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ESSENTIAL BUYER’S GUIDE
The best gaming soundtracks on PS4 and PS5
Discover some of the greatest scores and original soundtracks in modern gaming.
Evocative electronic soundtracks
From 8-bit chiptunes to phasing sci-fi soundscapes, check out gaming's top synth and midi soundtracks.
Returnal | Bobby Krlic
Pulsating, phasing and oozing with atmosphere, Bobby Krlic's score for Returnal perfectly captures the stark, alien environments of Atropos and the high-concept, sci-fi themes of Housemarque's mind-bending narrative.
Top track: Helios
Undertale | Toby Fox
Irreverent, oddball and super catchy, Undertale's mish-mash of 8-bit earworms is as charming, delightful and varied as the game itself - the perfect thing to get your moving while your going about your chores.
Top track: Bonetrousle
Celeste | Lena Raine
Calming, serene and full of looping, dreamlike motifs, Lena Raine's outstanding soundtrack provides the perfect counterpoint to Celeste's notorious, thumb-twisting difficulty and might be the best stress-buster on this list.
Top track: Madeleine and Theo
The Messenger | Rainbowdragoneyes
Charged with all the sass and vigor of the '80s action movies from which the game takes inspiration, The Messenger's addictive soundtrack is a textural tour-de-force of layered synth timbres and lairy melodies.
Top track: Harnessing the Wind
Dramatic orchestral soundtracks
Get chills with bold cinematic scores that ratchet up the tension and emotion in every scene.
God of War | Bear McCreary
Booming, brooding and dramatic, Bear McCreary's score for the critically acclaimed God of War captures both the emotional turmoil of its main characters and the desolate beauty of its Nordic setting.
Top track: Memories of Mother
Final Fantasy VII Remake | Nobou Uematsu
Featuring some of the most memorable music in gaming, Nobou Uematsu's original score for Final Fantasy VII remains as melodically masterful in its full orchestral rendition as it did in PlayStation's original 16-bit sound chip.
Top track: Aerith's Theme
Horizon Forbidden West | Joris de Man, Niels van der Leest, The Flight, Oleksa Lozowchuk
A pensive mixture of guttural timbres, melancholy strings and soaring vocals, the soundtrack for Guerrilla Games' Horizon franchise - much like the games themselves - marries beautifully disparate themes and ideas to build a unique audio landscape.
Top track: Aloy's Theme
NieR: Automata | Keiichi Okabe
With a sound all of its own, the mesmerising soundtrack for NieR: Automata is one of the game's many triumphs, humming with the longing, emptiness and quiet tragedy of Yoko Taro's shattered world.
Top track: Vague Hope (Cold Rain)
Atmospheric soundtracks
Be transported with sweeping soundtracks that paint distant worlds in vivid tones.
The Last Guardian | Takeshi Furukawa
With a distinctive harmonic flavor that ties each individual track together, there's an implicit narrative at play as you move through Furukawa-san's elegant soundtrack. The orchestra picks out each scene with melodies that complement the game's distinct environments and story beats with striking clarity.
Top track: Sentinel I
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture | Jessica Curry
A soundtrack to send shivers through your soul, Jessica Curry's suite of choral and orchestral arrangements for Everybody's Gone to the Rapture artfully combines the quiet wonder of rural Britain with a lingering sense of loss.
Top track: All the Earth
RiME | David Garcia Diaz
David Garcia Diaz's robust orchestration captures the sense of a slumbering giant somewhere beneath the melancholy of RiME's slow-burning, fairy-tale narrative. It brings the island at the center of the game's story to life with a sense of trepidation and wonder.
Top track: Alone in the Light
Journey | Austin Wintory
The sparse scoring and arrangement for Journey's main soundtrack echoes with a sense of solitude that vividly evokes the core themes of thatgamecompany's award-winning platform puzzler.
Top track: Threshold
Popular music soundtracks
Brave an eclectic range of sounds that channel the best contemporary music styles.
Persona 5 | Shoji Meguro
With up-tempo jazz grooves, lively, disco-esque string accompaniments and charismatic guitar chops bounding around in every track, it's hard not to be seduced by the swagger of Persona 5's celebrated soundtrack.
Top track: Last Surprise
DOOM | Mick Gordon
With distorted guitars and pounding kick-drums thundering throughout, Mick Gordon's DOOM soundtrack is undoubtedly one of the most brutal on this list and a great way to blow off some steam.
Top track: Rip and Tear
Death Stranding Director's Cut | Various artists including Low Roar and Chvrches
Heightening Ludvig Vossel's traditional score, Death Stranding features a handpicked soundtrack of somber and slow-burning ambient, indie and electronica tracks that artfully map the desolate stretches of The United Cities of America, adding a meditative quality to your journey.
Top track: Don't Be So Serious
The Last of Us | Gustavo Santoalalla
A feather-light synthesis of restrained acoustic guitar, ambient electro and low-fi percussion, Gustavo Santoalalla's groundbreaking soundtrack delivers emotive soundscapes as arresting as they are effective.
Top track: The Last of Us
Unique soundtracks
Sample something a little different, with a range of soundtracks that pull influences from far and wide.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | Marcin Przybyłowicz / Mikolai Stroinski
With a raw discordant feel and a broad tapestry of traditional Slavic instrumentation, Marcin Przybyłowicz and Mikolai Stroinski beautifully channel The Witcher's savage medieval setting into an unnerving but masterful soundtrack.
Top track: Steel for Humans
Cuphead | Kristofer Maddigan
From barbershop quartets to honky-tonk ragtime and big-band jazz, Cuphead's score summons up all the energy and excess of the '20s and '30s with an irresistible charm. A soundtrack that will inject a little fun into even the dreariest of days.
Top track: The King's Court
Tetris Effect | Hydelic
Hypnotic, drifting and meditative, Hydelic's original soundtrack for Tetris Effect is as much a part of the gameplay experience as the interconnecting blocks. A synaesthetic, electro-ambient melting pot of contemporary genres, it makes for a relaxing and compelling sonic experience.
Top track: You and I
Beat Saber | Jaroslav Beck
Though the soundtrack was built around Beat Saber's unique gameplay, Jaroslav Beck's eclectic collection stands alone as an excellent, up-tempo mixture of drum and bass, hiphop, heavy metal and folk.
Top track: Lvl Insane
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