Luci Holland's Top 5 Video Game Soundtracks of 2022
Luci Holland selects her favourite game soundtracks of the year
Last updated 6th Jan 2023
2022 has been a big year for the world of gaming and we’ve been introduced to some incredible video game soundtracks.
On her final show of the year, Luci Holland looked back at some of the great video game soundtracks that have been released over the last 12 months, including Nainita Desai’s Immortality, Hoa by Johannes Johannsson and The Spirit and the Mouse by Gisula.
Luci also ended her show by shining a spotlight on some of her personal favourites of the year including Olivier Deriviere's score for A Plague Tale: Requiem, and her favourite video game soundtrack of 2022 - Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course by Kristofer Maddigan.
Luci Holland's Top 5 Game Soundtracks of 2022
5 - A Plague Tale: Requiem by Olivier Deriviere
This sequel score is incredibly inventive in how it represents the time and era, as well as the raw emotional qualities of the story, with new colours in the score provided by additions like "choir and bagpipes" - and Olivier told us that when starting out with a score, he "never knows what he'll do" and that he likes "to be in the dark", as that is where creativity most sparks for him!
He's particularly proud of the track 'Up There', describing it as "expressing a unique moment in the game".
4 - Immortality by Nainita Desai
A thrilling soundtrack for this fascinating interactive live-action drama by narrative designer Sam Barlow. Nainita told us about creating the soundtrack, saying that she "wanted to mirror the gritty atmospheric textures of vintage film through the musicians playing close to the bridge to create an edginess to the music".
She said she aimed to "connect the player directly to the emotional core of the story" through the pure, raw sound of acoustic instruments, with three sounds representing themes that appear in the movies the player explores during the game.
3 - Merge Mansion by Salla Hakkola
I was introduced to this earlier in the year and have loved it ever since! Salla told us that in creating this score, she "decided to make the music sound like a movie soundtrack rather than a traditional game soundtrack", and that she chose the 10-piece instrumental ensemble - which includes Salla herself on harp and piano - because she felt "this kind of acoustic ensemble could best bring to life the elegance and drama of the Boulton family dynasty."
She also told us that during production she "got totally carried away by the story" and "learned all about the lore, characters and history of Merge Mansion" – and that all the music is dedicated to the characters and secrets of Merge Mansion.
I think it's a beautifully realised and elegantly written score not always heard in mobile games, with a deep amount of care and love apparent in its composition that goes a long way to connecting you with the characters and their stories.
2 - Moss: Book II by Jason Graves
This is a deeply stirring and magical soundtrack by Jason Graves, who told us it's incredibly close to his heart, and that the experience working on the game series has been part of a six-year journey that "has been one of the most creatively fulfilling and emotionally satisfying relationships" of his career.
1 - Cuphead – The Delicious Last Course by Kristofer Maddigan
This is such a fantastically inventive score with a huge range in style, format, genres and atmosphere. As impressive as the score was for the original Cuphead game, Kristofer stepped up the action and quality even more in this expansion release with an incredibly unique fusion of sound that still fits perfectly with the vintage and wild look and feel of the game.
Kristofer told us that the "Cuphead music has always been more about capturing a 'vibe' as opposed to really trying to mirror the action, so in that respect the composition process was very free. With both games, it was very important that the music be able to stand on its own away from the visuals and gameplay, so the tunes had to have a coherent structure and progression, and had to make sense on their own merits. The biggest challenge was ensuring the music was on the same level as the tight gameplay and incredible visuals!" – a challenge I'd say he definitely achieved in spades!