Soundtracks You Can't Forget
Good music in a game can do so much more than just fill the silence. It can make you care about the characters, heighten the tension before a boss fight, turn a simple ride through an open world into its own adventure, or forever link a specific melody with a favorite scene.
This list features games where the soundtrack became an integral part of the gaming experience. Here you'll find atmospheric compositions, powerful rock and electronic music, orchestral themes, and music that works so well you'll want to listen to it even outside the game.
Silent Hill 2
Composer: Akira Yamaoka
Music Genre: Trip-hop, alternative rock, industrial, ambient
The musical score of Silent Hill 2 is an absolute classic that transcends video games. Akira Yamaoka masterfully blended guitar rock, cold industrial, trip-hop, and unsettling ambient sounds, creating a sonic landscape that's almost impossible to confuse with anything else.
The contrasts are particularly striking. The melancholic guitar parts in Theme of Laura and Promise convey loneliness, longing, and inner pain, only for the music to suddenly shift into noise, screeching, and dissonance. These sonic transitions work almost as an extension of James's psychological state—sometimes the music scares you before anything truly frightening even appears on screen.
Journey
Composer: Austin Wintory
Music Genre: Symphonic classical, interactive orchestra
Journey is a perfect example of how music can tell a story with almost no words. Austin Wintory's soundtrack was the first video game score nominated for a Grammy, and this achievement is well-deserved: the compositions here are not background noise but one of the primary storytelling tools.
The main role is given to the cello, which essentially acts as the musical voice of the hero. As the journey progresses, the sound evolves along with the on-screen events: calm and light themes gradually transform into grand orchestral pieces. Because of this, even simply moving forward through the desert feels like part of a grand, emotional voyage.
Disco Elysium
Composers: British Sea Power (Sea Power)
Music Genre: Indie rock, post-rock, ambient
The Disco Elysium soundtrack perfectly complements the decaying, alcohol-soaked, politically-charged, memory-laden world of Revachol. The music by the British band Sea Power creates the feeling of a city that has seen better days but is now slowly trying to figure out what to do next.
The mournful guitars, hypnotic keyboards, and sprawling post-rock compositions work especially well while exploring Martinaise. The music doesn't try to be constantly noticeable—on the contrary, it often plays subtly enough to gradually seep into the game's atmosphere. But just hear a familiar track on its own, and the grey, broken streets of Revachol appear before your eyes once more.
Final Fantasy XV
Composers: Yoko Shimomura, Keiichi Okabe, et al.
Music Genre: Symphonic orchestra, operatic rock, jazz, blues
Yoko Shimomura created a vast musical canvas for Final Fantasy XV that constantly changes with the game's mood. It features majestic orchestral themes, dramatic compositions, and music that unexpectedly turns the journey of a group of friends into an almost cozy road trip adventure.
One of the soundtrack's greatest strengths is its diversity. Somnus immediately sets the tragic and epic tone of the story, while lighter compositions play during drives in the Regalia, allowing you to simply enjoy the road. This approach allows the music to highlight not only the scale of the events but also the friendship between Noctis, Ignis, Gladiolus, and Prompto.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Composers: Lorien Testard (with contributions from Alice Duport-Percier)
Music Genre: Neoclassical, baroque, operatic vocals
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 demonstrates how expressive a modern soundtrack can be when music is made not just an accompaniment but part of the game's artistic style. Lorien Testard created an unusual score inspired by French baroque, classical music, and the aesthetic of the Belle Époque.
A special place is given to vocal compositions featuring Alice Duport-Percier. Her voice adds a sense of something simultaneously beautiful and unsettling to the music. Strings, piano, and vocal parts constantly balance between fragility and drama, perfectly matching the game's central themes—time, memory, death, and the attempt to leave some trace behind.
Cyberpunk 2077
Composers: P.T. Adamczyk, Marcin Przybyłowicz
Music Genre: Industrial techno, synthwave, cyberpunk rock
Night City is unimaginable without its music. In Cyberpunk 2077, the soundtrack became an integral part of the city's culture: the radio plays almost everywhere, music accompanies firefights, car rides, and the most important story moments.
The original music by P.T. Adamczyk, Marcin Przybyłowicz, and other composers combines aggressive electronics, industrial rhythms, and dark synth themes. A separate story is the fictional musical groups and radio stations for which real artists recorded songs specifically for the game's world. The result is a feeling that Night City truly has its own musical life.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Composer: Woody Jackson
Music Genre: Neo-western, acoustic folk, interactive music
In Red Dead Redemption 2, music is closely tied to the very feeling of the journey. The game's vast world often prompts the player to simply ride through prairies, mountains, and small settlements, and it's in these moments that the soundtrack shines especially brightly.
Woody Jackson uses guitars, banjos, harmonicas, and other instruments associated with the American West. However, the music doesn't just play in certain places—it changes dynamically based on what's happening. A calm ride can gradually transform into a tense musical scene during a chase or shootout.
And the individual songs that appear during key story moments can literally become etched in your memory alongside the events they accompany.
Elden Ring
Composers: Yuka Kitamura, Tsukasa Saitoh, Shoi Miyazawa, et al.
Music Genre: Dark epic fantasy, symphonic orchestra, choir
Elden Ring uses music primarily to create a sense of scale. Enormous bosses, ancient gods, and ruined kingdoms need to feel truly grand—and the orchestral soundtrack excels at this task.
Loud choirs, heavy percussion, strings, and brass instruments turn many battles into practically musical spectacles. Moreover, major bosses often have their own musical themes, which help emphasize their character and history.
The music here doesn't just tell the player, "you're facing a tough enemy." It creates the feeling that you're standing before a being that has survived an entire era.
Doom Eternal
Composer: Mick Gordon
Music Genre: Extreme metal, industrial, djent
If Journey uses music for a calm emotional journey, DOOM Eternal does almost the opposite. Here, the soundtrack is needed to make the player move faster, more aggressively, and without stopping.
Mick Gordon combined heavy guitar riffs, djent, industrial, synthesizers, and aggressive electronic effects. The music syncs perfectly with the combat system: when dozens of demons appear, the sound track literally pushes you to keep attacking.
As a result, the music becomes part of the gameplay. It's hard to imagine DOOM Eternal without these frenetic riffs—they're practically another weapon in the Doom Slayer's arsenal.
Hollow Knight
Composer: Christopher Larkin
Music Genre: Neoclassical, chamber orchestra, ambient
The Hollow Knight soundtrack works in a completely different way. Instead of constant tension, Christopher Larkin uses chamber sounds, piano, strings, and soft orchestral parts to create a sense of beauty in a long-dead world.
Each area of Hallownest gets its own musical mood. Somewhere the compositions sound mysterious and unsettling, elsewhere—sad and almost peaceful. This makes exploring the kingdom feel not just like moving between locations, but like traveling through the remnants of a once-living world.
It's this mix of melancholy and beauty that makes the Hollow Knight soundtrack so memorable. There's almost no sense of superfluous music—every composition exists to emphasize a specific place or moment.
Music That Becomes Part of the Game
All these projects have completely different approaches to music. DOOM Eternal uses it for adrenaline, Journey for an emotional journey, Silent Hill 2 for anxiety and melancholy, and Disco Elysium turns the soundtrack into another voice of its world.
That's why the best video game soundtracks are remembered just as well as characters and story scenes. Sometimes, hearing just the first few seconds of a familiar composition is enough to find yourself back in Night City, Hallownest, Revachol, or somewhere in the middle of the Red Dead Redemption 2 deserts.
Good music accompanies a game. Great music continues to live on separately from it.