Prey: Videogame Music Finally Grows Up

[Joe Siegler]

Now that the PC version of the Prey demo is out, those of you who have played it have had a chance to sample the brilliant musical score in the game. There's lots LOTS more in the full version, but the demo does give you a taste. If you enjoyed the music, then you'll want to check out a new article over at soundtracks.net entitled, "Prey: Videogame Music Finally Grows Up". This article goes into detail on several aspects of the music in Prey, which was authored by Jeremy & Julian Soule. Here's some tidbits from the article, which is definitely written for someone who is heavily into music, and in particular soundtracks.

"Prey is destined to effect industry-wide change: from defining a new standard by which music commissions for flagship interactive titles can be judged, to sounding a welcome death knell for the use of through-composed material. It is a key milestone and one that is the culmination of a decade's work spent to bring the true sound of Hollywood into the home."

Scott Miller, 3D Realms' CEO, acknowledges that the importance of Jeremy's contribution to Prey is a testament to their shared vision, "It was a fantastic stroke of luck that Jeremy was coming off of the back of another project and was able to sit-down with us and bring to the game that level of Hollywood excellence he's renowned for. We had felt that it'd be very difficult to get him, but he was so enthused about the project from the moment we approached him, so in-tune with our needs that he ended up coming on-board straight away."

In this latter vein, the game owes much to Julian's co-composing sensibilities, who points out that "working on Prey was very much like scoring a whole season of a network drama in a few weeks. Thankfully, though, we didn't have to deal with constantly moving goalposts because everyone involved had a clear sense of direction from the start."

Finally, don't forget that you can purchase the soundtracks to Prey right now over at Direct Song's Website. You don't have to wait for the full game to come out to hear all the music. Here's what the article above says about the soundtrack:

"With ardent PC and Xbox 360 gamers chomping at the byte for Prey's arrival, two volumes of music featuring Jeremy and Julian's soundtrack have been released in advance of the game's summer debut. Prey - Volume 1 and, unsurprisingly, Volume 2 showcase almost 145 minutes of courageous and thrilling music.

The albums are available exclusively for download at DirectSong.com, the gaming industry's leading music portal. Whilst you'll require Windows Media Player (version 7.1 upwards) to play the music and transfer it between devices (the tracks have built-in DRM), DirectSong must be applauded for offering their content at 320kbps - as close to the rawness of CD quality audio available today via digital distribution and surely a kick in the teeth for their competition."

And finally, for reading through this story, you get another chance to win a free copy of Prey. The soundtrack.net website is giving away five copies of Prey. Head over to their contest page to enter!

[Nessus]

I didn't even really notice the music in the demo for the most part, the only part that really jumped out at me was when that virtual orange spherical map got generated and the windows opened, that was epic and cinematic, absolutely as good as any movie. I need to go back and give a better listen.

[Hotapplepie]

I need the demo to have a opinion, but the jukebox music sounds cool

[avatar_58]

While I love the music and the direction, this article is acting like its the only game to use such composed music. It all depends on what games you play I guess, but I've heard plenty of scores that make movies sound like crap (Betrayal at Krondor for one....)

I do like the style of the Soule brothers work, in all the games I've heard it in so far (Guild Wars, Oblivion, Morrowind, etc)

[desmasic]

I love the music when you enter the spirit form. I actually just go in and out of it to hear the music in-game :P

[NutWrench]

Jeremy Soule has his own website.

[Denz]

Pre ouverture is amazingly awesome.

[avatar_58]

Yeah thats a great track. Is it just me though or does the main section remind you a little of Far Cry's menu theme?

[Denz]

Now that you say it, yes it has a same little something.

[Nessus]

What can I use to play a .ogg file?

Will Ferrell forever ruined the seriousness of that blue oyster cult song.. All i could think of when tommy was getting sucked into the spaceship was Will Ferrel wailing away at that cowbell and it made me laugh.

[Noam sane?]

Originally Posted by Nessus

What can I use to play a .ogg file?

http://www.vuplayer.com/

[hive33]

I am really hoping that this trend happens. It is no secret that developers and designers want to get away from the cinema cut scene and keep live action interaction. Well if games follow suit like hollywood films you might have infamous scenes like the ear cutting bit in Resevoir Dogs. Video game soundtracks may actually become something that aren't really dorky. I admit I listened to the Grandia and WOW soundtrack. ;(

I would think that scenes cut to cool riffs from good songs would be just awesome. It doesn't even have to be the entire song.

[m4dmax]

yeah the musical score in Prey is quite good. I opened up the demo .pk4 and took a couple hours to actually listen to every single sound in the demo. Everything in the "score" folder under music was very well done.

prey_overature and prey_intro_music are probably some of the best composed ingame music I've heard in quite a while. Props to the developers

[George Broussard]

The music for the game is awesome. It's worth noting that the soundtrack is nearly 3 hours, and a lot of the music is later in the game. There are noteable pieces in the demo, but it really starts to open up in the last half of the game, where a lot of the emotion is.

A lot of the game was scored like a movie. They would get video clips of sections of the game and compose music for those spots.

I'm eager to see people's response to the score in the full game.

[maxwell]

I for one will be buying the soundtrack. I checked it out yesterday and was really pleased and impressed. Top notch stuff.

[Hotapplepie]

Wow. I just listened to the sample songs on directsong.com on both volume 1 & 2 and the stuff is amasing. My favorite is immortalty or oblivion track on volume 2. Awsome stuff.

[Jack_Sparrow]

Prey does have a great in-game soundtrack. The music manages to be really atmospheric, without being too intrusive, just as a musical score should be. On it's own it's worth a listen, too, like most of Jeremy Soules work - i paticulary like Oblivions music.

I've noticed that Video Game's music seems to be getting better and better these last few years, in terms of production values. Prey is a good example of this, alongside games such as Final Fantasy and Halo. The recent Kameo also has a great, original musical score.

[Morry]

I thoroughly enjoyed the Prey music and can't wait to see it being used during the game. Soule has done a great job in exploring a different genre and still providing a strong and moving soundtrack.

[Aegeri]

I never noticed the music in the game, with the exception of the tracks on the jukebox obviously as one could imagine (). Otherwise I think the music goes nicely with whatever is happening at the time in the game. It's not the overbearing thumping soundtrack of Quake 2 or the metal of Devil May Cry 3.

It's nice though.

[SuperSaiyan4]

I get shivers thinking about it but there is only 1 game on this planet that has music that has and will be soo great the earth itself will shake...Having listened to what is expected from the trailer of this particular game I cannot get enough of it...

[Tommyboy]

The spirit music grew incredibly irritating after a while. Don't Fear The Reaper however was a masterstroke of epic proportions.

[Kalki]

Originally Posted by George Broussard

The music for the game is awesome. It's worth noting that the soundtrack is nearly 3 hours, and a lot of the music is later in the game. There are noteable pieces in the demo, but it really starts to open up in the last half of the game, where a lot of the emotion is.

A lot of the game was scored like a movie. They would get video clips of sections of the game and compose music for those spots.

I'm eager to see people's response to the score in the full game.

I'm eager to see how this affects your (stated) position on (that) other game(s)

I'd post about in a more ah... relevant forum but I'll wait till things get quieter.

[avatar_58]

Originally Posted by Kalki

I'm eager to see how this affects your (stated) position on (that) other game(s)

I'd post about in a more ah... relevant forum but I'll wait till things get quieter.

Indeed

[Jigen]

The music in the super trailer still sends shivers down my spine. Very recognizable theme, incredible work!

I'm going to download the soundtracks soon, but the cheapo in me has to ask, is there supposed to be a link to a free download of the soundtrack included with the special edition of the game? I seem to recall hearing this a while back...

[DavoX]

Originally Posted by George Broussard

The music for the game is awesome. It's worth noting that the soundtrack is nearly 3 hours, and a lot of the music is later in the game. There are noteable pieces in the demo, but it really starts to open up in the last half of the game, where a lot of the emotion is.

A lot of the game was scored like a movie. They would get video clips of sections of the game and compose music for those spots.

I'm eager to see people's response to the score in the full game.

Yay! another confirmed aspect of DNF!

[DavoX]

Originally Posted by ercdevious

Will Ferrell forever ruined the seriousness of that blue oyster cult song.. All i could think of when tommy was getting sucked into the spaceship was Will Ferrel wailing away at that cowbell and it made me laugh.

That was great IMO, that part is obviously to laugh, wansn't intented to be serious

[Jokke_r]

didn't like the menu music sounded like lotr rip-off, hmm dunno...

[Needle]

Originally Posted by Jigen

The music in the super trailer still sends shivers down my spine. Very recognizable theme, incredible work!

Yeah. Totally agree. Actually, all teasers/trailers had great music. I especially like the agressive one from the 360 teaser.

Originally Posted by Jigen

I'm going to download the soundtracks soon, but the cheapo in me has to ask, is there supposed to be a link to a free download of the soundtrack included with the special edition of the game? I seem to recall hearing this a while back...

Well, if you have the game then all you have to do is to open the package file and look for the sound folder....

[hiob]

simply put:
awesome, awesome to the max

[Micki!]

I love the music of Prey...

I am very sure that i'll be getting the soundtrack... But i'll still want to listen to them in the game first...

Thing is, that i might enjoy the music better while playing, rather than just listening to it...
We'll see, but untill now, i loved the preview versions of the soundtrack (too damn short... ), and and overture one...
Also, in the demo, just when you walk on the first wallwalk pad that you encounter in the game... Somewhere around that area, a REALLY good music is playing... I love that part, and i hope/expect the full version to have lot's of more of this kind of "mood music"...

If there's anyhting i'd want more than the soundtrack of Prey, then it's the Artbook form the LCE... I MUST have that aswell...

Anyways, wasn't there something about the LCE having a "free-card" type of thing, to get one whole album of Prey's soundtrack, from directsong..?

[SuicideRUN]

Please Joe, tell me you have some Steppenwolf in the full version!!

[SyntaxN]

The music seems to be really good, not as memorable as some other game soundtracks but still among the best

[Noam sane?]

Originally Posted by George Broussard

The music for the game is awesome. It's worth noting that the soundtrack is nearly 3 hours, and a lot of the music is later in the game. There are noteable pieces in the demo, but it really starts to open up in the last half of the game, where a lot of the emotion is.

A lot of the game was scored like a movie. They would get video clips of sections of the game and compose music for those spots.

I'm eager to see people's response to the score in the full game.

Your comment made me realize that, other than the Pow Wow singing in the theme at the menu, I didn't remember any of the music so I went back through the game listening just for the music. I didn't remember it because it is so well integrated into the various scenes with type and timing that it becomes completely transparent to the game play. It fades away when it is not needed and comes on "just like a movie" to enhance the drama of the scene. You may not get a lot of comment on it for that reason. The game is truly a beautiful piece of art.

[Cheapy]

I wouldn't be surprised if Paul Revere and the Raider's Indian Reservation was used for the end credits.

[metzman]

I'm also very very happy with the music in Prey.

Orchestrated music is my favorite kind of music, and I've been collecting and enjoying movie/game music like it since I was 4 years old. The Score for Prey sounds very nice, although I still taste a bit of Oblivion at times, but that doesn't really matter, it's a great epic Sci Fi score that fits nicely in the "Giger/Alien-ish" Setting. I loved the moments in the demo like when You've just been captured, the "Oooh... myyy... God" scene. Apart from the ochestral score, I loved the Abduction scene with the jukebox switching to a guitar piece. Kinda reminds me of things like the scene in "Christine" where the radio suddenly turns on when the car attacks someone inside. Great choice of not making that a dramatic orchestra piece like in most sci-fi movies/games.

I've listened to the samples of the Prey Soundtrack volume 1 & 2 and I really really really want it! But I can't buy it at Direct Song cause I have no Credit Card.., and no.. I won't get one. AND I live in Europe (Holland) so I can't order the Collector's Edition eather to get the OST..... I feel soo crappy about that. I Can't even find it in the illegal corners of the download scene.. no one's posting the damn thing..
Me as a very big Cinematic Ochestra fan begs 3D Realms for another way to obtane the Prey OST... I'd even pay more if that helps.... help me!

[Jeron Moore]

Originally Posted by Cheapy

I wouldn't be surprised if Paul Revere and the Raider's Indian Reservation was used for the end credits.

Hahaha.

[Jack_Sparrow]

Speaking of great Video Game music, i'm currently listening to the "Halo 2 Vol 2 VOL 2" soundtrack, and i have to say it's simply brilliant. Marty O Donnel is a genius, i can't wait to see what he has instore for Halo 3, if the musical score in the Halo 3 trailer is any indication as to whats to come.

[0marTheZealot]

Jeremy Soule is indeed a great composer. Loved his work for Guild Wars!

[velvet]

Originally Posted by 0marTheZealot

Jeremy Soule is indeed a great composer. Loved his work for Guild Wars!

oh yeah IMO is guild wars his masterpiece