"Nothing but flames, nothing but flames."
Apr. 9th, 2008 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nano_mooseFor this month's lessons, I will be posting Video Game Music What I Think Is Awesome. First post: Thief: Dark Project, Metal Age and Deadly Shadows.
A caveat: None of this stuff is all that musical because of the way sound is set up in the game; if anyone wants to get a single mp3 for a specific mission they have to pull the various loops and effects from the files and try and sew them into a roughly coherent whole. The result is generally a sort of 'soundscape', and while Thief has some pretty damn badass soundscapes by necessity, it's an acquired taste. I am gay for the series, so I like them. I totally understand if you guys think they're weird or boring.
Sneaksie Thief
This is basically a medley from the original Thief; it does a good job of cycling through the different moods and styles without much of a break in flow. I'm pretty sure a lot of the loops are from briefings rather than actual missions, but that's okay, they're still cool. Very steam-punky.
Das Horn
So you're in a tomb. Don't worry, you're sure you'll be able to get out, but you have to find this horn before you do, and it's looking less likely with every empty room, every narrowly-dodged trap. The only other things here besides you and the dead are burricks and the undead. It's dark, and cold, and quiet, and all you've seen so far are oppressive tunnels and dank crypts, with the occasional unpleasant interlude of a fellow and...less successful intruder.
Then you crawl out of a fissure in the stone, stand up from your crouch and gape at the sight of catacombs with ceilings so high they vanish in the dark, built in grey-gold stone and spiderwebbed with delicate walkways in between pillars. It's eerie, but not ghoulish; the space is as solemn as a church, and echoing, haunting, you hear the sound of the horn, at first so far away you can't be sure it's really there.
And that's why I love the Bonehoard!
The Metal Age
This is almost the same thing as Sneaksie Thief, except for the Metal Age and more professional-sounding. It also exhibits how the music developed between the games, which is interesting (or to me it is anyway). Dark Project was less...elegant, and less focused on a specific mood, while this cycles through tension, opulence, sadness...
Okay, shut up. I think it's fascinating.
Eavesdropping
Those first whispers you hear are the Haunts - dead Hammerites whose graves have been desecrated - whose laughter gave me nightmares. Then you hear the Servants, crying to themselves and desperately begging for help, for release, for death, and their sobbing laughter once you grant it. The rest is the ambient for the Mechanist cathedral itself, and I love how it's a bit like the Hammers' theme but smooth and dark and creepy.
South Quarter
It's the music for where Garrett lives! Which means that somehow it's become inextricably linked with him in my mind. Although a lot of the music in Deadly Shadows does that anyway, especially considering the factions all have their own particular themes. Erm, in any case, I'm pretty sure I'm not crazy, seein' as it does turn into the ending music.
The Overlook Manse
In my opinion, Brosius is at the top of his game in Deadly Shadows; this is one of my favourite tracks and an entry in my Personal Triumvirate of Awesome (those being Life of the Party, House of the Widow and Robbing the Cradle). It's from a mission wherein you rob the house of a recent widow, during a vicious storm, while the woman herself sits in the tower mad with grief, and her servants fight over her possessions. I love the ambience of it - steeped in sadness and pain and tragedy.
Deviginti
When Thief music isn't being all eerie and low-key, it tends towards shredding guitars for some reason. I'm amused, but not complaining; this track is completely awesome. Try wearing a long coat and walking down a city street while listening to it sometime. You may well spontaneously do a Bad Ass Power Walk once it hits 2:04.
(The Dark Mod, incidentally, is long-running fan project to create a tool, texture and environment set for Doom 3 based upon - note, not actually from - the world of Thief.)
And that's it for this time - next time I might do either Bioshock or Planescape Torment. Preferences?
A caveat: None of this stuff is all that musical because of the way sound is set up in the game; if anyone wants to get a single mp3 for a specific mission they have to pull the various loops and effects from the files and try and sew them into a roughly coherent whole. The result is generally a sort of 'soundscape', and while Thief has some pretty damn badass soundscapes by necessity, it's an acquired taste. I am gay for the series, so I like them. I totally understand if you guys think they're weird or boring.
Sneaksie Thief
This is basically a medley from the original Thief; it does a good job of cycling through the different moods and styles without much of a break in flow. I'm pretty sure a lot of the loops are from briefings rather than actual missions, but that's okay, they're still cool. Very steam-punky.
Das Horn
So you're in a tomb. Don't worry, you're sure you'll be able to get out, but you have to find this horn before you do, and it's looking less likely with every empty room, every narrowly-dodged trap. The only other things here besides you and the dead are burricks and the undead. It's dark, and cold, and quiet, and all you've seen so far are oppressive tunnels and dank crypts, with the occasional unpleasant interlude of a fellow and...less successful intruder.
Then you crawl out of a fissure in the stone, stand up from your crouch and gape at the sight of catacombs with ceilings so high they vanish in the dark, built in grey-gold stone and spiderwebbed with delicate walkways in between pillars. It's eerie, but not ghoulish; the space is as solemn as a church, and echoing, haunting, you hear the sound of the horn, at first so far away you can't be sure it's really there.
And that's why I love the Bonehoard!
The Metal Age
This is almost the same thing as Sneaksie Thief, except for the Metal Age and more professional-sounding. It also exhibits how the music developed between the games, which is interesting (or to me it is anyway). Dark Project was less...elegant, and less focused on a specific mood, while this cycles through tension, opulence, sadness...
Okay, shut up. I think it's fascinating.
Eavesdropping
Those first whispers you hear are the Haunts - dead Hammerites whose graves have been desecrated - whose laughter gave me nightmares. Then you hear the Servants, crying to themselves and desperately begging for help, for release, for death, and their sobbing laughter once you grant it. The rest is the ambient for the Mechanist cathedral itself, and I love how it's a bit like the Hammers' theme but smooth and dark and creepy.
South Quarter
It's the music for where Garrett lives! Which means that somehow it's become inextricably linked with him in my mind. Although a lot of the music in Deadly Shadows does that anyway, especially considering the factions all have their own particular themes. Erm, in any case, I'm pretty sure I'm not crazy, seein' as it does turn into the ending music.
The Overlook Manse
In my opinion, Brosius is at the top of his game in Deadly Shadows; this is one of my favourite tracks and an entry in my Personal Triumvirate of Awesome (those being Life of the Party, House of the Widow and Robbing the Cradle). It's from a mission wherein you rob the house of a recent widow, during a vicious storm, while the woman herself sits in the tower mad with grief, and her servants fight over her possessions. I love the ambience of it - steeped in sadness and pain and tragedy.
Deviginti
When Thief music isn't being all eerie and low-key, it tends towards shredding guitars for some reason. I'm amused, but not complaining; this track is completely awesome. Try wearing a long coat and walking down a city street while listening to it sometime. You may well spontaneously do a Bad Ass Power Walk once it hits 2:04.
(The Dark Mod, incidentally, is long-running fan project to create a tool, texture and environment set for Doom 3 based upon - note, not actually from - the world of Thief.)
And that's it for this time - next time I might do either Bioshock or Planescape Torment. Preferences?
