Still, it’s too brief to really be a massive highlight. Playing during the game’s beginning, it does its job well in making the scene stylish and stands up somewhat on a stand-alone level with its mixture of electro-acoustics and ambient noises. We do have at least something thematic and original in the form of “Code 3: En Route”. Takada’s “Don’t Be A Hero” fortunately sounds similar in terms of hectic samples used, and is one of the soundtrack’s more exciting moments.
Wish there was more of that by Kobori in this soundtrack. I especially like those small static noises at times, which remind me of The Evil Within’s twisted world that is crawling with all these small insects. It sounds pretty good as the samples that have been employed mix well to give you a very stylistic horror listen. While Shuichi Kobori mainly focused on sound design for the game, the Metal Gear Solid composer did compose one track that made it to the soundtrack release, “Cold Corridors”. Most notable is the Graves-esque “Crude Contraption”, which uses an alarming string rhythm to really raise tension, and the lengthy “Retrieval” with its dabs of Hollywood-styled orchestration. The highlights for me I like are those that have some form of organic aspect to it. However, they’re not so interesting as stand-alone listens given their lack of melody and indeed musical structure in general. The likes of “Lurking in the Dark” and “Don’t Be a Hero” are pretty effective as threatening soundscapes, adding to the atmosphere and tension of an already terrifying game. Anyone who has played Flower, Sun and Rain will know that this composition is a favourite of Takada’s and it’s use here is generally a highlight.īlurring the boundaries between music and sound design, most tracks are basically one sound effects collection progressing to the next in front of dreamy sounding pads. I might as well just say that this pretty much acts as the game’s main theme from the beginning till the end.
While a somewhat clichéd choice of music, it’s integration in the gameplay is effective: it points you towards mirrors in the game, which are basically these portal to Sebastian’s inner psyche where you can save your progress and upgrade your abilities. The most melodic track isn’t even original unfortunately, and is instead Claude Debussy’s ever so beautiful Clair De Lune. Melodies is what this soundtrack severely misses. The end result is a soundtrack that suitably adds atmosphere to the game, but basically falls down on a stand-alone level. Melodies are barely anywhere to be found and the stylings are generally too understated to leave a lasting impression. Perhaps unfortunately, the soundtrack for The Evil Within is all about dark ambient soundscaping. Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil 2) tend to particularly hold up on a stand-alone level. Silent Hill, Resident Evil 4, Alice) or strong melodies (e.g. However, only the soundtracks that feature experimental scoring techniques (e.g.
In horror composing,it is conventional to psychologically affect listeners with tense textures and creepy phrases. With talent like this, what did the under-publicised The Evil Within soundtrack sound like? Body That said, the audio for the game was handled by two veterans from the industry: Tango Gameworks’ sound director Masafumi Takada (Killer7, No More Heroes, The Umbrella Chronicles) and sound designer Shuichi Kobori (Metal Gear Solid 4, Zone of the Enders, Terror of the Stratus). So, it was a bit unfortunate hearing that Mikami wanted the music to take a back seat after his incredible soundtracks to Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4. In general, horror games tend to have some of the most beautiful and memorable tracks, because they are filled with emotion scary or otherwise. However, I was a little concerned there wasn’t a lot of chatter about the music of the game. The Evil Within was without a doubt this year’s highest profile horror release, especially due to the fact that it was envisioned by none other than, Shinji Mikami, the maestro of horror gaming who was responsible for the genre-defining Resident Evil series.