Highlights
- Rockstar Studios excels in finding the perfect soundtrack to enhance the emotional power and atmosphere of their games, using a variety of genres.
- The soundtracks of games like The Warriors, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Max Payne 3, Bully, and Red Dead Redemption 2 play a significant role in creating an immersive gaming experience.
- Grand Theft Auto 5 offers an incredibly diverse range of tunes, with over 240 licensed songs across different genres, making it unparalleled in scope and diversity.
Rockstar Studios have long enjoyed a reputation as a groundbreaking entity in the gaming medium, boasting beloved franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and Max Payne. While their frequently ultraviolent games are usually most celebrated for their gripping storylines and immersive gameplay, another key factor in their quality has frequently been on the music front.
Throughout their history, Rockstar has shown a remarkable knack for finding the perfect soundtrack to enhance the emotional power, atmosphere, and storytelling of their games. Often combing through decades of a variety of genres to find the right notes for the right moments, the studio has often relied on nostalgic pop, rock, and hip-hop hits to get the job done. In other instances, superb scores and signature tracks have done the trick instead, highlighting the overall musical diversity on offer in many of Rockstar's classic games from over the years.
6 The Warriors Perfectly Captures The Film's Tone And Atmosphere
The iconic 1979 cult classic about New York street gang warfare received the video game treatment back in 2005. Functioning as a mission-focused, beat 'em up actioner, the game received plentiful acclaim for everything from its brawling gameplay to its nostalgia-heavy soundtrack.
Essentially replicating the rock, disco, and funk concoction of the original film's soundtrack, the game's audio thrills are further enhanced by the return of many of the original cast for voice acting. The commitment to authenticity ensures the game is as close to identical to the vibe and style of the original film as possible. Tracks from artists of the day such as Joe Walsh, Barry De Vorzon, and Mandrill bolster the intense gang warfare while delivering a nostalgic audio adventure that evokes the era's raw energy. The soundtrack's profound effect on the game's atmosphere and vibes is among the many reasons this remains one of the finest film-to-game adaptations in the genre's history almost twenty years later.
5 Midnight Club: Los Angeles Provides A High-Energy, Audio Backdrop To The Street Racing On Hand
This no holds barred racing thriller provides players with an electric soundtrack tailor-made for the game's adrenaline-fueled street racing gameplay. A range of genres are on offer here, including electronica, punk, and hip-hop.
Top hip-hop acts such as Nas and G-Unit make appearances, intensifying the action with their gritty, no-nonsense approach to rap. West Coast icons such as Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg are also included, serving as perfect fits for the game's Californian setting. Keeping the audio diversity apparent, the game also includes industrial rock from Nine Inch Nails and a variety of alternative and indie outfits including Feeder, Shinedown, and Bloc Party. Overall, this fun soundtrack has a bit of something for everyone, making it a fun piece of sensory enhancement for the thrilling, vehicular mayhem.
4 Max Payne 3 Utilizes Industrial And Electronic Beats To Enhance The Action
This gritty, neo-noir shooter polarized fans of the series when it transported the titular anti-hero from the cold, gritty streets of New York to the heated chaos of São Paulo, Brazil. Dealing with a litany of personal demons, Max Payne is thrown into a dangerous web of conspiracy and betrayal when he takes on a private security job.
Max Payne 3's moody soundtrack frequently sets the stage for the game's relentlessly intense action sequences while also coming in handy for setting up the narrative's more emotional moments. Composed by Californian industrial rock band Health, the music on offer seamlessly blends electronic beats with cinematic orchestration and hard rock. Notable tracks include "Tears" and "Pain" which perfectly reflect Max's tortured journey. "Tears" in particular is used to epic effect as a part of the game's climactic airport shootout. The beats and vocals bounce perfectly off Payne's merciless, one-man army approach to dealing with the villainous UFE police unit.
3 Bully Has A Tonally Perfect Set Of Fun Tracks
This cheeky, cult classic's long-awaited, long-rumored sequel has essentially entered meme territory at this point. Among the many key reasons Bully was so effective was its fun soundtrack, which highlights the often rebellious spirit of youth.
The game follows high school student Jimmy Hopkins' arrival at Bullworth Academy. Players navigate the social hierarchy of the school while making plenty of friends and enemies along the way. The game's playlist combines vibes from a multitude of eras, with composer Shawn Lee pulling out all the stops in capturing every aspect of the story and open world at hand, from the cliques to the classes to the situations Hopkins gets into, almost everything has a neat, musical signature on hand. "Welcome to Bullworth" also provides a surprisingly unsettling vibe to the player's arrival at the academy, with its eery atmosphere serving as a homage to the classic Italian horror flick Suspiria. Overall, the recurring blend of rock and punk added neatly to the game's focus on teenage hijinks and anarchy.
2 Red Dead Redemption 2's Music Selection Captures The Spirit Of The Old West
The epic journey of troubled outlaw Arthur Morgan is bolstered by an exceptional blend of traditional Western-focused tracks and atmospheric original tunes. As a result, RDR2's powerful array of often emotional tunes successfully enhances this open-world drama's already immersive gameplay.
Composed by Rockstar stalwart and session musician Woody Jackson, the music is highly effective in capturing the rugged beauty of the Wild West's untamed terrain. Memorable tracks include "May I? Stand Unshaken" by D'Angelo and "Old Friends, New Problems" by David Ferguson. Perhaps most memorable of all, however, is Daniel Lois' melancholy "That's The Way It Is." Used to startling effect as a dying Morgan makes his way back to camp for a climactic confrontation with Dutch van der Linde and Micah Bell, the song plays out as gamers witness several key flashbacks and lines that effectively sum up the player character's challenging arc. Overall, the soundtrack here delivered the goods in enhancing the emotional poignancy of the game's often tragic main storyline.
1 Grand Theft Auto 5 Offers An Incredibly Diverse Range Of Tunes
The enormous soundtrack for the much-loved, heist-focused blockbuster game offers a vast variety of genres for players to enjoy. Everything from hip-hop to old-school rock and everything in between and beyond has at least some representation within this 2013 classic.
Classic '80s tunes such as "Radio Ga Ga" by Queen and "Flash FM" by Hall & Oates provide players with some nostalgic fun as they cruise the crime-ridden streets of Los Santos. Speaking of Los Santos, hip-hop star Oh No contributed "Welcome to Los Santos" to the game as a signature track for gamers to enjoy. With an impressive 240 licensed songs to sift through, GTA 5's soundtrack is a tour de force not unlike the epic plot and grand-scale action the game has to offer. With seemingly every act from Camilo Lara to Tangerine Dream making an appearance, GTA 5's soundtrack is simply unparalleled in scope and diversity.