Best Game Soundtracks of 2014

Say what you will about the past year for gaming, it was pretty fantastic if you were looking for some tunes to jam to.  Helping to run VGR has more or less made it my job to find the best music in video games, and there's a huge variety to choose from this go round.  If you're looking for some OST's to buy, here's a few I'd recommend.

Honorable Mentions:

Payday 2

While the base game came out last year, Payday 2 has been getting more DLC than most games do, at a pretty regular rate as well.  Great if you were looking to prolong the game, but purchase wasn't even necessary for some, and new heists only required ownership to host.  Simon Viklund continues to put out awesome, pulse-pounding tracks to help set the mood whenever your heist goes loud.  The same trick of making the music rise and fall with the action has yet to get old, and can still give you a tactical edge in game, letting your crew prep when things are about to get dicey.  Another nice addition was the music selector in game, so if Evil Eye just won't stop playing in your head, or you want to pick something from Payday 1, you've got the option.

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS / Wii U

(seriously, how did we settle on this title?)

This kind of feels like cheating, but if you want to talk about breadth, Smash has it by a mile, celebrating a ginormous catalog of music, old and new, with some great remixes to boot.  You'll get some different tracks between the two versions, but they both set the stage for a battle between video game all-stars.  At the moment, Club Nintendo has an offer tied to the game to get a limited track selection from the game, otherwise, you're sort of stuck using the in-game music player until Nintendo themselves release something more officials.

The Best of 2014:

The Banner Saga

Austin Wintory continues to use his masterful soundtrack work since Journey to evoke a time and a place with this mostly somber score.  This helps to hit home so many of the moments of anguish and loss present throughout most of The Banner Saga.  Horns sound majestically, male choirs sing somberly, and drums beat ever onward, much as the story must.  It's a perfect match.

Luftrausers

Simultaneously one of the smallest and largest soundtracks of the year,  KOZILEK starts by providing a single track that plays every single run of this arcade shooter.  And don't get wrong, it's a pretty great piece, with some downright dirty electronics and a heroic upswing to boot.  The real magic however is that the track itself slightly changes each run based on what kind of plane permutation you happen to be using.  In essence, every plane has it's own take on the same theme, and it encourages you to experiment for more than just game play purposes.  While you can go out and buy the soundtrack for a few of the customizations, the only real way to get the full effect is to play the game.

D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die

The strangeness of SWEARY continued beautifully this year on Xbox One with this little strange gem of an adventure game.  The oddity that was D4 managed to capture just about everything you'd find in a television sitcom, more as a love-letter than anything.  What you get is an eclectic mix of strangeness, jazz and laid back muzak that sets all of it's scenes perfectly.  That opening theme though, is the real star of the show.

Shovel Knight

Yacht Games first outing (see what I did there?)  has pretty much been a rousing success on all fronts this year, and it's retro chiptune soundtrack to match it's 8-bit aesthetic is an absolute triumph.  Jake Kaufman manages to deliver a memorable theme for the hero, and successive stage themes that are simply driving if nothing else.  All of this while managing to stay somewhat close to the sounds of the era it seeks to emulate.

Wasteland 2

Mark Morgan thematic return to another post-apocalyptic soundtrack has been a long time coming, and couldn't be more perfect for this franchise revival.  Continuing in the same vein as Fallout and Fallout 2, Morgan's music captures that same desolate feel of the wastes, all while providing a western sort of cowboy twang that meshes well with you and your band of Rangers.  You'll get that feeling of the strange and the unknown as journey to see what's left of the world.  And then the choir kicks in...

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Succeeding Inon Zur, Trevor Morris manages to evoke all that is dramatic, grim and bleak of Dragon Age's dark fantasy setting, yet still providing glimmers of hope.  The game's massive scope is helped in part by all variety that is packed into it's powerful soundtrack.  It's opening theme for example, manages to go from somber to heroic in an incredible fashion.  It also shouldn't be overlooked just how good some of the bard melodies are.

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

Harry Gregson-Williams and Ludwig Forsell give a pretty large package of music for an admittedly small game.  On it's face, we have a dark, brooding take on Metal Gear, geared perfectly for sneaking and dramatic moments present.  Bundled in as well are some great send-ups to Metal Gear's past games, some re-orcestrated, some remixed.  Hopefully this pans out to be a preview of things to come in The Phantom Pain.

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth

The team at Firaxis continue the exultant backdrop of their 4X series in stunning fashion.  Beyond Earth manages to shake of the yoke of it's historical music renditions with an original sci-fi score that weaves seamlessly in and out of the action as you and competing settlers explore a new, alien world.  How it all manages to flow together, from hopeful inspiration for the future, to tense tracks ready for war, it's easily one of the greatest strengths for this entry in the Civ franchise.

Transistor

Supergiant games for me has the feel of a traveling acting troupe, putting on different shows, but with players that you know and love.  Transistor was a stunner in the aesthetics department from our first look at it, and it didn't disappoint at release.  While the setting and themes have changed, the skill that was present in Bastion's soundtrack is once again on display.  Darren Korb's score this time around, is dark, synthy, jazzy and blends perfectly with what's on screen.  Better yet, a button in game allows the protagonist to hum along with any track playing, which actually turns out to be really cool.

Titanfall

While it's debatable how successful Titanfall was with trying to blend it's single and multiplayer offerings to it's player base, a nice touch to the game was it's cinematic score for each match.  Generally you'd get a quick vignette to get your pilot pumped for a match, and have it follow up with appropriate rise and fall based on how a match progressed.  Round this out with a post-game activity that either spelled out Victory or Defeat, it's hard not to feel like there was a little something extra in this multiplayer shooter.  Stephen Barton does a great job of mixing a frontier twang with a bombastic military score.

Crypt of the Necrodancer

If the whole basis of your game is going to be "dungeon crawling with a DDR mat"  you better damn well be sure that you have some good music to boot.  While there's functionality in the game to include your own tracks, I'm hard-pressed to ever use the function with the presence of another one of Danny Baranowsky's fantastic soundtracks.  Quirky dance techno songs sync perfectly with a retro vibe and a strobing dancefloor for the dungeon.  Match this up with a shopkeep who will sing along with the current track and you get something special.