Music in games

Playing through Mass Effect has really made me notice how much music in a game makes or breaks the experience for me. Frankly, I've been very disappointed in the music in Mass Effect. I still think the game is excellent and easily worth the money if you enjoy space opera or role playing games. But the music just does not drive the type of emotional response that it could and should.

The music in Halo 3 did an excellent job of staying in the background but evoking the strong emotional response desired for the scene. Often the music conveyed  a grim determination in the face of impossible odds, other times it gave a sense of urgency to the mission. I remember my first play though leading up to the battle against two scarabs. That musically induced sense of urgency  prompted me to hope on a warthog and rush down the mountain, ignoring the brutes in a frantic race to the bottom. Throughout the game the music remained just below the surface setting the emotional tone for the action.

Bioshock's music worked at a different level. It too helped set the emotional tone but did it more subtly. The background music and the songs wafting from the occasional radio not only helped set the emotional tone but formed the foundation for the incredible atmosphere of the game. Walking around rapture really felt like walking around a city lost to decay in the late 50's. I've said it elsewhere but Bioshock did elicit from me a stronger emotional response to it's narrative than any other game and most movies.

As much as I am enjoying Mass Effect, I have found that it's music is completely unremarkable. The only time I really notice it is when I fail a mission (die). Apart from that what music the game has barely registers as background noise and does little or nothing to contribute to the atmosphere or emotional fabric of the game.

I find that sad really. For a game with a story grand enough to stand with the movie fiction that inspired it, Mass Effect should have it's John Williams or Martin O'Donnell but it doesn't.

Then again, I'm 11+ hours into the game and I've barely scratched the surface of the main plot arc. By this point I was finished with my first play through of Halo 3 and Bioshock. As such I can understand the it would be harder for Bioware to have created the same quantity of music. The game itself does feel more like Asheron's Call than Halo to me. I still can't help but wonder just how much better the game would have been with a musical fabric to amplify the experience.