5. CoD: Modern Warfare 2
Composer Lorne Balfe was a protégé of superstar musician Hans Zimmer. Balfe is an expert when it comes to creating music for action games. His scores are full of drama and tension. They do an excellent job of adding to the already exciting soundscape.
4. Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Ranging from gentle piano music to full-on orchestral drama, the soundtrack for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 runs an amazing 11 hours. Of course, it’s a massive game, which means it needs a ton of interesting music. A team of composers headed by Masunori Mitsuda provided the score.
3. Meta,l Hellsinger
Metal Hellsinger is a heavy metal shooter, with demonic fantasy mayhem timed to the music. In Metal Hellsinger, if you land your shots on the beat, you earn a higher score. While Metal Hellsinger featured all new metal songs by Two Feathers, the soundtrack’s singers are a who’s who of hard rock and metal.
2. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion
The Final Fantasy franchise is known for varied music, which ranges from pop and rock instrumentals to orchestral textures. Reunion’s score by Takeharu Ishimoto uses themes from the original, plus a lot of newly composed music.
1. God of War: Ragnarok
Bear McCreary is a showman, talented multi-instrumentalist and probably the most in-demand composer working in games and television. For good reason. His music is dramatic, colorful and conveys more than chest-beating violence, but tenderness, too. Congratulations to Bear for winning COGconnected’s award for best score of the year!
What’s missing from our list? (we’re looking at you, Elden Ring) Let us know!
Thank you for keeping it locked on COGconnected.