brass lines, and more hurdy gurdy than I’ve ever heard in one place before all combine to offer a score that both accompanies Ragnarok’s emotional beats perfectly, and is still great to listen to on its own. One standout is the end credits theme, Blood Upon the Snow, sung by Hozier and offering an inner