Music/Ambience in Video Games

Nothing jumps out of the darkness, crawls on the ceiling, lights shit on fire with it’s mind, or jumps out of a pool of blood in a hallway without a sequence of screeching violin notes in the background. Nothing. And if said crawling, jumping, lighting shit up thing doesn’t do so with the finesse of a concerto cutting their strings with a dull knife, said thing loses a large amount of scare. Said creature could be faceless, nameless, lacking of a tangible understanding of emotion or compassion, and/or visible appendages, but if the concerto doesn’t ring true in the background, said creature loses substance.

For example, you are walking down a dark hallway with a flashlight illuminating your path. Aforementioned creature jumps from a ceiling tile with silence following in his wake and mutters, “roar.” You give the walls a new paint job with his brains and skull without hesitation or fear. Now, imagine you are in said hallway with said flashlight illuminating said path in said scenario. Said creature executes said function and jumps out of said ceiling tile and mutters said phrase. But this time, aforementioned creature is accompanied by a screeching violin/viola/cello concerto. You jump out of your skin and begin shooting wildly at stone walls and all the damn oxygen. You have just relieved yourself of feces, urine, and ejaculatory fluid.

You have just experienced the effect music can have on a seemingly ordinary situation. Well, ordinary for a video game. But then, take into account the music leading up to the aforementioned scenario. A better word for this would be ambience. Ambience could be soothing, calm, and whirring. But ambience could also be loud, screechy, and intensifying. You’re walking down the hall and you hear a subtle piano chord ring out that’s both soothing, and contemplative at the same time. ’Is this building up to something?’ You ask yourself. The piano chord rings out once more, but this time, a quiet bass chord accompanies it. Again, soothing but intensifying. And once more, said ambient noise rings out once more but with a building, and very high, organ note the continues and you walk towards the ceiling tile.

Your eyes begin to water, cold sweat leaks down your cheeks, and the piss is clawing its way out of your bladder. And BAM, he jumps down from the ceiling tile, you scream “FUCK THAT SHIT.” And without thinking another thought you run the hell away back down the hall. The next time you’re playing a game like say… Left 4 Dead (which is more intense than scary), F.E.A.R, Silent Hill 1-4 (5 doesn’t make the list, it’s not a horror game), or Fatal Frame, pay attention to the footsteps, the whirring soundtrack, the blistering screams of lost souls, and the gliding ambience and try not to shit yourself.