Food for the Soul (gamer style) – Volume One

I wouldn’t say game music is underrated exactly, but in my opinion, it’s often overlooked, so with this little blog post I will list some of my favorite tunes/songs from games I have played (in no special order).

Let’s start with Risen. One my favorite RPGs made by Piranha bytes.

The beach is one of the first tunes you hear in the game if my memory is correct, and it excellently sets the mood for the coming adventure with a little bit of added spookiness factor of the unknown mystery of venturing inland through the jungle.

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Halo Wars – The Need For War

Halo Wars was initially an Xbox 360-exclusive real-time strategy game, but for some years now it has been out for PC. While it’s an RTS in the classical sense, it is designed around being played with a controller, which could be considered one of the worst heresy when it comes to this genre. And I would agree if it was made for PC this way from the start, but as it is (and since I have played it on the 360 before) the controls work well considering. There is keyboard and mouse support for the PC version, but I’m set in my ways and used a controller this time around again. Before we start the review for real, I just want to clarify that this is one of my modern cozy go-to games when I want a relaxing RTS fix, so this review will be fairly biased in favor of it, even if I recognize it has faults. Halo Wars was made by Ensemble Studios, and it’s one of the last games they made, so while I love this title, it is a bittersweet feeling playing it.

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Star Trek: Hidden Evil – Set Phasers to Good

Here we are with a new year with new games to play, and why not start the year with the action/adventure title Star Trek: Hidden Evil, a game by Presto Studios, Inc. It’s an old one, and it’s very similar in style and control to the spy adventure In Cold Blood which I have reviewed here on the site. With that I mean: tank-controls in a world of pre-rendered static background shots. Hidden Evil is based on the not-so-great Star Trek: Insurrection movie. Thankfully, it’s more of a background drop than actually being the main frame of the story. Now, I wouldn’t say it’s a fantastic game, but for a lover of Star Trek, it’s an amusing addition.

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Onimusha: Warlords – Demons fear the Samurai

Onimusha: Warlords is an action-adventure/survival horror set in feudal Japan, which here, unlike real history is infested with demons and the mindless undead. It was made and released by Capcom back in 2001 for the Playstation 2. I do own the game on that system, but I decided to play it on the computer emulated with PCSX2. I had no trouble at all running it, the only setting I had changed was renderer to software. I played the game with a Playstation 4 controller plugged into the computer, which as usual matched all the in-game prompts and tutorials. In true survival horror fashion, the game has wonderful pre-rendered backgrounds with characters and monsters in 3D. Onimusha also controls like the olden days with tank controls, the sticks on the controller are unused – only the D-pad is used for movement. So, is it any good, and does it work as a survival horror in the veins of Resident Evil?

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Ghost 1.0 – Do androids fear Ghosts?

Ghost 1.0 is a 2D platformer in the “Metroidvania” genre, and it’s made by the developers Unepic fran. It’s set in the future and your role in this somewhat cyberpunk: ish world is to infiltrate a spaceship hanging around in low orbit around earth. Now, I’m not an expert on this genre, even if I have played a few, so I can’t say for certain if it’s a Metroidvania game to its core, but I do think it’s a fair bit linear to truly be a Metroid-like game. However, I had a really good time playing, and even if I didn’t have to search every nook and cranny to find my way through the game.

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