Now, before Oblivion was released, I had never played an Elder Scrolls, and had never planned on it, either. For that matter, I wasn't even aware of Bethesda Softwork's existence and to this day can't think of anything they've made besides this, Fallout 3, and WET. I wasn't going to buy Oblivion until my friend had brought it over and showed me what I had been missing out on. So, just to pass the message on- yeah, go and get this game, if you haven't.
As for the soundtrack, I'm going to make myself perfectly clear on this. I STRONGLY DISLIKE AMBIANCE. Apart from the title theme (which sounds a bit like it's from Pirates of the Caribbean, does it not?), the majority of the music in Oblivion is soft, quiet, and submissive to the sounds and dialog that overlap it. The tracks really don't stand out on their own at all, they just set the mood, which, although it's not a bad thing by any means, it just doesn't work for me.
Now, to provide an opposing argument, the music really does fit in the game. What right do I have to demand action-packed music when the game itself has more dialogue and running around than anything? The dungeons and caves in the game have appropriately creepy ambiance that give you that "maybe I'd better not go in here" feeling, and the town and overworld tracks seamlessly transition from one to the other; honestly, do you ever notice when the song changes? Nope.
And although I don't really like the music itself, I can't deny the quality of the production. I just love the orchestration used here, blending the violin and flute together in a way that more games really ought to do. The battle themes are a little lackluster in terms of making it more fun to fight, but at least it makes you aware that an enemy's nearby. Of course I never notice, because I have other music playing.
To summarize, it's not that the music is bad- because I assure you it's not -but it's that this kind of lack of presence and character just doesn't cut it for my tastes.
SilverTrinity's score: 7.5/10.
0 comments:
Post a Comment